Scriptural Evidence: The Immaculate Conception Of Mary

[OneTrueCathApos]

**Genisis 3:15:

(Known as the “Protoevangelion”)"

“I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.”

**This is the Scriptural evidence for non-Catholic Christians.

 

[BrianH]

**Genisis 3:15:

(Known as the “Protoevangelion”)"

“I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.”

**This is the Scriptural evidence for non-Catholic Christians.

 

[Trishie]

My dear friend
Perhaps the best scripture for your purpose is the Angel’s address to Mary as “full of grace”

What the scripture that you suggest proves on face value is that Mary has a great and extraordinary function in Salvation history. It doesn’t of itself prove her sinlessness. It’s a wonderful scripture but sin or sinlessness doesn’t always determine our special functions in salvation history. Peter sinned against Jesus. Jesus had said, “if you deny me before men then I will deny you before my Father in heaven”. At the worst possible time when Jesus most needed His support, during the passion, Peter publicly and several times denied Jesus, let his friend down awfully despite all the time he’s spent with Him, despite the miracles, despite the transfiguration. Jesus required Peter’s expression of repentance after His resurrection three times, as many times as he had denied even knowing him, “Peter, do you love me?” Peter protested that He did love Him and Jesus gave him the great commission as priest and shepherd and evangelist that He had originally chosen for Peter. “Feed my lambs”, “Feed my sheep”, He told the repentant Peter

I’m not denying the principle you are upholding, just saying that God doesn’t just give His commissions to the utterly sinless, so the appointing of a momentous task in itself isn’t proof that a person has no human fault or weakness in them.

I do think as I said that the address of the Angel to her is to my understanding the best vision of Mary’s true holiness

God bless you.

 

[Steadfast]

Another translation would be:

I will put enmity between you and the woman,
and between your offspring and her offspring;
he shall bruise your head,
and you shall bruise his heel." -Gen. 3:15 (ESV)

Like many languages, context determines the actual gender of the third person.

In this passage God is talking to Satan, telling him that Christ (the seed of the woman) will deal with him in time.

It doesn’t have anything to do with Mary except to point out that Jesus will be descended from Eve and born of a woman.

 

[SIA]

**Genisis 3:15:

(Known as the “Protoevangelion”)"

“I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.”

**This is the Scriptural evidence for non-Catholic Christians.

 

[OneTrueCathApos]

Oh, but I beg to differ and I will explain…

**The literal sense of the passage is possibly the following: Between Satan and his followers on the one hand, and Eve and her posterity on the other hand, there is to be constant mortal warfare. The posterity of Eve will achieve a complete and final victory over Satan and his followers, even if it is wounded in the strugle. The posterity of Eve includes the Messiah, in whose power humanity will win a victory over Satan. The passage is indirectly messianic.

The seed of the woman was misunderstood as referring to the Redeemer, and thus the Mother of the Redeemer came to be seen in the woman. Since the second century, this direct messianic-marian interpretation has been expounded by individual Fathers, for example, St. Iraneus, St. Epiphanius, St. Cyprian, St. Leo the Great. However, it is not found in the writings of the majority of the Fathers.
According to this interpretation, Mary stands with Christ in a perfect and victorious enmity toward Satan and his following. Many of the later scholars and a great many theologians argue, that Mary’s victory over Satan would not have been perfect, if she had ever been under his dominion.
Therefore, consequently, she must have entered this world without the stain of Original Sin.

Luke 1:28: "And he (the angel Gabriel)–Luke 1:26-27) came to her, and said, “Hail, O favored one, the Lord is with you.”

Most Protestant bible translations follow the KJV, or authorized, versions lead in rendering “kecharitomene”, the Greek word as “favored”, The favored Traditional Catholic rendering is “Hail, full of grace.”
In responding to the Protestant charge, often put forth, that “full of grace” is impermissable and indicative of Catholic bias, we recite two reputable Protestant linguistic sources to the contrary:
An expository Dictionary of New Testament Words by W.E. Vine, makes a very interesting observation:
Charitoo: akin to charis, to endow with charis, primarily signified to make graceful or gracious, and came to denote, in Hellenistic Greek, to cause to find favor, Luke 1:28, “highly favored” (margin, “endued with grace”)…Grace implies more than favor; grace is a free gift, favor may be deserved or gained.

