Although we have already spoken on
this subject in another context in the foregoing disquisitions), when an
opportunity offered itself, yet we do not object to elucidating the subject
further here.
Maggenanutha denotes help and
guardianship and also the receiving of the heavenly gift. As for instance: The
Holy Ghost shall come and the Power of the Highest shall overshadow thee). And:
Thy right hand shall save me4), which is a prayer for help. And: I will defend
this city to save it).
So we understand two kinds of action
in the maggenanutha granted by God unto mankind one is symbolical and
intelligible; the other practical. The former is connected with the holiness
which is received through divine grace; this means: by the influence of the
Holy Ghost a man is made holy in body and soul, as is the case of Elisha and
John and Mary the blessed among women. But because this is incomparable and
above that which happens to the rank-and-file of creatures we have to come to
that partial [holiness] which is granted unto the other saints, in the relation
between the limbs and the body. (Isaac of Nineveh, Mystic Treatises
[trans. A. J. Wensinck; Amsterdam: Koninklijke Akademie Van Wetenschappen,
1923], Treatise 54: Other Explanations Concerning Maggenanutha, 261–262)
Notice
how Issac groups the purification of body and soul of Elisha, John the Baptist,
and Mary together. This shows that, as with other Syrian theologians, while he
did believe in Mary becoming panagia/all holy, it was not at her conception,
but some time afterwards. He is a witness, albeit implicit, against the Immaculate
Conception.