by
Damien F. Mackey
“Now then, there is also a tradition that
Mary was allowed to enter the Holy of Holies. This seems absurd to us. Moses
stipulated that the High Priest and only the High Priest be allowed to enter
the Holy of Holies and that only once a year. It was the greatest privilege in
Israel. Why was the Holy of Holies so special?
It was the inner room that housed the ark of
the covenant”.
Today,
the 21st of November (2017), is the Feast of the Presentation of
Mary in the Temple. “Tradition holds that all young
Jewish girls were left in the care of the temple for a period of time, during
which they were educated”.
According
to St. Gregory of Palamos (d. 1359 AD), the Virgin Mary entered into the very
inner sanctum of the Temple, the ‘Holy of Holies’ (Hebrew Qodesh haQodashim: קֹדֶשׁ הַקֳּדָשִׁים): https://oca.org/saints/lives/2010/11/21/103357-the-entry-of-the-most-holy-mother-of-god-into-the-temple
DISCOURSE ON
THE FEAST OF THE ENTRY
OF OUR MOST
PURE LADY THEOTOKOS
INTO THE
HOLY OF HOLIES
by Saint
Gregory Palamas,
Archbishop
of Thessalonica
…. If a tree is known by its fruit, and a good tree bears good fruit
(Mt. 7:17; Luke 6:44), then is not the Mother of Goodness Itself, She who bore
the Eternal Beauty, incomparably more excellent than every good, whether in
this world or the world above? Therefore, the coeternal and identical Image of
goodness, Preeternal, transcending all being, He Who is the preexisting and
good Word of the Father, moved by His unutterable love for mankind and
compassion for us, put on our image, that He might reclaim for Himself our
nature which had been dragged down to uttermost Hades, so as to renew this
corrupted nature and raise it to the heights of Heaven. For this purpose, He
had to assume a flesh that was both new and ours, that He might refashion us
from out of ourselves. Now He finds a Handmaiden perfectly suited to these
needs, the supplier of Her own unsullied nature, the Ever-Virgin now hymned by
us, and Whose miraculous Entrance into the Temple, into the Holy of Holies, we
now celebrate. God predestined Her before the ages for the salvation and
reclaiming of our kind. She was chosen, not just from the crowd, but from the
ranks of the chosen of all ages, renowned for piety and understanding, and for
their God-pleasing words and deeds. ….
This is
a revered sacred Tradition strongly adhered to by the eastern Orthodox Church: https://oca.org/saints/lives/2010/11/21/103357-the-entry-of-the-most-holy-mother-of-god-into-the-temple
The Entry of the Most Holy Mother of God
into the Temple
….
According to Holy Tradition, the Entry of the Most
Holy Theotokos into the Temple took place in the following manner. The parents
of the Virgin Mary, Saints Joachim and Anna, praying for an end to their
childlessness, vowed that if a child were born to them, they would dedicate it
to the service of God.
When the Most Holy Virgin reached the age of
three, the holy parents decided to fulfill their vow. They gathered together
their relatives and acquaintances, and dressed the All-Pure Virgin in Her
finest clothes. Singing sacred songs and with lighted candles in their hands,
virgins escorted Her to the Temple (Ps. 44/45:14-15). There the High Priest and
several priests met the handmaiden of God. In the Temple, fifteen high steps
led to the sanctuary, which only the priests and High Priest could enter.
(Because they recited a Psalm on each step, Psalms 119/120-133/134 are called
“Psalms of Ascent.”) The child Mary, so it seemed, could not make it up this
stairway. But just as they placed Her on the first step, strengthened by the
power of God, She quickly went up the remaining steps and ascended to the
highest one. Then the High Priest, through inspiration from above, led the Most
Holy Virgin into the Holy of Holies, where only the High Priest entered once a
year to offer a purifying sacrifice of blood. Therefore, all those present in
the Temple were astonished at this most unusual occurrence.
After entrusting their child to the Heavenly
Father, Joachim and Anna returned home. The All-Holy Virgin remained in the
quarters for virgins near the Temple. According to the testimony of Holy
Scripture (Exodus 38; 1 Kings 1: 28; Luke 2: 37), and also the historian
Josephus Flavius, there were many living quarters around the Temple, in which
those who were dedicated to the service of God dwelt. ….