Vine here has given a very thoroughly Catholic view on this verse and what it tells us about Mary. For by saying that “grace is a free gift”, he shows that the traditional Catholic rendering clearly makes Mary’s Immaculate Conception entirely unmerited on her part–a sheer act of mercy and grace performed solely by God.
“Favor” on the other hand, the preferred Protestant translation, may imply something “deserved or gained.” And by a great majority, the Protestant bibles sense that Mary has earned this gift, a notion expressly denied by Catholic theology.
Whichever translation one prefers (this is not necessarily an either or proposition), it is certain that kercharitomene is directly concerned with the idea of "grace, since as Vine noted, it is derived from the root word charis, whose literal meaning is “grace”.
Charis is translated by the KJV, for example, 129 times (out of 150 appearances) as “grace.”
**

 

[Hisalone]

Definition
to make graceful
charming, lovely, agreeable
to peruse with grace, compass with favour
to honour with blessings

Used one other ime in NT
Eph 1:6 To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein **he hath made us accepted in the beloved. **

So we have the same favor?
Yeeeeeeeeepieeeeeeeeeee I am without sin
.:extrahappy: :extrahappy: :extrahappy: :getholy:

See how foolish what I just said is. Yet it is no more foolish than what has been proposed.

 

[ralphinal]

Definition
to make graceful
charming, lovely, agreeable
to peruse with grace, compass with favour
to honour with blessings

Used one other ime in NT
Eph 1:6 To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein **he hath made us accepted in the beloved. **

So we have the same favor?
Yeeeeeeeeepieeeeeeeeeee I am without sin
.:extrahappy: :extrahappy: :extrahappy: :getholy:

See how foolish what I just said is. Yet it is no more foolish than what has been proposed.

Just to play along a little, would you accept that anyone who has accepted Christ is made into a new creature?

 

[Fisher]

**Genisis 3:15:

(Known as the “Protoevangelion”)"

“I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.”

**This is the Scriptural evidence for non-Catholic Christians.

Mary was a very special woman because she was chosen by God to be the vessel to carry His Son into this world. However, she did not take this blessing lightly. She considered herself but a handmaiden. … regarded the low estate of his handmaiden Luke 1:48\

Let’s look to the Word of God. There is never one mention of Mary being holy in all of Scripture! I challenge anyone to provide a verse that states that she is. However, the Word does repeatedly tell us that only God is holy or speaks of His holiness at least 650 times!

We are commanded to be holy as God is holy - not as Mary is holy. But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation; Because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy. 1 Peter 1:15-16 and For I am the LORD your God: ye shall therefore sanctify yourselves, and ye shall be holy; for I am holy… Leviticus 11:44

(Col 2:8 ) Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.

God is to be exalted - only Jesus Christ!

(Php 2:9) Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name:

(Php 2:10) That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth;

(Php 2:11) And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

 

[O.S.Luke]

I think if I were trying to use a scriptural text to support the Immaculate Conception, I would use Luke 1. While I might agree with you about the Protoevangelium, it is “a stretch.” I quote New Advent regarding the Immaculate Conception:

No direct or categorical and stringent proof of the dogma can be brought forward from Scripture. But the first scriptural passage which contains the promise of the redemption, mentions also the Mother of the Redeemer. The sentence against the first parents was accompanied by the Earliest Gospel (Proto-evangelium), which put enmity between the serpent and the woman: “and I will put enmity between thee and the woman and her seed; she (he) shall crush thy head and thou shalt lie in wait for her (his) heel” (Genesis 3:15). The translation “she” of the Vulgate is interpretative; it originated after the fourth century, and cannot be defended critically. - New Advent, Immaculate Conception - The Doctrine

Stick to Luke 1. You would lose a lot of Protestants quoting from Genesis 3. Plus, one of them might dare to post the above quote from New Advent.

