In the other notices of the group at the cross, Mary, the mother of James, is mentioned (Matthew 27:56; Mark 15:40). The real atmosphere of the incident is very different from this. Rich people could literally get away with murder and rarely suffered a punishment worse than forced relocation. Mary first appears near the beginning of the narrative of the Galilean ministry as one of a group consisting of "many" (Luke 8:3), among them Joanna, wife of Chuzas, Herod's steward, who followed with the Twelve and ministered to them of their substance. General Editor. It is a matter of dogmatic assumption unmixed with any alloy of factual evidence, and might better be openly made such. Pilate may actually have been a good guy (read our article on that name) and the Titulus Crucis may actually reflect Pilate's understanding of Jesus' core essence (John 19:22). When he told of throwing mountains into the sea (Matthew 21:21), his audience doubtlessly remembered how Herod had built the harbor complex of Caesarea Maritima from imported cement made from volcanic ash. Hence, despite its links to words that mostly describe hardship, myrrh oil was known as the "oil of joy.". As she was the first to bear witness to the resurrection of Jesus, it is important that we should get a correct view of her position and character. The relationship between Jesus and His mother has almost eclipsed other interests in the chapter. From an Egyptian verb that means to love. Meaning of Mary - History and Origin. Immediately on entering the house she was saluted by Elisabeth as the mother of her Lord, and then forthwith gave utterance to her hymn of thanksgiving ( Luke 1:46-56 ; Compare 1 Samuel 2:1-10 ). The gospels aren't journalistic realism. (iv) Since Mary cared for the body of Christ when He was on earth, naturally His spiritual body would be her special care in heaven. In the latter, the motive was gratitude for something quite different, a beloved brother back from the grave, and, may we not say (in view of John 12:7), grief and foreboding? The next time we find her is at the cross along with her sister Mary, and Mary Magdalene, and Salome, and other women ( John 19:26 ). The canticle (Luke 1:46-55), which at least expresses Luke's conception of her nature, indicates that she is not accustomed to dwell much upon herself (4 lines only call particular attention to herself), and that her mind is saturated with the spirit and phraseology of the Old Testament. With this fictitious and embarrassing identification out of the way, we are now free to consider briefly the career and estimate the character of Mary. The Bible is full of references to folks who purported to capture and harness this natural law (Genesis 3:6, Luke 20:10), or who tried to make others believe that they had indeed mastered it and were its emissaries, even its divine representatives on earth (Exodus 32:1, 1 Kings 18:26). The Athenian senate was even so democratic that Athena remained a virgin (the senate had no president) and the grateful citizens built her a fancy temple: the Parthenon, which was named after one of Athena's epithets, namely the word παρθενος (parthenos), meaning virgin or maiden. Nevertheless all served God's messianic plan; so does Mary, whose son was not begotten by Joseph (v. 16). "Inspiration has received little theoretical or empirical attention with psychology," lamented Trash and Elliot in their seminal paper Inspiration as a Psychological Construct (2003, American Psychological Association), but although the mechanisms of this phenomenon remain elusive, the effects are widely respected. It's not a matter of human intent or even sapience but a natural effect that has been ordained since the beginning of the world, which the universe is designed to produce. That Mary's feeling was expressed in the same way outwardly as that of the sinful woman of the early ministry does not change the fact that the feeling was different, that the act was different and that, consequently, the commendation she received, being for a different thing, was differently expressed. This reference would be entirely satisfied by the narrative of John 12:1,8, and no difficulty would be suggested, were it not for the fact that Luke (7:36-50) records an anointing of Jesus by a woman, accompanied with the wiping of His feet with her hair. We are told practically nothing, directly, concerning her; but, incidentally, she is known to be generous, faithful, loving, true and brave. This is only a possibility and we should remember that the other New Testament sources are silent about the issue of Mary's descent from David. Thanks to Constantine and his councils, creeds and exclusive canon (which blatantly opposed Paul's inclusive assertion that all writing is θεοπνευστος, theopneustos; 2 Timothy 3:16), the detrimental atheism of the liberation movement became the wholly dependable monotheistic religion of imperial Christianity. The actual historical entity that the literary character of Jesus represents is man's understanding of natural law. In the former case, the motive was to express the love of a forgiven penitent. For all who have sinned without the Law will also perish without the Law, and all who have sinned under the Law will be judged by the Law; for it is not the hearers of the Law who are just before God, but the doers of the Law will be justified. The final passage which we need to consider (Acts 1:14) is especially important because in it we discover Mary and her household at home in the midst of the Christian community, engaged with them in prayer. Truth is not a statement but a realm, a theatre of operation. Also she and Joseph were poor. John the Revelator saw the river of life and the tree of life whose leaves were for the healing of the nations (Revelation 22:2). The verb מור (mor) means to change. I believe that there is a deeper meaning to the story of Mary and Martha in the Bible that many Christians miss. The beginning of the end of Athens was set in motion by less prominent members of the Delian League who objected to Athens' selfish appropriation of collective resources (most notably its fleet). To be sure that many have misinterpreted the above incident we need only turn to the exquisitely tender scene at the cross recorded by John (19:25). For when Gentiles who do not have the Law do instinctively the things of the Law, these, not having the Law, are a law to themselves, in that they show the work of the Law written in their hearts, their conscience bearing witness and their thoughts alternately accusing or else defending them, on the day when, according to my gospel, God will judge the secrets of men through Christ Jesus" (, Lazarus of Bethany, who died but was resurrected, relates to the templar enterprise, which by the time of Jesus was mostly the country's tax and revenue department (. The noun παλλας (pallas) means youth or the childlike conditions just prior to the adolescent journey to adulthood, and the verb παλλω (pallo) means to exist in the stationary conditions just prior to a setting off (of a missile being launched, of lots to be tossed). Fortunately the Virgin-queen came with a little sister, who herself was of course a Virgin too. The dry land of conscious understanding may be surrounded by an ocean of not formalized information (Matthew 14:30) but the Revelator predicts a future in which this ocean no longer exists and everything inside our heads in recognized and named (Revelation 21:1). 