'The type is never greater than the fulfilment' (Chapter 2 · 2.3 Immaculate Mary)	'It is a basic rule of Scripture that Old Testament prefigurations (known as types) are never greater than their New Testament fulfillments.' Adam prefigures Jesus, 'but Adam was not greater than Jesus (remember the Fall?)'; David foreshadows Christ, 'but David was certainly not greater than Christ (remember Bathsheba?).' Therefore: 'If Mary is really the new Eve, then she must be greater than Eve.' Eve was created 'very good,' without sin; so the New Eve begins without sin. And the corollary covers her whole life: 'if she had committed even one sin, then the old Eve would be greater than the new Eve.' Ephrem and Augustine state the exception, and Augustine is explicit that it is pure grace, 'not something she earns.'	catena::topic-immaculate-conception
Created immortal as well as sinless — the tree of life (Chapter 2 · 2.1 The Woman in Eden)	Pitre treats immortality as a second gift alongside moral goodness. God tells the couple they may 'freely eat' of every tree, which includes the tree of life whose fruit lets them 'live for ever.' Only after the fall are they barred from it. So Adam and Eve before the fall were fully human, sinless, and offered unending life; death is a loss, not the design. The point returns twice: a sinless Mary is no less human than unfallen Eve (p 39), and the incorruptible Ark points to a body kept from the grave (pp 46, 63).	catena::topic-immaculate-conception
Eve was created 'very good' — why that matters for Mary. (Chapter 2 · 2.1 The Woman in Eden)	Genesis says the first humans were made 'very good' — a Hebrew phrase meaning morally good, without sin — and given the tree of life. Tellingly, the woman is named 'Eve' only after the fall; before it she is simply 'Woman.' The New Eve is likewise 'Woman,' made in that original grace.	catena::topic-immaculate-conception
How the New Eve typology grounds the Immaculate Conception. (Chapter 2 · 2.3 Immaculate Mary)	Pitre does NOT rest this on 'full of grace' (p 13). His argument runs in two steps. First, ancient Christians everywhere — Justin, Irenaeus, Ephrem, Cyril of Jerusalem, Chrysostom, Jerome, Augustine, writing in Greek, Latin and Syriac — saw Mary as the New Eve (pp 36–37). Second, 'it is a basic rule of Scripture that Old Testament types are never greater than their New Testament fulfillments': Adam was not greater than Jesus, David was not greater than Christ, so if Mary is the New Eve she must be greater than Eve — created without sin as Eve was and, unlike Eve, never sinning, or the old Eve would outrank the new (pp 37–38). Irenaeus' 'the knot of Eve's disobedience was loosed by the obedience of Mary' is the Fathers' way of saying the same.	catena::topic-immaculate-conception
Mary as the New Eve — the founding text and its logic. (Chapter 2 · 2.1 The Woman in Eden)	God sets enmity between the serpent and 'the woman,' whose seed will crush his head — fulfilled when Mary's Son conquers Satan by the cross. Ancient Jewish tradition already held that death came into the world through a woman; the New Eve reverses it, paired with Christ the New Adam.	catena::topic-immaculate-conception
Romans 3:23, Psalm 51:5, Hebrews 4:15 — 'less than fully human?', what the doctrine is not, and 'God my Saviour' (Chapter 2 · 2.3 Immaculate Mary)	Pitre lets the objection stand at full strength: Scripture teaches that all born after the fall are under sin, and it says Jesus alone was without sin — 'But how can we add Mary to the list?' His reply is a question: 'Wouldn't Mary's being created without sin mean that she was somehow less than fully human? Not unless Adam and Eve before the Fall are also less than fully human.' He then clears away misconceptions: the doctrine has nothing to do with her parents' sinlessness, nor with cleansing her so as not to pass a sinful nature to Jesus; it is 'a special grace that flows directly from Jesus' victory over sin.' Pius IX defined it as preservation 'in view of the merits of Jesus Christ' — which is why Mary can say 'God my Saviour.' She is the beginning of the new creation, a 'living sign' of the sinless life the redeemed will share.	catena::topic-immaculate-conception
Seven Fathers on the New Eve, with their words — and Newman (Chapter 2 · 2.3 Immaculate Mary)	Pitre quotes the Fathers rather than listing them, and then argues from their spread: they wrote in Greek, Latin and Syriac, in the Holy Land, Africa, Asia Minor and Europe. Justin Martyr: Eve 'brought forth disobedience and death. But the Virgin Mary received faith and joy.' Irenaeus: 'The knot of Eve's disobedience was loosed by the obedience of Mary.' Ephrem's Nativity hymns. Cyril of Jerusalem: 'Death came through a virgin, Eve. It was necessary that life also should come through a virgin.' Chrysostom on Psalm 45. Jerome: 'Death came through Eve, but life has come through Mary.' Augustine's sermon 51. Newman sums up: the New Eve is 'the great rudimental teaching of Antiquity from the earliest date.'	catena::topic-immaculate-conception
The full Eve–Mary parallel (Chapter 2 · 2.2 Mary the New Eve)	Pitre lays the two women side by side: (1) each is called 'woman' — Eve eleven times in Genesis, Mary twice in John; (2) each draws the man to an act — Eve to the first sin, Mary to Jesus' first sign; (3) each stands beside him at the decisive moment — Eve with Adam at the Fall, Mary with Jesus at the crucifixion; (4) each is bound to the 'offspring' who defeats the serpent. And it is at the cross, the very hour the devil is 'cast out,' that Jesus calls her 'Woman' again.	catena::topic-immaculate-conception