What's the difference between Zacharia and Mary?

chataranga · #1 May 15, '12, 5:50 pm

I'm having trouble understanding the difference between Mary's question to the angel on having a child when she has not had relations with a man and Zacharia's question of having a child because of his and his wife's advanced years. Both according to the bible said "how?" After Mary said "how?" she agreed to have the child. After zacharia said "how?" he was struck mute. seems like some rationalizing going on here. Thanks for any help.

Joe Kelley · #2 May 15, '12, 6:03 pm

Quote:

And Zechariah said to the angel, "How shall I know this? For I am an old man, and my wife is advanced in years." 1

Luke 1:18

Quote:

And Mary said to the angel, "How shall this be, since I have no husband?"

Luke 1:34

Zechariah asked "Why should I believe this?"

Mary believed but asked "How will this be accomplished?"

Todd Easton · #3 May 16, '12, 12:01 am

The different responses to essentially the same question suggest that the interior disposition of each questioner was different: Zachariah's question was motivated by his disbelief in the angel's words; Mary's question was motivated by her faith in the angel's words.

chataranga · #4 May 16, '12, 4:56 pm

I still don't get the difference. but thank you to both of you for the help. Stay safe and blessings to you and yours.

hawkeye125646 · #5 May 18, '12, 11:09 pm

Quote:

Originally Posted by chataranga

I still don't get the difference. but thank you to both of you for the help. Stay safe and blessings to you and yours.

The main difference is, you will notice that, when the Angel was talking to Mary, there was no fear in Mary... If you ever notice that, when an angel was around, they had to say " Do not be afraid!" That is because Angels are perfect. They have awesome powers. When you doubt a message, from an angel, you usually got cursed... That is what happened!

Joe Kelley · #6 May 19, '12, 12:02 pm

Note that Zacharia's muteness was also symbolic. The coming of Jesus meant the silencing of the
priesthood of the Old Covenant.

**AlanFromWichita** · #7 May 19, '12, 3:51 pm

Quote:

Originally Posted by Joe Kelley

Note that Zacharia's muteness was also symbolic. The coming of Jesus meant the silencing of the
priesthood of the Old Covenant.

I thought it might also be a bit contemplative.

Barbra67 · #8 May 20, '12, 5:42 am

Mary was a young orphan girl but Zacharia was a priest.

Lk:1:5:
5 ¶ There was in the days of Herod, the king of Judea, a certain priest named Zachary, of the course of Abia: and his wife was of the daughters of Aaron, and her name Elizabeth.

chataranga · #9 May 20, '12, 11:05 am

Hello folks, Thank you again for the responses. I've never heard that angels are perfect-thought only God is. I can certainly understand being afraid if an angel appears. I would be. In the bible I use Luke 1:29 reads "But she was greatly troubled..." and 1:30 the angel states "Do not be afraid,Mary,..." I can see why the muteness of Zacharia would be and maybe is symbolic. Thank you all-Blessings.

De_Montfort · #10 May 20, '12, 2:31 pm

Quote:

Originally Posted by chataranga

Hello folks, Thank you again for the responses. I've never heard that angels are perfect-thought only God is. I can certainly understand being afraid if an angel appears. I would be. In the bible I use Luke 1:29 reads "But she was greatly troubled..." and 1:30 the angel states "Do not be afraid,Mary,..." I can see why the muteness of Zacharia would be and maybe is symbolic. Thank you all-Blessings.

Troubled and afriad are two different things. She was troubled because of her great humility and the honor the angel showed her. Notice to the angle greats her with praise "Hail full of grace"

Joe Kelley · #11 May 20, '12, 5:01 pm

Quote:

Originally Posted by chataranga

... I've never heard that angels are perfect-thought only God is. ...

We probably need to define perfect.

I would say that an angel is perfect in that he has no flaws. He has all the powers needed to do his job.

God is perfect in that He lacks nothing.

**LilyM** · #12 May 20, '12, 5:22 pm

Read the two statements a bit more carefully. Zechariah asks for a sign - 'How shall I know this'. Frankly, he seems not to believe the message of the angel at all. He is asking for greater and stronger confirmation, above and beyond the fact that an angel of God appears to him to tell him. And we know what God thinks of those who seek after signs!

Mary on the other hand says 'How shall this happen, since I am a virgin'. She seems not to doubt that it will happen, nor ask for further confirmation. Instead she is more interested in the mechanics of the event - eg is she meant to consummate her marriage to Joseph or not.

She seems to be trying to reconcile what she hears with what she knows of past angel-foreshadowed births - which were all the result of marital sex. Most likely because she had vowed perpetual virginity to God and/or was thinking of the prophecy about a virgin giving birth.

**AlanFromWichita** · #13 May 20, '12, 5:33 pm

I think we're splitting hairs, and giving credit for the words to be much more precise than we can reasonably expect to have been the case a couple thousand years ago. Words change meaning all the time. I think it's fun to speculate and hear everyone's ideas, but I don't think we can logically and convincingly discover the absolute truth with any amount of reflection.

To me it's like doing a problem on a calculator and giving the answer out to five digits when there were only two in the problem. We are taking what we read today and trying to exact very narrow shades of meaning to people in a whole different place, with a whole different way of thinking, and a different language. It's a bit like physicists with their string theory -- they are so far out on a limb there's no way to know, logically or experimentally, whether their models are even close.

That's why I think we need to trust less of knowledge on the literal sense of the Bible (which 1 Cor 13 tells us in and of itself means nothing btw) and just hear the word and let it run around in our minds and hearts without being analyzed. To me, all the "magic" in the Bible lies in the deeper senses.

Alan

chataranga · #14 May 21, '12, 12:32 pm

Thank you all for your input-though now I can see why there are 30,000 + Christian sects with all the different opinions that could be used to describe any particular statement or thought. We see what we believe. There is only one truth and very few are fortunate enough to know it. Alan, your last post was extremely insightful and I suppose that is what I need to do- meditate on the difference or sameness of what transpired with Mary and with Zacharia and allow the Holy spirit to guide. At least that is what I got out of the last post. Blessings to all and Thank you.

**AlanFromWichita** · #15 May 21, '12, 1:09 pm

Quote:

Originally Posted by chataranga

meditate on the difference or sameness of what transpired with Mary and with Zacharia and allow the Holy spirit to guide. At least that is what I got out of the last post.

Wow, if you got that out of it, then I'm glad I posted it! Thank you.

Alan