Jesus and the Jewish Roots of Mary: Unveiling the Mother of the Messiah by Brant Pitre

(New York: Image, 2018), 240

Pitre gives wonderful exegesis on Mary in the life of the Church. Both this and his Jesus and the Jewish Roots of the Eucharist show how excellent the ICSB is!

Notes


Contents


Chapter 1: Introduction

Summary: What we believe about Mary has important implications for what we believe about Christ, and we must understand her through the lens of the Old Testament.

  • Catholic beliefs about Mary are deeply rooted in ancient Christianity and flowed directly out of what early Christians believed about Jesus—"If you want to understand what the Bible teaches about Mary, you have to make sure you begin with what it teaches about Jesus." (9-10)
  • Ratzinger: "The image of Mary in the New Testament is woven entirely out of Old Testament threads." (10)
  • Protestant theologian Timothy George: "The image of Mary in the New Testament is inseparable from its Old Testament antecedents, without which we are left with not only a reductionist view of Mary, but also of Christ." (10)
  • "Mary is a dividing line between Christians", but she need not be per this evangelical NT scholar: "We are Protestants; we believe in the Bible; Mary is in the Bible; we need to believe what the Bible says about Mary." (10)

Chapter 2: The New Eve

Summary: As the New Eve, Mary is the supreme example of what God's grace can do in a mere human creature.

  • If Jesus is the new Adam, then salvation is about undoing the effects of the Fall of Adam and Eve. The New Testament depicts Mary as the New Eve. (15-16)
  • Important points about Eve: created "very good", falls together with Adam, and battles the serpent. (16-21)
  • Mary as the New Eve in the Gospel of John:
    • John models the first seven days of Jesus' ministry on the first week of creation in Genesis. John depicts Jesus as a new Adam, whose public ministry is the beginning of a new creation...In Jn-02 Jesus addresses Mary as the "woman" of Gn-03. (27)
    • "Just as the first Eve invites the first Adam to commit the first sin, so now Mary invites Jesus to perform the first of his signs." (28)
  • Mary as the New Eve in Revelation:
    • The Serpent = the Devil (Satan)
    • The Child = the Messiah (Christ)
    • The Woman = Mother of the Messiah (Mary)
  • "Just as Eve had played a unique role in the fall of mankind, so Mary plays a unique role in his redemption." (34)
  • The Immaculate Conception: "If Mary is really the new Eve, then she must be greater than Eve." (35)
Eve Mary
Called 'woman' (11 times) Called 'woman' (2 times)
Invites Adam to commit the first sin Invites Jesus to perform his first sign
With Adam at the Fall With Jesus at the crucifixion
Mother of the "offspring" who conquers the "serpent" "Woman" whose "offspring" conquers the Devil
(Genesis 3:1-6, 15) (John 2:1-12; 19:25-27)

Chapter 3: The New Ark

Summary: Mary is the new Ark of the new exodus.

  • Recall that the Tabernacle where the Ark is kept is the dwelling place of God on earth, the Ark is a sacred chest containing the Ten Commandments, and the Ark is made of incorruptible wood and covered in pure gold and the place where the glory cloud descends from heaven. (45-47)
  • Where the Ark goes, the presence of the Lord goes. (50 cf Ps-132)
  • Jewish tradition holds that Jeremiah took the Ark from Jerusalem and hid it in Mount Nebo. (51-52, cf. 2 Mc-02-8)
  • The Jewish people were not only waiting for a new Moses to come and deliver them. They were also waiting for the revelation of the location of the Ark and the return of the glory cloud of God's presence. (54)
  • Mary is linked to the glory cloud and the Ark itself. Compare: (55)
    • Ex-40-35: The cloud of the Lord's glory "overshadows" (episkaizō) the Tabernacle.
    • Lk-01: The Holy Spirit "overshadows" (episkaizō) the Virgin Mary.
  • "Just as the Ark of the Tabernacle was the special place of God's presence in the exodus from Egypt, so now, through the annunciation Mary has become the special dwelling place of God's glory in the new exodus." (56)
The Ark of the Covenant The Virgin Mary
Ex-40-35: The cloud of the Lord's glory "overshadows" (episkaizō) the Tabernacle. Lk-01: The Holy Spirit "overshadows" (episkaizō) the Virgin Mary.
2 Sm-06: David "arose and went" to the hill country of Judah to bring up "the ark of God." Lk-01: Mary "arose and went" into the hill country of Judah to visit Elizabeth.
2 Sm-06: David admits his unworthiness to receive the Ark by exclaiming: "How can the ark of the Lord come to me?" Lk-01: Elizabeth admits her unworthiness to receive Mary by exclaiming: "And why is this granted to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?"
2 Sm-06: David "leaped" before the Ark as it was brought in "with shouting." Lk-01-42: John "leaped" in Elizabeth's womb at the sound of Mary's voice and Elizabeth cried "with a loud shout."
2 Sm-06: The Ark remained in the hill country, in the house of Obed-Edom, "three months." Lk-01: Mary remained in the hill country, in Elizabeth's house, "three months."

