Ephrem the Syrian in particular makes clear the extent
to which Mary’s purity first requires the agency of Jesus Christ. Ephrem has
been wrongly cited as the first Syriac Church Father to teach the doctrine of
Mary’s immaculate conception. Certainly, just like Jacob he emphasizes how beautiful
and pure Mary is from the start. But at the same time, Ephrem also expounds the
idea that Jesus Christ is the only person wholly within sin, and stresses that
Mary is first baptized in Christ and also that this baptism is essential in
order to preserve her purity. In his writings, Mary emerges as the first
individual to be absolved of sin through baptism, and Ephrem sees this baptism
as residing in her conception of Jesus. In other words, Mary is born anew from
her son, and cleansed of sin through him. In similar fashion, Jacob of Serugh
also proceeds from the assumption that Mary is freed from sin, including original
sin, from the moment she conceives Jesus, though for Jacob this is a necessary prerequisite
for the conception for Jesus that the Holy Spirit effects prior to the event.
For all their mariological enthusiasm, therefore, the
Mariology of Ephrem and Jacob remains emphatically Christocentric. And
notwithstanding all her advantages, Mary does still require cleansing. At the same
time, though, she is so pure by virtue of her connection with Christ that she
can become the model for all human life per se. Yet it is not merely her
status as a role model for human existence that the Syriac Church Fathers
consider important, but also her virginity. (Muna Tatari and Klaus von Stosch, Mary
in the Qur’an: Friend of God, Virgin, Mother [trans. Peter Lewis; London: Gingko,
2021], 48-49)
