The Reformers on Mary's Perpetual Virginity

The Protestant Church in Strasbourg, Saint

Pierre-le-June, displays this beautiful

statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

Every Christian, and every ecclesial body, has their own traditions. They all have their own unique approaches to doctrine and practice. They also tend to esteem individuals whom they emulate as expressing the values which they themselves hold dear -- in other words, to some degree or another, they all have saints.

This is true even for the non-Orthodox and non-Catholic Christians, as the Protestant world was recently in the midst of celebrating the 500th anniversary of the Reformarion. Their traditions include such things as the sixty-six book canon for the Bible, the Five Solas, and the formulation of "Statements of Faith." (Calvinists have T.U.L.I.P, etc.)

In appeal to the Protestant's sensitivity on the issue of Mary's virginal status, rather than invoking the authority of my saints, I would like to invoke the authority of his saints -- those who witnessed to his doctrines. The heaviest heavyweights of Protestantism, much like the Church Fathers, had enough familiarity with the Biblical records, which they (rightly) esteemed as precious, to see how the Perpetual Virginity of Mary does not contradict them. Being advocates of, and adherents to, the doctrine of Sola Scriptura (a hallmark for Protestants, which Catholics and Orthodox do not affirm), they found the concept of "Blessed Mary, Ever-Virgin" wholly compatible with their own readings of the Sacred Texts.

John Calvin

John Calvin

We will begin with the one who was least emphatic on the issue among the early Protestants. A man who truly "searched the scriptures," John Calvin wrote a copious amount of Biblical commentaries. In one section of his Harmony of the Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke, he briefly references the debate between St. Jerome and Helvidius over the virginity of Mary. Commenting on Matthew 1:25 ("he knew her not until she brought forth her firstborn"), Calvin writes:

This passage afforded the pretext for great disturbances, which were introduced into the Church, at a former period, by Helvidius. The inference he drew from it was, that Mary remained a virgin no longer than till her first birth, and that afterwards she had other children by her husband. Jerome, on the other hand, earnestly and copiously defended Mary’s perpetual virginity. Let us rest satisfied with this, that no just and wellgrounded inference can be drawn from these words of the Evangelist, as to what took place after the birth of Christ. He is called first-born; but it is for the sole purpose of informing us that he was born of a virgin. It is said that Joseph knew her not till she had brought forth her first-born son: but this is limited to that very time. What took place afterwards, the historian does not inform us. Such is well known to have been the practice of the inspired writers. Certainly, no man will ever raise a question on this subject, except from curiosity; and no man will obstinately keep up the argument, except from an extreme fondness for disputation.
(Commentary on Matthew, Mark and Luke, Matthew 1:25)

We can see that, in his own reading of the Holy Gospel, Calvin sympathized not with Helvidius, but with Jerome. He recognized that the words "firstborn" and "until" do not somehow necessitate that Mary in fact bore other children besides Jesus. He deemed such an inference neither "just" nor "well-founded", for they are included for informing the reader of Virgin Birth. That said, he does not argue the point any further, but he does denounce any desire to speak contrariwise as stemming "from an extreme fondness of disputation." He would think of the idea of raising a dispute around this text as merely arguing for argument's sake, stemming from unhealthy desire.

Now, onto the more explicit witnesses.

Martin Luther

Martin Luther

In truth, we will find our most copious amount of affirmation for Mary's constant virginity in none other than the original Protestant himself, Martin Luther.

Much academic study has been done on the life and teachings of Martin Luther. Reputable historians of Luther, both Protestant (Franz Pieper; Jaroslav Pelikan) and Catholic (Hartmann Greisar) alike report that the man adhered to this Marian doctrine for the whole of his life -- before, during, and after his break with Rome.

On the issue of inferring subsequent offspring from the words "firstborn" and "until," Luther speaks more strongly than Calvin. He adamantly dismisses those who would interpret Mt. 1:25 as inferring Mary would have bore other children.

