[rwa265]

Why is it so important that Mary be perpetually virgin?

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I offer this as a possible explanation. Maybe the early Christians felt it was necessary for Mary to remain a virgin to fulfill the following prophecy from Ezekiel 44:2

This gate shall be shut, it shall not be opened, and no man shall enter in by it; because the Lord, the God of Israel, hath entered in by it, therefore it shall be shut.

John Gill wrote:

“Some of the ancients interpreted it of the Virgin Mary, by whom Christ came into this world in human nature, being born of her, a virgin, who had never known man, and as is thought never did after the birth of Christ; nor were any afterwards born of her; no man might come into the world by her, by that self-same way the incarnate God did, and for that reason. This sense is approved of, not only by Papists, but by many Protestant writers.”

https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/geb/view.cgi?bk=25&ch=44#2

[ealgeone]

You're being a bit dishonest in what you're posting. You've copied and pasted a small part of what he's written on v2.

Mary is mentioned one time in the analysis of v2. ONE time.

This is what I've see a lot of catholics do....take things completely out of context to establish their position.

I challenge you to post all of the quote.

Much to the catholic chagrin, Ezekiel 44:2 is not about Mary.

[MHGinTN]

post #136

[metmom]

I offer this as a possible explanation. Maybe the early Christians felt it was necessary for Mary to remain a virgin to fulfill the following prophecy from Ezekiel 44:2

This gate shall be shut, it shall not be opened, and no man shall enter in by it; because the Lord, the God of Israel, hath entered in by it, therefore it shall be shut.

Which goes to show that anyone can read anything into anything if they really want to.

That's such a stretch that I'm surprised someone didn't sprain anything.

The context there has absolutely NOTHING to do with women, or Mary or virginity.

[metmom]

I mean, thanks for trying to answer the question. At least you tried.

However, the prophecy is about Jesus’ return, not about Mary.

[Iscool]

So how did this idea come about? Why was it important to the early Christians that Mary remain a virgin. One possibility is that they felt it was essential because it fulfilled the following Old Testament prophecy from Ezekiel 44:2, Then said the Lord unto me; This gate shall be shut, it shall not be opened, and no man shall enter in by it; because the Lord, the God of Israel, hath entered in by it, therefore it shall be shut.

So how many gates did Mary have??? Because those other verses talk of other gates as well...Assuming of course that your Mary is the sanctuary...

Man that is crazy...Mary isn't any where those chapters in Ezekiel...Fact is, Jesus is coming again...He's coming to Jerusalem...And he's going to enter at that sealed up East Gate...

So what's that mean to a Catholic...That the Holy Spirit will over shadow Mary again for the 2nd time???

Here's some good insight on the East Gate...