MARY IN SCRIPTURE: From Back to Christian Basics Rediscovering The Bridge Between The Old And The New Testaments Table of Contents 1. Introduction (a) Mary in Scripture (b) Two Centuries Without the Scriptural Mary (c) The Rediscovery of Mary in Scripture 2. Mary The Bridge Between The Old And The New Testaments (a) Introduction (b) Old Testament Prophecies of Mary (c) Old Testament Pre-figurings of Mary (d) Daughter of Zion (e) Ark of the Covenant 3. Luke 1-2: A Compendium Of Marian Doctrine (a) Compendium (b) Hail Full of Grace/Rejoice Highly Favored One (c) The Exaltation of Mary in Luke 1-2 (d) I Know Not Man: A Vow of Virginity 4. Mary From Genesis To Revelation (a) Genesis 3:15 (b) The Drama of Salvation (c) Revelation 12 (d) The New Adam and the New Eve 5. The New Testament On Mary 6. The Seven Splendors Of Mary 7. Conclusion 1. Introduction: (a) Mary in Scripture A true understanding of Mary and her role in salvation can come only from a full understanding of Scripture and the portrayal of Mary in Scripture. This full understanding comes from careful study of the two covenants between God and His people, the Old and the New. Mary is the bridge between the Old and the New Covenants. The two covenants are basic to the divine plan of salvation and Marys role in salvation history becomes apparent when we see that she is the living embodiment of fundamental themes in the Old and the New Testaments: as the Daughter of Zion, the Ark of the Covenant, the new Eve working with the new Adam. Once we come to understand the scriptural Mary our entire understanding of the meaning of Scripture will be transformed. In fact the various Marian doctrines and devotions only dimly convey the full majesty of Mary as she is portrayed in Scripture. Luke 1 and 2 alone, as we shall see, is a compendium of all the major Marian doctrines. Continued reflection on Scripture is essential for a better understanding of the Mary that the first Christians, the Fathers of the Church and even the Protestant Reformers saw in Scripture. For the early Christian Church the place of Mary in Scripture involved three dimensions. First, Mary was seen as the meeting-point of the old and the New Testaments embodying both the People of Israel (the Daughter of Zion) and the new- born Church. Secondly, Mary was seen in relation to the divine plan of salvation as the New Eve working with the New Adam. Thirdly, Mary was understood against the background of what we call the seven splendors, the references in Genesis, Isaiah, Micah, the Gospels, the Acts of the Apostles, Galatians and Revelation. We will outline all three of these dimensions and then review them in more detail. (b) Two Centuries Without the Scriptural Mary Over the last two centuries many Christians have lost the Scriptural Mary venerated and praised by all Christians in every other century. Two factors in particular led to this loss. The first was the decision to ignore the interpretations of Scripture adopted historically by the Christian faithful and to replace these with ones own interpretations. The second was the decision to ignore the divine inspiration of Scripture so as to make interpretations solely using the criteria and tools employed by professional historians. The first factor led to the Fundamentalists and the second to the Liberals. Neither Liberal New Testament scholars nor Fundamentalists can be of great help to the Bible-believing Christian who seeks to know the truths shown in Scripture. Although the Liberal scholars can speculate on the sources and dates and the various possible meanings and senses of the New Testament texts they cannot tell us what truths God intended to teach through these texts. Only the early Christian community inspired by the Holy Spirit could determine the true divinely-intended meaning and interpretation of these texts. Similarly, since they have cut themselves off from 20 centuries of Spirit-inspired Christian interpretation, Fundamentalist writers can only offer us their own speculations on the meanings and senses of the various passages in Scripture. And these speculations are just as uncertain and arbitrary as the speculation of the Liberal scholars. The real issue for the Christian believer is not whether we should rely on Scripture alone but whether or not we can have an authoritative interpretation of Scripture. From the time of the early Church the Christian community has affirmed and taught what they hold to be an authoritative, consistent and binding interpretation of Scripture. Ultimately both Liberals and the Fundamentalists seek to determine the intentions of the New Testament writers. This may involve a lot of discussion on the connotation of various Greek terms and the like. But the intention of the writers is precisely what we can never really know. And even if it were possible to discern the intention of a particular biblical writer, it may turn out that this is not the intention decreed by God for a particular verse. For instance, the writer of an Old Testament prophecy may have no idea what is required for the fulfillment-of the prophecy—this will become known only at the time that the prophecy is fulfilled. Only the Christian community—because it would be guided by the Holy Spirit—can make progress in determining the divine