Such carnal interpretations miss the meaning and purpose of the evangelist. As we have said, the evangelist, like the prophet Isaiah, wishes to set before our eyes this mighty wonder, and point out what an unheard-of thing it is for a maiden to be with child before her husband brings her home and lies with her; and further, that he does not know her carnally until she first has a son, which she should have had after first having been known by him. Thus, the words of the evangelist do not refer to anything that occurred after the birth, but only to what took place before it. ... Therefore, one cannot from these words [Matt. 1:18, 25] conclude that Mary, after the birth of Christ, became a wife in the usual sense; it is therefore neither to be asserted nor believed. All the words are merely indicative of the marvelous fact that she was with child and gave birth before she had lain with a man. (That Jesus was Born a Jew) 

And elsewhere, in the collection of his sermons on the Gospel of John:

"Christ, our Savior, was the real and natural fruit of Mary's virginal womb . . . This was without the cooperation of a man, and she remained a virgin after that. […] Christ . . . was the only Son of Mary, and the Virgin Mary bore no children besides Him . . . I am inclined to agree with those who declare that 'brothers' really mean 'cousins' here, for Holy Writ and the Jews always call cousins brothers." (Sermons on John)

Ulrich Zwingli

Luther was not alone among the early Protestant reformers to be unabashed in his rejection of Helvidianism. On the other prominent side of the original movement, this belief also found an adherent in Ulrich Zwingli, who also upheld this doctrine.

Ulrich Zwingli

In his famous doctrinal dispute with Martin Luther concerning the Holy Eucharist, the Swiss Reformer wrote an exposition of his position in response a year after their famous meaning. In it, we find his giving witness to his stance on the perpetual virginity of Mary.

I give an example: taught by the light of faith the Christ was born of a virgin, we know that it is so, that we have no doubt that those who have been unambiguously in error have tried to make a figure of speech of a real virgin, and we pronounce absurd the things that Helvidius and others have invented about perpetual virginity.
(Friendly Exegesis, that is, Exposition of the Matter of the Eucharist to Martin Luther, February 1527)

He deems the position advocated by Helvidius as "absurd." He says elsewhere in his works:

I firmly believe that Mary, according to the words of the gospel as a pure Virgin brought forth for us the Son of God and in childbirth and after childbirth forever remained a pure, intact Virgin.
(Ulrich Zwingli, sämtliche Werke) 

John Wesley

One other foundational figure of Protestantism shall be cited in our favor. Also among these names is the founder of Methodism, John Wesley. In his Letter to a Roman Catholic in which Wesley seeks to establish a spirit of friendship and an acknowledgement of common ground (and by so doing, consciously goes against the sensitivities of his coreligionists), he frames part of this mutual agreement in a format which holds resemblance to the historic Christian creeds. In the section affirming their common Christological convictions, those which he would hold as a Protestant, Wesley writes:

"I believe that He [Jesus] was made man, joining the human nature with the divine in one person; being conceived by the singular operation of the Holy Ghost, and born of the blessed Virgin Mary, who, as well after as before she brought Him forth, continued a pure and unspotted virgin."
(Letter to a Roman Catholic 7)

John Wesley

Luther, Zwingli, and Wesley all unambiguously gave their assent to the doctrine of Mary's constant abstinence; Calvin, at the barest minimum, implicitly acknowledged its plausibility. One can neither label these men "papists", nor accuse them of being unfamiliar with the testimony of Holy Writ; Yet even with their consciences informed by the Protestant conviction of Sola Scriptura ("Scripture Alone"), they found nothing scandalous in this teaching.  The sheer fact of the matter is this: among the most prominent men in Protestantism, this concept of Mary's perpetual virginity was neither foreign nor opposed to their own respective ideologies, and it did not occasion them with a point of dissension against Rome.

It should then be evident: one need neither be Orthodox nor Roman Catholic in order to see the idea of Mary's unwavering abstinence as one worthy of credit. It has not only a place within classical Christianity, but it also holds a place within the history of Protestantism. The Protestants of today who would wish to condemn this doctrine are departing from the ground upon which stood their forefathers.

Genesis 3:15 & the Second Eve

Eve and Mary,  Ferdinand Max Bredt, pre-1921

-   -   -   -   -   -   -
I will put enmity between you and the woman,

    and between your offspring and hers;
he will strike your head,

and you will strike his heel.

