In Down to Earth: The New Protestant Vision of the Virgin Mary, the Protestant theologian John de Satge highlights Marys position with respect to the Old and the New Testaments: She is the climax of the Old Testament people, the one to whom the cloud of witnesses from the ancient era look as their crowning glory, for it was through her response to grace that their Vindicator came to stand upon the earth. In the order of redemption she is the first fruits of her Sons saving work, the one among her Sons people who has gone all the way. And in the order of her Sons people, she is the mother. (4) Three other Scripture scholars may be cited here. In an ecumenical conference on Mary, Ralph Russell draws attention to the witness to Mary in Scripture as a whole: Scripture must be seen as a whole. The Holy Spirit who inspired it means it to be seen in entirety. Then the Woman in Genesis will be answered by the Woman in the Book of Revelation (ch. 12), the Fall will go to the Annunciation, Adam with Christ (cf. St Paul), Eve with Mary. This is the way the earliest fathers saw Scripture and if we look through their eyes we shall not be tempted to think that the Bible has little to say about Marys place in the work of her divine Son, the one redeemer. Another way of approach is to ask what is the central event to which all salvation history builds up? St. Paul answers that: When the time had fully come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman (Gal 4:4). What more has Scripture to tell us about this? ewtn/library/mary/maryinsc.htm
Posted on: Tue, 06 May 2014 23:11:44 +0000
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