THEOTOKOS

By Adesoji Aderemi

Image from Britannica

It is with great urgency that I put my pen to write this mini work on the designation of Mary, the mother of our Lord. It is timely as no better time than the Christmas season to put to the readers the intellectual history of a designation that has now almost been declared anathema amongst believers especially if they are Protestants or Charismatics in doctrinal affiliations.

It is pertinent to claim that this piece neither supports the veneration (and/or worship) of Mary. I like to think the Catholic tradition of the veneration of Mary is a spin-off from this ancient tradition and belief espoused later in this exposé.

As we delve into this discourse, I must firstly establish the Divine Council Worldview (DCW) as a theological framework that guides Bible students in parsing through scripture and provides ethical and practical railings on how the Christian should live out his faith in a world laden with supernatural and spiritual knowledge, beings and realities. To expound on the DCW is beyond the scope of this work but it posits

1. The presence of a divine council or family that partners with YHVH in governing the affairs of the cosmos (Psalms 82, Deuteronomy 32:7–9, Daniel 4:13–25, 1 Kings 22:19–23).
2. Some members of this divine council failed and judged/ will be judged (Psalms 82, 1 Corinthians 2:8, Colossians 2:15).
3. The church is God’s earthly family and as saints, they’ll also participate in divine rulership (1 Corinthians 6:3, Luke 19:11–27).

The DCW is a lot more sophisticated in-depth and voluminous in content than I have presented here. Stephen De Young in his 2021 literature titled “The Religion of the Apostles” writes on the reality of a divine council;

In the Hebrew Scriptures, two key phrases are used to convey God’s divine council: the “mountain of assembly” (har moed in Hebrew) and the “Most High God” (el elyon in Hebrew, ypsistos theos in Greek). The first, the “mountain of assembly,” does not pertain to a single mountain where the God of Israel dwelled, à la Mount Olympus in Greek myth, but rather, as the angelic beings are part of the invisible creation, various mountains become the “mountain of assembly. The second term, “God Most High” or “the Most High God,” points to the reality that although other spiritual beings exist and are called gods in the pages of the Scriptures, none of them are like Yahweh, the God of Israel.

Another person that you could read on the reality of a divine council is Dr Michael Heiser’s works (The Supernatural and The Unseen Realm).

The point therefore is that a divine council exists and while some of them failed and are ousted, those in the divine court now are loyal members and participate in divine rule. In like manner, the church is presented in scripture as God’s family and saints (holy ones) will also become glorified and participate in this divine council. Based on this, we have human entities who having served God faithfully are regarded to have been glorified to participate in this divine council. This theology was common in the Second Temple Jewish period.

In the Old Testament, angelic beings are presented as part of this council (Psalms 80:5–7). When Israel enters into the worship of YHVH, they participate in this council too (Leviticus 11:44–46, 20:7; Numbers 16:3). Through the Incarnation, Christ has delivered those who share in His human nature from death and the devil, and through the Ascension, He has elevated that nature even above the angelic nature. In Christ, human persons become partakers of the divine nature beyond any of the ranks of angels and come to be rightly numbered among the holy ones in the council of God (Hebrews 1:8–12, 2: 7–15).

Following this logic, ancient Judaism believed in some specific honorific that was bestowed on some saints in this council. I opine that a council would have strata and structure. They conclude that superimposing some elements in the ancient oral tradition and oral beliefs to the heavenly council structure would help understanding. Some of these thematic elemental superimpositions include

1. Christ’s Forerunner/ John The Baptist
2. Heavenly Patronage (Hebrews 12:1)
3. The third which is the purpose for this writing is The Theotokos.

Theotokos

The idea relates to the Queen Mother of a king and the role they play in the king’s council. While this doesn’t relate to Christ being ruled over by his mother — which in this case superimposes with Mary, it pushes the Sainthood idea of Mary as a member of the divine council largely because of her faith and loyalty to the YHVH. It relates to her faithfulness and fidelity to God both in the standard of purity she held on to (that made her fit for the immaculate conception role) and her receptiveness and obedience to the angelic message of good tidings.

The veneration of the Theotokos in the West developed in ways that ultimately produced Marian dogmas, the Immaculate Conception and the Assumption, that the Orthodox Church does not recognize. The idea is that the Queen Mother should be able to make intercessions. So, iconography methods were developed to aid the worship in his or her intercession. The origin of this belief can be traced to 1 Kings 2:19 where King Solomon crowned his mother. From that point, the role of a Queen Mother was etched into the royal and governing structure of Israel and Judah. Athaliah even attempted to use this role negatively (2 Kings 8:26, 11:1–20).

What is obvious from this is the idiosyncratic technique, in representing divine council structure with natural phenomena. While that might not be entirely wrong it sets off an idea that pushes the sainthood of Mary through a prism and overstretches it. Hence the veneration and the worship of Mary cannot be practically separated.

In conclusion, I had stated earlier that Mary must be seen as a Saint (holy one) and hence a member of the council of God along with other saints based on her faith and fidelity towards God. Jesus buttressed this point in Luke 11:27–28 (ESV);

As he said these things, a woman in the crowd raised her voice and said to him, “Blessed is the womb that bore you, and the breasts at which you nursed!” But he said, “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it!”

Jesus is not saying that Mary is not blessed, rather he is emphasizing the reason for Mary’s blessedness, which is her obedience. She heard the word of God from Gabriel as everyone in the congregation now hears the word of God from Jesus. Faithfulness and Obedience towards the word of God is why Mary is blessed and it is how believers would also be blessed and hence glorified.

I hope you’ve learned a thing or two, please share this piece with as many and encourage them to read it. So that as we celebrate Christmas, we are inclined to believe God and His word, and live faithfully towards Him and His kingdom. And at the end of it all, we will be one of the saints in heaven, participating in divine rule.

Bibliography

Stephen De Young (2021). The Religion of the Apostles: Orthodox Christianity in the First Century. Ancient Faith Publishing 2021.

The Unseen Realm by Michael S. Heiser. Lexham Press (2015).

Supernatural by Michael S. Heiser. Lexham Press (2015).