The Woman of the Promise: The Co-redemptrix Foreshadowed in the Old Testament

Genesis 22:1-18 - The near-sacrifice of Isaac

There is not time and space here to cover all the profound aspects of this great passage of the Old Testament and central event in the life and story of Israel. However, we will highlight the verses that are a foreshadowing of the sacrifice of the only beloved Son of God on Calvary, which brings redemption for the whole world.

• Mt. Moriah is the actual place (or in the near vicinity) of where Mt Calvary was when Jesus was crucified¹
• Isaac is a type of Christ as the "only begotten son of Abraham" (22:2 - Vulgate and Douay-Rheims translations)
• The significance of the location - Salem's name becomes Jerusalem from Abraham naming the place "the Lord will provide," which in Hebrew is Jira attached to Salem²
• V.6 - Isaac carries the "wood of sacrifice" up the mountain as a foreshadowing of Christ
• Isaac is an older youth able to carry the wood and therefore when Abraham binds Isaac (the Aqedah), he could have resisted, but did not, and therefore was freely willing to give up his life in obedience to his father
• The request of God for the sacrifice of Isaac was a serious test of Abraham's faith, which he past with flying colors³
• V.5 - Hebrews 11:17-19 states that Abraham believed in the resurrection of the dead and this is a foreshadowing of the Resurrection of Christ⁴
• God spares Isaac in mercy and provides the ram as a foreshadowing of the sacrifice of His only Begotten Son, "the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world" (John 1:29)

St. Clement of Alexandria d. 215

He is Isaac, who is a type of the Lord, a child as a son; for he was the son of Abraham, as Christ the Son of God, and a sacrifice as the Lord, but he was not immolated as the Lord. Isaac only bore the wood of the sacrifice, as the Lord the wood of the cross. And he laughed mystically, prophesying that the Lord should fill us with joy, who have been redeemed from corruption by the blood of the Lord. Isaac did everything but suffer, as was right, yielding the precedence in suffering to the Word. ⁵

Origen d. 254

Isaac himself carries the wood for his own holocaust: this is a figure of Christ. For he bore the burden of the cross, and yet to carry the wood for the holocaust is really the duty of the priest. He is then both victim and priest. This is the meaning of the expression: together they went off. For when Abraham, who was to perform the sacrifice, carried the fire and the knife, Isaac did not walk behind him, but with him. In this way he showed that he exercised the priesthood equally with Abraham.

Here are the fire and the wood, but where is the sheep for the holocaust? And Abraham replied: God will provide for himself a sheep for the holocaust, my son. The careful yet loving response of Abraham moves me greatly. I do not know what he saw in spirit, because he did not speak of the present but of the future: God will provide for himself a sheep. His reply concerns the future, yet his son inquires about the present. Indeed the Lord himself provided a sheep for himself in Christ.

Abraham extended his hand to take the sword and slay his son, and the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said: Abraham, Abraham. And he responded: Here I am. And the angel said: Do not put your hand upon the boy or do anything to him, for now I know that you fear God. Compare these words to those of the Apostle when he speaks of God: He did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all. God emulates man with magnificent generosity. Abraham offered to God his mortal son who did not die, and God gave up his immortal Son who died for all of us.

And Abraham, looking about him, saw a ram caught by the horns in a bush. We said before that Isaac is a type of Christ. Yet this also seems true of the ram. To understand how both are figures of Christ-Isaac who was not slain and the ram who was-is well worth our inquiry.

