Was Stephen Sinless (Full of Grace) like Mary?

The Fullness of Grace: A Catholic Exegesis of “Kecharitomene” (Luke 1:28) in Contrast to “Plērēs Charitos” (Acts 6:8) and Its Bearing on the Dogma of the Immaculate Conception

I. Introduction

One of the most common Protestant objections to the Catholic dogma of the Immaculate Conception is the claim that the angel’s greeting to Mary, traditionally translated “full of grace” (Latin: gratia plena; Greek: kecharitōmenē), does not teach a unique sinlessness because the same expression is allegedly used of Stephen and others in the New Testament. The argument usually runs: “If Mary is ‘full of grace,’ so is Stephen (Acts 6:8), yet no one claims Stephen was immaculately conceived. Therefore the Catholic interpretation is special pleading.”

This essay will demonstrate that the objection rests on a serious conflation of distinct Greek expressions that are never identical in the New Testament. The angel does not call Mary plērēs charitos (the phrase used of Stephen and of the believers in Acts 6:5); he uses the perfect passive participle kecharitōmenē—a term that appears nowhere else in Scripture and carries unique theological weight. After examining the lexical, grammatical, and contextual differences between kecharitōmenē (Luke 1:28) and plērēs charitos (Acts 6:8; 6:5), we will show why the angelic greeting is legitimately understood as signifying a singular, ontological fullness of grace that preserves Mary from original sin from the first moment of her existence.

II. The Greek Text of the Angelic Greeting (Luke 1:28)

The Greek of Luke 1:28 in the critical text reads:

καὶ εἰσελθὼν πρὸς αὐτὴν εἶπεν· Χαῖρε, κεχαριτωμένη, ὁ κύριος μετὰ σοῦ.

The word kecharitōmenē is the feminine singular perfect passive participle of the verb charitoō (χαριτόω), “to endow with grace,” “to highly favor.” The root is charis (χάρις), grace.

Key grammatical observations:

1. It is a perfect participle: the action of gracing/favoring is completed in the past with ongoing effect into the present.
2. It is passive: Mary is the recipient of this action; the gracing is done to her by another (ultimately God).
3. It is used vocatively as a title or proper form of address, effectively replacing her personal name: “Hail, Kecharitomene!”
4. The verb charitoō is extremely rare in Greek literature and appears only twice in the entire New Testament: here in Luke 1:28 and in Ephesians 1:6.

Jerome’s Vulgate rendered kecharitōmenē as gratia plena (“full of grace”), a translation that captures both the perfect tense (completed fullness) and the passive voice (wholly graced by God).

III. The Description of Stephen and Others: Πλήρης Χάριτος (Acts 6:5, 6:8)

In contrast, the expression used for Stephen and the first deacons is plērēs charitos (πλήρης χάριτος):

• Acts 6:5: Στέφανον, ἄνδρα πλήρης πίστεως καὶ πνεύματος ἁγίου …
• Acts 6:8: Στέφανος δὲ πλήρης χάριτος καὶ δυνάμεως ἐποίει τέρατα καὶ σημεῖα μεγάλα ἐν τῷ λαῷ.

The adjective plērēs (πλήρης) means “full,” “filled,” or “abounding.” It is commonly used in the New Testament with a genitive of content (e.g., Jesus “full of the Holy Spirit,” Luke 4:1; Stephen “full of the Holy Spirit,” Acts 7:55). The expression plērēs charitos therefore means “full of grace” in the sense of “abounding in grace” or “filled with grace” at a particular moment or in a particular ministry.

IV. Lexical and Grammatical Contrasts Summarized

Feature	Mary (Luke 1:28)	Stephen (Acts 6:8) / Others
Greek term	κεχαριτωμένη (kecharitōmenē)	πλήρης χάριτος (plērēs charitos)
Part of speech	Perfect passive participle (verbal)	Adjective + genitive
Tense	Perfect (completed action, permanent state)	Present / timeless
Voice	Passive	No voice implied
Syntactic function	Vocative title replacing proper name	Descriptive attribute
Verb root	χαριτόω (rare)	No verb
Occurrence in NT	Only here (and Eph 1:6, different form)	Multiple times

V. Patristic Testimony to the Uniqueness of Kecharitomene

• Origen (c. 233): “Mary is called by a new name which is not applied to any other virgin: Kecharitomene.”
• St. Proclus of Constantinople (d. 446): “He did not say ‘Hail, Mary,’ but ‘Hail, Full-of-Grace’ (Kecharitomene), indicating the manner of her holiness.”
• St. Sophronius of Jerusalem (d. 638): “No one has been so highly favored (kecharitōtai) as this Virgin, who alone has been called Full-of-Grace (Kecharitomene) by Gabriel.”

VI. Theological Implications: Why Kecharitomene Supports the Immaculate Conception

1. The Perfect Tense – denotes a completed state with ongoing effects.
2. Replacement of the Proper Name – the angel addresses her by her new identity in grace.
3. The Source of the Gracing – God is the implied agent (theological passive).
4. Context of Luke 1 – reinforced by “you have found grace with God” (1:30) and Elizabeth’s Spirit-inspired exclamation (1:42–43).
5. Relation to Original Sin – original sin is the privation of sanctifying grace; perfect fullness excludes that privation from the beginning.

VII. Common Objections and Responses

Objection 1: Ephesians 1:6 uses the same verb echaritōsen.
Response: It is the aorist indicative active, not the perfect participle used as a proper title.

Objection 2: Some manuscripts have a different reading.
Response: Kecharitōmenē is the reading of 𝔓⁷⁵, Sinaiticus, Vaticanus, Alexandrinus, and the entire Greek tradition.

Objection 3: “Full of grace” only means “highly favored.”
Response: Even “highly favored” in the perfect tense and used as a title still implies a unique, permanent, and prevenient divine action.

VIII. Conclusion

The Protestant “gotcha” that equates Mary’s kecharitōmenē with Stephen’s plērēs charitos collapses upon even cursory examination of the Greek text. Only Mary is greeted with a perfect passive participle that effectively becomes her new name, signifying that God has already perfectly and permanently filled her with grace. This scriptural datum, read in the light of the universal tradition of the Church, provides solid biblical warrant for the dogma of the Immaculate Conception.

References

• Blass, F., A. Debrunner, and F. W. Gingrich. A Greek Grammar of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1961.
• Fitzmyer, Joseph A. The Gospel According to Luke I–IX. Anchor Bible 28. New York: Doubleday, 1981.
• Liddell, H. G., and R. Scott. A Greek-English Lexicon. 9th ed. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1996.
• Zerwick, Maximilian. Biblical Greek. Rome: Pontifical Biblical Institute, 1963.
• Catechism of the Catholic Church, §§ 490–493.
• Pius IX. Ineffabilis Deus (1854).