The Blessed Virgin Mary is the mother of Jesus, Therefore, the mother of God. “Theotokos”

1. The Blessed Virgin Mary is the mother of Jesus, Therefore, the mother of God. “Theotokos”

2. In general, the theology and history of Mary the Mother of God follow the chronological order of their respective sources, • Old Testament, • New Testament, • early Christian and Jewish witnesses.

3. the Old Testament Mary Prophsied in

4. The Old Testament refers to Our Blessed Lady both in its prophecies and its types or figures. Genesis 3:15 The first prophecy referring to Mary is found in the very opening chapters of the Book of Genesis:

5. I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; He will strike at your head, while you strike at his heel.“

6. Christians have recognized (all the way back to the first century) that the woman and her seed mentioned in Genesis 3:15 do not simply stand for Eve and one of her righteous sons. They prophetically foreshadow Mary and Jesus.

7. The first half of the verse, speaking of the enmity between the serpent and the woman, has been applied to Mary, the second half, speaking of the head crushing and heel striking, has also been applied to Mary. It properly applies to Jesus, given the original Hebrew.

8. The second prophecy referring to Mary. Isaiah 7:1-17 guarantees that the general Messianic promises made to the house of David cannot be frustrated

9. According to IV Kings 16:1-4, and II Paralipomenon 27:1-8, Ahaz, who began his reign 736 B.C., openly professed idolatry, so that God gave him into the hands of the kings of Syria and Israel.

10. Critics have endeavored to represent this passage as a combination of occurrences and sayings from the life of the prophet written down by an unknown hand. The credibility of the contents is not necessarily affected by this theory, since prophetic traditions may be recorded by any writer without losing their credibility.

11. "The Lord Himself will give you this sign. the virgin shall be with child, and bear a son, and shall name him Immanuel. He shall be living on curds and honey by the time he learns to reject the bad and choose the good. For before the child learns to reject the bad, and choose the good, the land of those two kings whom you dread shall be deserted."

12. Without answering a number of questions connected with the explanation of the prophecy, we must confine ourselves here to the bare proof that the virgin mentioned by the prophet is Mary the Mother of Christ. The argument is based on the premises that the prophet’s virgin is the mother of Immanuel, and that Immanuel is Christ. The relation of the virgin to Immanuel is clearly expressed in the inspired words; the same indicate also the identity of Immanuel with the Christ.

13. The connection of Immanuel with the extraordinary Divine sign which was to be given to Ahaz predisposes one to see in the child more than a common boy. In Isaiah 8:8, the prophet ascribes to him the ownership of the land of Judah: "the stretching out of his wings shall fill the breadth of thy land, O Immanuel".

14. In Isaiah 9:6, the government of the house of David is said to be upon his shoulders, and he is described as being endowed with more than human qualities: "a child is born to us, and a son is given to us, and the government is upon his shoulders, and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, God the Mighty, the Father of the World to Come, and the Prince of Peace".

15. endowed with "the spirit of the Lord. . . the spirit of wisdom and of understanding, the spirit of counsel, and of fortitude, the spirit of knowledge and of godliness"; his advent shall be followed by the general signs of the Messianic era, and the remnant of the chosen people shall be again the people of God” (Isaiah 11:1-16). Finally, the prophet calls Emmanuel "a rod out of the root of Jesse"

16. Whatever obscurity or ambiguity there may be in the prophetic text itself it is removed by St. Matthew (Mt 1:18-25). After narrating the doubt of St. Joseph and the angel’s assurance, "that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit", the Evangelist proceeds: "now all this was done that it might be fulfilled which the Lord spoke by the prophet, saying: Behold a virgin shall be with child, and bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel."

17. We need not repeat the exposition of the passage given by Catholic commentators who answer the exceptions raised against the obvious meaning of the Evangelist. • We may infer from all this that Mary is mentioned in the prophecy of Isaiah as mother of Jesus Christ. • In the light of St. Matthew’s reference to the prophecy, we may add that the prophecy predicted also Mary's virginity untarnished by the conception of the Emmanuel.

