Postmaster said:
If I'm not corrected did the Virgin Mary also ascended to heaven like Jesus? Apparently she went to the "Micra Sia" which was the Greek settlements of western Turkey after the death of Christ. A lot of Greek Cypriots originate from there that fled to Cyprus when the Ottomans started taking it all up. Also my roots can be directly traced back to there.
Did Mary settle in Greek part of western Turkey and is her tomb there? Or did she also ascended or did her body ascended after death?
There seems to be no clear information of happened to her after death. Apart from the visions and witness's of the weeping Mary of course. There are many that believe that Mary was Greek descent.
Hello Postmaster,
Initially I was going to suggest that we blend this thread in with the one already discussing Mary, however, after reading through, (realizing the topic is separate from the other), it should remain as is.
This is a delicate subject for many Christians, so I will state the declarations of the two main camps of thought pertaining to the assumption of Mary.
First both camps agree there is nothing in the Bible that specifically states the assumption of Mary into Heaven, and that if there was such an occurance it would have been an assumption vice having ascended. Mary would not have had the power to ascend herself into Heaven like Jesus did. She would have to have been taken into Heaven (assumed).
2. The catholic church never defined whether Mary died or not, and even in
Munificentissimus Deus (1950), Pope Pius XII stated that "after the completion of her earthly life" (note the silence regarding her death), " Mary was assumed body and soul into the glory of heaven." Though this is not backed by scripture directly, the catholic church states it does not conflict with the question of
sola scriptura, or the Protestant "Bible only" theory. The reasoning is that it does not bring contradiction to scripture.
3. The possibility of a bodily assumption before the Second Coming is suggested by Matthew 27:52–53: "The tombs also were opened, and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised, and coming out of the tombs after his resurrection they went into the holy city and appeared to many." Did all these Old Testament saints die and have to be buried all over again? There is no record of that, but it is recorded by early Church writers that they were assumed into heaven, or at least into that temporary state of rest and happiness often called "paradise," where the righteous people from the Old Testament era waited until Christ’s resurrection (cf. Luke 16:22, 23:43; Heb. 11:1–40; 1 Pet. 4:6), after which they were brought into the eternal bliss of heaven.
4. There is also what might be called the negative historical proof for Mary’s Assumption. It is easy to document that, from the first, Christians gave homage to saints, including many about whom we now know little or nothing. Cities vied for the title of the last resting place of the most famous saints. Rome, for example, houses the tombs of Peter and Paul, Peter’s tomb being under the high altar of St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome. In the early Christian centuries relics of saints were zealously guarded and highly prized. The bones of those martyred in the Coliseum, for instance, were quickly gathered up and preserved—there are many accounts of this in the biographies of those who gave their lives for the faith.
5. It is agreed upon that Mary ended her life in Jerusalem, or perhaps in Ephesus. However, neither those cities nor any other claimed her remains, though there are claims about possessing her (temporary) tomb. And why did no city claim the bones of Mary? Apparently because there weren’t any bones to claim, and people knew it. Here was Mary, certainly the most privileged of all the saints, certainly the most saintly, but we have no record of her bodily remains being venerated anywhere.
Based on that information we are left to choose which is true, or even if it really matters in the overall picture of Salvation.
Now as for your comment about Mary's decendancy, well scripture does point out that Mary was from the tribe of Judah, and therefore could not be of Greek decent.
Again, I am of no mind on this issue, one way or the other, as I find it interesting but not important to salvation for man.
As Sgt. Friday would say "just the facts man, just the facts."
Happy Easter!
v/r
Q