Perpetual Virginity
The perpetual virginity of Mary ("virgin") is a doctrine common to Catholics and Orthodox , registered in the symbol of faith of St. Epiphanius .
The doctrine is not received by the Protestant churches , although reformers accept the idea that Mary was a virgin before the birth of Jesus, as indicated by the Gospels. It is admitted by the majority of Church Fathers. The reference to "brothers and sisters of Jesus" in various places in the New Testament (eg Mark 3:31-32 and Mark 6:3) is, therefore, far from being understood in the same way by all Christians (see Jacques, brother of Jesus ).
Summary |
Immaculate Conception of Jesus
Virginal conception is the Christian doctrine that Mary conceived her son Jesus while remaining blank.
Virgin birth
The idea that Mary's virginity was preserved during the birth of Jesus comes from the Gospel of Matthew , chapter 1, verse 25, where it says that her husband has not had sex with Mary during of her pregnancy:
- But he knew her not until she had a son, whom he gave the name of Jesus.
The early church fathers had believed that if Mary had not had sex with a man, including her husband, she was still a virgin at the time of the birth of Jesus.
This conviction could also be based on an oral tradition, as well as the passage from Isaiah 7 and included (from the Greek translation of the Septuagint): "Behold a virgin shall conceive and bear a son", the use of these two verbs implying that Mary remained a virgin - miraculously - both during the design and childbirth.
Doctors of the Church (eg St. Bernard, ut infra) considered as an indisputable truth and accepted by everyone in the Church that Jesus' birth was miraculous and that Mary remained a virgin even during this miraculous birth. They readily refer to the image of the sealed tomb of Jesus, which he left at the resurrection without breaking the seal Perpetual virginity
The doctrine of the perpetual virginity of Mary is that Mary remained a virgin after the birth of Jesus (and until his own death). It is based on the words of Jesus on the cross in the Gospel according to Saint John (19, 26-27) where Jesus entrusts his mother, the Virgin Mary , the disciple John. Taking the text literally, she believes that if Mary had other children, her other children are busy with their mother, and Jesus would not have had to entrust his mother to John.
Moreover, whereas the Jewish woman, the time of Jesus, takes its social status of her husband or her son, she considers it unlikely that the famous Jacques, brother of the Lord, who was, according to the epistles of Paul, scrupulous Jewish laws, to the point of seeking the division between Christians of pagan origin and Jewish in matters of purity, has missed the major command to honor father and mother leaving a stranger (John) give social status to her mother (Mary), if it had been.
From a theological point of view, the four gospels do not agree on the guardianship of John about Mary. The theology of Eastern Christianity sees this passage as a metaphor for the Church by Jean.
Indeed, Jesus is described in the Gospels as having "brothers", Jacques , Jose (or Jose or Joseph following manuscripts), Jude and Simon (or Simeon ), and "sisters" ( Mk 6. 3 ; Mt 13. 56 ). The debate exegetical is open between Catholics and Protestants on the nature of this fraternity.
Origen in his Commentary on S. Matthew (circa 248), specifically mentions the belief in the perpetual virginity of Mary. As highlighted Luigi Gambero, "Not only does Origen doubt, but it seems that directly involve a truth already recognized as an integral part of the Deposit of Faith."
Mary had she taken a vow of virginity?
In addition, Doctors of the Church generally admit that Mary had taken a vow of virginity. Indeed, otherwise, his question to the angel, "How can this be he, since I do not know man?" (Which means, in biblical language: since I do not have sex) would be meaningless and would even be moved. And S. Augustine, quoted and approved by S. Thomas (ut infra, Q. 28, Art. 4): "St. Augustine writes" At the announcement by the Angel, Mary answered: 'How can this be he, since I do not know man? "What it certainly would not say if it had not previously devoted to God her virginity." However, the phrase "I do not know man" is consistent with the fact that Mary was betrothed at the time, but not yet married.
In perfect continuity with the Fathers, St. Bernard of Clairvaux writes in his "Sermon in praise of the Virgin Mother" "Born of a virgin birth was the only worthy of God, and give birth to God was the only child who could agree to a virgin .(...) He therefore gave birth to the Virgin, he who had inspired her vow of virginity and had provided in advance that the value of a precious humility .(...) ... she received the gift of virginity (...) virgin body, mind blank, blank also by decision and commitment ... " .
