Is Mary The Mother Of God?

There is much Christian teaching that calls Mary the mother of God. You can find this just about anywhere in Christian circles – so perhaps it would be beneficial to check what the Scriptures say about this topic. “Is Mary The Mother Of God?”

A very simple answer to this question can be found in the Book of Luke. When the angel Gabriel was sent to Mary, he said the following to her.

Luke 1:26 – 31
And in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God unto a city of Galilee, named Nazareth.

To a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David; and the virgin’s name was Mary.

And the angel came in unto her, and said, Hail, thou that art highly favored, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women.

And when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying, and cast in her mind what manner of salutation this should be.

And the angel said unto her, Fear not, Mary: for thou hast found favor with God.

And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name JESUS. [KJV]

So here, we see that Gabriel told her that she was going to have a son and that she should call him Jesus. We also see that the one who sent the angel was God. God was the one who had dispatched Gabriel to deliver this message. An angel is responsible for delivering a message exactly as given to him by God – that is why an angel is called a messenger. Let’s see what Gabriel says about Jesus in the next verse.

Luke 1:32
He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David: [KJV]

What is that Gabriel said that he would be called? It says the “Son of the Highest”. Remember now that this is a message directly from God himself. He sent it by Gabriel but the message is his. So what is it that God told Gabriel to tell Mary about her son? Well, it’s pretty straight-forward isn’t it? God said that Jesus would be the son of God – here it is written as “Son of the Highest”.

With this very simple reading of one section of Scripture, we have the Biblical answer to our question, “Is Mary The Mother of God?” And the answer is “No”, she is not. She is not the mother of God but the mother of the son of God. And in fact as we just read, it was God who sent the message via Gabriel to tell Mary just that. He did not say she would be giving birth to him (since he was clearly already living by virtue of the fact that he sent the angel) but to the son of God. Furthermore, she was to name her child Jesus.

If anyone ought to know if Mary is his mother or not, you would think it would be God, wouldn’t you? And it should be fairly obvious – not just from this record but many others – that God is not exactly in need of a mother. So where does all the teaching about Mary being the mother of God originate? Well I can venture a guess or two but one thing I’m quite sure of – it did not originate from the Bible.

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