Protestant Objections

One of the most common Protestant accusations against the Catholic Church is the claim that the veneration of the Virgin Mary derives from paganism. An example of this type of objection I have taken from a Protestant article published on the Web:

“Most adherents to the Catholic faith cheerfully refer to the Virgin Mary as the Queen of Heaven and understand this term as one of affection, love, and adoration. Is this a biblical term or a pagan title? Is God pleased with this title, or is He greatly displeased?”

They then proceed to cite biblical texts that mention a pagan goddess the Jews called the “Queen of Heaven,” with whom they committed the sin of idolatry:

“‘As for the word that you have spoken to us in the name of the Lord, we will not listen to you. But we will do everything that we have vowed, make offerings to the queen of heaven and pour out libations to her, as we did, both we and our fathers, our kings and our officials, in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem. For then we had plenty of food, and prospered, and saw no evil. But since we left off making offerings to the queen of heaven and pouring out libations to her, we have lacked everything and have been consumed by the sword and by famine.’ And the women said, ‘When we made offerings to the queen of heaven and poured out libations to her, was it without our husbands’ approval that we made cakes for her bearing her image and poured out libations to her?’”[1]

Thus the Protestant reasoning is simple: because Catholics call Mary the “Queen of Heaven” and that title was used in paganism, the veneration of Mary must necessarily derive from the influence of pagan religions upon Christianity. Hence the author then becomes confused and assumes that Catholics give her this title as an expression of “adoration.”

The problem is that this type of reasoning is fallacious. The Post Hoc Ergo Propter Hoc fallacy is a logical error committed when one reasons that something is the cause of something else simply because the first precedes the second in time.

Reasoning in this way, we could paganize nearly the entire Bible. The Greeks, for example, believed that Osiris had died as a man but risen as an immortal and was also responsible for judging the dead. Scholars such as Martin Hengel have argued that the Dionysiac religion and Christianity are significantly parallel[2]. Another scholar, Barry Powell[3], claims that the Christian notions of eating and drinking the flesh and blood of Jesus were influenced by the cult of Dionysus. In another parallel drawn by some authors, it has been argued that Dionysus preceded Jesus in having water turned to wine attributed to him[4]. Other parallels could be drawn from the Bible itself, since the title of Christ as King of Kings was also borne by Nebuchadnezzar[5]. If we take the time, we can find many parallels between Christianity and pagan cultures and arbitrarily assume derivation from one to the other, without any scholarly seriousness or rigor.

The Gospel: the Origin of Marian Veneration

“Henceforth all generations will call me blessed!”[6]

These were words of the Virgin Mary, inspired by the Holy Spirit. One need look no further for the veneration of Mary than the fulfillment of this prophecy attested by Scripture — a fulfillment that many Protestants are unable to render. Despite this, the Gospel is full of passages that attest to the blessedness of Mary:

“In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David; and the virgin’s name was Mary. And he came to her and said, ‘Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with you!’”[7]

Saint Elizabeth, inspired by the Holy Spirit, refers to the Virgin as the “Mother of the Lord”:

“…and why is this granted me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?”[8]

The word used for “Lord” in Greek is Kyrios, the word by which the Greek Bible designates Yahweh, who is God of gods and Lord of lords[9], and which in the New Testament is given to Christ alone, making it unmistakably clear that the New Testament recognizes him as God. That is why, when Elizabeth calls Mary “Mother of my Lord,” she is calling her “Mother of God.”

Elizabeth, inspired by the Holy Spirit, also called her “blessed among women”:

“And when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the babe leaped in her womb; and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit and she exclaimed with a loud cry, ‘Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb!’”[10]

Mary was the first Christian believer of the new covenant:

“And Mary said, ‘Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.’”[11]

She was the one who would practice the word of God, keeping it in her heart:

“But Mary kept all these things, pondering them in her heart.”[12]

The love and veneration of Mary comes from the fact that she is the mother of the King and Lord, and therefore the Queen. It could not be otherwise, for already in the reign of David the queen was always the mother, and she held a throne beside the king:

“So Bathsheba went to King Solomon, to speak to him on behalf of Adonijah. And the king rose to meet her, and bowed down to her; then he sat on his throne, and had a seat brought for the king’s mother; and she sat on his right. Then she said, ‘I have one small request to make of you; do not refuse me.’ And the king said to her, ‘Make your request, my mother; for I will not refuse you.’”[13]

She held a powerful and prestigious title: GEBIRAH (“lady,” “Great Lady”), and she even wore a crown:

“Say to the king and the queen mother: ‘Take a lowly seat, for your beautiful crown has come down from your head.’”[14]

And so the mother of the king occupied a special place, and her name was associated with the accession of the king to power:

“Rehoboam the son of Solomon reigned in Judah. Rehoboam was forty-one years old when he began to reign, and he reigned seventeen years in Jerusalem, the city which the Lord had chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, to put his name there. His mother’s name was Naamah the Ammonitess.”[15]

“Now in the eighteenth year of King Jeroboam the son of Nebat, Abijam began to reign over Judah. He reigned for three years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Maacah the daughter of Absalom.”[16]

The Gebirah is mentioned almost regularly in the lists of the kings of Judah (except for Joram, Ahaz, and Asa).

