Posted on 08/15/2019 1:16:53 PM PDT by Antoninus
August 15 is the Solemnity of the Assumption of Mary, the mother of Jesus, into Heaven, body and soul. Though the Assumption was dogmatically defined in 1950 by Venerable Pope Pius XII in his apostolic constitution, Munificentissimus Deus, the traditional belief in the Assumption of Mary goes back to the earliest days of the Church. Originally, the feast was called the "Dormition" or falling asleep of Mary, and is still referred to as such by our Eastern Orthodox brethren.
Here are some passages from ancient sources that indicate that this belief existed from antiquity and was widespread. The first is taken from a homily preached by Theoteknos, Bishop of Livias in Palestine in the late 6th century AD:
"For Christ took His immaculate flesh from the immaculate flesh of Mary, and if He had prepared a place in heaven for the Apostles, how much more for His mother; if Enoch had been translated and Elijah had gone to heaven, how much more Mary, who like the moon in the midst of the stars shines forth and excels among the prophets and Apostles? For even though her God-bearing body tasted death, it did not undergo corruption, but was preserved incorrupt and undefiled and taken up into heaven with its pure and spotless soul."Second is a passage from Saint John Damascene, written in the 8th century AD, describing the history of the belief:
"St. Juvenal, Bishop of Jerusalem, at the Council of Chalcedon (AD 451), made known to the Emperor Marcian and Pulcheria, who wished to possess the body of the Mother of God, that Mary died in the presence of all the Apostles, but that her tomb, when opened, upon the request of St. Thomas, was found empty; wherefrom the Apostles concluded that the body was taken up to heaven."This passage is especially interesting because Saint John seems to be quoting from a much earlier source: the late 5th century Euthymaic History, otherwise known as the Life of Saint Euthymius the Great. This story is the only known surviving fragment of this work. See Wortley, The Marian Relics at Constantinople for more information. (Note, this link downloads a PDF of this article.)
Third, is a passage from Saint Germanus, Patriarch of Constantinople, written in the late 7th century AD:
"You are she who, as it is written, appears in beauty, and your virginal body is all holy, all chaste, entirely the dwelling place of God, so that it is henceforth completely exempt from dissolution into dust. Though still human, it is changed into the heavenly life of incorruptibility, truly living and glorious, undamaged and sharing in perfect life."There is a wealth of additional literature on this topic for those who wish to dig deeper. Check out the following for further reading:
Entry on the Assumption from the Catholic Encyclopedia (1911)
Article on the Assumption of Mary on EWTN's website
De Maria Nunquam Satis: The Significance of the Catholic Doctrines on the Blessed Virgin Mary for All People by Gentle and Fastiggi
Ancient Traditions of the Virgin Mary's Dormition and Assumption, by Shoemaker
Catholic ping.
So one person conjectered 600 years after Christ about what might have happened to Mary and this becomes a whole doctrinal point of view? Doesn’t it seem a bit odd that John (the oldest living apostle) never mentions Mary was taken up like Enoch? One would have thought that would have been worth mentioning in 1 John.
I totally agree with you. It would have been a great deal, if it happened. And since John was to care for her he would have had experienced this.
One of the justifications is that the location of Mary’s body is unknown. So, natch, she must have been yanked up in the flesh.
I couldn’t be much more impressed by a discussion of transubstantiation found in 1000 AD.
;>(
some passages from ancient sources that indicate that this belief existed from antiquity and was widespread.
How do you test it for truth? God’s written word.
Mary,
Queen of the Apostles
Pray for us!
7
Wait’ you don’t believe stuff that happened six hundred years after the fact..... oh ye of little faith....lol
The Bible does not teach this.
Human yearning for a Goddess, presumably more forgiving than a God, goes way, way back. But it won’t be long now. The only question is who gets bumped from the Trinity to make room. Odds are the old holy ghost will bite the dust.
Her “God fearing body tasted death”??
The wages of sin is death. So if she died, she must have sinned. Right?
Not to confuse her with Christ. He was sinless and became took our sins upon Himself at Calvary. Died, was buried and was resurrected by God the Father.
Is the RCC saying that Mary underwent the same thing as Jesus Christ? She also took our sin upon herself, DIED, and was resurrected?
Did you just ask a dead person to pray for you? Be gone heathen, that directly violates God’s holy word.
Like so much of Rome's erroneous teaching on Mary it is based on non-Scriptural and dubious writings.
This was not "handed down" from the Apostles as Roman Catholics like to claim for much of their erroneous teachings.
But, Roman Catholics have to believe this.
Christians do not have to believe this and reject this false dogma.
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The Assumption of Mary was celebrated in the West under Pope Sergius I in the 8th century and Pope Leo IV confirmed the feast as official.[24] Theological debate about the Assumption continued, following the Reformation. But the people celebrated the Assumption as part of the cult of Mary that flourished from the Middle Ages. In 1950 Pope Pius XII defined it as dogma for the Catholic Church.[26] Catholic theologian Ludwig Ott stated, "The idea of the bodily assumption of Mary is first expressed in certain transitus-narratives of the fifth and sixth centuries. ... The first Church author to speak of the bodily assumption of Mary, in association with an apocryphal transitus of the B.M.V., is St. Gregory of Tours."[27]
The Catholic writer Eamon Duffy states that "there is, clearly, no historical evidence whatever for it."[28]
However, the Catholic Church has never asserted nor denied that its teaching is based on the apocryphal accounts. The Church documents are silent on this matter and instead rely upon other sources and arguments as the basis for the doctrine.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assumption_of_Mary#History_of_the_belief
And yet not one word was written by John regarding this.
She also took our sin upon herself, DIED, and was resurrected?
No,No,No. She is human but she bore the Son of the most high God and it was, because of her, that God became Man.
It's right there among the verses that describe the death of Nicodemus, Pontius Pilate, the woman at the well, The Centurian who begged for his child's life, and the Ethiopian that Phillip talked to.
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