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| Mary - the mother of Jesus |
All accounts of the life of Mary must come from the scriptures and there is much debate as to whether Mary was a normal mortal human being or a divine creation like Adam and Eve, who were created and not born in the traditional sense. In reading the scriptures about Mary, we can sometimes find more questions than answers.
In the Islamic faith, Mary is certainly considered to be the mother of Jesus as we can plainly see from the following verses from the Quran:
"O Mary! Behold, God gives you good news of a word from Him, who shall become known as the Messiah, Jesus, son of Mary..." (Quran 3:45)
"Indeed the likeness of Jesus to God as the likeness of Adam; He created him from dust, then said to him, Be,' and he was." (Quran 3:59)I am a Christian, therefore I do not study the Quran, but it appears just from reading the text, the Islamic faith believes in the "creation" of Jesus inside Mary's womb, rather than normal human conception between a man and a woman.
The Jewish faith does not recognize Jesus as the Messiah, therefore only recognizes Mary as just another Jewish woman who gave birth to a son and later witnessed his death upon a cross. They do not recognize Mary as the mother of a Messiah, but there seems to be no dispute that she was the mother of Jesus. There is no mention of the Virgin Mary in the Hebrew Bible (Torah).
In Catholicism, Mary is given much more respect and authority than in other Christian denominations. Mary is not only believed to be the mother of Jesus, but also the mother of God. The Catholic belief is that Mary was born free of the sin seed and therefore was divinely created with no earthly father or mother. It is also taught in Catholicism that Mary, upon her death, ascended into Heaven in human form, like Jesus.
Most other denominations of the Christian faith, believe Mary to have been a normal human being who was chosen by God to bring forth a son, who would be called Jesus, as we find in the book of Luke, Chapter 1, and verses 30-32:
"And the angel said unto her, Fear not, Mary: for thou hast found favour with God. And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name JESUS. 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:"The scriptures teach us that Mary traveled with Jesus and was with him at Cana of Galilee when Jesus performed the miracle of turning water into wine, as we find in John, Chapter 2:
"And the third day there was a marriage in Cana of Galilee; and the mother of Jesus was there: And both Jesus was called, and his disciples, to the marriage. And when they wanted wine, the mother of Jesus saith unto him, they have no wine."Further in John, Chapter 2, we find that Mary continued her travels with Jesus:
"After this he went down to Capernaum, he, and his mother, and his brethren, and his disciples: and they continued there not many days."While Jesus was on the cross, he recognized his mother, Mary and charged John with her care in the moments before he died, as we find in John, Chapter 19, and verses 25-27:
"Now there stood by the cross of Jesus his mother, and his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Cleophas, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus therefore saw his mother, and the disciple standing by, whom he loved, he saith unto his mother, Woman, behold thy son!Then saith he to the disciple, Behold thy mother! And from that hour that disciple took her unto his own home."From the cross until today, there is very little known about Mary. We don't know if Mary gave birth to any other children and we don't know whether or not Mary every committed a sin, but we must certainly know that Mary was the loving mother of our Saviour, Jesus.
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