Jesus and the Jewish Roots of Mary: Unveiling the Mother of the Messiah

She is also the queen mother of the Messiah’s kingdom.22

Just as Benjamin is the “beloved (Greek ēgapēmenos) of the LORD” (Deuteronomy 33:12), so John is the “disciple whom Jesus loved (Greek ēgapa)” (John 19:26).

Contrary to what some people believe, the Catholic Church did not get its teachings about Mary from paganism. It got them from Judaism.

In traditional Protestantism, worship is largely centered on doxology: prayer and songs of praise.62 There is no ministerial priesthood, and therefore no offering of sacrifice. For Catholics and Orthodox Christians, however, worship consists above all in the offering of the Eucharist.63 And the Eucharist is always offered to God alone.

I would suggest…that this figure [the “woman” of Revelation 12] is both the literal mother of the male child Jesus, and also the female image of the people of God.34

For this reason, despite her sinlessness—or rather, precisely because she was preserved from all sin—Mary can truly declare that “God” is her “Savior”

In the Gospel of John, Mary appears twice: once during the wedding at Cana (John 2:1–12), and once during the crucifixion of Jesus (John 19:25–27).

You simply cannot understand Mary without looking at her in her first-century Jewish context.

it’s important to remember that in the book of Genesis, Eve is called “Eve” only once; she is called “woman” eleven times.