JoelH
September 9th, 2005, 08:28 AM
Hi brothers and sisters,
I read some posts on a secular board's religion forum and the Catholics and Eastern Orthodox are celebrating Sep 8 as Mary's birthday (they asribe Sep 8 in 16 BC as Mary's birth date). A Catholic claims that:
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Mary was born fifteen years,three months and seventeen days before the birth of Jesus. She was born in a house in which,fourteen years,six months and seventeen days later,the Archangel Gabriel,sent by God,would come and kneel before her and with a bowed head would say, "Hail,full of grace,the Lord is with thee." Mary was three years,two months and thirteen days old when she was presented by her parents to GOD in the Temple. She was fourteen years old when she was espoused to Joseph And she was fourteen years,four months and fifteen day old when her espousals to Saint Joseph were solemnized. She was in her forty-eighth year when Jesus suffered the Passion and death on the cross,and Jesus gave her to John and to all the Faithful as their own Mother!-when Jesus and rose from the dead,and ascended into Heaven,in the year 33. Mary was seventy-two years old when she herself,died and was three days later assumed into Heaven ,in the year 58.
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One Eastern Orthodox justifies these dates saying that "Much of the knowledge which The Church has about the details of the life of the Theotokos comes from Holy Tradition, in other words, that body of information held by the early Church against which the bishops measured the canonicity of various spiritual writings of the era to determine what would make up the canon of the NT. There are also a number of apocryphal writings, like the Protoevangelium of St. James which describe events in her life in great detail. The celebration of the birth of the Theotokos as a feast day has been going on in The Church from the 1st Century, at least in the East."
To be honest I don't find these traditions convincing. Is there any Christian evidence that we can support this idea of Mary's biography?
Thanks in advance.
YBIC,
Joel
I read some posts on a secular board's religion forum and the Catholics and Eastern Orthodox are celebrating Sep 8 as Mary's birthday (they asribe Sep 8 in 16 BC as Mary's birth date). A Catholic claims that:
-------------------------
Mary was born fifteen years,three months and seventeen days before the birth of Jesus. She was born in a house in which,fourteen years,six months and seventeen days later,the Archangel Gabriel,sent by God,would come and kneel before her and with a bowed head would say, "Hail,full of grace,the Lord is with thee." Mary was three years,two months and thirteen days old when she was presented by her parents to GOD in the Temple. She was fourteen years old when she was espoused to Joseph And she was fourteen years,four months and fifteen day old when her espousals to Saint Joseph were solemnized. She was in her forty-eighth year when Jesus suffered the Passion and death on the cross,and Jesus gave her to John and to all the Faithful as their own Mother!-when Jesus and rose from the dead,and ascended into Heaven,in the year 33. Mary was seventy-two years old when she herself,died and was three days later assumed into Heaven ,in the year 58.
-------------------------
One Eastern Orthodox justifies these dates saying that "Much of the knowledge which The Church has about the details of the life of the Theotokos comes from Holy Tradition, in other words, that body of information held by the early Church against which the bishops measured the canonicity of various spiritual writings of the era to determine what would make up the canon of the NT. There are also a number of apocryphal writings, like the Protoevangelium of St. James which describe events in her life in great detail. The celebration of the birth of the Theotokos as a feast day has been going on in The Church from the 1st Century, at least in the East."
To be honest I don't find these traditions convincing. Is there any Christian evidence that we can support this idea of Mary's biography?
Thanks in advance.
YBIC,
Joel