Debate: O Separated Christians, Return to your Mother

This page is created to debate these questions (1) Is Mary the Woman of Gen 3:15. (2) Is She the Queen Crowned in Heaven in Rev 12:1 and (3) Is She the Mother of all Christians in Rev 12:17? This writer has contributed articles toward the scholarly study of that subject for One Peter Five and will be drawing heavily on those studies in the course of this article. Briefly, however, the Woman of Genesis 3:15 and Rev 12:1 and 17 clearly seem to be the same Woman, and the Mother in a special way of Christ, as well as of the other children of God, i.e. of Christians.

Five Proofs of Mary's Queenship/Immaculate Perfection/Maternity of Christians

Below, we consider several solid biblical proofs that demonstrate doctrinally and theologically, (1) the Immaculate Conception of Mary (2) her Universal Queenship, and (3) her terrible crushing enmity over Satan, “terrible as an army set in array” (Cant. 6:9).

Biblical/Theological Proof I: The Proof from the Promise of Almighty God in Eden

The day of the fall, Almighty God promised a special woman to come, who will have an altogether unique enmity with Satan and crush his head as the new Eve. Gen. 3:15: “I will put enmities between thee and the woman, and thy seed and her seed: she shall crush thy head, and thou shalt lie in wait for her heel” (Latin Vulgate/Douay-Rheims). This remarkable prophecy is called the Proto-Evangelium, the First Gospel. Remember that God is grieved at sinful Eve and her fall; He promises therefore a new immaculate woman, who will not fall for Satan’s snares, but crush his head by remaining always immaculate. When it is said “her seed,” it is shown that the child born of her will be born without a human father — i.e., He is Christ, as Isaiah (7:14) would reiterate.

She will be the eternal enemy of Satan, whom he fears most. Eve was Satan’s victim. How can Mary crush Satan? She must be all-immaculate; the seed of the serpent must have no part in her. She crushed him every time she refused his temptations and remained immaculate. She crushed him at the Annunciation by saying her fiat to God. She obeyed the holy angel, as Eve had obeyed the fallen angel. Eve snatched the fruit from the tree; Mary gave the fruit of her womb to the Tree of Life, the Cross. She crushed him by co-operation at the Cross.

Everything is necessarily different. Mary is the new and true Eve. She has crushed him very many times in history, for example crushing pagan infanticide at Guadalupe, Islamist extremism at Lepanto, and communist terrorism through Fatima.

Major Premise from Genesis: A woman is destined to crush Satan’s head (Gen. 3:15).

Minor Premise from Gospels: Whoever sins is a servant of sin and Satan (Jn. 8:34).

Theological/Doctrinal Conclusion I: The woman will never sin or be subject to sin — that is to say, Mary, the Virgin Mother of God, is here promised to be sinless and immaculate.

In defense of the Vulgate’s correct translation:

Cornelius Lapide says that another early Jewish witness to the “she” reading is the historian Josephus, who died around 101 A.D: Whence also Josephus (Book 1, Chap. 3) reads it this way as our translator writes. For he says: “He ordained that the woman should inflict wounds on his head” from which it is evident that Josephus in his day read aute , that is to say, “she.” Josephus and Philo wrote in Greek, but knew Hebrew, so their testimony witnesses to the fact that both the Septuagint and the Hebrew of their day read “she.” Lapide gives an even later Jewish witness, later even than the Massoretes, the Jewish philosopher, Moses Maimonides, who died around 1204. Of course, Maimonides did not believe in the Messianic or Mariological content of our prophecy, thinking that the woman of the context was merely Eve, but he obviously believed that the text read “she.”

