In this eighth section of my reflections on my recent debate with Mr. William Albrecht on the veneration of Mary, I respond to a video that Mr. Albrecht put out (link to Albrecht's video). Since he put out a video, I've also provided this response in video form.
Mr. Albrecht's video, after an introduction section, plunges into a few areas that Mr. Albrecht felt he couldn't cover during the debate:
1) "Turretinfan's LACK of Preparedness When it Came to Luke 1:28" (all-caps to show spoken emphasis)
Mr. Albrecht's support for this contention was that I allegedly simply don't realize that the word κεχαριτωμένη (kecharitomeneh) is used as a title for Mary. He supports his position that this is a title by saying that this isn't him reading into the text, this is just a basic fact that "anyone familiar with even the basic level of New Testament Greek - Biblical Greek - would know this fact." He continued: "In fact, I don't know a single Protestant that would deny this."
I have to chuckle a bit. Ironically, before seeing this video, I had already gone on in a previous post into much greater detail about what the best possible arguments are for the word being a title, and disposed of them (link to previous post). Mr. Albrecht offers us absolutely nothing except his own assertion as a basis for accepting his position. If it were such a "basic fact" as he claims, you'd think that he'd be able to find at least one person who agreed with him, but instead he resorts to a negative assertion: he claims he doesn't know of any Protestant who would deny this. The next step, no doubt, is for him to ask me to find some scholar who rejects his unusual view - rather than him having to prove his own point. Is this really the best that he can do even without the pressures of the debate? Amazing.
2) "He's [TurretinFan is] also Confused about Ephesians 1:6"
Mr. Albrecht's support for his contention that I am confused is that Ephesians 1:6 doesn't use the same exact word.
Again, this was rather amusing. It is the exact same verb, just a different conjugations of the verb in each case. Mr. Albrecht reads off the two different conjugations, seemingly intending to give the listener the impression that these are two different Greek words, rather than two different conjugations of the same Greek word. What's even more amusing is that, during the debate, Mr. Albrecht had acknowledged that it is the same word in Ephesians 1:6.
There is an important difference between the two conjugations as it pertains to the word being used as a title, as I have already explained in my previous post. Unfortunately, if you watch the video, you'll see that Mr. Albrecht gives you no argument in this regard, just assertions. In fact, he puts it well when he says "The fact - not even an argument - is that kecharitomeneh is used as a name for Mary. And that's not even an argument, that's just something he was confused about." Well, yes, Mr. Albrecht tries very hard to present it as though it were a fact, Mr. Albrecht does try to persuade people that I was confused, and Mr. Albrecht does so without making an actual argument, just a string of assertions.
-TurretinFan
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