The strongest proof would be from writings of the Early Church Fathers. Just stay away from Origen and Basil. And you will get the Orthodox fired up, as they will quote John Chrystostom’s sermon where he accused Mary of being forward (even ambitious) in nature.

O+

 

[Hisalone]

Just to play along a little, would you accept that anyone who has accepted Christ is made into a new creature?

Yes those born again are new creatures.
A creature who is in the flesh, has human attribtes but also God lives in their heart.
Was Mary born again? If so at what time in her life?

 

[ralphinal]

Yes those born again are new creatures.
A creature who is in the flesh, has human attribtes but also God lives in their heart.
Was Mary born again? If so at what time in her life?

Well, that depends on how you look at it.

The first way we can say that she was born again is by accepting the role of Mother of God, she states that she is the handmaden of the Lord, defining herself as one in service to God, and thus her Son.

The second way is when Jesus said that anyone who does the will of the Father is his mother and brothers. Mary clearly does the will of the Father by accepting her role as mother of the Son.

The third way that we can say that she was born again, though this one is harder to p(name removed by moderator)oint, is by the very Annunciation itself. The Holy Spirit, and the Grace that he imparts, cannot exist in one still living in sin. The fact that she is identified as being full of grace and overshadowed by the Spirit says that she must have been justified and sanctified, even though this would have occured prior to the Cross as a unique situation.

We know that she was present at Pentecost, so we can say that she was counted as one of the faithful then as well.

 

[Steadfast]

In Galatians 3:16, Paul cites an Old Testament passage, he says of Genesis 12:7:

The promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. The Scripture does not say “and to seeds,” meaning many people, but “and to your seed,” meaning one person, who is Christ.

In English, the word “seed” can be an inclusive plural implying many offspring, but this is not so in Hebrew or Greek as Paul points out.

In Genesis 3:15 the reference is to a single descendant of Eve; i.e. Jesus.

It appears to have been a standard interpretation in the Apostolic age at least to understand this “seed” when used prophetically and messianically to refer to Christ and He alone.

 

[emarc]

Definition
to make graceful
charming, lovely, agreeable
to peruse with grace, compass with favour
to honour with blessings

Used one other ime in NT
Eph 1:6 To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein **he hath made us accepted in the beloved. **

So we have the same favor?
Yeeeeeeeeepieeeeeeeeeee I am without sin
.:extrahappy: :extrahappy: :extrahappy: :getholy:

**don’t kill yourself w/ uncalled joy yet. God’s ways are not our ways. If God took with him enoch implying he did not die, and if elijah was lifted up in a flaming chariot and horses to heaven alive, is it wrong for God to free the Mother of his Son from sin (Mary full of grace)? to be a perfect tabernacle for his Son? would God not allow a perfect woman to carry in her womb his sinless Son? is it wrong for God to preserve Mary and assumed her to heaven? true, it is a mystery but Jesus said many things will be hidden from the eyes of the learned, but believe like children for theirs is the kingdom of God. yah, you don’t find this in the Scriptures and so with the Holy Trinity. **
**God bless. **

See how foolish what I just said is. Yet it is no more foolish than what has been proposed.

 

[OneTrueCathApos]

I think if I were trying to use a scriptural text to support the Immaculate Conception, I would use Luke 1. While I might agree with you about the Protoevangelium, it is “a stretch.” I quote New Advent regarding the Immaculate Conception:

Stick to Luke 1. You would lose a lot of Protestants quoting from Genesis 3. Plus, one of them might dare to post the above quote from New Advent.

The strongest proof would be from writings of the Early Church Fathers. Just stay away from Origen and Basil. And you will get the Orthodox fired up, as they will quote John Chrystostom’s sermon where he accused Mary of being forward (even ambitious) in nature.

