Annalex: >The belief in the immaculate conception is a longstanding belief of the Church that was elevated into dogma in 19 Century. It is based on that: the ancient belief.
It is just that....a belief. Without any scriptural support.
So if the pope says pigs can fly, we should just run with it???
However, the scripture suggest something like this: the angel called Mary "full of grace" (κεχαριτωμενη). Now that word is interesting. It is a past-perfect passive tense (who had been given grace).
Do you understand the significance of this perfect participle middle/passive in the Greek?
You do understand the catholic bible has this translated wrong? It should be translated as "favored one", or "you favored with grace."
So what other significant event in the life of Mary prior to the Annunciation was there?
She grew up in a household that believed the OT and understood it as evidenced by her praise to God in Luke 1.
She was married to a righteous man named Joseph. That's a pretty big event in anyone's life.
Do catholics also think Joseph was sinless also??
Nothing except her conception.
Proven incorrect as noted above.
So it is a reasonable conjecture that she had been filled with grace since conception.
So we get to the point...it's a feeling...a hope...a wish.
It is also just as reasonable, actually, even more reasonable to conclude she was not "filled with grace", even though that is the wrong translation of the verb.
Check out the significance of the perfect tense in Kione Greek and let me know what you find out.
It is not wrong. To use "favor" instead of "grace" is Protestant obfuscation intended to trivialize the passage. In Pauline writings, for example, you would not translate "χαρις" or its derivatives anything but "grace". But in this episode all of a sudden, the Protestant translations drop to "favor". That is typical Protestant mariophobic sleaze.