ADVENT TIP OF THE DAY 11: Summary of salvation history; Joys of Mary

MJ. Smith

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From Hans Memling, The Seven Joys of Mary (1480)

QUESTION: What are the 5, 7, 10, 12, or 15 Joys of Mary? Think Franciscan crown and the “Seven Joys of Mary” carol.

ANSWER: from Logos/Verbum smart search

From the synopsis:

The Joys of Mary refer to significant events in the life of the Virgin Mary, typically ranging from 5 to 12 in number. One prominent representation is the Seven Joys of Mary, which include the Annunciation, the Nativity, the Adoration of the Magi, Christ's appearance to Mary after the Resurrection, the Ascension, Pentecost, and Mary's bodily Assumption into heaven. These events are depicted in religious art, such as Hans Memling's "Seven Joys of the Virgin" painting. The concept of Mary's joys is rooted in medieval devotions and is sometimes compared to the structure of the Rosary. In Christian tradition, Mary is celebrated as the Queen of Heaven and Mother of God, with her joys seen as supreme and singular among the dwellers in heaven.1

From Christian History Magazine-Issue 83: Mary in the Imagination of the Church. Carol Stream, IL: Christianity Today, 2004.

Spot the seven

Hans Memling (ca. 1435–1494) was a Flemish master painter who studied under Rogier van der Weyden (pp. 22–23). His “Seven Joys of the Virgin” depicts a series of Marian moments drawn (like the Rosary; see p. 30) from medieval devotions to Mary.

Her seven joys are the Annunciation, the Nativity, the Adoration of the Magi, the Resurrected Christ’s appearance to Mary, Christ’s Ascension, Pentecost, and Mary’s own (as tradition had it) bodily Assumption into heaven.

Free will’s shining moment

Jaroslav Pelikan reminds us that the Annunciation to Mary can be seen as God’s ultimate validation of free will. Mary’s obedience to the angel’s message “was no less voluntary in its affirmation than the disobedience of Eve had been in its negation.” (Mary Through the Centuries, p. 87)

O holy night

As have Protestants since his day, Martin Luther affirmed the Ephesus Council’s formula that stated Mary was truly the “mother of God”: “God did not derive his divinity from Mary; but it does not follow that it is therefore wrong to say that God was born of Mary.… She is the true mother of God.… Mary suckled God, rocked God to sleep, prepared broth and soup for God, etc.” (On the Councils and the Church, 1539)

The Magi and the Mama

Christian literature’s most ancient hymn to Mary, the so-called “Akathist” hymn (late 5th or early 6th century), makes Mary one focus of the Magi’s praise: “The children of the Chaldees seeing in the Virgin’s hands him whose hands made men, and knowing him as Lord … cried out to her who is blessed: Hail! Mother of the unsetting Star. Hail! Splendor of the Mystic Day.…”

Snatching life from death

Peter Chrysologus (ca. 380–ca. 450), bishop of Ravenna and defender of the Ephesus Council’s Theotokos formulation, identified “the other Mary” who accompanies Mary Magdalene at the tomb as the mother of the Lord. Then he portrayed the Virgin Mary as the second Eve, come now in the fullness of time to meet the resurrected Christ and undo the disobedience of the first Eve: “She who had taken perfidy away from paradise hurries to take faith from the tomb; she, who had snatched death from the hands of life, hastens to snatch life from the hands of death.”

Birth of an assumption

While Scripture reveals nothing about Mary’s death, tradition soon filled in the blank. Most influentially, John Damascene (d. 749) reported a story reportedly told at the Council of Chalcedon (451) that Mary had died in the presence of the Apostles, but when they opened her tomb they found it empty, “wherefrom the Apostles concluded that the body was taken up to heaven.” From this root developed a widespread belief that Mary was assumed bodily and now tastes the Resurrection for which Christians hope.[2]

1 George Thomas Kurian, Nelson’s New Christian Dictionary: The Authoritative Resource on the Christian World (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 2001).and “The Seven Joys of Mary,” Christian History Magazine-Issue 83: Mary in the Imagination of the Church (Carol Stream, IL: Christianity Today, 2004).and Saint Anselm Archbishop of Canterbury, Saint Anselm’s Book of Meditations and Prayers (London: Burns and Oates, 1872), 176.

[2]“The Seven Joys of Mary,” Christian History Magazine-Issue 83: Mary in the Imagination of the Church (Carol Stream, IL: Christianity Today, 2004).

QUESTION: What are the typical joys in the carol?

