The Perpetual Virginity of Mary

This is a Christian doctrine that Jesus’ mom, Mary, was a virgin before, during, & after Jesus’ birth.

In Western Christianity, Catholics, many Anglicans, some Lutherans, Reformed, & other Protestant sects believe in this doctrine. It’s 1 of the 4 Marian dogmas of the Catholic Church. In Eastern Christianity, the Oriental Orthodox Churches & the Church of the East both follow this doctrine. Eastern Orthodox churches recognize Mary as Aeiparthenos, meaning “ever-virgin.”

The surviving written tradition of the perpetual virginity of Mary 1st appears in a 2nd century text called the Protoevangelium of James. The Second Council of Constantinople in 533 gave her the title of “Aeiparthenos.”

At the Lateran Synod of 649, Pope Martin I emphasized the 3-fold character of the perpetual virginity, before, during, & after the birth of Jesus.

The Lutheran Smalcald Articles (1537) & the Reformed Second Helvetic Confession (1562) codified the doctrine of perpetual virginity of Mary as well.

The doctrine of Mary’s perpetual virginity has been challenged on the basis that the New Testament doesn’t say that Joseph had adult spicy adult time with Mary until AFTER the birth of Jesus. It mentions that Jesus had brothers (adolphoi).
The brothers (& sisters for that matter) are the basis for contention because they may have been:

• Sons of Mary & Joseph, born AFTER Jesus (making Jesus the 1st born son, which is a HUGE deal in that time period).
• The sons of Joseph from a previous marriage. Joseph was married before Mary came into the picture, but it’s theorized that Joseph’s 1st wife passed away. Thus making way for Mary to be these kids’ stepmom. Jesus would be Mary’s 1st born son.
• The sons of another woman named Mary in Mark 15:40, whose been identified as the wife of Clopas & the sister of the Virgin Mary, or a sister-in-law to Joseph.

The infancy narratives in Matthew & Luke show Mary as a virgin at the time she conceives Jesus. A conception that doesn’t involve sexual relations with a man. But this fact by itself doesn’t require the further claims that she remained a virgin in childbirth or afterward.

Only in later doctrinal reflection do Christians explicitly describe Mary as a virgin before, during, & after Jesus’ birth. The Protevangelium of James provides the earliest surviving text that clearly supports this view.

The Gospel of James states that Mary remained a lifelong virgin. Because Joseph was an old man who married her without physical desire (Sure guys, sure.). The brothers of Jesus mentioned in the canonical Gospels are explained, again, as Joseph’s sons from a previous marriage.

The Second Apocalypse of James portrays James (James the Just or James, brother of Jesus) as the canonical bio brother of Jesus. Not as a kid of Joseph’s. But of a certain “Theudas,” who was a relative of Jesus.

The 8th book of the Christian Sibylline Oracles (circa late 2nd or early 3rd centuries) describes Mary as “always virgin” & that she received God in her “intact bosom.” (Umm…not to be disrespectful but did we miss that day in human biology class?)

The Ebionites denied the virgin birth & Mary perpetual virginity.

The Protestant Reformation saw a rejection of the special moral status of lifelong celibacy. As a result, marriage & parenthood were praised. Mary & Joseph were seen as a normal married couple.

Mary’s perpetual virginity was upheld by Martin Luther (who named her “ever-virgin” in the Smalcald Articles, a Lutheran confession of faith written in 1537), Huldrych Zwingli, John Wycliffe, & later Protestant leaders, including John Wesley (co-founder of Methodism).

In Evangelical Lutheranism, the Formula of Concord upholds the perpetual virginity of Mary. This is in addition to the Smalcald Articles.

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John Wycliffe

His last name is also spelled: Wyclif, Wickliffe, & Wicklyf.

He’s an English scholastic philosopher, Christian reformer, Catholic priest, & a theology professor at the University of Oxford. He’s often called the “Morning Star of the Reformation.”

He made radical challenges to the Roman Catholic Church like advocating for or made a vernacular translation of the Vulgate Bible into Middle English. He paved the way for the Protestant Reformation nearly 200 years before Martin Luther.

Before he was a reformer, Wycliffe was a titan of Scholasticism at Oxford. At the time, the intellectual world was divided between Realist & Norminalists. The Norminalists, like William of Ockham, argued that “universals” (like the concept of “justice” or “humanity”) were just names (nomina) we give to groups of individual things.

John was a fierce Realist. He believed that universals were real entities that existed in the mind of God. For Wycliffe, everything in the physical world was a direct reflection of a divine archetype.

