She is the only one to be called "full of grace" anywhere in scripture.
The actual term in Greek (the original language that Luke was written in) is “kecharitomene,” which is the perfect passive participle of the Greek word “charitoo” (grace). In other words, kecharitomene means “You who have been graced" And when you add the word “full” to kecharitomene, Gabriel is calling Mary by her new title of “You who have been filled with grace.” And as anyone knows, when you are full of anything, there is no room left over for anything else..[/QUOTE]
“And the angel being come in, said unto her: Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women.” (Luke 1:28) Douay Rheims Version
This is where Catholics get their “Hail Mary, full of grace” prayer from. Now in most translations it says “Rejoice, highly favored one” (NKJV) or “Greetings, you who are highly favored!” (NIV)
The point of showing you these differences is NOT whether it’s wrong to translate this as “full of grace”, but rather to show that this statement from the angel Gabriel is merely a greeting, and should NOT be looked at as a basis for praying to Mary. Also, the phrase “full of grace” or “highly favored” comes from the Greek word “khar-ee-to’-ō” (χαριτόω
.
It should be noted that, the term “Kecharitomene” is translated in the Latin Vulgate as “gratia plena”, meaning full of grace. However, all modern versions of the Bible which translate from the original Greek, and NOT from the Latin, translate “kecharitomene” as “highly favored one” “highly favored” “favored one” “favored woman”. All these variations are closer to the original Greek term than the Latin Vulgate term “full of grace”. Even the most recent up-to-date Catholic versions which also translate from the original Greek have translated kecharitomene as “favored one” (NRSVCE, NJB “you who enjoy God’s favor”, NAB, not to be confused with NASB).
The actual way of saying full of grace in Greek is “playrace khareetos” (plērēs charitos, πλήρης χάριτος.
But again, the real issue is not that the Latin Vulgate got it wrong, but rather what does “full of grace” actually mean?
For Catholics, “full of grace” means, “transformation of the subject by favor or grace; plenitude of favor or grace; of a singular and permanent kind; perfection of grace; extensive and from birth the whole lifelong”
That’s quite a mouth full. Does such a Greek word have that kind of definition? Absolutely Not! Such a Roman Catholic definition is just utter nonsense. All that the Catholics are trying to do is try to come to the false conclusion that Mary never sinned because she was “full of grace”. They reason by saying, “how could Mary have sinned if she was ‘full of Grace’. She cannot sin.” Therefore, in making the declaration that Mary was immaculately conceived,
they depend entirely upon this verse only. Essentially, Mary was born without sin because she was “full of grace”.
Yet the truth is that the Greek word “charitoō” does not mean what the Catholics want it to mean. If we want to know the meaning of this word, we must look at it in context. We need only to read what follows in Luke 1:30, where the angel Gabriel says, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God.”
God has
favored Mary. Even
Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance states that the Greek root word
charitoō means “to endow with
charis, primarily signified ‘to make graceful or gracious’ and came to denote ‘
to cause to find favor’”. There’s nothing here about “plenitude of favor or grace, or from beginning to end sinlessness, or being without sin” as the Catholics wish to apply all of this to the term “full of grace”.
If we turn to Ephesians 1:5-6 the exact same term is used in Greek. Paul is speaking in reference to what God has given to His own, saying “Having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved.” (NKJV)
The phrase “made us accepted” or in other translations “freely bestowed favor on us” (HNV), or “graced us” (DRA) is the exact same “grace” term that’s used in Luke 1:28.
My response to the Catholics is this: if you are going to define “full of grace” with such a ridiculous definition for Mary, then you must apply that definition to all believers as well based on Eph. 1:6. Catholics can’t have it both ways.
Scripture also tells us that others were “full of grace”, not just Mary. For example, in Acts 6:8
Stephen is said to be
“full of grace” (πλήρης χάριτος(NRSVCE, DRA). In Luke 1:41, Elizabeth is said to be “filled with the Holy Spirit” (DRA). In Acts 11:24, Barnabas is said to be “full of the Holy Spirit” (NRSVCE). And as we all know, the Holy Spirit is the “Spirit of grace” (Hebrews 10:29, NRSVCE, DRA). And many more in Scripture were “full of grace” especially our
Lord Jesus Christ in John 1:14, who was
“full of grace (πλήρης χάριτος and truth”. It is only fair, then, to apply the Catholic definition to the term “full of grace” to Stephen, Elizabeth, and Barnabas. But, we already know that the Catholic definition is nothing but a complete myth.
Therefore, the term “full of grace” found in Luke 1:28 simply means that God favored Mary as the context shows in Luke 1:30. Thus, “Full of grace” does NOT mean that Mary was conceived without sin or that she lived a sinless life. Mary was full of grace, and so is every believer. So, Mary's grace was a
received grace, NOT grace to bestow to others. She received grace, NOT because of some
personal merit, but simply for the sake of
free grace. Mary "found favor with God", and thus, her being “full of grace” has nothing to do with being praised for what she supposedly was, immaculately conceived, or for what she supposedly did, living sinless, as Catholics would have us believe. When one is graced by God it glorifies God, not man.
However, some Catholics mistakenly argue that the Greek word “kecharitomene” (κεχαριτωμένη
is a noun, and thus, they reason that because this word is used in place of Mary’s name, it therefore is a title or name given to Mary to indicate a characteristic quality of her unique abundance of grace in a supernatural, godlike state of soul. But, the word “kecharitomene” is a feminine verb since Mary is the subject of this verb, and it’s in the perfect passive participle form derived from the root verb “charitoō”. It’s not a noun. The meaning of “kecharitomene” is “endued with grace”. In other words, Mary was given grace by God, grace that she neither earned nor gained, but rather, because God willed that she would be the one to bear and carry our Savior. She was a blessed recipient of God’s grace, NOT the source of grace, so that she could conceive and bear Jesus without the aid of man through the agency of the Holy Spirit.
Furthermore, the Greek term “kecharitomene” or “kecharitomenos” can be grammatically used to describe any other person without any implication of that person being immaculately conceived or living sinless.
Even Catholic apologist, Jimmy Akin, concedes that kecharitomene “is a Greek term that you could use in that exact grammatical formation for someone else who wasn’t immaculately conceived and the sentence would still make sense....This is something where I said previously, we need the additional source of information from tradition and we need the guidance of the magisterium to be able to put these pieces together.”
Therefore, the phrase, “full of grace” is not evidence for the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception. In fact, even the
Catholic Encyclopedia acknowledges this, stating that the term kecharitomene “serves only as an illustration, not as a proof of the dogma”.
To prove my point even further that the Catholics themselves admit that the term “full of grace” does not refer to the Immaculate Conception, we read in the
New Catholic Encyclopedia, “The words of Gabriel, “Hail, full of grace” (Lk. 1.28), have also been appealed to as a revelation of the Immaculate Conception, on the grounds that to be truly full of grace, Mary must have had it always. This interpretation, however, overlooks the fact that the Greek term κεχαριτωμένη [kecharitomene] is not nearly so explicit as the translation “full of grace” might suggest. It implies only that God’s favor has been lavished on Mary, without defining the degree of grace. (Volume VII, Page 378)
