"The World is Created for the Sake of Mary"

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“Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I am a virgin?” The angel said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be holy; he will be called Son of God.””

— Luke

“Moses was not able to enter the tent of meeting because the cloud overshadowed it, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle.”

— Exodus

“If when He formed each of Adam’s body out of clay, God was thinking of Christ who someday would become human, then in creating Eve, the Lord built a tabernacle of the body of the coming Mother of God.

— Tertullian

While the Orthodox tradition does not concur with the Roman Catholic belief in the immaculate conception, it does read the scriptures as presenting Mary as far more than simply the first disciple, which is very often the best Protestants can muster. Based not only upon the pregnant wording of Gabriel’s promise to Mary but also upon the singular occupant of her womb, the eastern communion of the church understands Mary as the destination for all of scripture’s doxophanies. That is, the appearances of the LORD’s glory in the Old Testament prefigure the annunciation; in so doing, Mary sums up the entirety of the scriptures.

Mary is the destination for all of scripture’s doxophanies .

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