Alleged Early Testimonies to the Bodily Assumption of Mary

 

William Albrecht is perhaps one of the leading Roman Catholic Mariologists around at the moment. He and Fr. Christian Kaapes have together written a book on the subject (titled Mary Among the Evangelists). 

Albrecht has provided us with a few documents and sources which he sees as proof that the doctrine of Mary's bodily assumption was the universal ancient faith of the Christian church. Here, I tackle a few of these.

#1 - Jacob of Serug

"On this day Adam rejoices and Eve his wife, because their daughter rests in the place where they are gathered. On this day the righteous Noah and Abraham rejoice that their daughter has visited them in their dwelling-place. On this day Jacob, the honourable old man, rejoices that the daughter who sprouted from his root has called him to life. She wove a beautiful crown and set it on her sublime head on which valuable pearls were laid. The name of Christ the King who was crucified on Golgotha, grants life and sheds forth mercy on the one who invokes Him. And also on me a sinner who is not capable of praising her, the Mother of mercy, who brought You forth in the flesh. O Son of God, by her prayers make your peace to dwell in heaven, in the depths, and among all the counsels of her sons. Make wars to cease, and remove trials and plagues; bestow calm and tranquillity on seafarers. Heal the infirm, cure the sick, fill the hungry; be a Father to orphans whom death has left destitute. In your pity, drive out devils who harass mankind, and exalt your Church to the four quarters of the globe, that it may sing your praise. Watch over priests and purify ministers; be a guardian of old age and youth. O Bridegroom Christ, to you be praise from every mouth, and on us be mercy at all times. Amen, Amen." (Homily on the Dormition of the Mother God)

However, the 1950s doctrine of the bodily assumption is not contained here. Jacob of Serug never says that Mary's body and soul were assumed into heaven, only the latter. 

"In all likelihood then Jacob composed this homily in the late fifth century, as the homily’s prologue indicates, and certainly before his death in 521. The homily describes the events of the Virgin’s death, burial, and entry into heaven in a unique and highly poetic account, but there is no question of Mary’s bodily Assumption in its narrative. Despite the wishful thinking of some modern interpreters, there is no indication of her bodily presence in heaven, and only the translation of her soul is described." (Stephen J. Shoemaker, The Ancient Traditions of the Virgin Mary's Dormition and Assumption [Oxford: 2002], pg. 64) 

#2 - Timothy of Jerusalem

"Therefore the Virgin is immortal to this day, seeing that he who had dwelt in her transported her to the regions of her assumption" (Homily on Simeon and Anna, PG 86:245-247)

Albrecht attributes AD 400 as the dating of this document. This is incorrect, as Shoemaker notes:

"Jugie argued (La Mort, 70–6) that a homily In Simeonem et Annam attributed to a certain ‘Timothy of Jerusalem’ witnessed to a tradition about the end of the Virgin’s life, and more specifically, her immortality, from the end of the 4th or the beginning of the 5th cent. He dated the text by this otherwise unknown author to this period based on the absence of any mention of Mary’s Jerusalem tomb (a legend that he incorrectly believed began to take shape only around 550; for more on this, see the following chapter), the absence of any anti-Nestorian polemic, and the use of parthenos instead of theotokos. Bernard Capelle, however, has convincingly shown that the homily was composed sometime between the 6th and 8th centuries (Bernard Capelle, ‘Les Homélies liturgique de prétendu Timothée de Jérusalem’, Ephemerides liturgicae, 63 (1949), 5–26). Jugie, however, was unconvinced: see his L’Immaculée Conception dans l’Écriture sainte et dans la tradition orientale, Collectio Edita Cura Academiae Marianae Internationalis, Textus et Disquisitiones, Bibliotheca Immaculatae Conceptionis, 3 (Rome: Academia Mariana/Officium Libri Catholici, 1952), 74–5 n. 3. According to my knowledge, there is, as of yet, no critical edition of this text, but a critical edition of the relevant passage may be found in Othone Faller, SJ, De priorum saeculorum silentio circa Assumptionem b. Mariae virginis, Analecta Gregoriana, Series Facultatis Theologicae, 36 (Rome: Gregorian University, 1946), 27." (Stephen Shoemaker, Ancient Traditions of the Virgin Mary's Dormition and Assumption [Oxford: 2002], pg. 15n21)

This homily thus is about 2 centuries later than Albrecht's dating to it.