-Genesis 3:15

-   -   -   -   -   -   -

The Primary Significance of Genesis 3:15: Messianic Prophecy

The word for "seed" in Greek is "sperma." In Latin, "semen."  In its proper sense, "seed" refers to a man's issue. The Old Testament refers regularly to Abraham's seed (cf. ) and David's seed (cf. ) This, however, is the only place in all of Scripture which refers to a woman's seed (which is an anomaly in itself, as women don't technically have seed.) If we were to think of this word in the ancient sense, with its standard masculine application, then the verse comes very close to saying "between your sperm and hers."

What is implied by such a statement? If the woman has seed of her own, there is no requirement for a man's involvement in seeing that she brings forth the fruit of her womb. In other words, she has no need for sexual contact with a man in order to bring forth children.

In reading this passage, many people recognize that the "seed" which crushes the serpent's head is a reference to the coming Messiah; not as many pick up on just how much detail the verse actually gives in identifying definite articles of his arrival. Given that He is "the woman's seed",  it also references the fact that this child will be conceived and born of woman, and  The verse ultimately signifies not only a promised Messiah, but also indicates his virgin birth. Thus, the "woman", in the immediate context, is Eve, but in the prophetic context, is Mary. She is, in a very real sense, the "woman" of Genesis 3:15, the one who is at enmity with the ancient serpent.

The Secondary Significance: Gender Translation

This is where it really gets controversial. In many translations of Genesis, especially Protestant ones, you will read the verse as is presented atop this essay. But there is another significant rendering of it. In St. Jerome's translation of the Bible into the Latin vernacular of his day, known as the Vulgate, there is a slight difference in text which renders a seemingly huge difference in meaning.

I will put enmities between thee and the woman, and thy seed and her seed: she shall crush thy head, and thou shalt lie in wait for her heel.

Whereas the contemporary version says "he shall crush thy head", this in turn rather says "she shall crush thy head." This then attributes the defeat of Satan, at least in context of this verse, not to Christ, but to Mary. To many, the implication of this translation this seems rather lavish and excessive towards the Virgin, almost as if it robs dignity from the actual Redeemer of mankind.

Was Jerome at all justified in rendering the text as he did? It is a fair question, and deserves to be answered and explored.

Archaeological and Traditional Evidence from Judaism:

What's more, this version of the verse is quoted by some of the most prominent names in Judaism: The Jewish historian Josephus quotes the verse with "she." Finally, Moses Maimonides

Typology:

It can be seen that ancient Jews themselves had used the feminine form of this verse. There remains, however, an even stronger reason to validate its use, and that is one of typology. Genesis 3:15 doesn't look forward to one single instance of a woman striking the head of the serpent; it looks to several. In other words, throughout the Scriptures, women crush the heads of serpents all the time!

• Jael and Sisera (Judges 4)
  ... Later on, in the Song of Deborah,  the praises of Jael are sung as thus: She put her hand to the tent peg, and her right hand to the workman's mallet; she struck Sisera a blow, she crushed his head, she shattered and pierced his temple. (Jg. 5:26)

• The Woman (unnamed) and Abimelech (Judges 9)
  How does this "serpent," this villain, meet his end? "a certain woman threw an upper millstone on Abimelech’s head, and crushed his skull." (Jg. 9:53)

• The Woman (unnamed) and Sheba

• Esther and Haman (Esther 7)
  Through Esther's piety and valor, she rose up and spoke out to the king, revealing Haman's plans to him. Outraged at his right hand man, the king executes him. "So they hanged Haman on the gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai." (Esther 7:10) Through the woman (Esther), Haman (the serpent) is sent to his death by the suffocation from the rope, thereby "crushing" his head.

• Judith and Holofernes (Judith 13)
  In this piece of "figurative Jewish history," the beautiful, noble and God-fearing Judith is called upon to assist the people of Israel in their greatest hour of need, for they are awaiting the armies of Nebuchadnezzar to conquer the land. After much prayer and fasting, Judith almost single-handedly saves the day by devising a plan to stealthily take out the general of his army, Holofernes. She adorns herself and enters the camp of their troops, presenting herself as a deserter against her own nation. On account of her beauty and good company, Holofernes lusts after her and eventually invites her into his chambers. Once the two are alone, without missing a beat, Judith grabs his sword and cuts off his head, and then stealthily leaves camp and returns to her people with a most glorious trophy. This Jewess strikes the head of this villain and so restores peace to Israel.

