Where the Bible Shows Mary Was Immaculate Conceived...

Biblical Support for Mary's Sinlessness

 For additional info read "Behold Your Mother" by Tim Staples

     Dec. 8th the Catholic Church celebrates the Immaculate Conception.  No, this is not in reference to Jesus' conception as some Protestants (and even some Catholics) believe.  This is in reference to MARY's CONCEPTION. 
     The phrase "Mary's Immaculate Conception" confuses and concerns our fellow Christian brothers and sisters in the non-Catholic Communities.  "How can you say that Mary was sinless?  Don't you Catholics read the Bible?"  Unfortunately, despite regularly exhortations from the Pope, Bishops and Priests through out the Centuries to do so, the average Catholic is very unfamiliar with Scripture; but that's a post for another day.

     As a result, though, the vast majority of our Protestant Brothers and Sisters have never heard any of the EIGHT WAYS Scripture witnesses to the Sinlessness of Mary.  We're just going to detail out three here:  Scripture shows that Mary 1) is named or titled 'Full of Grace' 2) has Enmity with Satan and 3) is The Ark of the New Covenant.

 

What Catholicism Doesn't Teach about Mary's Sinlessness...

     Some Catholics have errantly argued that since Christ's human body came from Mary, Mary had to be sinless in order to give sinless flesh to Christ's Body.  Unfortunately, this argument is false, is easily demonstrated as false and is NOT what the Catholic Church teaches.  As many of our wise Protestant brothers and sisters have pointed out in the past:  If Mary had to be sinless to give Christ sinless flesh, then wouldn't Anne (Mary's Mother) have to be sinless, and then wouldn't her mother have to be sinless and so on all the way back to Eve.  Saying Mary had to be sinless eventually ends up denying the Fall.

    The Catholic Church teaches that Mary's sinlessness was not necessary, but was "appropriate to such roll" (CCC 491) 

 

What the Catholic Church Actually Teaches...

     The ex-Cathedra statement from Pope Pius the IX states, "The most Blessed Virgin Mary was, from the moment of her conception, by a singular grace and privilege of Almighty God and by the virtues of Jesus Christ, Savior of the human race, preserved immune from all stain of original sin."  (Ineffabilis Deus, 1894 as quoted in CCC 491).

     Please note a few things:

1) This was a "singular grace and privilege" meaning it was granted to no one else after the implementation of Original Sin.  (Please note that if this teaching is true Mary would be one of FOUR people in the Bible created, by God, without Original Sin.  The others are, Adam, Eve and Jesus.)

2) This is only by the power of God and the merits of Christ.  As the Catholic Church has always taught, Mary, like us, is only anything because of the super abundance of Grace flowing from her Son, Jesus.  (Lumen Gentium, 60)

3) Also, in Lumen Gentium paragraph #60, the Catholic Church teaches that there is only one mediator between God and man, the Man Christ Jesus.  Mary is NOT another mediator.... just to get that out of the way too.

"Hail, Full of Grace..." (Luke 1:28)

     In Luke's Gospel, an angel from heaven comes to a little 14 to 16 year old girl and says, "Hail, Full of Grace, the Lord is with you."  In this one small sentence is a myriad of meaning.

Hail, Caesar...

     The first thing to notice is that a messenger (meaning of 'angel') from heaven 'hails' Mary.  What does this mean?  Some, like Protestant Apologist James White, claim that "hail" is just another greeting.  It's like saying "Hey what's up?"  Unfortunately, blinded by his forgone conclusion that Mary is nothing special, and certainly NOT sinless, ever-virgin etc, Mr. White misses something crucial in the exact next verse.  Just to set it up a little more, most people, when an angel from heaven stands before them, faint (Rev 1:17) or get all upset (Is 6:5).  Now back to the point: what does Mary do?  Is she all concerned that this amazing supernatural creature has just appeared in front of her?  No.  She was all concerned... about the GREETING  (Lk 1:29).  If this were a normal greeting, why would Mary be concerned at all with the greeting?  Because it's NOT a normal greeting.

     The word 'hail' in Greek is chaire (pronounced: Kahee-ray).  Anywhere else in Scripture it is used, it is used in conjunction with a title:  (Mt 26:49; Mk 15:18; Jn 19:3; Acts 23:26).  It would follow, if Scripture is consistent and can be used to interpret other parts of Scripture, that this greeting of Gabriel's should be associated with a title.  What is the title?  'Kecharitomene.'  Why is it important that this is a title?  In the Bible, when someone is given a new name or title, it reveals something essential about that person's character: Abraham is now the "Father of Nations", hence "Father Abraham"; Eve is now the "Mother of All or of the Living"; Peter is now the "Rock" on which the Church is built and so forth.  So this new title, reveals something about Mary that is essential to who she is.