Thomas Aquinas , the author of reference specifically approved by the Church, this analysis on a very methodical in his Summa Theologica , pars IIIa, Q. 28, art. 2-4: Art. 2: virginity during childbirth, art. 3: virginity after giving birth, art. 4: the question of the vow of virginity (which is a different matter and independent of the above). He entered the perpetual virginity and the vow of virginity.
In any event, even without such a vow, he would have been unthinkable for Mary, after having received such a miracle, and have miraculously conceived and given birth, and in addition to having given birth to a child-God, of have seen troops of angels singing the glory of God and proclaiming "To you is born a Savior, Christ the Lord" (Luke 2, 11-14), therefore difficult to have conjugal relations as anyone, as if nothing had happened, as if you could then drop the virginity preserved by a miracle. Mary in fact, like her cousin Elizabeth, are aware that this child is God: "Whence comes the mother of my Lord should come to me ?..." , "It will be great and called the Son of the Most High", "The Almighty has done great things for me: henceforth all generations will call me blessed" (Luke 1).
Other doctors of the church speak in the same direction: S. Alphonse de Liguori , Doctor of the Church, summed up well in all his works on this subject, Mary, a subject he is particularly fond. He says, for example, in The Glories of Mary, in his commentary for the Feast of the Presentation: "It was then, as is believed, she made her vow of celibacy, vow that had never been done before her, in the words of the Abbot Rupert (...)."
Protestant Position
According to the Protestant doctrines, Mary would have been after the birth of Jesus, children with Joseph, that assumption does not alter the virginity of Mary at the birth of Jesus.
- Mark 3:32 The crowd was sitting around him, and he said, Behold, your mother and your brothers , Ulrich Zwingli , John Calvin and John Wesley have all accepted. Diarmaid MacCulloch, a historian of the Reformation, wrote that the reason why the reformers have upheld the perpetual virginity of Mary, and for which they had "respect and genuine affection and deep" to Mary was that she was " the guarantee of the Incarnation of Christ, "teaching was rejected by the same radicals who denied the perpetual virginity of Mary. However, the absence in the Bible clear statements confirming this doctrine, together with the principle of sola scriptura, placed references to this doctrine outside the creed of the Reformation and his beliefs, he added, there's a tendency to associate the veneration of Mary to idolatry and the rejection of clerical celibacy. All this eventually led to the denial of this doctrine in most Protestant churches.
In the Qur'an
The theme of the perpetual virginity is mentioned in the Koran. Sura XXI, "The Prophets", saying in effect in verse 91, about Mary:
"We soufflmes our minds to that which has kept her virginity; we constitumes with her son a sign for the universe."
References
- Ancoratus, 119, 5: the Son of God became incarnate that is to say, was created perfectly holy Mary, ever virgin, by the Holy Spirit "
- pronouncing anathema in the second: "the Word of God, having embodied in the holy and glorious Mother of God and Ever Virgin Mary was born of her." See Denzinger 214; cf. Paul IV Constitution of 1555, Dz. 993;
- L. Gambero, Mary and the Fathers of the Church trans. T. Buffer (San Francisco: Ignatius, 1991), p. 75. Quoted from the article in English in: Perpetual virginity of Mary , which also gives a long list of patristic references: Athanasius , Epiphanius , Hilary , Didymus , Ambrose , Jerome , Pope St. Siricius , and others.
- homily in praise of the Virgin Mary, from 2.1 to 2.4, quoted in "The Liturgy of the Hours", T. 3, 20 Tuesday of the week in Ordinary Time, p. 427 (1998 edition), by Ed cirstercienne 4 (1966) 21-23.
- http://jesusmarie.free.fr/alphonse_tome7_gloires_de_marie.pdf , pages 54-55 and 58
- Articles of Schmalkalden: He Was Conceived, Without the cooperation of man, By The Holy Ghost, and Was Born of the pure, holy Bibliography
- Raymond Leopold Bruckberger , OP, Mary, Mother of Jesus Christ, Albin Michel, 1991
- Jean Guitton , The Virgin Mary, Aubier, 1949
- Max Thurian Mary, Mother of the Lord, Figure of the Church, Taiz Press, 1970
See also
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