NEW TESTAMENT CONTEXTUAL COMMENTARY

by Dr. Robert R. Seyda

GOSPEL OF MATTHEW

CHAPTER ONE

Part V (con’t)

As we have seen, in the case of Moses, the concept of predestination and God’s involvement in helping man achieve his destiny was already part of Jewish thought. Therefore, the prophecies, angelic visitations, childhood, ministry, sacrifice, resurrection and ascension of Jesus were already mapped out by His Father in heaven. All He needed to do was be faithful and obedient to the end. If that was the case for our Lord, then why should it not be the same for us, His followers and children of the Most High. This brings us back to the doctrine of the virgin birth and the ever-virgin dogma of Mary. Matthew’s statement that Joseph and Mary did not have intimate relations until after Jesus was born has caused some conflict between Protestant and Catholic scholars, especially since the development of the perpetual virginity of Mary was conceived in the Roman Catholic Church some two hundred years after the foundation of the church in Antioch. The idea of the perpetual virginity of Mary comes from an apocryphal book written well after the New Testament. It states that: “…the brethren of Jesus were sons of Joseph by a former wife, whom he married before Mary. Now those who say so wish to preserve the honor of Mary in virginity to the end, so that body of hers which was appointed to minister to the Word . . . might not know intercourse with a man after that the Holy Spirit came into her and the power from on high overshadowed her. And I think it in harmony with reason that Jesus was the first-fruit among men of the purity, which consists in perpetual chastity, and Mary was among women. For it were not pious to ascribe to any other than to her the first-fruit of virginity.”¹ This writer says that this information is based on a tradition found in the Gospel of Peter, as well as the Gospel of James. In the Gospel of James we read this: “And there was an order from the Emperor Augustus, that all in Bethlehem of Judea should be enrolled. And Joseph said: I will enroll my sons, but what will I do with this maiden? How shall I enroll her? As my wife? I am ashamed. As my daughter then? But all the sons of Israel know that she is not my daughter. The day of the Lord will itself bring it to pass as the Lord wills.”² This of course implies that he already had sons before Jesus was born to Mary. In all the writings over the centuries, it appears quite clear that most supporters of the perpetual virginity of Mary viewed her as the Second Eve, and did not want anything to lessen her stature as the chosen one to bring the Son of God into the world. This effort was double-edged. First, to secure the sanctity of Mary as the most blessed among women, having conceived by the Holy Spirit and given birth to the promised Messiah, the Son of God. And second, to ensure the holiness of Jesus as one born of a virgin, thereby providing the claim that He was without spot or wrinkle, to become the Lamb of God that took away the sins of the world. One of the earliest mentions was made by Anthanasius Bishop of Alexandria (296-373 AD) who called the mother of Jesus, “Mary Ever-Virgin.”³ It was not until the 1566 AD that Catechism of the Council of Trent appeared that explicitly taught that because Eve believed the serpent it brought a curse on the human race. However, Mary by believing the angel brought blessings to mankind. At first, many leaders of the Protestant Reformation accepted this teaching as valid. For instance, Martin Luther wrote on February 2, 1546 that “Christ our Savior was the real and natural fruit of Mary’s virginal womb. . . . This was without the cooperation of a man, and she remained a virgin after that.”⁴ But as more and more ancient documents of early Christian writers were made available, Protestants refused to declare it a doctrine of the movement. The reason being, that while Mary was a blessed woman, and one out of many, she plays no role in man’s salvation. She was at the cross, but only as a spectator. She was at the tomb, but only to pay her respects. She was in the Upper Room, where she too was filled with the Holy Spirit. But there is no record that she ministered, died a martyr or that she rose from the dead. As a matter of fact, in Acts of the Apostles it says: “All these were persevering with one mind in prayer with the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with His brethren.”⁵ This by no means makes her less important as the one God chose from among all others to bear His Son in human form. From that time on there is no further mention of Mary in the New Testament as having any role in the church, the propagation of the Gospel, or present at any meetings of the Jerusalem Council of the Church. However, on the Roman Catholic side, her veneration continued to grow. Part of the reason can be traced to the Jews attack on Jesus as being the illegitimate son of a mercenary Roman soldier. The church leaders felt they needed to venerate Mary and raise her to a higher level in the minds of their own constituents, lest they too be persuaded by these bogus arguments. They reasoned, that God would not select any woman to bear His Son who was not herself the purest and most innocent. It would take many centuries though for the Catholic Church to adopt the Immaculate Conception idea as doctrine and dogma, and many more years before on December 8, 1854 Pope Pius IX infallibly defined, excathedra: “The Blessed Virgin Mary, in the first instant of her conception, by a singular grace and privilege of Almighty God, and in view of the foreseen merits of Jesus Christ, the savior of the human race, was preserved free from all stain of original sin.” Father John Hardon, S.J., notes that “Neither the Greek nor Latin Fathers explicitly taught the Immaculate Conception, but they professed it implicitly.”⁶ For better understanding, the Immaculate Conception refers to the concept that the Blessed Virgin Mary was free from Original Sin from the very moment of her conception in the womb of her mother, Saint Anne. Roman Catholics say: the Feast of the Immaculate Conception celebrates the solemn belief in the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary. It is universally celebrated on December 8, nine months before the feast of the Nativity of Mary, which is celebrated on September 8. The Eastern Orthodox Catholic Church never adopted these views as dogma or doctrine. In conclusion, these are the thoughts of man, not the words of God, since neither the immaculate conception or perpetual virginity are found anywhere in the New Testament canon. Therefore it should be up to each individual to accept or reject this teaching without risk of losing their salvation by grace through Jesus Christ the Son of God. While most Catholic priests and scholars tell you that Catholics do not pray “to” Mary, that they only ask her to hear their pray and communicate it to God the Father and Jesus her son, still many prayers authorized by the Catholic church seem to indicate otherwise. For instance the Rosary prayers: