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QUESTION:

2/9/2010: Is the Ark of the Covenant a type or symbol of Mary in the Orthodox Church? The woman with a crown of 12 stars in Revelation 12:1, is that symbolizing Mary? Is this what the Church fathers taught?

ANSWER:

Yes, the Ark point to Mary the Theotokos who is in turn an icon or sign of the Church. We have:
Ark > Mary > Church

This is clearly expressed in the OT reading and hymns for the Feast of Dormition (August 15) - see www.oca.org for the readings.

In Revelation 12, the connection between the Ark and the Woman is quite obvious in spite of the artificial break between chapter 11 and 12. Certainly, Mary is certainly one aspect of the fulfillment of Revelation 12, but the full expression seems to be the Church as Wisdom, which is made obvious by a comparison with Wisdom 7 (see footnotes in EOB/NT).

As far as patristics interpretations are concerned, there are few truly early patristic discussions of Revelation 12, and the earlier one tend to identify the Woman with the Church which is consistent with the above.

For useful scholarly commentaries, see Beale, Ford and Barker.

 

Keyword: Revelation 12, Mary, Woma | Other keywords:

 

 
 
     
   
 

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