Mary the mother of God
Some Protestants do like this title, but I do not understand why. It makes perfect sense:
1. Jesus is God
2. Mary is the mother of Jesus
3. Mary is then the mother of God
I think what they are arguing is that Mary is only mother of Jesus, and Jesus is not the whole God. Or they are also saying that Mary is only the mother of the human nature of Jesus, not His divine nature.
The first one seems to me a faulty view of the Trinity. Even though the Trinity consists of three persons, it is not as if each person had only a third of God. If Jesus was only a third God, then He would be merely a demi-god. But the Bible says that in Christ all the fullness of deity was pleased to dwell. Each person is fully God. It may not make sense mathematically, but that is why it is called mystery. No one is saying that Mary is the mother of the Trinity. But since Jesus is fully God, His mother can be called the mother of God.
On the second, it just seems very awkward to think this way. Mary is not merely the mother of Jesus’ human nature. Are we to assume that when Jesus greeted Mary, He said “Hello, mother of My human nature”. I doubt it! I think Jesus simply referred to her as His mother. Mary was mother to a person, Jesus, not to His nature.
There is scripture that shows that Mary is the mother of God.
And whence is this to me, that the mother of my Lord should come unto me?
Luke 1:43
In the Jewish context, there was only one Lord – Yahweh, Jehovah, the great I AM. So when Elisabeth called Mary the mother of her Lord, it is the same as calling Mary the mother of God.
"The Virgin Mary being obedient to His word, received from an angel the glad tidings that she would bear God." (Irenaeus, Against Heresies 5,19,1)
"This Virgin became a Mother while preserving her virginity; And though still a Virgin she carried a Child in her womb; And the handmaid and work of His wisdom became the MOTHER OF GOD." (St. Ephraim, Songs of Praise 1,20)
"After this, we acknowledge the resurrection of the dead, of which Jesus Christ our Lord became the firstling; who bore a body not in appearance but in truth, derived from the MOTHER OF GOD." (Alexander of
"Accordingly, the Son of God became Son of Man, so that the sons of man, that is, of Adam, might become sons of God. The Word begotten of the Father from on high, inexpressibly, inexplicably, incomprehensibly and eternally, is He that is born in time here below, of the Virgin Mary, the MOTHER OF GOD" (The "great" Athanasius, Incarnation of the Word of God, 8)
"Many, My beloved, are the true witnesses to Christ. The Father bears witness from heaven to His Son. The Holy Spirit bears witness, coming down bodily in the form of a dove. The Archangel Gabriel bears witness, bringing good tidings to Mary. The Virgin MOTHER OF GOD bears witness" (The "great" Cyril of Jerusalem, Catechetical Lectures, 10,19)
"If anyone does not agree that Holy Mary is the MOTHER OF GOD, he is at odds with the Godhead." (Gregory of Nazianz, Letters 101)
" who took on the human flesh and soul; being perfect at the side of the Father and incarnate among us, not in appearance but in truth, He reshaped man to perfection in Himself, from Mary the MOTHER OF GOD through the Holy Spirit." (Epiphanius of Salamis, The Man Well-Anchored 75)
"When, therefore, they ask, "Is Mary Mother of Man or Mother of God?" we answer "BOTH!" Mother of Man because it was a Man who was in the womb of Mary and who came forth from there; and MOTHER OF GOD, because God was in the Man who was born" (Theodore of Mopsuestia, The Incarnation 15)
See http://www.bringyou.to/apologetics/a19.htm