intention and even the actual writer of a text may not grasp the true intention served by the text. It might be said that the interpretations historically made by the Christian community may not be acceptable to todays New Testament scholars. But an interpretation guided by the Holy Spirit has an authority far higher than the arbitrary interpretation of a New Testament scholar. The historic interpretations of the Christian community are reflected in the writings of the Fathers, Councils, and liturgies. (c) The Rediscovery of Mary in Scripture Despite the negative impact of Liberalism and Fundamentalism on theology, modern exegesis has also led to the rediscovery of Mary in Scripture. This rediscovery has been spearheaded by such major scholars as Ignace de la Potterie, Stefano Manelli, Rene Laurentin, A. Feuillet and William Most who have used the resources of contemporary exegesis to re-discover the Scriptural Mary known to the Christian world from the beginning. For biblical studies on Mary this is a time of rediscovery. The biblical Mary of the apostolic community and the Fathers was deeply rooted in the Old Testament and the entire salvific message of the New Testament. The overwhelming presence of Mary in Scripture led both to the great definitions of Marian doctrine and the liturgical devotions. Without an understanding of the Scriptural portrait of Mary it is difficult to truly appreciate the Marian doctrines. Even at the time of the Protestant Reformation, the Marian imprint on Scripture was evident to both Catholics and Protestants. It was certainly evident to Martin Luther. Many Post-Reformation Protestants, however, seem to be suffering from collective amnesia on the question of Mary. Despite their ardent commitment to Scripture, the Fundamentalists have failed to see any Marian connection in Scripture. Nevertheless today Protestant and Catholic exegetes and theologians have rediscovered the Marian mother lode not just of the New but also of the Old Testament. Like the Fathers, the modern exegetes now see Mary as the Daughter of Zion, the embodiment of Nation Israel, as the Ark of the Covenant, as transformed by grace, as the New Eve, as the bride at the Messianic Wedding Banquet and as the Church. If this development in understanding was simply a modern fad we could legitimately call it into question. But it is actually a rediscovery of what the Christian community from the earliest times and the Scriptures themselves so obviously tell us about Mary. In this chapter on Mary in Scripture we will look first at Marys role as the link between the two Testaments, followed by a review of the Marian data in Luke 1-2, Genesis-Revelation and the rest Of the New Testament and finally an analysis of the seven splendors of Mary in Scripture. Anyone who comes to see the full spectrum of Marian material in the Bible will spontaneously see the fittingness of the titles and doctrines of Mary. Before proceeding further a word must be said about the fact that many of the Scriptural themes relevant to Mary are given as prophecies or prefigurings. Most Christians know that many of the events narrated in the New Testament are fulfillments of Old Testament prophecies. The general idea that New Testament events fulfill Old Testament prophecies and pre-figurings comes not just from the Evangelists but from Jesus Himself: This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears. [Luke 4:21]. On some occasions the New Testament writers draw the readers attention to the fact that a specific event is the fulfillment of an Old Testament prophecy: for example, And the scripture was fulfilled, which saith, and He was numbered with the transgressors [Mark 15:28]. On other occasions, the reader is left to discern for himself the prophetic connection: for instance, the portrayal of Christ as the Lamb of God slain from the foundation of the world is an obvious reference to the fulfillment of the Old Testament Passover in which lambs were sacrificed. The fulfillment of the prophecies and pre-figurings of Jesus and Mary in the Old Testament are thus not always heralded as such in the New. The faithful, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, discerned the prophetic fulfillment. Marie Isaacs points out that Luke did not usually spell out the prophetic connection of events but made these connections clear through allusions: The primary data for ... theological reflection was not only the traditions about Jesus but also the OT. In Matthew this is obvious, not least because the evangelist himself makes it overt. By using the formula, All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet, he tells us clearly that he is viewing the events of the birth of Christ against the backcloth of the OT. When we look at the Infancy Narrative in the Third Gospel, we find no such direct reference to the OT. But this does not mean that Lukes account is any the less a reflection upon scripture. It is simply that his method of introducing his texts is different from that of Matthew. Rather than use direct quotations he employs a welter of allusions to the OT. This is most obvious in the canticles. These great hymns of thanksgiving and praise, put into the mouths of Mary and Zechariah, are a pastiche made up of phrases taken from