O+

Well, another important aspect of Luke 1:28hould be noted. The angel is here, in effect, giving Mary a new name (“full of grace”). The word Mary does not appear in the text. It was as if the angel were addressing Abraham “Hail, full of faith”, or Solomon “Hail full of wisdom” (characteristics for which they were particularly noteworthy). The biblical and Hebraic understanding of one’s name was quite profound. God was very particular in naming individuals himself (Gen. 17:5, 15, 19; Isa. 45:3-4; Matt. 1:21). God renamed persons to indicate regeneration (as in Gen. 17:5, 15; 32:28) or condemnation (as in Jer. 20:3). For the ancient Hebrews, names signified the character, nature, and qualities of a person and were much more than mere identifying labels. Thus, God chose his Son’s name (Matt. 1:21).
Mary needed a Savior just as much as the rest of us. She was fully aware of that necessity (Luke 1:47). The difference between Mary and other ultimately saved persons is that they had all fallen into the filthy pit of sin, whereas, she had not. But she certainly would have, too, if it were not for God’s special act of grace whereby she was conceived immaculate and spared from the inheritance of Original Sin. God redeemed us from the pit, but prevented her from falling into it.
It is proper to speak as God as having “saved” his creatures “from the pit”. As the Proverb goes:
"Prevention is the best cure."

 

[BrianH]

Oh, but I beg to differ and I will explain…

**The literal sense of the passage is possibly the following: Between Satan and his followers on the one hand, and Eve and her posterity on the other hand, there is to be constant mortal warfare. The posterity of Eve will achieve a complete and final victory over Satan and his followers, even if it is wounded in the strugle. The posterity of Eve includes the Messiah, in whose power humanity will win a victory over Satan. The passage is indirectly messianic.

The seed of the woman was misunderstood as referring to the Redeemer, and thus the Mother of the Redeemer came to be seen in the woman. Since the second century, this direct messianic-marian interpretation has been expounded by individual Fathers, for example, St. Iraneus, St. Epiphanius, St. Cyprian, St. Leo the Great. However, it is not found in the writings of the majority of the Fathers.
According to this interpretation, Mary stands with Christ in a perfect and victorious enmity toward Satan and his following. Many of the later scholars and a great many theologians argue, that Mary’s victory over Satan would not have been perfect, if she had ever been under his dominion.
Therefore, consequently, she must have entered this world without the stain of Original Sin.

Luke 1:28: "And he (the angel Gabriel)–Luke 1:26-27) came to her, and said, “Hail, O favored one, the Lord is with you.”

Most Protestant bible translations follow the KJV, or authorized, versions lead in rendering “kecharitomene”, the Greek word as “favored”, The favored Traditional Catholic rendering is “Hail, full of grace.”
In responding to the Protestant charge, often put forth, that “full of grace” is impermissable and indicative of Catholic bias, we recite two reputable Protestant linguistic sources to the contrary:
An expository Dictionary of New Testament Words by W.E. Vine, makes a very interesting observation:
Charitoo: akin to charis, to endow with charis, primarily signified to make graceful or gracious, and came to denote, in Hellenistic Greek, to cause to find favor, Luke 1:28, “highly favored” (margin, “endued with grace”)…Grace implies more than favor; grace is a free gift, favor may be deserved or gained.

Vine here has given a very thoroughly Catholic view on this verse and what it tells us about Mary. For by saying that “grace is a free gift”, he shows that the traditional Catholic rendering clearly makes Mary’s Immaculate Conception entirely unmerited on her part–a sheer act of mercy and grace performed solely by God.
“Favor” on the other hand, the preferred Protestant translation, may imply something “deserved or gained.” And by a great majority, the Protestant bibles sense that Mary has earned this gift, a notion expressly denied by Catholic theology.
Whichever translation one prefers (this is not necessarily an either or proposition), it is certain that kercharitomene is directly concerned with the idea of "grace, since as Vine noted, it is derived from the root word charis, whose literal meaning is “grace”.
Charis is translated by the KJV, for example, 129 times (out of 150 appearances) as “grace.”
**

Who is Vine?

