What is the first explicit reference to Mary's Immaculate Conception?

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Alethiaphile

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Let me clarify: I don’t mean the Patristic quotations giving reverence or honor to Mary, or those who describe her as “pure” or “immaculate” but make no reference to her conception. I want the first known statement that refer to the Immaculate Conception as such. Thank you.
 
Origen (ca 244 A.D.) called her “Immaculate of the Immaculate”. Is that what you’re looking for or are you looking for the exact phrase “Immaculate Conception”?

More on this dogma here as it developed, for anyone else interested. Pay special attention to Mary as Eve.
 
Alethiaphile said:
Let me clarify: I don’t mean the Patristic quotations giving reverence or honor to Mary, or those who describe her as “pure” or “immaculate” but make no reference to her conception. I want the first known statement that refer to the Immaculate Conception as such. Thank you.
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I think we can see this foreshadowed in the OT figures of the preparation of the Ark of the covenant. However, most specifically, in the greeting of the angel Gabriel, who greets Mary by a title “Full of Grace”. The greeting is in the past perfect tense, which means one who has been filled with grace at a certain time in the past which continues with effects into the present. Even Mary herself pondered what type of greeting this might be.
 
Thank you, but I’m not looking for a foreshadowing or a deduction from another phrase such as “full of grace”. I am looking for the first reference to Mary’s conception as being “immaculate” or “without sin”, or some equivalent term.
 
Alethiaphile said:
Let me clarify: I don’t mean the Patristic quotations giving reverence or honor to Mary, or those who describe her as “pure” or “immaculate” but make no reference to her conception. I want the first known statement that refer to the Immaculate Conception as such. Thank you.
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You mean the term Immaculate Conception, not the fact or belief. Like “Nuclear Fission”, the term was not known in the middle ages, but the fact that it existed then is clear.
 
Maybe you’re looking for Proclus (5th century) who said God “made her for Himself without any stain.” Is that the reference to “conception” you’re looking for? Good article on the development here.
 
Aletheophile,
If you will consider Luke 1:28, where the angel addresses Mary as "full of grace" (in English), you will find the answer. However, one must go to the Greek to get at the root of the issue. In Greek, the term the angel used was "kecharitomene." This word is uniquely used for Mary in Scripture and indicates that she was in a state of sanctifying grace in such a manner that it was a permanent state that was in existence from her very beginning (conception). In other words, she always was in the state of grace and always would be. One cannot be "full of grace" and be guilty of any sin.
 
Scoobyshme said:
If you will consider Luke 1:28, where the angel addresses Mary as “full of grace” (in English), you will find the answer. However, one must go to the Greek to get at the root of the issue. In Greek, the term the angel used was “kecharitomene.” This word is uniquely used for Mary in Scripture and indicates that she was in a state of sanctifying grace in such a manner that it was a permanent state that was in existence from her very beginning (conception). In other words, she always was in the state of grace and always would be. One cannot be “full of grace” and be guilty of any sin.
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Acts 6:8 … "And Stephen, full of grace and power, …
This is from my RSV-CE translation, my NAB says “filled with grace”.

Most scholars believe Luke’s gospel and Acts were written by the same author. So does the original Greek in Acts 6:8 about St Stephen use the word kecharitomene, as if does in Luke’s Gospel concerning Mary?

Just wondering.
 
Light_Seeker said:
Acts 6:8 … "And Stephen, full of grace and power, …
This is from my RSV-CE translation, my NAB says “filled with grace”.

Most scholars believe Luke’s gospel and Acts were written by the same author. So does the original Greek in Acts 6:8 about St Stephen use the word kecharitomene, as if does in Luke’s Gospel concerning Mary?

Just wondering.
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Lk 1:28
kecaritwmenh
charitoO
vp Perf Pas Nom Sg f
HAVING-been-gracED
having-been-favored-one

Acts 6:8
caritos
charis
n_ Gen Sg f
OF-grace
 
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