Theological Proof II: Proof from the Biblical Typology of Jael crushing Sisera

A highly important aspect of biblical and patristic studies is recognizing typologies. As studies into the Sacred Writings advance, more and more typologies become readily apparent. Take the typologies of Christ: Abel typifies Christ, for he offered to God a more perfect sacrifice, and then was killed, typifying how Christ, the great High Priest, would give His own life as a perfect sacrifice for the sins of the world. Abraham sacrificing his son foreshadows how God the Father would sacrifice God the Son. The three men who appear to Abraham in Genesis 18, according to many ancient Western and Eastern commentaries alike, are none other than Theophanies of the Three Persons of the Trinity. The Theophany of Melchizedek, who offered bread and wine as a priest, was a figure of Jesus Christ, Eternal Priest, Who has established the Holy Sacrifice under the forms prefigured in this ancient offering. The patriarch Joseph, esteemed by God above the rest of his brothers, also prefigures the Messiah to come, for he was thrown into a pit and left for dead but gloriously raised up by God to the king’s right hand and made lord of his house, typifying Christ’s passion, death, resurrection, and ascension.

Are there many female biblical types of Mary? Certainly: Jael who crushed Sisera; Queen Esther who saved Israel by prayer and fasting; Judith who delivered Israel from Holofernes; Mary the sister of Moses and Aaron, the leader of all Israelite women, etc.

Major Premise from Judges: Jael, called “blessed above women,” who “smote Sisera, she smote off his head” so that “[a]t her feet he bowed, he fell, he lay down: at her feet he bowed, he fell: where he bowed, there he fell down dead” (Judges 5:24, 26–27).

Typological Minor Premise: Jael is clearly a type of the woman who will crush Satan’s head. Sisera in this passage signifies not a temporal human enemy, but the worst enemy.

Theological Conclusion: As Jael crushed Sisera, Mary will crush Satan’s head; as Jael delivered Israel, Mary will deliver the Church; as Jael saved one nation, Mary will save the world — for there the people sang, the Lord defeated Sisera by a woman’s hands; here, the world will confess, God has crushed Satan under the feet of His Mother.

Biblical Proof III: Proof from the glorious golden and stainless ark of the Covenant

Are there immaterial prefigurements of Mother Mary, recognized by the Fathers of the Church, in Sacred Scripture? Yes, prominent among them is the golden Ark of the Covenant. St. Athanasius, the great defender of the Holy Trinity, says, “O noble Virgin, truly you are greater than any other greatness. For who is your equal in greatness, O dwelling place of God the Word? To whom among all creatures shall I compare you, O Virgin? You are greater than them all. O Covenant, clothed with purity instead of gold! You are the Ark in which is found the golden vessel containing the true manna, that is, the flesh in which divinity resides. Should I compare you to the fertile earth and its fruits? You surpass them, for it is written: “The earth is my footstool” (Is. 66:1). But you carry within you the feet, the head, and the entire body of the perfect God”

In Exodus 25, God commands the Prophet Moses:

[11] And thou shalt overlay it with the purest gold within and without: and over it thou shalt make a golden crown round about: [12] And four golden rings, which thou shall put at the four corners of the ark: let two rings be on the one side, and two on the other. [13] Thou shalt make bars also of setim wood, and shalt overlay them with gold. [14] And thou shalt put them in through the rings that are in the sides of the ark, that it may be carried on them. [15] And they shall be always in the rings, neither shall they at any time be drawn out of them[.] …

[18] Thou shalt make also two cherubims of beaten gold, on the two sides of the oracle. [19] Let one cherub be on the one side, and the other on the other. [20] Let them cover both sides of the propitiatory, spreading their wings, and covering the oracle, and let them look one towards the other, their faces being turned towards the propitiatory wherewith the ark is to be covered.

Thus, the angels are shown to hold the Ark in supreme reverence.

This is how the Ark of the Covenant is described in Hebrews 9:3–4:

[3] And after the second veil, the tabernacle, which is called the holy of holies: [4] Having a golden censer, and the ark of the testament covered about on every part with gold, in which was a golden pot that had manna[.]

The Ark of the New Testament is the woman, whose body contained God, whose heart always was pure gold, whose every deed was stainless and spotless, whose whole life was all-immaculate, who is the very holy of holies herself.

Biblical Major Premise: The Ark of the Covenant that contained God was golden and spotless.

Typological Minor Premise: This Ark of the Covenant signified the woman who bore God.

Doctrinal Conclusion: Therefore, the mother who bore God is golden and spotless.

Theological Proof IV: Proof from the Glorious Queen, Daughter of God the Father, in David’s Ps. 44 [45 in Protestant translations]

But are there Biblical examples where a princess or queen is spoken of whose heart and interior are purely golden and glorious? Certainly, in the Psalm 44 (Vulgate) of David.

Ps. 44:10–18:

"The daughters of kings have delighted thee in thy glory. The queen stood on thy right hand, in gilded clothing; surrounded with variety. Hearken, O daughter, and see, and incline thy ear: and forget thy people and thy father’s house. And the king shall greatly desire thy beauty; for he is the Lord thy God, and him they shall adore. And the daughters of Tyre with gifts, yea, all the rich among the people, shall entreat thy countenance. All the glory of the king’s daughter is within in golden borders, Clothed round about with varieties. After her shall virgins be brought to the king: her neighbours shall be brought to thee. They shall be brought with gladness and rejoicing: they shall be brought into the temple of the king. Instead of thy fathers, sons are born to thee: thou shalt make them princes over all the earth. They shall remember thy name throughout all generations. Therefore shall people praise thee for ever; yea, for ever and ever."

Here we see plainly prophesied (i) a glorious queen beautifully adorned beside Christ, (ii) the King, the Lord God Himself, is fascinated at the beauty of her immaculate soul; (iii) all her glory is within (cf. 1 Pet. 4:3–4, Prov. 31); (iv) she is richly adorned in choicest gold; (v) virgins follow in her train; (vi) she appoints princes of the royal priesthood of Christ, and virgins for service in the Temple — i.e., priests and nuns in the Catholic Church; (vii) her holy name, Mary, shall be remembered for all generations. People will praise her forever and ever for all ages! See, dear Evangelicals, how Catholic veneration of Mary with hyperdulia is only the fulfillment of Bible prophecy!

Biblical Major Premise: King David prophesies the queen whose beauty fascinates God.

Biblical Minor Premise: This queen is to be praised forever and ever by all generations (this is what the New Testament means when the Holy Ghost tells us there, through St. Gabriel and St. Elizabeth, and the Blessed Virgin herself, in her glorious Magnificat, Lk. 1: “[48] Because he hath regarded the humility of his handmaid; for behold from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed. [49] Because he that is mighty, hath done great things to me; and holy is his name. [50] And his mercy is from generation unto generations, to them that fear him.”

Doctrinal Conclusion: Therefore, the supreme veneration of Mary is desired and foretold in the Bible, and, further, all generations of Christians should join in. If Catholic Christians didn’t praise Mary always, the Bible would be guilty of a false prophecy!

Theological Proof V: Proof from the biblical example of special exception for Esther

Recall how the king Ahasuerus made a special exception for Queen Esther alone: “And when he saw Esther the queen standing, she pleased his eyes, and he held out toward her the golden sceptre, which he held in his hand: and she drew near, and kissed the top of his sceptre” (Esther 5:2). The saints and fathers say God made a similar exception for Mary, from the law of death and sin: “All the king’s servants, and all the provinces that are under his dominion, know, that whosoever, whether man or woman, cometh into the king’s inner court, who is not called for, is immediately to be put to death without any delay: except the king shall hold out the golden sceptre to him, in token of clemency, that so he may live” (Esther 4:11). This shows us quite plainly what God did for Mary; in order to redeem her in a more excellent manner, by the merits of His Son, He saved her from falling into sin in the first place, for as one can save a beautiful sparrow after it has fallen into a dung heap, or save it more excellently by preventing it from falling in the first place, we see that God Almighty, for the highest honor of his holy mother, has chosen the latter.

Biblical Major Premise: The king exempted his queen by exception from the law of death.

