MARY

back on the OT Scriptures, which she had known since childhood. She remained with Ehsabeth until the birth of the Baptist, and then returned to Nazareth. Having accompanied Joseph on his journey to be enrolled at Bethlehem, she was there deUvered of her Son. When the forty days of purification were ended, they brought the Child to Jerusalem 'to present him to thejLord,' and to offer the necessary sacrifice. Being poor, they offered ' a pair of turtle doves or two young pigeons'CEx 12*). Then wasit that Simeon took the Child in his arms, and, blessing God, uttered his Nunc LHmittis, and foretold to Mary that a sword would yet pierce through her soul: a prophecy fulfilled during the period of her Son's ministry, and specially by His death. From the Temple they returned to Bethlehem, whence they fled to Egypt from the cruelty of Herod, on whose death they returned, and settled in Nazareth.

We next find the Virgin in Jerusalem, whither she had gone with Jesus, now aged twelve. When she discovered Him in the Temple she remonstrated, saying, 'Thy father and I have sought thee . . .' His reply, 'I must be in my Father's house' (Lk 2"), shows that He had begun to feel, and expected His mother to realize, the gulf of Divine parentage that separated Him from all others. It taught her, perhaps for the first time, that her Son felt God to be in an especial sense His Father.

For the next eighteen years our Lord was subject to home-authority at Nazareth. During this time His mother lost the protection of Joseph; for, if he were aUve, he certainly would have been mentioned in Jn 2', Mk 3", Jn 1926. Doubtless Joseph's place in the home was filled in a measure by our Lord; and these must have been years of wonderful peace to the Virgin.

When, however, Jesus once entered upon His ministry, a time of real difficulty to her began. She, with the secret of His birth ever present, must have anticipated for Him a career of Messianic success; whereas He, with the knowledge of His Divine Sonship, was compelled to sever Himself once and for all from her control. We are not, then, surprised to find that each of the three recorded incidents which bring our Lord and the Virgin together during the years of ministry centre round the question of His absolute independence of her authority. Thus His first miracle (Jn 2) gave Him an occasion for definitely teaching her that she must no longer impress her will upon Him. His reply, 'Woman, what have I to do with thee?' has assuredly no roughness in it (see Jn 19^); yet the fact that He does not address her as 'mother' can have but one meaning. Again, when the pressure of His ministry leads to His neglect of food. His friends said, 'He is beside himself (Mk S^'). 'His friends' were His mother and brethren (v."); and when their message reached Him through the crowd He stretched forth His hand (Mt 12"), and said, 'Behold my mother and brethren. For whosoever shall do the will of God, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother' — words which amount to, 'I, in working out the world's redemption, can acknowledge only spiritual relationships.' Similarly, as He hung on the Cross, and looked down upon His broken-hearted mother. He tenderly provided for her future, and entrusted her to the care of the Apostle of love. Still, even then He was unable to name her as His own mother, but gave her, in the person of St. John, the protection of a son. 'Woman (not 'mother'), behold thy son.' 'Son, behold thy mother' (Jn ig^o- "). Exactly parallel to these is His answer to the exclamation of the unknown woman, 'Blessed is the womb that bare thee' — 'Yea rather, blessed are they that hear the word of God and keep it' (Lk 11"').

It is, we think, impossible to exaggerate the bitter trial of these years to the Virgin Mary; but God's grace kept her throughout submissive, patient, and trustful.

MASH

And it is a happy thing that the last mention we have of her in the NT is when she is gathered with the infant Church after the Ascension praying in the upper room.

(2) Place of the Virgin in the Christian Church.—The position she ought to hold is clear from the NT, and has been well described as follows: 'So far as St. Mary is por-trayed to us in the Scripture she is, as we should have expected, the most tender, the most faithful, humble, patient, and loving woman, but a woman still.' Certam sections of the Church, however, have not been satisfied with granting her this limited reverence, but have done her the questionable honour of claiming for her the worship of the Cnurch. Epiphanius (a.d. 370) mentions heretics, called Collyridians, who worshipped the Virgin, and he strongly reproves them. But before long the error found too ready a welcome within the Church, and a considerable, impulse was given to it at the time of the Nestorian Con-troversy (a.d. 431). In meeting the error of Nestorius the Church insisted that our Lord had, with His human and Divine natures, but one personality, and that Divine; and therefore it emphasized tne fact that He who was bom of the Virgin was very God. It thus became customary to give the Virgin the title Theotokos. This title seems to nave been specially chosen to emphasize the fact that, by being the mother of our Lord, she brought the incarnate God into life, and, at the same time, to avoid calling her 'mother of God.' This latter title would convey ideas of authority and right of control on the part of the parent, and of duty and obedience on the part of the child—ideas which were rightly felt to have no place in the relationship between Christ and His mother; therefore it was avoided. It would have been easy for the Church then to call her 'mother of God,' but it did not. Notwithstanding this cautious treatment, rmdue reverence towards her rapidly increased, and 'mother of God' became largely applied to her, and her worship gained much ground.

With the worship of the Virgin there gradually arose a belief m her sinXessness. The early Fathers, while claiming for her the perfection of womanhood, state distinctly their beUef that she shared in man's fallen nature and that she had committed actual sin. But Augustine, though not denying her participation in original sin, suggested her freedom through grace from actual transgression. Ulti-mately her freedom from all taint of sin, whether original or actual, was officially declared an article of faith in the Roman (Church by the dogma of the Immaculate Con-ception decreed by Pius IX . ( 1854) . Similar to this erroneous development was the growth of the belief in the miraculous translation of her body after death. The fanciful legends found in the Apocryphal Gospels regarding her death were readily seized upon as if supplying the requisite evi-dence; and in due course it became the authoritative doctrine of both the Roman and Greek Churches. The Festival of her Assumption is held on the 15th of August.

(3) The perpetual Virginity of Mary is a matter incapable of proof with the evidence available. With the Church of Rome and the Greek Church it is an essential dogma; but with the other branches of Christendom it is left undefined. In forming a decision on the point many feel the great weight of the undeniable sentiment of the Church for centuries, while others see in this very sentiment an unwholesome view, which overestimated the sanctity of virginity, and depreci-ated the sanctity of matrimony. From the NT we receive no certain guidance; for the 'till' of Mt 1"' is undecisive, as its use shows (.e.g. Gn 28", Dt 34*, 1 S 1525, 2 S 6"), while 'the brethren' of our Lord may mean either the children of Joseph and Mary, or the children of Joseph by a former marriage, or even the cousins of Jesus. The first of these views is specially associated with the name of Helvidius, the second with that of Epiphanius, the third with that of Jerome. See Brethren of the Lord.

6. Mary, the mothero£Johnmark(Acl2i2). 6. Mary, saluted by St. Paul (Ro IB*).

Charles T. P. Griehson.

MASCHIL.— See Psalms, p. 772'.

MASH. — One of the sons of Aram, Gn lO^'. The parallel passage, 1 Ch 1", gives Meshech (wh. see), as also does LXX in both passages. But this is wrong, as Meshech was Japhetic. Either Mons Massius is meant, or a region and people in the Syro- Arabian desert corre-

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