Dr.
Taylor Marshall has wisely based the whole tradition in an ancient Jewish (Sirach)
context: http://taylormarshall.com/2011/12/did-jewish-temple-virgins-exist-and-was.html
Did Jewish Temple Virgins
Exist
and was Mary a Temple
Virgin?
….
Previously we examined the tradition and
biblical foundation for the Catholic teaching that Mary was consecrated as a
Temple virgin at the age of three and lived in the temple precincts till the
age of fourteen when she was married to Saint Joseph and there after virginally
conceived the Son of God.*
This
school of Temple virgins in Jerusalem formed an altar guild that fulfilled the
necessary tasks at the Temple. This included sewing and creating vestments,
washing the vestments of the priests which would be stained regularly by animal
blood, preparing liturgical linen, weaving the veil of the Temple, and most
importantly, liturgical prayer. The Jewish and Catholic tradition holds that
this school for Israelite virgins was completed by marrying age of about 14 and
that they were dismissed at this time. There were also older women, perhaps
widows such as the prophetess Anna, who served as teachers and governesses for
the virgins under their care.
There
has been some doubt as to whether their were really consecrated Jewish virgins
at the Temple. In my previous post I referenced the first-century Jewish historian
Josephus in support of “Temple virgins” in Jerusalem, but I fear that this
cannot be substantiated. Jimmy Akin
asked me for the citation and I cannot find it. One would assume that it would
be in Book 5 of the Jewish Wars of Josephus. There Josephus mentions
cloisters, but he does not tell us who lived in them. That’s as close as
Josephus gets.
There
are, however, three Scriptural accounts that are used by Catholics to
demonstrate that there were special women who ministered at the Temple complex.
Exodus
38:8 mentions women who “watch (צָבָא) at the door of the tabernacle.”
The
second is in 1 Samuel:
“Now
Heli was very old, and he heard all that his sons did to all Israel: and how
they lay with the women that waited (צָבָא) at the door of the tabernacle:” (1 Samuel 2:22, D-R)
In both
of the verses above, Hebrew verb for “watch” and “waited” is the same. It is
the Hebrew word צָבָא, which is the same verb used to described
the liturgical activity of the Levites (see Num 4:23; 8:24). This corresponds to the
Latin translation in the Clementine Vulgate, which relates that these women “observabant” at the temple doors – another liturgical
reading.
So
these women are not simply hanging out around the Temple, looking for men,
gossiping, or chatting about the weather. These are pious women devoted to a
liturgical function. In fact, the Court of Women might exist formally for these
special “liturgical women.”
The
third and final reference to these liturgical females is in 2 Maccabees:
And the
virgins also that were shut up, came forth, some to {High Priest} Onias, and
some to the walls, and others looked out of the windows. And all holding up
their hands towards heaven, made supplication. (2 Macc 3:19-20)
Here
are virgins that are shut up. In the Greek it is “αἱ δὲ κατάκλειστοι τῶν παρθένων” or “the shut up
ones of the virgins.” In this passage the Holy Spirit refers not
to all the virgins of Jerusalem, but to a special set of virgins, that is,
those virgins who had the privilege and right to be in the presence of the High
Priest and address him. It’s rather ridiculous to think that young girls would
have general access to the High Priest of Israel. However, if these virgins had
a special liturgical role at the Temple, it becomes clear that they would both
address the High Priest Onias and would also be featured as an essential part
of the intense supplication in the Temple at this moment of crisis.
There
is further testimony of temple virgins in the traditions of the Jews. In the
Mishnah, it is recorded that there were 82 consecrated virgins who wove the
veil of the Temple:
“The
veil of the Temple was a palm-length in width. It was woven with seventy-two
smooth stitches each made of twenty-four threads. The length was of forty
cubits and the width of twenty cubits. Eighty-two virgins wove it. Two veils
were made each year and three hundred priests were needed to carry it to the
pool” (Mishna Shekalim 8, 5-6).
We find
another reference to the “women who made the veils for the Temple…baked the
showbread…prepared the incense” (Babylonian Talmud Kethuboth 106a).