ANSWER: from Wikipedia: The Seven Joys of Mary (carol)

The song has English and American versions referring to different acts by Jesus that gave joy to Mary:

	English version	American version
1	Sucking at her breast	Being born
2	Curing the lame	Curing the lame
3	Curing the blind	Curing the blind
4	Raising the dead	Reading the Old Testament in the Temple
5	Bearing the cros s	Raising the dead
6	Wearing the crown of Heaven	Rising from the dead
7	Writing with a golden pen	Wearing the crown of Heaven

QUESTION: The Jesse tree, the Lessons and Carols, the Joys of Mary all summarize salvation history or a topic. What is the Biblical basis of using Scripture in this way?

ANSWER: from: Lanier, Gregory R. Apocryphal Prophets and Athenian Poets: Noncanonical Influences on the New Testament. Brentwood, TN: B&H Academic, 2024.

(1) Geschichte Israels (“History of Israel”). Though there are roots in texts like Psalm 78 and Nehemiah 9, the impulse to provide a condensed summation of the highpoints of the history of Israel hits its stride in noncanonical compositions. Such digests read across large swaths of the canonical Scriptures to identify the epoch-defining high points and then develop some kind of application to the present context of the writer. Key examples include the following:

Passage	Highlights covered	Application
Jdt 5:6–19	Abraham, Egypt, exodus, conquest, exile, rebuilding	Jews’ refusal to submit to Holofernes
Wis 10:1–11:15	Adam, Noah, Abraham, Lot, Jacob/Esau, Joseph, Moses/exodus, wilderness	Call to cling to the σοφία of God
Sirach 44–49	Enoch, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Aaron, priesthood, Phinehas, Joshua, conquest, judges, Samuel, David (battles, psalms), Solomon, divided kingdom, Elijah/Elisha, Assyrian conquest, Hezekiah, Josiah, prophets, temple rebuilding	God’s continued blessing on the high priest Simon, son of Onias (Sirach 50)
1 Macc 2:51–60	Abraham’s testing, Joseph in Egypt, Phinehas’s zeal, Joshua’s conquest, David’s kingdom, Elijah’s translation, Daniel and his friends	Mattathias’s sons showing the same faithfulness
3 Macc 2:1–12	Flood, Sodom, plagues on Pharaoh	Petition for God to bring similar judgment on Ptolemy
1 Enoch 85–90	Adam and Eve, fall of angels, flood, Egypt and exodus, Sinai, conquest, judges, temple, divided kingdom, destruction of Jerusalem, postexilic return	Continuation of Israel’s oppression under Greeks
Sib. Or. 3:218–94	Ur of the Chaldeans, twelve tribes, exodus, Sinai, Assyrian exile	Judgment on Persian empire
4 Ezra 3:4–33	Fall of Adam, patriarchs, exodus, Sinai, David	Explanation of wickedness in the world
2 Baruch 56–67	Creation, fall of Adam, fall of angels, Abraham, Egypt, Moses, exodus, David and Solomon, establishment of Zion, Jeroboam, Assyrian exile, Hezekiah’s prayer, Manasseh’s wickedness, Josiah, Babylonian exile	Hope of future restoration and a coming kingdom
LAB 23:4–11	Abraham/Sarah, Jacob/Esau, exodus, Sinai, conquest	Covenant renewal
LAB 32:1–11	Abraham’s testing, Jacob/Esau, exodus, Sinai, Joshua, Jael and Sisera	God’s faithfulness to his promises
Josephus, B.J. 5.379–412	Abraham/Sarah in Egypt, exodus, Assyrian exile, Babylonian exile	Josephus’s plea to avoid fighting the Romans

There are four NT examples that tap into the same method of summarizing key milestones of Israel’s story and applying that summary to the present. The Matthean genealogy uses names (as hypercondensed narrative proxies) to trace Israel’s history in three phases: from Abraham to David, from David to exile, and from exile to Jesus (Matt 1:2–17). Stephen’s speech covers Abraham and the patriarchs, Moses and the exodus, David’s reign (briefly), and the Solomonic temple to indict his Jewish opponents for repeating patterns of the past (Acts 7:2–53). Paul’s speech at Pisidian Antioch traces the exodus, wilderness, conquest, judges, Saul, and David to explain how God’s plan of salvation “has been sent to us” today (Acts 13:16–23). And Hebrews provides the highlights of key figures from Abel to the martyred prophets as a call for faith today (Heb 11:4–39). Each in its own way reflects a burgeoning whole-γραφή exegetical strategy that was finding a home in the Jewish community.[1]

[1] Gregory R. Lanier, Apocryphal Prophets and Athenian Poets: Noncanonical Influences on the New Testament (Brentwood, TN: B&H Academic, 2024), 201–204.