This being a pattern throughout Scripture, it finds its culmination in the New Testament. The serpent himself is Satan, whose deception severed man from a blessed union with God and subjected them to the darkness of sin and death. The woman who crushes his head, therefore, is Mary; by her assent to the Heavenly Father's plan, the Incarnation takes place and God walks among men as He did in the garden, and His mission of retrieving the lost sheep is finally begun.


The Fathers of the Church Speak: Eve & Mary

The verse from Genesis establishes a  correlation between Eve and Mary, but how far and how deeply does it go? Peering into the thoughts of the Church Fathers on this connection proves to be quite illuminating.

"[Jesus] became man by the Virgin, in order that the disobedience which proceeded from the serpent might receive its destruction in the same manner in which it derived its origin. For Eve, who was a virgin and undefiled, having conceived the word of the serpent, brought forth disobedience and death.... But the Virgin Mary received faith and joy, when the angel Gabriel announced the good tidings to her that the Spirit of the Lord would come upon her, and the power of the Highest would overshadow her: wherefore also the Holy Thing begotten of her is the Son of God; and she replied, ‘Be it unto me according to your word."
-St. Justin Martyr, Dialogue with Trypho, 100, A.D. 160

In accordance with this design, Mary the Virgin is found obedient, saying, Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to your word. (Luke 1:38) But Eve was disobedient; for she did not obey when as yet she was a virgin. And even as she, having indeed a husband, Adam, but being nevertheless as yet a virgin... having become disobedient, was made the cause of death, both to herself and to the entire human race; so also did Mary, having a man betrothed [to her], and being nevertheless a virgin, by yielding obedience, became the cause of salvation, both to herself and the whole human race.
-St. Irenaeus of Lyon, Against Heresies III:22:4, A.D. 180

"Adam had to be recapitulated in Christ, so that death might be swallowed up in immortality, and Eve in Mary, so that the Virgin, having become another virgin's advocate, might destroy and abolish one virgin's disobedience by the obedience of another virgin."
-St. Irenaeus of Lyon, Proof of the Apostolic Preaching 33

"For it was while Eve was yet a virgin, that the ensnaring word had crept into her ear which was to build the edifice of death. Into a virgin’s soul, in like manner, must be introduced that Word of God which was to raise the fabric of life; so that what had been reduced to ruin by this sex, might by the selfsame sex be recovered to salvation. As Eve had believed the serpent, so Mary believed the angel. The delinquency which the one occasioned by believing, the other by believing effaced."
-Tertullian, The Flesh of Christ 17, A.D. 210

When I remember the disobedience of Eve, I weep. But when I view the fruit of Mary, I am again renewed. Deathless by descent, invisible through beauty, before the ages light of light; of God the Father wast Thou begotten; being Word and Son of God, Thou didst take on flesh from Mary Virgin, in order that Thou mightest renew afresh Adam fashioned by Thy holy hand.
-St. Gregory the Wonderworker, Homily Concerning the Holy Mother of God Ever-Virgin, 1, A.D. 275

"Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with you" (Lk 1:28). This is she who was prefigured by Eve and who symbolically received the title of mother of the living (cf. Gen 3:20). For Eve was called mother of the living after she had heard the words, “You are dust and to dust you shall return” (Gen 3:19), in other words, after the fall. It seems odd that she should receive such a grand title after having sinned. Looking at the matter from the outside, one notices that Eve is the one from whom the entire human race took its origin on this earth. Mary, on the contrary, truly introduced life itself into the world by giving birth to the Living One, so that Mary has become the Mother of the living.
-St. Epiphanius of Salamis, Panarion (Against Heresies) 78:18, c. 350 

 Let women praise Her, the pure Mary — that as in Eve their mother, great was their reproach — lo! In Mary their sister, greatly magnified was their honor. […] Of him the Lord said, that he had fallen from Heaven.— The Abhorred One had exalted himself; from his uplifting he has fallen. The foot of Mary has trod him down, who bruised Eve with his heel
-St. Ephraim the Syrian, Hymns on the Nativity 15, A.D. 350

For as she [Eve] who by her guilt engrafted death into our nature, was condemned to bring forth in trouble, it was meet that she [Mary] who brought life into the world should accomplish her delivery with joy.
-St Gregory of Nyssa, Homily on the Nativity, c. AD 388

Death came through Eve, but life has come through Mary.

