Theotokos

Interesting debate going on at Beliefnet about whether Jesus was ever an embryo, as Tom DeLay (the right-wing US senator) has said. Now, much as I hate to agree with DeLay, I have to side with him on this one – one of the things that was thrashed out early in the church’s history was whether Jesus was truly God and truly Man. The conclusion was that Jesus’ divinity was part of him from the very beginning – God didn’t descend on a human being and take him over or join with him. So, the eternal God was not just a babe in arms but a foetus in the womb of Mary.

And this belief is what is expressed by one of the titles given to Mary, Jesus’ mother – theotokos. As with most of the titles of Mary, it is actually talking about Jesus, not Mary. Here, the Greek word theotokos means “God-bearer”. That is, the child that Mary bore was already God, just as much as the adult Jesus was. So, giving Mary this title is affirming the full and true divinity of Jesus, the Christ. Certain parts of the Protestant church have disowned Mary completely, and this is to our loss because it robs us of the ability to express things like this easily. We need to reclaim Mary as the mother of God – the one who acceded to God’s command and bore the child who was already God and who would grow up to live, die and rise again as our saviour.

(_Thanks to Maggi for the pointer._)

pax et bonum

Article posted at 11:06am on 02 June 2005
Category: Faith, Musing