 

[OneTrueCathApos]

W.E. Vine is a Protestant Theologian.

 

[MarcoPolo]

Another translation would be:

I will put enmity between you and the woman,
and between your offspring and her offspring;
he shall bruise your head,
and you shall bruise his heel." -Gen. 3:15 (ESV)

Your translation also says “enmity between [Satan] and the woman”.

 

[MarcoPolo]

You can also use the following Scriptures. Begin with:

PERPETUAL VIRGINITY - Mary is the New Testament type of the Ark of the Covenant (see obvious parallels in chart here). The Ark was not to be touched (1 Chr 13:10).

Another way to see it is Mary’s response to the angel who told her she would bear a son. “How can I since I don’t know man?” she says. Well, since she was about to be married, the obvious answer to her would have been because she’d bear Joseph’s son. But if she had taken a vow of chastity, as some Jewish women did, then her question makes sense.

There are others who believe that the way Jesus entered the world (her womb) will never be crossed again by man:
Ezekiel 44:2 And the Lord said to me: This gate shall be shut, it shall not be opened, and no man shall pass through it: because the Lord the God of Israel hath entered in by it, and it shall be shut.
The “brothers” mentioned in Scripture are not His fraternal brothers.

IMMACULATE CONCEPTION/SINLESS LIFE - Again, Mary is the new Ark, which was made of gold and perfection, untouchable, spotless. And NT types are even more glorious than their OT types.

In Luke 1:28, she is called in the Greek, kecharitomene. The word is in the perfect passive participle, the only time this word appears in Scripture. It indicates a completed past action with continuing results. In other words she has been graced and continues to be so in two directions of time. More here.

The other way is to recognize Mary as the NT type of Eve. Again, since NT types are holier versions of their OT types, consider Eve was created without sin. So too, all the more was Mary.

I also recently heard a debate with Father Pacwa in which he explained that when Elizabeth called Mary “blessed among women” that this was a Hebrew way of calling her the “greatest”. The phrase “among women” meant “of all women”. And that would include Eve, who was conceived without sin.

 

[OneTrueCathApos]

You can also use the following Scriptures. Begin with:

PERPETUAL VIRGINITY - Mary is the New Testament type of the Ark of the Covenant (see obvious parallels in chart here). The Ark was not to be touched (1 Chr 13:10).

Another way to see it is Mary’s response to the angel who told her she would bear a son. “How can I since I don’t know man?” she says. Well, since she was about to be married, the obvious answer to her would have been because she’d bear Joseph’s son. But if she had taken a vow of chastity, as some Jewish women did, then her question makes sense.

There are others who believe that the way Jesus entered the world (her womb) will never be crossed again by man:
Ezekiel 44:2 And the Lord said to me: This gate shall be shut, it shall not be opened, and no man shall pass through it: because the Lord the God of Israel hath entered in by it, and it shall be shut.
The “brothers” mentioned in Scripture are not His fraternal brothers.

IMMACULATE CONCEPTION/SINLESS LIFE - Again, Mary is the new Ark, which was made of gold and perfection, untouchable, spotless. And NT types are even more glorious than their OT types.

In Luke 1:28, she is called in the Greek, kecharitomene. The word is in the perfect passive participle, the only time this word appears in Scripture. It indicates a completed past action with continuing results. In other words she has been graced and continues to be so in two directions of time. More here.

The other way is to recognize Mary as the NT type of Eve. Again, since NT types are holier versions of their OT types, consider Eve was created without sin. So too, all the more was Mary.

I also recently heard a debate with Father Pacwa in which he explained that when Elizabeth called Mary “blessed among women” that this was a Hebrew way of calling her the “greatest”. The phrase “among women” meant “of all women”. And that would include Eve, who was conceived without sin.

Excellent post Marco, I hope that with this information, non-Catholic Christians will have a better understanding of our Blessed Lord’s Mother.