-St. Jerome, Letters 22:21,

With all this in mind, I believe Jerome to have been quite justified in translating the verse as he did, and thus Genesis 3:15. It's

However, this really doesn't compromise the Messianic character of this passage. Elsewhere in Scripture, the Messiah is prophetically depicted as crushing the head of the serpent. It is He who is prophesied in the Psalm which reads: "You will tread on the lion and the adder, the young lion and the serpent you will trample under foot." (Ps. 91:13) The Messiah treading on the adder and trampling the serpent underfoot is as vivid a prophetic fulfillment as anything else; they are not mutually exclusive. Christ has "trampled down death by death," as Byzantine Christians sing during their paschal season.

Yet, what is a Christian but one who by grace shares in the victory of Christ, whose justice is imparted into the soul through holy baptism? Just as the Head conquered the devil and his forces, so the Body continues to wage war against the powers of darkness. It is this reality to which St. Paul references when he writes to the Church of Rome, "the God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet." (Rm 16:20)  The Christian also steps on the head of the serpent, through the grace of God merited for Him by Christ the Redeemer.

And it is in this light from whence the Marian dimension receives its clarity. There exists one final validation of the feminine version of this passage, and that validation is the scene depicted in Revelation 12:1-6. This chapter cosmically depicts that very enmity between the woman and the serpent.

A great portent appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars.  She was pregnant and was crying out in birth pangs, in the agony of giving birth. Then another portent appeared in heaven: a great red dragon, with seven heads and ten horns, and seven diadems on his heads. His tail swept down a third of the stars of heaven and threw them to the earth. Then the dragon stood before the woman who was about to bear a child, so that he might devour her child as soon as it was born. And she gave birth to a son, a male child, who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron. But her child was snatched away and taken to God and to his throne; and the woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God, so that there she can be nourished for one thousand two hundred sixty days.

The Woman in Revelation 12 signifies both the Church (and therefore refers to all Christians generally,) but also stands for the Blessed Virgin in her own right (as she is the one who literally gave birth to the Messiah, whom the devil wished to overcome.). Both the Church and the Blessed Virgin are rightly understood as the mother of Christians, which is how the Woman in this passage is described, "Then the dragon was angry with the woman, and went off to make war on the rest of her children, those who keep the commandments of God and hold the testimony of Jesus." (Rv. 12:17) She is shown to be at odds with "that ancient serpent, who is called the Devil and Satan" (Rv. 12:9), which is an explicit identification with the serpent in Genesis 3. The passage illustrates that enmity between the woman who bears Christ and the serpent.

Jesus, through nature, conquers the serpent by His atoning life, death, resurrection and ascension, accomplishing the perfect work of redemption; this is the primary significance. Mary, through grace, conquers the serpent in accepting and abiding in the holy word of God and remaining pure always in His sight. It is this very purity which made her a fitting vessel to for the Incarnation of the Logos; this is the secondary significance. Therefore, both translations, "he shall strike your head" and "she shall strike your head", carry an orthodox understanding: the former of Christ , and the latter of the "eve" of Christ,  the Blessed Virgin Mary.

And this is actually the context of the oft-misunderstood concept of Mary being Co-redemptrix. It is not that she is "another redeemer" but that she is the redeemer's associate, intimately involved in the same mission, acting in accordance with the same purpose. Being this second Eve, she is neither another priest in her own right, nor another victim in her own right, but her actions do, in an immediate sense, pave the way for his redemptive work to occur, and insofar as all the faithful share in the priesthood of Christ, she shares in this baptismal priesthood to the very highest degree possible.

"Hail, O Gracious Lady

Who in the flesh bears God for salvation of all,

and through whom the human race has found salvation;

through you, may we find paradise,

Theotokos,

Our Lady, pure and blessed!"

(from an Evlogitaria for the dead, and for Good Friday.)