Kecharitomene (Pronounced: KAY car-ee-toh-Meh-neh)

       The word is actually difficult to translate because it is in a tense that we don't have in English: perfect, passive participle.  Ok, so for all of us who are not Koine Greek scholars let's put this into English.  What that tense means is that something is entirely completed somewhere in the past, it persists up to this moment and will continue unforeseen into the future.

     Now we get to the actual root meaning of the word 'charitoo' which means "grace."  So what this one word means is "She who has been completely filled with grace somewhere in the past, which continues through today and unforeseen into the future..."  This is why St. Jerome translated this "Gracia Plena" or "Full of Grace."

But my Bible says "Highly Favored"...

     'Charitoo' can be translated as "favor."  But the question must be asked, "Who's favor?"  The answer is: God's favor.  What is God's favor?  Just ask any Protestant what "Grace" is and most likely they'll say, "Unmerited Favor."  God's favor is His Grace and His Grace is His Favor.  But this brings up another point of difference:  Most Protestants don't believe that God's Grace actually changes us.  Whereas Catholicism teaches, based on numerous passages in Scripture, that God's Grace is God's life living in us and it changes us to be more like Him.  I won't go into depth here, but a quick read on the Catholic understanding of Grace can be found in the Catholic Catechism paragraphs 1996 and following.

     But I will relate a conversation I had with a local Protestant radio show host.  We were talking about Grace.  I asked him if the cup in front of me was filled up to the tippy top with Grace, could any sin exist within that cup?  His response was a very emphatic "Absolutely not!"

     So even in the Protestant understanding of Grace there is the idea that it cleanses us from sin.  If that's the case, then heaven declared Mary to be completely without sin sometime in the past, it continued through the announcement unforeseen into the future.  The fact that "Full of Grace" is a title reveals that this is an essential aspect of Mary's character, who she is as revealed by heaven.

     It should be noted too that in the Greek, "highly" does not appear.  Given that the context is in the feminine form, "Favored Daughter" is a reasonable translation, but this shows us another way that Mary is without sin: She's the "Daughter of Zion", which I will not get into here.

Mary has Enmity with Satan

     What does 'enmity' mean?  When Scripture says that Christ and Satan will have enmity between them (Gen 3:15) what does that mean?  Can Satan have any influence over Christ?  Can any part of Christ have Satan living in Him?
     Enmity is total separation, mutual hatred, antipathy and shares the same Latin root as enemy.  Christ is the enemy of Satan, He is totally separated from Satan.  Can we say the same for ourselves?  No we can't.  Every time I sin, or desire to sin, I am on Satan's side; I am a friend of Satan and have partnered with him.
     What does this have to do with Mary?  If we read the cite above, Genesis 3:15, every Christian believes "the seed" is referring to Christ.  But first it says that "the woman"- who's seed is Christ - and Satan will have enmity between them.  Who's the woman who's seed is Christ?  Mary.
     We see this played out in the book of Revelation Chapter 12 where "the woman" who bears Christ - the male child who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron - is chased by the serpent, Satan, but is not caught or even touched by Satan.  Who is this "woman" who was given wings of the eagle to fly away from Satan to a place prepared for her by God?  Revelation is polyvalent, meaning there is multiple ways to interpret each thing with out either interpretation necessarily being wrong.  But if we keep it on the literal level, there is only one "woman" who gave birth to Christ: Mary; and Satan was not allowed to touch her.  What happens when Satan realizes he can't touch her?   I like the way the New International Version translation of the Bible says it, Satan "was enraged at the woman..."  Revelation shows the enmity between Mary and Satan.

 

The Ark of the New Covenant

     The Ark of the Covenant was a box. It was gold on the outside and gold on the inside. God's Spirit 'overshadowed' it - a specific word used only in connection with God's Spirit over the Ark. The Ark contained in it God's Law (also translated, "God's Word") written in stone, the manna from the desert and Aaron's staff of the High Priesthood. (Heb 9:4)

      At one point the Ark travelled to the hill country of Judea and stayed there about 3 months (2 Sam 6:1-11). When David arrives in the presence of the Ark he asks "How can the Ark of the Lord come to me?" (2 Sam 6:9) David, dressed as a high priest, leaps and dances in the presence of the Ark. (2 Sam 6:14) David 'Shouts' in the presence of the Ark - shout being a rare Greek word. (2 Sam 6:15)

      Here's a quote from the Gospel of Luke.  See if you notice anything:

      "In those days Mary arose and went with haste into the hill country, to a city of Judah, and she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. And when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the babe leaped in her womb; and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit and she exclaimed with a loud cry, "Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! And why is this granted me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For behold, when the voice of your greeting came to my ears, the babe in my womb leaped for joy. And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord." (Lk 1:39-45)

Did you catch it all?