Typological Minor Premise: Queen Esther clearly signifies God’s own glorious queen, Mary.

Doctrinal Conclusion: Mary was therefore preserved by Christ from the death of sin.

In an earlier article, we saw five theological proofs from the Bible, all from the Old Testament and biblical books accepted by Protestants, of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Mother of God. Here, we continue our prayerful studies in Revelation, both from other Old Testament Books and also from the New Testament.

Theological Proof VI. Proof from the Gospel of St. Luke. From the angelic salutation.

From the “gratia plena.” Proof from the angel’s supreme veneration of Mary. Proof from the Holy Spirit falling at Mary’s greeting. Proof from John the Baptist leaping in the womb. Proof from the Holy Spirit through St. Elizabeth highly praising Mary, being glad at her visitation. Proof from the amazingly fulfilled prophecy of the Queen of Prophets!

The Ave Maria signifies that Mary is the New Eve, the antithesis of Eva, the undoer of her disobedience. It also shows the highest reverence the angels have for their Queen.

In the Old Testament, Abraham, Lot, Tobias, and his son Tobias highly venerated the angels who appeared to them. Here, the angel highly venerates Mary, saying, “Hail,” as one would say, “Hail, Caesar” — or, as was later said, “Hail, King of the Jews” (Mk. 15:18).

Luke 1:28: “And the angel being come in, said unto her: Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women.” In Latin, “full of grace” is gratia plena. Jesus Christ, the sinless Lamb of God, immaculate by His nature, is also called “full of grace” (plenum gratiae) in Jn. 1:14.

In Greek, “full of grace” is kecharitomene. Greek scholars tell us how this word can be translated: “It is permissible, on Greek grammatical and linguistic grounds, to paraphrase kecharitomene as completely, perfectly, enduringly endowed with grace” (Blass and DeBrunner, Greek Grammar of the New Testament). In other words, the angel salutes the Blessed Mother as full of grace — completely, perfectly endowed with grace.

What follows? That Jesus Christ has “divinized” (what is called theosis) His Mother, by giving Her all His gifts of grace. But Jesus Christ has the grace of being immaculate. Hence, Mary too must have had that grace; otherwise, Mary would not be full of grace. If Mary is full of grace, she is immaculate. Else Christ, being full of grace, would not be immaculate.

St. Elizabeth, filled with the Holy Spirit at Mary’s greeting, marveled that the Mother of God came to visit her. John the Baptist was sanctified in the womb when Mother Mary spoke. He leaped for joy in her presence, bringing to mind David before the Ark of the Covenant in 2 Samuel. The Ark was brought, it remained for three months, and it brought the Lord God’s Blessings.

And David was afraid of the Lord that day, saying: How shall the ark of the Lord come to me? And he would not have the ark of the Lord brought in to himself into the city of David: but he caused it to be carried into the house of Obededom the Gethite. And the ark of the Lord abode in the house of Obededom the Gethite three months: and the Lord blessed Obededom, and all his household. And it was told king David, that the Lord had blessed Obededom, and all that he had, because of the ark of God.

Here we see that honoring Mary, the Ark of God, brings blessings wherever she goes. The ancient promise of God to His saints, “I will bless them that bless thee, and curse them that curse thee” (Gen. 12:3), applies pre-eminently to Mary, Queen of Saints. Again in Tobias 13, this prophecy is reiterated, using the figure of the mystical City of God:

They shall be cursed that shall despise thee: and they shall be condemned that shall blaspheme thee: and blessed shall they be that shall build thee up. But thou shalt rejoice in thy children, because they shall all be blessed, and shall be gathered together to the Lord. Blessed are all they that love thee, and that rejoice in thy peace.

Let these biblical examples of how saints and angels have treated Mary set the example for us as well!