the Jewish scriptures ... Luke is so steeped in the language and thought of the OT that the Magnificat and Benedictus abound in both. And the same can be said, not only of the canticles, but also of the narrative sections of Lukes account of the birth of Christ. (1) An appropriate ending to this section is the conclusion of Stefano Manallis powerful new scriptural study of Mary, All Generations Shall Call He Blessed: Among many possible choices there are two texts of sacred Scripture that would express most forcefully and symbolize most meaningfully, the mystery of Mary: expressing her extraordinarily graced personality; emblematic of her universal salvific mission linked with that of her Son until the end of human history. The first is that of Genesis: I will put enmity between you and the woman, and your seed and her seed: she will crush your head, and you will lie in wait for her heel (3:15). The second is that of Revelation: And a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars (12:1). Prophecy and final (eschatological) fulfillment, Incarnation and redemption are recapitulated in these two biblical texts intertwined with one another in delineating for us the exalted figure of Mary: at her first appearance in the Old Testament as the morning rising (Song 6:9), and in the New Testament with the full brightness of midday, clothed with the sun (Rev 12:1). In the first text (Gen 3:15), significantly called the Protoevangelium, we are made aware of the figure and mission of Mary that foretell the messianic salvation of mankind. The woman is the Mother of the Messiah-Redeemer, prefigured and symbolized down the subsequent centuries and millennia on many pages of the ancient revelation that accompanied and illumined the path of the Chosen People. In the second text (and its context: Rev 12:1-18), as it were a summary of the entire biblical revelation of the mystery of Mary, we contemplate her image and mission in the splendor of the eternal midday, the superhuman prodigy of maternal Queenship over the created universe, over both heaven and earth. In the first text (Gen 3:15) we preview, antithetically, the reality of Marys mission: in opposition to the serpent (the enmity); in union with the Messiah-Redeemer (her seed) fighting and crushing the head of the serpent; in contrast with Eve, seduced and conquered by the serpent (Gen 3:13; 2 Cor 11:13). The prophetic vision embraces the entire salvific plan. In the words of Genesis 3:15, there opens a vision of the whole of Revelation, writes Pope John Paul II, first as a preparation for the Gospel and then as the Gospel itself. The dramatic scene of Genesis 3:15 speaks of mystery and in revealing it pinpoints our gaze on this woman, so heroic and sublime—the antithesis of poor Eve—who goes forth with her Son to reverse the fortunes of fallen man. In the second text (Rev 12), we contemplate, in metahistorical synthesis, the reality of the person and mission of Mary, the woman radiant in grace (clothed with the sun), in royal majesty over the angels (the crown of stars) and over creation (the moon under her feet), Mother of God incarnate (the male child) and Mother of the Church (the rest of her offspring), which is the Mystical Body of Christ, begotten and co- redeemed by her on Calvary amidst sufferings (she cried out in the anguish of delivery), the powerful adversary, Satan (the great dragon), checkmated and rendered impotent by the mystery of the Immaculate Conception, of the Assumption, and of the Queenship. The tableau of Revelation 12 is complete with its magnificent scenario, rich in illustrative detail, even if in every instance not easily understood. On this scene converge, marvelously coordinated, every dimension of the redemptive plan traced out in the Old and New Testaments touching the mystery of that woman who, from the first chapters of the Book of Genesis up to the Book of Revelation, accompanies the unveiling of Gods salvific plan for humanity., In the light of Revelation 12, we can formulate these fundamental conclusions about the mystery of that woman. Mary is the woman (Rev 12:1), the same woman of the Protoevangelium (Gen 3:15), of whom is born the son of God; sent by the Father (Gal 4:4);3 the woman present and wholly absorbed in the sufferings of her Son crucified on Calvary (Jn 19:25-26). Mary is the virgin who is shown alone with the Son, without husband, in the proto-evangelium (Gen 3:15), then in Isaiah (7:14), and in Micah (5:2); her virginity prefigured by the burning bush (Ex 3:1-11), by the rod of Aaron (Num 9:16-24), by the fleece of Gideon (Jg 6:36-40), by the enclosed garden, sealed fountain (Song 4:12); finally, described by St. Matthew and by St. Jude in terms of the most essential biographical and historical facts of her life. Mary is the mother, pregnant and giving birth to a son, though remaining a virgin, according to the prophecies of Genesis 3:15, Isaiah 7:14, Micah 5:1-2; and the woman Mother of the Lord or Mother of Jesus, as she is called eleven times in the New Testament; she is the mother of mankind, represented by St. John on Calvary (Jn 19:25-27). Mary is the spouse: not only the virginal, legal spouse of St. Joseph (Mt 1:18; Lk 1:27), but the virginal, real spouse of God the Father who willed her to be the