Rabbinic
Jewish sources also record how when the Romans sacked Jerusalem in AD 70, the
Temple virgins leapt into the flames so as not to be abducted by the heathen
soldiers: “the virgins who were weaving threw themselves in the flames” (Pesikta
Rabbati 26, 6). Here we also learn that these virgins lived in the three-storey
building inside the Temple area. However, it is difficult to find any other
details about this structure. The visions of Anne Catherine Emmerich placed the
cloisters of the Temple Virgins on the north side of the Temple (Emmerich’s
Life of the Blessed Virgin Mary 3, 5).
Even
more, the first century document by the name of the Apocalypse of Baruch
(sometimes called “2 Baruch”) describes the Temple virgins living in the Temple
as weavers of the holy veil:
“And
you virgins who weave byssus and silk, and gold from Ophir, in haste pick it
all up and throw it in the fire that it will return it to its Author, and that
the flame will take it back to its Creator, from fear that the enemy might
seize it” (2 Baruch 10:19).
So
then, there is ample evidence for the role of consecrated women, especially
virgins at the Temple. If one were to accept the passages above, we have plenty
of testimony for cultic women in the time of Moses’ tabernacle, in the time of
David, in the Second Temple era, and in the first century of Our Lord.
This
substantiates the claims of the Fathers and Doctors of the Church who claim
that the Blessed Virgin Mary was presented to the Temple and served there from
the age of three until the age of fourteen. To claim that Temple virgins are a
myth of celibacy-crazed Catholic bishops does not hold up. Scripture and Jewish
tradition records that there were specially commissioned virgins associated
with the Temple. We may not know much about them, but we know that they
existed.
That
the most holy human girl of all time, the Mother of the Messiah, should live as
a temple virgin should come as no surprise. This also accounts for the vow of
virginity she had taken since she “knew not a man” even though she was already
espoused to Joseph.
Now
then, there is also a tradition that Mary was allowed to enter the Holy of
Holies. This seems absurd to us. Moses stipulated that the High Priest and only
the High Priest be allowed to enter the Holy of Holies and that only once a
year. It was the greatest privilege in Israel. Why was the Holy of Holies so
special? It was the inner room that housed the ark of the covenant.
Yet
remember that this is the Second Temple, not the original Temple of Solomon.
The Ark of the Covenant was hidden by Jeremiah and it had been lost ever since.
The Second Temple, therefore, had an empty Holy of Holies. It was an empty
room. No Ark of the Covenant. Nothing. In a sense, the Second Temple was a
sham. It was like an empty suit. The Temple was built to house the Ark of the
Covenant, but Ark was not there.
So
then, the Temple in Jerusalem was empty. It did not contain the ark of the
covenant. And yet we Catholics know from Revelation 11:19-12:1 that the Mother
of Christ is truly the Ark of the New Covenant. The wood ark of old contained
the Word of God engraved in stone. The stainless womb of Mary contained the
Word of God made flesh.
Perhaps
by a singular inspiration, the High Priest of that time had been inspired to
lead this immaculate virgin into the inner sanctum of the Holy of Holies. My
heart leaps when contemplating this. The angels of heaven would rejoice to see
the true Ark of the Covenant restored into the earthly Temple of Jerusalem. In
fact, it would be a foretaste of the glorious assumption of Mary. The Temple
represented a new Garden of Eden and, of course, Mary is the New Eve. Thus, her
entry into the Temple reveals that the fullness of time has come. The New Eve
will soon bring forth the New Adam to reverse the curse and lead the faithful
into the presence of God.
This is
speculation and I do not want it to obscure the purpose of this post, which is
to defend the existence of Temple virgins in Jerusalem. Nevertheless, the
presence of the New Eve at or in the Temple certainly is fitting since it
hearkens back to the prophecy that the virgin mother will crush the head of the
serpent. This is an exciting new perspective at the meaning of Christmas.
Immaculate
Mary, dutiful at the Temple, pray for us.
*It is
blasphemy to say that the Blessed Virgin Mary was an “unwed mother” or that she
conceived Christ “out of wedlock.” Joseph and Mary were married before the
angel Gabriel came to her in the Annunciation, and thus she conceived Christ
after she was married to Saint Joseph. “The angel Gabriel was sent…to a
virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph.” Joseph and Mary were
“spouses.”