Further confirmation: It is a biblical commandment to honor one’s mother, as we read in Ex. 20:12, cited in Eph 6:2–3, and Mary is our Mother (Jn. 19:27). St. John signifies the perfect disciple of Christ, the one closest to His Sacred Heart, who loves God’s Mother as his very own. Do you desire such divine intimacy with the Savior? Then, O Evangelical Christian, love Mary as your own dearest Mother, too!

VII. The seat of wisdom, whose fruit is pure gold, the mystical Mother of divine Grace Whom the Jews called Shekinah, bride of God’s Spirit, appears again and again in the Wisdom books

She appears in Proverbs, in Sirach, in the Song of Songs, and in the book dedicated to Wisdom itself!===

(i) Prov. 8:17–20:

I love them that love me: and they that in the morning early watch for me, shall find me. With me are riches and glory, glorious riches and justice. For my fruit is better than gold and the precious stone, and my blossoms than choice silver. I walk in the way of justice, in the midst of the paths of judgment, That I may enrich them that love me, and may fill their treasures.

Here, personified Wisdom speaks to us as the Mother of Grace, whose fruit is fairer than gold! Since the fruit is Christ, the fruit of Mary’s immaculate womb, as St. Elizabeth, inspired by the Holy Ghost, would joyfully confess centuries later, it is evident that the woman is Mary. Lady Wisdom continues to speak to us through the lips of the prophets throughout all the Wisdom books!

A further confirmation in Sirach 24. The Lord makes His tabernacle in Holy Wisdom; she is to be praised in the churches of the Most High. Among the blessed, she is the blessed.

(ii) Sir. 24:

Wisdom shall praise her own self, and shall be honoured in God, and shall glory in the midst of her people, And shall open her mouth in the churches of the most High, and shall glorify herself in the sight of his power, And in the midst of her own people she shall be exalted, and shall be admired in the holy assembly. And in the multitude of the elect she shall have praise, and among the blessed she shall be blessed, saying: I came out of the mouth of the most High, the firstborn before all creatures: … Then the creator of all things commanded, and said to me: and he that made me, rested in my tabernacle, And he said to me: Let thy dwelling be in Jacob, and thy inheritance in Israel, and take root in my elect. From the beginning, and before the world, was I created, and unto the world to come I shall not cease to be, and in the holy dwelling place I have ministered before him. And so was I established in Sion, and in the holy city likewise I rested, and my power was in Jerusalem … I am the mother of fair love, and of fear, and of knowledge, and of holy hope. In me is all grace of the way and of the truth, in me is all hope of life and of virtue. Come over to me, all ye that desire me, and be filled with my fruits.

Here, in these amazing verses, we learn of the Mother of grace! Just as the Jewish people expected a Messiah to come, they expected also His Mother, Mother of grace.

That is the deep meaning of the “full of grace”: Mary is the Mother of God, full of His grace. Mary is therefore always to be praised; by the will of her Son, she is grace! She is the Mother of love, of fear, of holy hope. All grace of the Way, the Truth and the Life — i.e., of Christ — is in her. She is Mother and mediatrix of all the graces of His Spirit, as His true spouse. She lived only to do His will, therefore she was ever full of grace, and always grew in it. That is why the Bible tells us to praise her, to honour her in God, etc., as above.

(iii) Wisdom in Wisdom 8: the Lord of all loved the lady who is Mother of wisdom. He made His tabernacle in her. Who is she? The Immaculata!

God tells us how He loved and pursued Lady Wisdom. She is the true bride of His Holy Spirit. The Lord of all sought to have her for the spouse of His Spirit, as we see here.

Wisdom 8:1:

She reacheth, therefore, from end to end mightily, and ordereth all things sweetly. Her have I loved, and have sought her out from my youth, and have desired to take for my spouse, and I became a lover of her beauty. She glorifieth her nobility by being conversant with God: yea, and the Lord of all things hath loved her.

VIII. The beloved bride whom the Holy Ghost calls, “O My Love” is altogether without stain, immaculate.

Mary is a figure of the Church. She already represents in her own person what the whole Church will be on the last day.