1) Mary goes to the hill country of Judea ('city of Judah' is in Judea);
2) John the Baptist 'leaps' in Elizabeth's womb (same word used for David's 'leaping')
3) John the Baptist was in the lineage of Aaron the high priest (David was dressed as a high priest)
4) Elizabeth exclaims with a 'loud cry' (same Greek word as David's 'shout')
5) Elizabeth states "Why is this granted to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me?" (David states, "How can the Ark of the Lord come to me?")
6) Mary stays in the hill country for about 3 months (The Ark stayed in the hill country of Judea for about 3 months)

Some additional parallels:

7) The word that Gabriel used for 'overshadow' is the same used for God's Spirit over the Ark in the Old Testament;
8) Jesus is God's Law / Covenant made flesh (The Ark contained the Law written in stone)
9) Jesus is the Manna come down from Heaven (Jn 6:51) (The Ark contained a jar with manna)
10) Jesus is the true High Priest (Hebrews 5) (the Ark contained Aaron's staff which would show who the High Priest was).

      If you don't see the blatant indications here I'm not sure we're reading the same book!

     We have at least 10 parallels between Mary and the Old Testament Ark.  So what is the implication?  How pure and holy was the Ark?  Ask Uzzah.  Who's Uzzah?  Uzzah was the unfortunate guy who touched the Ark to keep it from falling into the dirt.  He died for it.  Why did he die?  He, a sinful man, touched what is completely holy, pure and clean.  But what about the dirt?  Wouldn't the Ark have fallen into the dirt?  But even according to Protestant writers like R.C. Sproul Uzzah committed the sin of presumption.  He presumed the dirt was more unclean than he was.  But man disobeys God's commands regularly; dirt doesn't.  Dirt turns to mud when water is poured on it.  Man sins.

     Here we have to apply a little Biblical Studies tool called 'typology.'  Typology is - very, very briefly - looking for parallels in people, events and objects from the Old Testament to the New Testament.  One example of this is Adam and Christ.  St. Paul says that Adam was a "type" of Christ.  One rule of typology is the Old Testament person, event or thing CANNOT be equal or greater than it's New Testament fulfillment.

     So if the Old Testament Ark is that pure, holy and clean what does that say about Mary?  Another way to look at it, gold is considered a symbol of purity.  The O.T. Ark was laid with gold, "inside and out."  What would that say about the Ark of the New Covenant?  It can't be equal or less than the O.T. Ark.  Mary would have to be completely pure, inside and out.

     There are numerous other ways that Scripture shows that Mary was Immaculate (she is the New Eve; she is the Daughter of Zion and more).  But what about objections?

I Object!

     Many of our Protestant brothers and sisters are trained to memorize passages of Scripture from very early on - something we Catholics could learn to do more.  One of the earlier passages memorized seems to disprove the whole notion of Mary's Immaculate Conception: Romans 3:23: "All have sinned and fallen short of the Glory of God."

     "How much more clear does Scripture have to be?" some might ask.  How do we respond?  With kindness, respect and, of course, Scripture.

     If "all" in that verse truly means "every last single person" then there's a problem.  Was Jesus a man?  Yes he was 100% and 100% God.  In addition, Hebrews 4:15 tells us Christ was like us, except sin.  So there is one GLARING exception to "All" of Romans 3:23. 

     But what about others?  Are there other exceptions?  In context (read the whole chapter 3 of Romans) Paul is talking about personal sin - sins we actually do - not original sin.  So what about a miscarried or aborted baby?  Did they do any personal sin?  What about infants?  Did they perform any personal sin?  How about severely mentally handicapped people?  Did they perform any personal sins?  The answer is No.  There are MILLIONS of exceptions to Romans 3:23.

    Catholicism merely believes that Mary is another exception.

     I hope this helps shed some light on the subject.

     Have a question or objection?  Feel free to comment below.

God Bless,
Fidei Defensor

Teaching Catholics how to explain the Faith with kindness and respect.