Comment and question from a Catholic:
In Luke 1:28. Gabriel says to Mary "Hail, thou art highly favored, the Lord is with thee...
First part of the Hail Mary is ....Hail Mary full of grace the Lord is with thee, blessed are you among woman and blest is the fruit of your womb.
Second part which is manmade: asking us for the Mother of God to pray for us now during this journey on earth and at the hour of our death, when the devil has one last chance to get your soul. "Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us now and at the hour of our death. Amen"
Q: So, isn't the prayer of the Hail Mary, scriptural?
A. It depends what you mean by "scriptural"
If by "scriptural" one means "loosely based on bible concepts", then the answer is "somewhat." If by "scriptural" one means "aligned to what is expressly taught in the Bible", the answer is no. The "Hail Mary Prayer" It is a Catholic tradition/practice based on several unscriptural or extra-biblical concepts first appearing around 1495 - that's right, 1495 years AFTER the birth of Christ and roughly 1451 years after the death of Mary.
First, In the Catholic prayer there is the conspicuous use of the word "Hail", which in a modern sense we use as a synonym for "praise", not dissimilar to the German use of "heil" used as a root in the terms "heilig" (holy) and "heiligen" (sanctified) - denoting high praise or worship.
"Heil really means salvation, and used to be applied to relations between man and his God; one would speak of ewiges Heil (eternal salvation), and the adjective “holy” derives from the noun." - School for Barbarians: Education Under the Nazis by Erika Mann (1938)
However, The original Greek in Luke 1:28 does not translate accurately to the english word "Hail" as in "All Praise". or as the prayer suggests, "Hail Mary Full of Grace the Lord is with you."
The source word here in Greek is Chairos "χαίρω" which means "rejoice", not "Hail" The angel was not praising her, but commanding her to "Rejoice, and be delighted" Why? (because) the Lord waas with her. Let's look at the source text:
The VERBATIM original Greek of [1] Luke 1:27-28 is actually:
27 πρὸς παρθένον ἐμνηστευμένην ἀνδρὶ ᾧ ὄνομα Ἰωσὴφ ἐξ οἴκου Δαυὶδ καὶ τὸ ὄνομα τῆς παρθένου Μαριάμ.
28"καὶ εἰσελθὼν πρὸς αὐτὴν εἶπεν·χαῖρε, κεχαριτωμένη, ὁ κύριος μετὰ σοῦ."
Which actually translates to:
27 "To (πρὸς) the virgin (παρθένον) espoused (ἐμνηστευμένην) man (ἀνδρὶ) of (ᾧ) name (ὄνομα) Joseph (Ἰωσὴφ) from the (ἐξ) house (οἴκου) David (Δαυὶδ) and (καὶ) the (τὸ) name (ὄνομα) was (τῆς) of the virgin (παρθένου) Mariam (Μαριάμ)
28 "And (καὶ), entered/came (εἰσελθὼν) to (πρὸς) her (αὐτὴν) said/saying (εἶπεν) "Rejoice (χαῖρε), be delighted (κεχαριτωμένη), the (ὁ) Lord (κύριος) is with (μετὰ) thou (σοῦ)."
Taken together in modern English, these verses ACTUALLY render:
27 To the virgin engaged (to the) man named Joseph from the house of David whose name is Mariam,
28 and (the angel) and came to her saying "Rejoice, and be delighted, because the Lord is with you."
The actual scripture does not at all say:
"Hail Mary, full of Grace...", it says
"Rejoice and be delighted..."
So why do the common English Bibles not have the proper translation?
The problem with both the Protestant King James Version and the Catholic Douay-Rheims Bibles is that they relied on the Latin Vulgate which was a translation of the Greek into Latin and THEN into English. vs directly from Ancient Greek *the source language, into English. (Also keep in mind that the first English (Tyndale) Bible wouldn't be printed until 1535 - 40 years after the first appearance of the Hail Mary prayer. It too relied on the Vulgate vs source texts)
So for verse 28:
The Original Greek says:
"καὶ εἰσελθὼν πρὸς αὐτὴν εἶπεν·χαῖρε, κεχαριτωμένη, ὁ κύριος μετὰ σοῦ.", or
"kaí eiselthón prós aftín eípen:chaíre, kecharitoméni, o kýrios metá soú."
which in English means,
"and came to her saying "Rejoice, and be delighted, because God is with you."
The Catholic Latin Vulgate says
"et ingressus angelus ad eam dixit have gratia plena Dominus tecum benedicta tu in mulieribus"
which in English means,
"and the angel went in to her and said, "Have full grace! The Lord is with you, blessed are you among women"
The 1611 Anglican English King James Version (based on Latin Vulgate) says:
"And the angel came in unto her, and said, Hail, thou that art highly favoured, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women."
The 1899 Catholic English Douay-Rheims Bible (based on Latin Vulgate) says:
"And the angel being come in, said unto her: Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women."
The original Greek texts itself never say "Hail Mary". or "Venerated Mary", "Favored Mary", or "Honored Mary". Neither does it say that she is full of grace. Nor that she blessed among or above all other women.
These additional teachings thus wormed their way into the translations altering the actual writings of Luke to align to the erroneous teaching of the Catholic church in the middle ages. Errors now, any serious person of faith can easily reject.
Q: What about asking the Virgin Mary to pray for us?
A: To answer this, we must first answer the following subquestions:
Q1: When we pray to Mary, are we asking someone who is alive or dead to pray?
A1: Mary died around 41-44AD, most likely in Ephesus with John. Hyppolitus of Thebes records that Mary lived for 11 years after the death of Jesus placing her death around 41-44 AD
Q2: Was Mary a perpetual virgin after the birth of Christ?
