Mary was excepted from original sin, and this truth is clearly revealed to us in Luke 1, 28: “Chaire kecharitomene” (translated in the Latin vulgate “Ave gratia plena” and in the Aramaic Peshitta of the 4th century “Shlom lekh bthoolto Mariam. Maliath taibootho”: In English: “Hail Mary full of grace. The Lord is with you.”) I would sooner put my faith in the ancient Catholic translators than in modern Protestant Greek scholars who have their prejudices and so get things wrong to meet their agenda. In any event, let us see what some other modern Greek scholars have to say about ‘kecharitomene’.
By taking the definition of the word ‘kecharitomene’ and its grammatical usage into account they tell us: " ‘Highly favoured’ (kecharitomene). Perfect passive participle of ‘charitoo’ and means endowed with grace (charis), enriched with grace, as in Ephesians 1, 6: ‘for the praise and the glory of his ‘grace’ that he granted us in his beloved.’ The Vulgate ‘gratiae plena’ [full of grace] is right if it means 'full of grace which thou hast received; wrong, if it means full of grace which thou hast to bestow." (A.T. Robertson, 'Word Pictures in the New Testament, p.14)
“It is permissible, on Greek grammatical and linguistic grounds, to paraphrase ‘kecharitomene’ as completely, perfectly, and enduringly endowed with grace.”
(Blass and Debrunner, ‘Greek Grammar of the New Testament’)
Luke 1, 28 uses a special conjugated form of ‘charitoo’. This verse employs ‘Kecharitomene’, while Ephesians 1, 6 uses ‘Echaritosen’, which is a different form of the verb ‘charitoo’. ‘Echaritosen’ means “he graced” (bestowed grace). ‘Echaritosen’ signifies a momentary action, an action brought to pass, however full and complete (Blass and Debrunner, 'Greek Grammar of the New Testament, p.166). Whereas, ‘Kecharitomene’, the perfect passive participle, designates a completeness with a permanent result. ‘Kecharitomene’ denotes continuance of a fully completed past action (H.W. Smythe, ‘Greek Grammar’, pp. 108-109; also Blass and Debrunner, p.175). A human being who is in a continual state of grace, as Luke acknowledged, never sins, unless her habitual state of grace was not perpetual. Like her Son, Mary was an exception to the norm. And since Luke is the first known Christian to have drawn a parallel between Mary and the Ark of the Covenant, he must have had Mary’s incorruptible human nature in mind when he wrote “Chaire kecharitomene”.
Observe what the Greek Church Fathers had to say about Mary’s sinless nature in light of Luke 1, 28. If anybody new his Greek, they certainly did.
“O purest one O purest Virgin Where the Holy Spirit is, there all things readily ordered Where divine grace is present the soil that, all untilled, bears bounteous fruit in the life of the flesh, was in possession of the incorruptible citizenship, and walked as such in all manner of virtues, and lived a life more excellent than man’s common standard Thou hast put on the vesture of purity…”
{Gregory Thaumaturgus (A.D. 205-270)}
“Hail, face that radiates divinity and grace; Hail, unstained Mother of holiness; Hail, new Mother, workshop of the birth.”
{Theodotus of Ancyra ( early 5th century)}
“Hail, uncontaminate!”
{Romanos the Melodist (d. c. A.D. 560)}
“Hail, O Bride, and Maiden ever-pure!”
{Akathist Hymn ( 5th or 6th century)}
“You are all-beautiful my beloved, and there is no blemish in you.”
{Song of Songs 4, 7}
Pax vobiscum
Good Fella
