M
mlund
Guest
It is especially ironic when a person engages in condemnation of others for “not believing” Jesus’s words based on the premise that Koine Greek has precise words for cousin when neither of the languages Jesus commonly spoke in (Hebrew and Aramaic) have such a term. Koine Greek scriptures that quote Jesus do so through translation. Where Jesus speaks he does so in a language that only has terms for near kin (especially those living in the same community) and distant kin (those not near to the household). The emphatic insistence that all Jesus’s brethren mentioned must be born after him upon Mary does not mesh with what we know historically about many of those called “brother of Christ,” including James.
The Bible never explicitly names or implies any of those brethren to be related to Mary by blood in any way, and Jesus’s actions with the Disciple John imply just the opposite.
But sure, I guess we could just eschew cultural and historical facts about the whole thing and prefer our own personally inferred meanings from a literal English reading of the King James. I mean, that’s about as American as Apple Pie when you get right down to it.
To truly understand Jesus is to love all that he loved. That includes his mother, blessed among women, who knew him more closely and longer than any mortal being. This also includes the poor, the widowed, and the vulnerable child. If you would be true and faithful to your Lord then you must love all he loves and shun all that he shuns.
Devotion to others can certainly bring you deeper in devotion to Christ Jesus. Meanwhile, haphazard rejections of that which he loved (his mother, his church, his apostles and their successors) surely risks driving you away from Christ.
Elizabeth’s inspired prophecy “And whence is this to me, the Mother of my Lord should come to me?”
The Herald of God, Gabriel says, “Hail, thou that art highly favored, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women”
The living God is noted to assent to Mary’s request at the Wedding Feast and makes special accommodation with her in his final moments of life of the cross, making her Mother of his most beloved disciple. Who could hope to model a better relationship with Jesus than that of Mary, his mother, or John his beloved disciple? It doesn’t make sense to look to Jesus as your model of how to have a relationship with Jesus, after all.
Of course, then there are the religiously authoritative teachings of the successors of the apostles themselves. If you reject their authority and tradition you don’t have a Bible since the compilation of Sacred Scripture was done under the same magisterium.
To walk with Mary is to follow Jesus from the Incarnation to the Ascension and beyond.
The Bible never explicitly names or implies any of those brethren to be related to Mary by blood in any way, and Jesus’s actions with the Disciple John imply just the opposite.
But sure, I guess we could just eschew cultural and historical facts about the whole thing and prefer our own personally inferred meanings from a literal English reading of the King James. I mean, that’s about as American as Apple Pie when you get right down to it.
That might’ve passed for a rational argument if not subject to basic scrutiny. Take, for example, the circumstances of separation from the object of one’s devotion. By scripture, man’s ruined nature creates separation between him and our perfect, ineffable Triune God. Conceptually, the limited nature of our earthly lives renders God certain knowledge of God unobtainable (such as revelations Paul could not share in 2nd Corinthians). A man saved by the ultimate sacrifice of his brother on a battlefield devotes himself to his brother by devoting himself to the widow and orphans his brother has left behind.
To truly understand Jesus is to love all that he loved. That includes his mother, blessed among women, who knew him more closely and longer than any mortal being. This also includes the poor, the widowed, and the vulnerable child. If you would be true and faithful to your Lord then you must love all he loves and shun all that he shuns.
Devotion to others can certainly bring you deeper in devotion to Christ Jesus. Meanwhile, haphazard rejections of that which he loved (his mother, his church, his apostles and their successors) surely risks driving you away from Christ.
Through the Holy Spirit and the angels God makes manifest the importance of Mary in our scripture. Of course, if you read Scripture with complete ignorance of the Jewish culture of the time or the role of the New Testament as it pertains to the fulfillment of the prophecies of the Old Testament you’ll overlook a ton of relevant pieces. The most painfully obvious:
Elizabeth’s inspired prophecy “And whence is this to me, the Mother of my Lord should come to me?”
The Herald of God, Gabriel says, “Hail, thou that art highly favored, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women”
The living God is noted to assent to Mary’s request at the Wedding Feast and makes special accommodation with her in his final moments of life of the cross, making her Mother of his most beloved disciple. Who could hope to model a better relationship with Jesus than that of Mary, his mother, or John his beloved disciple? It doesn’t make sense to look to Jesus as your model of how to have a relationship with Jesus, after all.
Of course, then there are the religiously authoritative teachings of the successors of the apostles themselves. If you reject their authority and tradition you don’t have a Bible since the compilation of Sacred Scripture was done under the same magisterium.
To walk with Mary is to follow Jesus from the Incarnation to the Ascension and beyond.
- Marty Lund