18. A third prophecy referring to Our Blessed Lady is contained in Micah 5:1-4a: “But you, Bethlehem-Ephrathah too small to be among the clans of Judah, From you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel; Whose origin is from of old, from ancient times. (Therefore the Lord will give them up, until the time when she who is to give birth has borne, And the rest of his brethren shall return to the children of Israel.) He shall stand firm and shepherd his flock by the strength of the LORD, in the majestic name of the LORD, his God; And they shall remain, for now his greatness shall reach to the ends of the earth; he shall be peace.”

19. Though the prophet Micah (about 750-660 B.C.) was a contemporary of Isaiah, his prophetic activity began a little later and ended a little earlier than that of Isaiah. There can be no doubt that the Jews regarded the foregoing prediction as referring to the Messiah. According to Matthew 2:6 the chief priests and scribes, when asked where the Messiah was to be born, answered Herod in the words of the prophecy, "And thou Bethlehem the land of Judah. . ."

20. According to John 7:42, the Jewish populace gathered at Jerusalem for the Feast of Tabernacles asked the rhetorical question: Does not scripture say that the Messiah will be of David's family and come from Bethlehem, the village where David lived? The Chaldee paraphrase of Micah 5:2, confirms the same view: "Out of thee shall come forth unto me the Messiah, that he may exercise dominion in Israel". The very words of the prophecy admit of hardly any other explanation; for "his going forth is from the beginning, from the days of eternity".

21. But how does the prophecy refer to the Virgin Mary? Our Blessed Lady is denoted by the phrase, " until the time when she who is to give birth has borne ". The contextual phrases "the ruler in Israel", "his going forth", which in Hebrew implies birth, and "his brethren" denote an individual, not a nation; hence we infer that the bringing forth must refer to the same person. It has been shown that the person of the ruler is the Messiah; hence "she who is to give birth" must denote the mother of Christ, or Our Blessed Lady.

22. Thus explained the whole passage becomes clear: the Messiah must be born in Bethlehem, an insignificant village in Judah: his family must be reduced to poverty and obscurity before the time of his birth; as this cannot happen if the theocracy remains intact, if David’s house continues to flourish, "therefore will he give them up till the time when she who is to give birth has borne" the Messiah.

23. A fourth prophecy referring to Mary is found in Jeremiah 31:22; How long will you continue to stray, rebellious daughter? The LORD has created a new thing upon the earth: the woman must encompass the man with devotion.

24. St. Athanasius states “God has created a new thing in woman" saying that the new plantation is Jesus Christ, and that the new thing created in woman is the body of the Lord, conceived within the virgin without the co-operation of man. St. Jerome too understands the prophets text of the virgin conceiving the Messiah.

25. This meaning of the passage satisfies the text and the context. As the Word Incarnate possessed from the first moment of His conception all His perfections excepting those connected with His bodily development, His mother is rightly said to "compass a man". No need to point out that such a condition of a newly conceived child is rightly called "a new thing upon earth".

26. The context of the prophecy describes after a short general introduction (Jer. 30:1-3) Israel’s future freedom and restoration in four stanzas: Jeremiah 30:4-11, 12-22; 30:23; 31:14, 15-26; the first three stanzas end with the hope of the Messianic time. The fourth stanza, too, must be expected to have a similar ending.

27. Moreover, the prophecy of Jeremiah, uttered about 589 B.C. and understood in the sense just explained, agrees with the contemporary Messianic expectations based on Isaiah 7:14; 9:6; Micah. 5:3. Anatot the city of the prophet Jeremiah

28. The Old Testament refers indirectly to Mary in those prophecies which predict the Incarnation of the Word of God. According to Jeremiah, the mother of Christ is to differ from other mothers in this, that her child, even while within her womb, shall possess all those properties which constitute real manhood.