by
Damien F. Mackey
“In our modern Bibles, there is a chapter division between the appearance
of the Ark of the Covenant and the description of the “woman clothed with the
sun.” But chapter divisions were added in the Middle Ages to make the books of
the Bible easier to refer to. John did not make any divisions: he wrote
straight through from Revelation
11:19 to Revelation
12:1 without a break”.
The
human activity discussed in Part Three
(i), of ‘cleaving across the
real structure’ of things, for some legitimate utilitarian purpose, rather than
patiently studying ‘the thing as it is in itself’ (Immanuel Kant’s das
Ding an sich), is apparent from the
artificial re-arranging of the Book of Genesis into 50 chapters each consisting
of multiple verses - whereas the book in-itself naturally falls into those eleven
toledot (‘family history) divisions
as discussed in my:
Structure of the Book of
Genesis
Today we would be hard put to live without
those familiar chapters and verses, artificial though they be, which can serve
as a handy mnemonic device and points of reference. However they, because they
are artificial, can also have the unfortunate effect of hindering one from properly
grasping the original intention and meaning of the author(s) of the text.
This is well exemplified when we turn from
the first book of the Bible, Genesis, to the last, Revelation. Dr. Scott Hahn,
writing of what he calls “The Ark of the New Covenant”, explains how St. John
the Evangelist’s intended meaning gets completely lost due to the thematic discontinuity
caused by the artificial division of Revelation’s Chapters 11-12 (https://stpaulcenter.com/studies/lesson/lesson-three-the-ark-of-the-new-covenant):
A. The Ark Reappears in Heaven
Luke uses parallel language and images to make his point.
But John, the author of Revelation, tells us directly that he saw the Ark of
the Covenant - the holy object that had been lost since Jeremiah’s time - in a
vision.
“Then God’s temple in heaven was opened, and the ark of
his covenant could be seen in the temple. There were flashes of lightning,
rumblings, and peals of thunder, an earthquake, and a violent hailstorm. A
great sign appeared in the sky, a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon
under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars. She was with child and
wailed aloud in pain as she labored to give birth” (see Revelation
11:19 and Revelation
12:1-2).
This is a strange string of images, almost overwhelming -
like much of the book of Revelation. But certainly the statement that the Ark
of the Covenant was visible must have caught the attention of the first people
who heard the vision.
If the Ark had been seen, then the time Jeremiah spoke of
must have come: the time when “God gathers his people together again and shows
them mercy,” the time when “the glory of the Lord will be seen in the cloud,
just as it appeared in the time of Moses” (see 2 Maccabees 7-8)
And indeed the sights and sounds are the same as in the
time of Moses - storm and earthquake:
“There were flashes of lightning, rumblings, and peals of
thunder, an earthquake, and a violent hailstorm” (see Revelation
11:19).
“On the morning of the third day there were peals of
thunder and lightning, and a heavy cloud over the mountain, and a very loud
trumpet blast, so that all the people in the camp trembled . . . Mount Sinai
was all wrapped in smoke, for the LORD came down upon it in fire. The smoke
rose from it as though from a furnace, and the whole mountain trembled
violently” (see Exodus 19:16, 18)
Naturally, we want to hear more about the rediscovered
Ark of the Covenant. And John goes on to describe what he sees: “a woman
clothed with the sun” (see Revelation 12:1).
In our modern Bibles, there is a chapter division between
the appearance of the Ark of the Covenant and the description of the “woman
clothed with the sun.” But chapter divisions were added in the Middle Ages to
make the books of the Bible easier to refer to. John did not make any
divisions: he wrote straight through from Revelation
11:19 to Revelation 12:1 without a
break.
In the dream-like but deeply significant logic of John’s
vision, the Ark of the Covenant is “a woman clothed with the sun.”
B. The Woman Clothed With the Sun
And who is this woman?
“She was with child and wailed aloud in pain as she
labored to give birth ” (see Revelation
12:2).
“She gave birth to a son, a male child, destined to rule
all the nations with an iron rod. Her child was caught up to God and his
throne” (see Revelation 12:5).
The one destined to rule the nations with an iron rod (a
shepherd’s rod) is the Lord’s Anointed, the Messiah or Christ (see Psalm
2). The “woman clothed with the sun,” whom John sees when he looks at the Ark
of the Covenant, is the Mother of the Christ.
C. What Makes Mary the Ark of the New Covenant?
The Ark of the Covenant was the sign of God’s real
presence among His people. In Jesus Christ, born of Mary, God was really
present among his people in an even more direct way.
The Ark held the Word of God written in stone. Mary bore
the Word of God in flesh.
The Ark held the bread from heaven, a foreshadowing of
the Eucharist (see 1 Corinthians 10:1-4). Mary
bore the Bread of Life, Jesus Christ (see John
6:48-50).
The Ark contained the rod of Aaron, symbol of his
priesthood. Mary bore Jesus Christ, our High Priest (see Hebrews
3:1).
If the Ark of the Covenant was holy, then by the same
standards Mary is even holier. As Mother of God, she is the Ark of the New
Covenant, bearing Jesus Christ, the Word of God, the Bread of Life, our great
High Priest. That is not a re-interpretation of the Gospel: it is a truth made
clear by the New Testament writers themselves.
[End of quote]
For more on this fascinating subject, see the
following article:
'The Marian Dimension'. Part Three: Mary as New Ark of Covenant
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