1915. Those with Hebrew eyes saw honorable wise men from an intimately related eastern tradition. Roman spin doctors did a great job in glorifying the Roman effort and discrediting the vanquished, and although they were believed for centuries, in modern times a critical examination of texts and treasures left in the ground reveals that life in the Roman world was a bloody nightmare from which humanity is only recently trying to awake. The story of Jesus versus Rome is the perennial story of personal autonomy versus fascism. The synoptic evangelists were writing during the first decades of the Jewish Wars and had to word their disapproval of Rome very carefully, if possible even more careful than Paul had in the decades prior (read our article on the name Onesimus). "International Standard Bible Encyclopedia". She is shown in an unprecedented role, strange to an oriental woman and especially to one so retiring in disposition as Mary. (i) Take, for example, the crude literalism involved in the identification of the woman of Revelation 12:1-6 with Mary. That event was broadcast across the region in the poetry of the nativity story. In 1:18-25 Joseph acknowledges Jesus as his son by claiming him and naming him, so that he is truly "a son of David." The name Ezra means Helper and is the same feminine word as used in God's famous assertion that "It is not good for the man to be alone; I will make him a Helper suitable for him" (Genesis 2:18). On the other hand, reaction and overemphasis upon certain features of the Gospel narrative have led some to credit Mary with a negative attitude toward our Lord and His claims, which she assuredly never occupied. The explanation of this incident, which involves no such painful implications as have become connected with it in the popular mind, is to be found in Mark's account. And the joined identities of these nations will form a collective identity that none of the separate states could have designed but in which all states feel perfectly received and expressed. Truth means freedom; freedom leads to diversity, and diversity leads to collectivity. It would appear that the woman has a primary reference to the people of God, Israel, and the church, with a secondary reference to Mary, mother of the Messiah: she is a "type" of the church. Like other typical Levite names, the name Miriam is probably Egyptian of origin, derived from a word that means Beloved. Mankind suffered his darkness until the Renaissance. In Biblical, the name Mary means - bitter. Psychologists increasingly propose that inspiration, and thus creative productivity, and thus a more effective community, go hand in hand with an ability to reduce one's self-consciousness and thus focus on others or something greater (Haidt, Seder, Kesebir, Hive Psychology, Happiness, and Public Policy, 2008, University of Chicago), and John the Revelator envisioned a Holy City to which the kings of the earth would come to bring their glory (21:24). Soon after this the decree of Augustus ( Luke 2:1 ) required that they should proceed to Bethlehem ( Micah 5:2 ), some 80 or 90 miles from Nazareth; and while they were there they found shelter in the inn or khan provided for strangers ( Luke 2:6 Luke 2:7 ). Athena was known as The Virgin and when Isaiah foretold that "the virgin would be with child" (7:14) nobody in the classical world would have thought of anything other than the radical social theory expressed as Athens' republic, particularly after the reforms of Solon. They are, however, part of the most sophisticated literary tradition the world has ever seen. John 19:25-27 presents Mary at the foot of the cross, where Jesus entrusts Mary to John and John to Mary. The Roman Empire was a death machine in which only one man was always right and everybody else a slave. After three months Mary returned to Nazareth to her own home. That's why, sooner or later, every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain be made low, the crooked straight, and the rough places plain (Isaiah 40:4). (2) There is more than this a priori consideration against such an interpretation of Mary. Ogled by all the surrounding societies, the city of Athens slowly evolved from kingdom (until the 9th century BC) to democracy (from the 5th century BC) and became antiquity's great democratic experiment in which not some royal ruler (that's male) but a collective senate (that's female) held sway. It is evident that a very serious moral issue is raised here. In Matthew 27:55,56 (parallel Mark 15:40), we are told that at the time of the crucifixion there was a group of women observing the event from a distance. There was, of course, only one Mary. The story points to the contrary. Their crime was officially called "atheism," which became "a charge on which many others who drifted into Jewish ways were condemned," wrote Cassius Dio around 200 AD (Hist.67.14). This is remarkable since hundreds of thousands of people had been crucified in the century of Jesus and crosses were recycled until they fell apart. It's an important point that Jesus is getting across to those who profess to believe in Him. Mary has been misrepresented in another way, scarcely less serious. Vowel notation was an unimaginable godsend. Instead of returning in a physical sense, a large collective of Jews remained in Persia but "returned" to their veneration of righteousness by establishing the thriving Jewish community that ultimately produced the still revered Talmud. The amount of convergence and the quality of it put this identification among the practical certainties. All rights reserved. Even if all the probabilities of exegesis are violated and the cumulative evidence that Mary had other children done away with; if the expression, "brethren of the Lord" is explained as "foster-brethren," "cousins" or what-not; if Jesus is shown to be not only "first-born" but "only-born" Son (Luke 2:7); if the expression of Matthew 1:25 is interpreted as meaning "up to and beyond" (Pusey, et al. 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