The idea
A Baptist pastor challenged him: the doctrines (Immaculate Conception, sinlessness, Assumption, perpetual virginity) seem absent from — or contradicted by — the New Testament, and calling Mary 'Queen of Heaven' echoes an idolatry the Bible condemns. The book is his answer.
Key verses
- Jeremiah 7:17 — 'Seest thou not what they do in the cities of Judah?' — introducing the cakes baked 'for the queen of heaven' in Jeremiah 7:18.
- Romans 3:23 — 'all have sinned' — set against Mary's sinlessness.
- Revelation 12:1 — the 'woman… in heaven' — but is she Mary?
- Matthew 13:55, Mark 3:31, 1 Corinthians 9:5 — the 'brothers and sisters' of Jesus, which seem flatly to contradict perpetual virginity (p 13).
- John 2:4 — 'Woman, what have I to do with thee?' — reads 'almost like a preemptive strike against later devotion' (p 13).
The connection
| Old Testament root | New Testament fulfilment | |
|---|---|---|
| The 'problem' texts about Mary | → | Resolved by reading them in Jewish context |
Pitre opens by conceding the challenge honestly: read flatly, the New Testament seems to say little about Mary and even to contradict Catholic claims. His whole method is that these very texts, put back in their first-century Jewish setting, end up supporting what the Church teaches.