Wycliffe’s most radical political theory was the Dominion of Grace. He argued that all authority (dominium) is a gift from God. Which meant that the church wasn’t allowed to own property or have ecclesiastic courts, & men in mortal sin weren’t entitled to exercise authority in the church or state, nor to own property. He added a dangerous caveat: only those in a state of grace have a right to exercise authority.

Wycliffe’s later followers (derogatorily called Lollards by their orthodox contemporaries in the 15th & 16th centuries. Lollards meaning “mumblers” or “idlers.”) adopted a number of the beliefs attributed to Wycliff such as theological virtues, predestination, iconoclasm, & the notion of caesaropapism, with some questioning the veneration of saints, the sacraments, requiem masses, transubstantiation, monasticism, & the legitimacy/role of the Papacy.

Wycliffe was born in the village of Hipswell, near Richmond in the North Riding of Yorkshire, England. In 1356, Wycliffe completed his bachelor of arts degree at Merton College as a junior fellow. That same year, he produced a small treatise, The Last Age of the Church.

In 1361, he was Master of Balliol College in Oxford. That year, he was presented by the college to the parish of Fillingham in Lincolnshire. For this, he had to give up the headship of Balliol College, though he could continue to live at Oxford.

Wycliffe’s greatest legacy is his role in the 1st complete translation of the Bible into Middle English (circa 1382). At the time, the Bible was only available in the Latin Vulgate. This was accessible solely to the educated clergy.

Wycliffe believed that the Bible was the ultimate authority. Then every person (from the King to the “plowman”), needed to be able to read it.

Wycliffe didn’t just translate words. He helped create the English language. He’s credited with introducing, or popularizing, over 1,000 words into English, including: female, justice, communication, treasure, & glory.

His “potent” ideas were blamed for the Peasants’ Revolt of 1381. Wycliffe didn’t endorse the violence, however the rebels used his discourse of “equality before God” & Wycliffe’s critiques of Church wealth to justify their demands.

In the U.S. culture, Wycliffe’s legacy is preserved in 2 distinct ways:

• The Democratic Spirit of the Bible: The American religious tradition of individual Bible interpretation & the rejection of centralized ecclesiastical authority can be traced directly back to Wycliffe’s “priesthood of all believers.”
• Wycliffe Bible Translators: Founded in 1942 in California by William Cameron Townsend. This organization (now 1 of the largest of its kind in the world) was named in honor of John Wycliffe. It carries on his mission by translating the Bible into thousands of indigenous languages worldwide.

Wycliffe passed away from a stroke, during a Mass, in 1834. In 1415, the Council of Constance declared him a heretic. In 1428, by order of Pope Martin V, his remains were exhumed from his grave in Lutterworth, burned to ashes, & cast into the River Swift.

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#1356 #1361 #1382 #1415 #1428 #15thCentury #16thCentury #1834 #1842 #BalliolCollege #bible #Caesaropapism #California #Catholic #DominionOfGrace #Dominium #England #Fillingham #Hipswell #Iconoclasm #IndigenousLanguages #JohnWycliffe #LatinVulgate #Lincolnshire #Lollards #MartinLuther #Mass #MertonCollege #MiddleEnglish #Monasticism #MorningStarOfTheReformation #Nomina #Norminalists #NorthRiding #Oxford #Papacy #PeasantsRevoltOf1381 #Pope #PopeMartinV #Predestination #ProtestantReformation #Realists #RequiemMasses #Richmond #RiverSwift #RomanCatholicChurch #Sacraments #Scholasticism #TheLastAgeOfTheChurch #Translate #Transubstantiation #Universals #UniversityOfOxford #VulgateBible #WilliamCameronTownsend #WilliamOfOckham #WycliffeBibleTranslators #WycliffeSBible #Yorkshire

Las verdaderas causas de la Reforma Protestante

https://youtube.com/watch?v=MykPPXHShzs&si=EPj9NQ-p13jjWUR7

Bellissima lezione condotta con ritmo. Raccomando l'ascolto, è in spagnolo comprensibilissimo.

#reformaprotestante #iglesiacatolica #catholicchurch #MartinLuther #MartinLutero #JohnWycliffe #JanHus #revueltascampesinas

#christmas is making me interested in sharing some #ReligiousHistory -

#Lollardy or the #LollardMovement was the first proto-#Protestant #Christian religious movement in mid-14th until 16th-century English #Reformation. They were started by #JohnWycliffe , an Oxford educated priest who published the first English language translation of the Bible.
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