A2: No. Jesus had 4 brothers: James, Joses, Simon, and Judas (Matthew 13:55) and several unnamed sisters (Mark 6:3)
Q3: Can dead people in heaven even hear our prayers, speak, act, pray?
A3: No. Seeking to make contact with the dead is called Necromancy.
- Necromancy is forbidden by God (Deuteronomy 18:9-12).
- Jesus taught us in the parable of Lazarus (Luke 16:26) that the dead are powerless and unable to pass between either heaven and hell, or between death and life to perform any act of mercy;
- the angels at Jesus tomb rebuked the women for seeking the living (Jesus) among the dead. (Luke 24:25);
- King Saul's attempt to make contact with the dead prophet Samuel through the witch of Endor was treated as a wicked act of necromancy. (1 Samuel 28);
- The dead do not pray, worship, or speak to God. (Psalm 115:17);
- The dead do not retain their knowledge or memory after death (Eccl. 9:5)
- There is only ONE who is risen eternally from death, Jesus Christ and he is the mediator between God and Man. (1 Timothy 2:5)
- Christians do not seek dead people to intercede for them. Nor do they intercede for the dead. In fact, proxy baptism for the dead was begun in the Corinthian church and Paul condemned it. (1 Cor. 15:29)
- The living cannot pray the dead out of damnation. (Hebrews 9:27) There is no intermediate between heaven and hell, no purgatory. (Luke 16:26) Purgatory is an invention of author Dante Alighieri. It is not found in scripture.
Q4: Is Mary "Holy"?
A4: No. Only God is Holy. All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Mary was in the upper room with the rest of the disciples waiting to be filled with his spirit.
Q5: Is Mary the "Mother of God"
A5: Certainly Not. God is omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent. He is without beginning or end. To say that Mary is the Mother of God is to say that God was created. To do so would also be polytheism. For, if God was created by God in Mary is there then a second God? The Bible explains that the eternal invisible God became incarnate. The avatar of God, the man Jesus of Nazareth, had an earthly mother. His deity was not birthed. Only his humanity. To say Mary is the "Mother of God" is theologically incorrect. God is an eternal spirit without origin, infinite, and who exists unbound by the constructs of time and matter. The concept of birthing a God is borrowed from Hellenistic Mythology.
Q: Was Mary a blessed woman for being given the privilege of giving birth to Jesus?
A: Of course. What an honor!
Her sister Elizabeth prophesied under the unction of the Holy Spirit in Luke 1:42 calling her blessed: "Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb!
Q: So does that mean we should honor Mary in our prayers?
A: No.
Jesus himself turns our attention away from venerating his mother and says RATHER, or INSTEAD those who are blessed are the hearers and doers of the the word of God - HIS words.
Luke 11:27-28
27 As he said this, a woman in the crowd raised her voice and said to him, “Blessed is the womb that bore you, and the breasts that you sucked!”
28 But he said, “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it!”
Q: Is it wrong then, to pray the "Hail Mary" prayer
A: Yes. For a couple of reasons
- We are only to pray to God directly, for ourselves (Hebrews 4:16)
- The dead are unable to hear our prayers (Ecclesiastes. 9:5)
- The dead are unable to pray for us (Psalm 115:17)
- The dead are unable to impact both the living world, or souls in the alternate disposition of heaven or hell (Psalm 115:17)
- It is a SIN to try and interact with the dead (Deuteronomy 18:9-12)
- We are not to repeat the same lifeless prayers repetitively (Matthew 6:7)
IN SUMMARY
Our understanding of Mary, the mother of Jesus, needs to be consistent with the Scriptures which declare her. The message of Christ, is that ONLY God is to be hailed/venerated, and only God is good/full of Grace. May the TRUE Word of God illuminate your prayer life.
Why does it matter?
Saying a Hail Mary prayer has no basis in scripture and certainly has no penitential power to absolve the soul from sin. It is based on several subtle and and not so subtle false teachings based on Catholic dogma and tradition - not on the Bible itself or the practices of the early church.
And, when we get down to the brass tacks of it, Seeking intercession from the dead on behalf of the living is considered necromancy along the lines of witchcraft. Reversed, trying to pray the dead out of a mythical purgatory which doesn't exist is a very harmful doctrine that was historically used to manipulate and prey upon faith filled believers into paying money, buying candles, and performing other manipulated acts of service to the church as if these works would buy their loved ones out of spiritual torment. Such believers were forbidden access to the Bible to read for themselves about the truth of things. Defying the doctrine Catholic church back in those times wasn't just an act of free will, it was often a death sentence, or an invitation for the inquisition to torture you, take your land and property. Certain protestant sects were no better.
Sola Scriptura. Scripture alone must be our foundation. Not vestigial church traditions and dogmas or creeds. We must put these things behind us and embrace God's word above all else.
Bottom Line:
The Hail Mary prayer and Ave Maria song, for all their poetic merits, are simply tools of false Catholic indoctrination that directly contradict the Bible and the express teachings of Jesus and his Apostles.
Now that you know these things, I encourage you to draw closer to God by abandoning these practices and taking a new approach to prayer - talk directly to Jesus and cast your cares upon Him.
He will meet you where you are and you will begin to see your prayer take on new life and energy as answers will actually come. Ask, Seek, Knock. Stop trusting your clergy and READ your Bible for yourself.
Matthew 7:7-8
Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you. For every one that asks receives; and he that seeks finds; and to him that knocks it shall be opened.
[1] Greek Bible: Novum Testamentum Graece - Textus Majorus.