Mother, according to His human nature, of His only-begotten Son (Gal 4:4); the spouse of God the Son, the redeemer, who intimately associated her with Himself in His redemptive work, as the new Eve beside the new Adam; the spouse of God the Holy Spirit, who, overshadowing her enabled her to conceive Jesus (Lk 1:35). Mary is the woman immaculate: namely, she is the only human creature unstained by sin, because, together with her Son, she is the unvanquished, victorious adversary of the infernal serpent (Gen 3:15); not only this, but she is the only creature full of grace (Lk 1:28), true panhaghia (all holy one), pure dawn (Song 6:9) of the sun who is Christ, fashioned by the Holy Spirit and formed as a new creature in order to become Mother of Word Incarnate. Mary is the co-redemptrix, associated with her Son in the work of ransoming man from sin (Gen 3:15), strong as an army set in array (Song 6:9), already prefigured by the strong, courageous women of Israel, present at the foot of the cross on Calvary (Jn 19:25-27). Mary is the Mediatrix, who brings Jesus to men and men to Jesus, who cares for things spiritual and temporal (Lk 1:39ff.; Jn 2:1-11) present and active at the birth of the Church on Calvary (Jn 19:25-27) and in the Cenacle (Acts 1:14). Mary is the Queen, who wears on her head the crown of twelve stars (Rev 12:2) signifying the angels (the stars), the twelve tribes of Israel (the Chosen People) and the twelve apostles (the Church). She is the Queen assumed into heaven, carried on the wings of the great eagle (Rev 12:14), dashing to the ground the destructive furies of the dragon (Rev 12:3-4). She is the exalted daughter of Zion, seated as Queen at the right hand of the King in the kingdom of heaven (Ps 44:10). Mary is the woman blessed for the faith she placed in the words of the angel Gabriel at the Annunciation (Lk 1:45), for hearing and observing the Word of God (Lk 11:27-28), for her faithful fulfillment of the will of the Father (Mk 3:31-35), as the poor one of Yahweh (Ps 9) and the handmaid of the Lord (Lk 1:38). From the book of Genesis to the book of Revelation, therefore, we may well underscore how this woman according to the design of God the Father is always one with her Son, always relative to that Son, leaning upon her beloved (Song 8:15), intimately associated with Him in the same mission of saving man and leading him back to the bosom of the Father. At every crucial point in the history of salvation, from the Protoevangelium, after the fall of our first parents (Gen 3:15), to the announcement of the incarnation of the Word (Lk 1:26ff.), from the beginning of the public mission of Jesus at Cana (Jn 2:1-11), to His redemptive sacrifice consummated on the Cross (in 19:25-27), up to the accomplishment of the very last detail in the universal salvific plan (Rev 12), Mary is the woman always present with her Son, never alone, to fulfill her role of generous companion and humble handmaid of the Lord. And together with the Son there are children, these also brothers and co-heirs of Christ (Rom 8:17), who constitute the Mystical Body, the Church. Thus, in Genesis 3:15, the woman is presented together with her seed (which also has an inclusive sense); at Cana (Jn 2:1-11) the woman is with the first disciples of Jesus; on Calvary (Jn 19: 25-27), at the foot of the Cross the woman has beside her John the Evangelist, who represents all the disciples of Jesus; in Revelation 12, finally, the woman is found again with the rest of her offspring (the Church). To conclude, then, Marys whole reason for existing is found in the Son (and in the children), according to the salvific plan of God the Father. Without the Son, Mary would not have existed at all. This is a thesis dear to dogmatic theologians, and soundly based on fact. In this concluding summary, it is necessary to observe how, by prophecy in the Old Testament, by existence in the New, the maternity and the co-redemption, the mediation and the Queenship—all rooted in the divine, virginal maternity—give us the most complete biblical and theological portrait of Mary as the woman conceived and willed by God from the beginning and before the world was created (Sir 24:14), planned by Him in one and the same decree, with the Son (bull Ineffabilis Deus), blessed among all women (Lk 1:42), woman with all the potential of the so-called eternal feminine, woman virgin, daughter, spouse, mother, each to the full extent of perfection these terms signify, in living relation with God the Father, of whom Mary is daughter, with God the Son, of whom Mary is Mother, with God the Holy Spirit, of whom Mary is spouse; in living relation with the Church and with mankind, of whom Mary is mother in the order of grace. Thus, Mary realizes in herself the highest synthesis of nature and grace; an ineffable synthesis at its base and at its crown, alpha and omega, as it were, of the human person associated with the Divine Person of the Word Incarnate—the divine alpha and omega (Rev 1:8)—the work of universal salvation, by a unique, absolutely exclusive, distinctive relation: the relation of virginal maternity embracing the corporal and the spiritual, the human and the divine. (2)
Posted on: Sun, 03 Nov 2013 10:40:08 +0000
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