Chapter 4: The Queen Mother

Summary: Mary is honored as the Queen Mother of Christ's kingdom.

  • The whole point of Matthew's genealogy is to show that Jesus is royalty, and Mary is his Queen Mother. (72-73)
  • In ancient Israel, the queen was not the kind's wife, but his mother (the queen mother, or gebirah). Kings are introduced with their mothers cf 1 Kgs-15-2. (74)
  • The queen mother is second in rank only to the king, reigns alongside the king, and is a powerful intercessor with the king. (75-77)
  • Mary is the queen mother of the Messiah's kingdom. (81)
  • "The New Testament portrait of Mary as the Virgin Mother of Emmanuel and the Queen Mother of the Kingdom of God provides us with the biblical foundations for three central but controversial ancient Christian beliefs and practices, including: Mary's identity as the Mother of God, or Theotokos, honoring Mary and asking for her intercession, and the difference between veneration of Mary and the worship of God." (89)
  • " from ancient times to the present, the veneration of Mary and the custom of asking for her intercession have flowed directly from her identity as the heavenly queen of the kingdom of Christ." (96)
  • The difference between honor and worship is the offering of sacrifice, which is reserved for God alone (97). "In traditional Protestantism worship is largely centered on doxology: prayer, and songs of praise. There is no ministerial priesthood and therefore no offering of sacrifice. For Catholics and Orthodox Christians, however, worship consists above all in the offering of the Eucharist and the Eucharist is always offered to God alone." (99, i.e. Protestants think Catholics worship Mary because they're missing the Eucharist)

Chapter 5: The Perpetual Virgin

Summary: Mary's perpetual virginity points us to the eternal life of the world to come, the resurrection, and the new creation in which ordinary marital relations will pass away because death will be no more.

  • Mary's response to Gabriel implies a vow of virginity: Lk-01 "since I do not know man" mean "I do not have sexual relations (presently), nor do I intend to have relations (in the future)" (105-106). Nm-30-16 gives evidence for vows of abstinence (108-109), and Joseph is willing to abstain from ordinary relations with Mary (115, cf. Mt-01-25).
  • The so-called brothers of Jesus are the children of another woman named Mary (116).

Chapter 6: The Birth of the Messiah

Summary: Mary is spared the pain of childbirth, but endures the "birth pangs of the Messiah" at the crucifixion.

  • Isaiah's prophecy that Mary would give birth to a son without experiencing any pain in Is-66-8. (135)
  • Rv-12 gives an apocalyptic depiction of the mystery of the cross and how Mary suffered at Calvary. (143-144)

Chapter 7: The New Rachel

Summary: Mary is the New Rachel: the mother of the Church, the mother of sorrows, and a maternal intercessor in heaven.

  • Rachel dies while giving birth to Benjamin and is buried on the road near Bethlehem. Rachel is the most powerful intercessor in the Old Testament on behalf of Israel (166-168, cf. Jer-31).
  • Rachel was regarded as the sorrowful mother of all Israel. (169)
  • The massacre of the infants happens in the vicinity of Rachel's tomb, and she is aware of the sufferings of her descendants when she laments for them (170-171, cf. Mt-02).
  • Rv-12 is directly based on the dream of Joseph in Gn-37-11. (172-173)
  • "Mary's suffering, like Rachel's, is not futile but fruitful. For it is precisely through her interior dying that she becomes the mother of another child: the apostle John." (176)
  • "Mary, the new Rachel, is the 'matriarch' of the entire Church...She is the mother of the Church because she willingly consented to and shared in the sufferings of Christ on the cross, through which the redemption of the wold is accomplished." (178-180)

Chapter 8: At the Foot of the Cross

Summary: If every disciple is called to imitate the beloved disciple, then Jesus is inviting every Christian to take Mary to be his or her own mother.

  • Jesus' last words to John and Mary are a last will and testament and a formal act of adoption in which a new family is created (187). Every true disciple is called to be a beloved disciple like John (189).
  • "If every disciple is called to imitate the beloved disciple, then Jesus is inviting every Christian to take Mary to be his or her own mother...Jesus is inviting all of his disciples to enter into a personal relationship with Mary as their own spiritual mother." (190)

Topic: Mary, Typology

Source:

Created: 2021-09-08
Updated: 2026-09-21-Mon