Canticle 4:7: “Thou art all fair, O my love(!), and there is not a spot in thee.” The English word immaculata comes from the Latin for this verse. “Macula” means stain. Macula non est in Te, the Holy Ghost sings to His bride; in other words, the Holy Ghost declares to us that Mary is immaculate. (The verse in Latin is, from the Vulgate 4:7, Tota pulchra es, amica mea, et macula non est in te.)

IX: The Ark of the Covenant is astonishingly seen in Heaven.

She is the woman crowned with twelve stars. She is the Mother of the Church, the daughter of Israel, the all-immaculate Virgin Mary.

Rev 11:19 “And the temple of God was opened in heaven: and the ark of his testament was seen in his temple[.]” So the Ark of God was assumed into Heaven, as the Church teaches! This Ark, as we have seen above, of pure gold, stainless and immaculate to contain the stainless and immaculate Lord of Glory, is none other than the immaculate Virgin Mary.

Chapter and verses were added to the Bible by the Catholic Church later, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Apoc. 11:19 and 12:1 go together; they speak of the woman crowned with twelve stars in Heaven, who is clothed so gloriously, above all the saints and angels, that she must have led an immaculate life of the greatest sinless perfection possible.

Apoc. 12:

And a great sign appeared in heaven: A woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars: … And she brought forth a man child, who was to rule all nations with an iron rod: and her son was taken up to God, and to his throne … And the dragon was angry against the woman: and went to make war with the rest of her seed, who keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.

Look how manifest it is that Mary is crowned in Heaven, more glorious than the sun, the moon, and the stars. (1) The woman here is the Mother of Jesus, and Mary is the Mother of Jesus. (2) The woman here is the Mother of Christians, and Jesus gave Mary to be Mother of St. John at the Cross, and of His perfect disciples. (3) The woman here is the same woman as in Gen. 3:15. (4) The woman here gave birth both to Jesus and to us, her spiritual children, while remaining ever a virgin, for that is why it is said we are her seed, therefore she is a virgin mother. But only one woman in history ever has been and always will be a virgin mother — namely, the Virgin Mary. Therefore, she is the Queen Mother of the twelve tribes of Israel, Queen of the twelve apostles of the Church, the Blessed Virgin Mary. Like the Gebirah in Israel, it is clear that her petition is always heard.

She signifies Israel, because She is the virgin daughter of Israel that Isaiah, Jeremiah, and the prophets speak of. She also typifies the Church, as St. Ambrose, St. Clement, St. Ephrem, and the Fathers say, because she is in her own person what the Church will one day be.

St. John the Apostle showed us that the model disciple receives Mother Mary as his own personal dearest Mother, just as he receives Jesus Christ as his own personal Lord and Savior. Here, the apostle teaches us that all who have God for their Father must have Mary for their Mother, for she is the true Mother of all God’s children, and we are her spiritual seed, whom she conceives as still a virgin.

Great Saints like St. Cyprian and St. Montfort say that those who do not have Mary and the Church for their Mother do not have God for their Father .

X: The bride of God is a woman in Heaven, who with her spouse the Holy Spirit speaks to us in Apoc. 22.

She is a type of the Church, as the Church Fathers say, and is immaculate Mary.

Is there further evidence that there is a woman assumed into Heaven, who received her coronation there? Yes: She is not only Mother of God the Son and daughter of God the Father, but also, as we have seen with ample citations from both Testaments, the true beloved bride of the Holy Ghost. The Holy Ghost calls her “My Love”, and He deigns to allow her to speak to us in the last chapter of the Holy Bible. It is written, “The Spirit and the Bride say, ‘Come’” (Apoc. 22:17). From the fact that the Holy Spirit speaks, many Protestants themselves, against J.W.s and other Protestants, prove correctly that the Holy Ghost is a person. Hence, by the same standard, the bride of the Holy Spirit is a person.

Who is she? None other than Mary Immaculate, bride without stain, living image of Mother Church. Whoever is truly devoted to her will be saved.