Mary: From Virgin to God-birther to Immaculately Conceivedĭespite being mentioned only 19 times in the New Testament, Mary came to assume a position second only to God in Christianity. But problems arose as the concept of a Trinity became more accepted, because of the confusion of translating Greek into Latin terms and vice versa.Ĥ. If Jesus was accepted as divine, how did that compromise traditional Jewish monotheism? And how did the Spirit fit into the equation? Christians dragged Greek philosophical terminology and concepts into their debate and tried to co-relate them with Scripture. But a Biblical foundation was still required. The debate now came to center on the nature of Jesus’ divinity here Greek philosophy proved more useful than the Bible. The new belief in a Messiah required a colossal re-interpretation of Scripture that allowed Jews to mine their writings for Messianic prophecies.Īfter Paul proposed the redemptive nature of the Crucifixion and Resurrection, and after John equated Jesus with the Logos, the question of whether Jesus was the Messiah or not came to pale in comparison.

But beyond that, there was little agreement. By the first century BC, nearly all Jews believed in a Messiah who would save them from their present travails. The concept of the Messiah was a late and vague development within Judaism. Who Was the Messiah Supposed to Have Been?

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