And Jesus is the legitimate heir to the reign of David, which would transcend the earthly world:

“He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David.”[17]

Already in the Old Testament we find prophetic Psalms concerning the enthronement of Jesus in his kingdom. In one of these psalms we find a queen arrayed in gold of Ophir seated at the right hand of the King:

“Your divine throne endures for ever and ever. Your royal scepter is a scepter of equity; you love righteousness and hate wickedness. Therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness above your fellows; your robes are all fragrant with myrrh and aloes and cassia. From ivory palaces stringed instruments make you glad; daughters of kings are among your ladies of honor; at your right hand stands the queen in gold of Ophir.”[18]

“The princess is decked in her chamber with gold-woven robes; in many-colored robes she is led to the king, with her virgin companions, her escort, in her train. With joy and gladness they are led along as they enter the palace of the king.

Instead of your fathers shall be your sons; you will make them princes in all the earth. I will cause your name to be celebrated in all generations; therefore the peoples will praise you for ever and ever.”[19]

Hence Mary, Daughter of Zion par excellence, can bear the figure of the Church as its queen and mother:

“…for behold, henceforth all generations will call me blessed.”[20]

Many Protestants fear giving glory to Mary at the expense of God, when the whole point is to give glory to God for what He has done in her.

The Bible reveals to us that Mary is the new ark of the covenant, because within her dwelt the full presence of the Trinity:

“And the angel said to her, ‘The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God.’”[21]

The Father: “…and the power of the Most High will overshadow you.”

The Son: “…therefore the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God.”

The Holy Spirit: “The Holy Spirit will come upon you.”

Already in Genesis the enmity between the “Serpent” and the “Woman” whose son would crush the head of the serpent had been prophesied:

“I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.”[22]

A prophecy that would be fulfilled in Mary, who as the new ark of the covenant would have her eternal enmity with the serpent:

“Then God’s temple in heaven was opened, and the ark of his covenant was seen within his temple; and there were flashes of lightning, loud noises, peals of thunder, an earthquake, and heavy hail.”[23]

“And a great portent appeared in heaven, a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars.”[24]

No one more fittingly than Mary, figure of the Church, can bear the twelve-pointed crown — Queen of the twelve tribes of Israel and of the twelve Apostles.

Conclusion

The objective study of history reveals that the veneration of the Most Blessed Virgin Mary does not derive from paganism, but from the christological reflections that enabled the people of God to deepen their understanding of Mary’s place in the economy of Salvation.

Notes

  1. Jeremiah 44,16-19 ↩
  2. Martin Hengel, Studies in Early Christology, T. & T. Clark Publishers, Ltd., June 1995, p. 331 ↩
  3. Powell, Barry B. (2007). Classical Myth (5th ed.). Upper Saddle River: Pearson Prentice Hall ↩
  4. Pliny, Naturalis Historia ii.106 and xxxi.16; cited in Cotter, Wendy (1999). Miracles in Greco-Roman antiquity: a sourcebook. London, New York: Routledge, p. 165 ↩
  5. Ezekiel 26,7 ↩
  6. Luke 1,48 ↩
  7. Luke 1,26-28 ↩
  8. Luke 1,43 ↩
  9. Deuteronomy 10,17; Psalm 136,2-3 ↩
  10. Luke 1,41-42 ↩
  11. Luke 1,38 ↩
  12. Luke 2,19 ↩
  13. 1 Kings 2,19-20 ↩
  14. Jeremiah 13,18 ↩
  15. 1 Kings 14,21 ↩
  16. 1 Kings 15,1-2 ↩
  17. Luke 1,32 ↩
  18. Psalm 45,7-10 ↩
  19. Psalm 45,14-18 ↩
  20. Luke 1,48 ↩
  21. Luke 1,35 ↩
  22. Genesis 3,15 ↩
  23. Revelation 11,19 ↩
  24. Revelation 12,1 ↩