Luke 11:27-28 is one of the go-to passages for most people (typically Protestants) who disagree with the Catholic Church’s venerative claims about Mary. In the passage, a woman tells Jesus “Blessed is the womb that bore you and the breasts that nursed you!” And in verse 28, Jesus replies back “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it!” Typically this passage is used as a proof text to claim that there is nothing special about Mary in the eyes of God that would justify venerating her. The common belief is that Christ is “putting Mary in her place” so to speak. But a closer look at the passage in Greek warrants a second look at how the verse is often interpreted.
One thing protestants do get right about this passage is that it is important to Christ for his followers to hear the word of God and obey it. This article should not be taken to deny the importance of obedience to the Father that Christ asks of us. What is being disputed here is if Christ is lowering Mary’s dignity as being blessed in a unique way in this particular passage. The argument is usually hinged on the word rather, and is taken to mean that Christ is saying that instead of Mary being uniquely blessed (negative affirmation), all believers who put their faith in him are blessed.
While it’s certainly true that those who place their faith in Christ are blessed, a closer look at the Greek doesn’t always imply a negative affirmation of the subject before it in a contrary manner. The word used for rather in this passage is Μενοῦν. It occurs three times in scripture, once from the passage in Luke 11, once in Romans 9:20, and again in Romans 10:18. In Romans 10:18, Μενοῦν is translated as indeed to affirm a positive truth about a subject. Paul rhetorically asks if Israel has not heard the scripture, and the response is a positive indeed they have, confirming that they have heard scripture. If we look at Romans 9:20 we see the same thing. Paul asks “But who are you indeed (Μενοῦν) a human being, to argue with God? Paul is positively affirming the reader in their humanity to demonstrate human insufficiency in light of divine authority. You could look at Romans 10:18 and conclude that Μενοῦν is used in a contrary manner, but it would fit strangely if Paul is setting the question up to answer in the affirmative. If we use Μενοῦν as indeed, it flows with the verse better. If we look at Luke 11:28 through this lens, Christ would be saying “Indeed, blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it.”
Christ would be both affirming Mary in her blessedness and telling people that those who hear the word of God and keep it are blessed. Now you could argue that Μενοῦν does mean on the contrary as an opposite in all the verses, but you’re going to run into a big problem if you do. Scripture inerrantly tells us that Mary is uniquely blessed, and interpreting rather as meaning contrary would contradict scripture. For instance, in Luke 1:42 Elizabeth tells Mary that she is “blessed among women”, specifically because she is carrying the messiah. A few passages down in Mary’s song of praise to God (Luke 1:48) she says “Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed”. If all generations call her blessed, and she’s blessed among women, then there are two biblical instances that affirm Mary’s unique blessedness. It would not make sense that the writers of the Gospels would write that Mary is uniquely blessed in contradiction to Christ if he did not believe she were and outright explicitly says so. If scripture is inspired by God, and lists two places where Mary is uniquely blessed, it should challenge us to be consistent in how we interpret Luke 11:28 in light of what Christ believes about Mary.
Further, even the imperfect kings who were sinners in the line of David honored their mothers and treated them with respect. If imperfect sinners love and honor their parents, then how much more would Christ honor his mother and her dignity? If Christ perfectly obeyed the law, then he followed the command to honor his parents (Ex 12:20, Deut 5:16). The question of how to honor her is a different question altogether, but the passage on its own does not demonstrate that Christ thought that Mary was not uniquely blessed or unworthy of honor in any way. Finally, the word rather did not always mean to affirm a contrary or opposite fact like we understand as an accurate definition of rather today. In old English, rather was often used to affirm a fact, or to express agreement or acceptance. In the same way “pray” often meant to ask, “rather”, deriving from Middle English, could be used to affirm an agreement. Thus, when we seek to understand what a passage is saying, we should be careful in understanding how language can sometimes change over time. This will help avoid reading anachronistic understandings of words into the bible, as well as making the scriptures contradict themselves.
