Hey,
I was just wondering, during the hymn "Shashf ensop" during the midnight praises, we say "Hail to you Mary, the salvation of our father Adam". How is St. Mary the salvation of Adam? Likewise, how is she "the salvation of Noah", "the rejoicing of Jacob", "the knowledge of Ezekiel", "the grace of Daniel", etc.?
Comments
Because she said "Yes" - Christ was born, He came and not just saved us, but redeemed us from the problem Adam put us in; hence we say "The salvation of Adam".
Of course Christ saved Adam. But none of this would have been possible if it wasn't for the Holy Theotokos.
Thanks to Saint Mary, we had our salvation. What if she said "No" ?
Because she said "Yes" - Christ was born, He came and not just saved us, but redeemed us from the problem Adam put us in; hence we say "The salvation of Adam".
Of course Christ saved Adam. But none of this would have been possible if it wasn't for the Holy Theotokos.
I totally agree with the explanation, but the wording in some areas is kind of sketchy. Salvation wasn't conditional on whether she said yes or no, and everything would have still been possible if St. Mary wasn't the one, it's just that because she was the holiest of people found on earth that God did this miraculous thing
let me propose a question to answer you, who saved Noah from the flood? the answer is God! how did God save Noah? by having him build a tool to save him and his family... the same with saint Mary, she was just a tool trough which salvation came from, hence the hymn says, "hail to you Mary, the salvation of our father Adam" and it is directly followed by, "Hail to you Mary, the Mother of refuge" so our attention would not go to think she's the salvation, but the mother of the refuge or salvation. hymns are poetic as you can see the hymn clearly differentiates her from the salvation, but shows her as just a utensil to be used for the salvation, that is the same reason she's called the salvation of Noah, as I explained above. the rejoicing of Jacob is due to her being from his offspring, its the same if you were to become the president, you bring your family name glory, rejoicing, honor. this can clearly be seen by how Abraham then Issac then Jacob in that order of mentioning them, and then what is said? the pride of Judah... and then she's mentioned of how she correlates with all the prophets.
for Ezekiel, he was told there is no secret that will be held from him, he also saw a dream seeing God and heaven... now how did we see God and Heaven? through Him becoming a man through the utensil which is the Virgin... so in poetic format, she's the knowledge of Ezekiel.
...by no means is Saint Mary a supreme cause of our salvation.
Well said, by the way, Mr Superman. Of course she is not the supreme cause of our salvation.
I know many protestants who have a problem with the verse:
"Hail to you O Mariam, the salvation of Adam..."
I think the word "Salvation" in the phrase "Salvation of Adam" - in Arabic is not the same as the English word "Salvation". Perhaps someone with better Arabic can correct me, but "Khallas Abeena Adam" - generally means the one who rescued/helped; whereas we know Christ is the one who redeemed & saved us. Perhaps they are synonyms - not sure.
The explanations you gave above were really beautiful and great! Would you mind explaining the rest of the verses that have to do with the verses saying "Hail to you O Mary...." for our benefit?
God Bless
the gate represents the virgin mary, and the gate being shut represents her remaining always a virgin.
as far as i know, all the hymns can be explained very well, so keep on looking until you find someone who answers your questions.
the orthodox Christian faith was never about accepting things that make no sense; we are supposed to ask questions so that we can truly believe.
:)
I was just thinking about doing something like that, putting meditations in a book, I would be glad to help out if you want to do this.
God Bless
if there are some hymns that don't make sense; this is a different problem.
so we rejoice that salvation came through saint mary, and that makes sense. i don't think it is too hard to explain that.
but if a few lines in a hymn are badly written, they should be rewritten to make better sense.
hi, what i mean is that all of our faith has a clear explanation, and we should keep asking till we get answers; the answers are definitely there.
if there are some hymns that don't make sense; this is a different problem.
so we rejoice that salvation came through saint mary, and that makes sense. i don't think it is too hard to explain that.
but if a few lines in a hymn are badly written, they should be rewritten to make better sense.
+1