Christ is the Word of God, but the Word became flesh. Christ therefore suffered and died, but in the flesh. In this respect, the ram is the type, just as John said: Behold the lamb of God, behold him who takes away the sins of the world. The Word, however, remained incorruptible. This is Christ according to the spirit, and Isaac is the type. Therefore, Christ himself is both victim and priest according to the spirit. For he offers the victim to the Father according to the flesh, and he is himself offered on the altar of the cross. Origen - a homily on Genesis 22⁶

Manelli comments: "It becomes clear, therefore, that the typology contained in the figures of Abraham and Isaac, fulfilled in Mary and Christ, is precisely that of Coredemptress-Redeemer." ⁷ Mary demonstrated perfect faith with her "Fiat" at the Annunciation. Later she would demonstrate endurance in that faith and unwavering trust in God's plan as she "consented to the immolation" of her only beloved Son on the Cross at Calvary, co-offering him to the Father (Lumen Gentium #58). Like Abraham before her, she trusted that God was able to raise men from the dead (Heb 11:19). When Hebrews 6:15 says "Abraham, having patiently endured, obtained the promise," this speaks volumes of how this was a foreshadowing of Mary, who "all generations will call blessed; for he who is mighty has done great things for her, and holy is his name" (Luke 1:48-49). Interestingly, Mary, at the last line of the Magnificat, specifically mentions Abraham, as Zechariah would later do in the Benedictus (Luke 1:68-79).

From all that we have offered concerning the story of Abraham, it seems evident that the life of Abraham and Sarah and Isaac was a foreshadowing of Jesus and Mary. Abraham's faith specifically was a type of the great faith of Mary. We believe, in connection with this faith, that one can interpret from the account in Gen 22 a foreshadowing of Calvary and the sacrifice of the Redeemer, with the Co-redemptrix beside him. Abraham in this case is the type of Mary, agonizing in his heart as he watches his only beloved son ascend the mountain, with the wood on his back, at the request of the Father, being led to the sacrifice. We argue that this passage, in a remote way (not as strongly as others), points to Mary as Co-redemptrix.

Magisterial Statements:Pope John Paul II - Homily on the Commemoration of Abraham, Rome - 2000.

Mary, "who believed that there would be a fulfilment of what was spoken to her from the Lord" (Lk 1: 45), is an unsurpassable model of the redeemed people on their way to the fulfilment of this universal promise. Daughter of Abraham in faith as well as in the flesh, Mary personally shared in this experience. Like Abraham, she too accepted the sacrifice of her Son, but while the actual sacrifice of Isaac was not demanded of Abraham, Christ drank the cup of suffering to the last drop. Mary personally took part in her Son's trial, believing and hoping at the foot of the Cross (cf. Jn 19: 25).

This was the epilogue of a long wait. Having been taught to meditate on the prophetic texts, Mary foresaw what awaited her and in praising the mercy of God, faithful to his people from generation to generation, she gave her own consent to his plan of salvation; in particular, she said her "yes" to the central event of this plan, the sacrifice of that Child whom she bore in her womb. Like Abraham, she accepted the sacrifice of her Son. Today we join our voice to hers and with her, Virgin Daughter of Zion, we proclaim that God has remembered his mercy, "as he spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and to his posterity for ever" (Lk 1: 55). ⁸

Abraham was the man of the promises and our focus in this paper is on the "woman of the promise," and so, just as one of the promises God made to Abraham was of a great dynasty (Gen 17:6), and pointed forward to the Davidic kingdom (which was the longest lasting dynasty in human history), we move next to that dynasty to see the figure of the Gebirah (Queen Mother) and the Ark of the Covenant. We will see how the office of Queen Mother and the Ark of Old were foreshadowings of Mary as Co-redemptrix.

2 Sam 6 & 7 - Mary is the New Ark of the Covenant and the Supreme Gebirah (Warrior/Queen Mother)

The Ark of the Covenant in the Old Testament mediated the presence of God to the people (cf. Exodus 40). So too, the New Ark, the Queen of Heaven and earth, is Co-redemptrix, Mediatrix of all graces and Advocate of the people of God. The following quote from Pope Pius XII's decree on the dogma of the Assumption of Mary shows the connecting aspects of Mary as New Ark, Queen and Co-redemptrix:

39. We must remember especially that, since the second century, the Virgin Mary has been designated by the holy Fathers as the new Eve, who, although subject to the new Adam, is most intimately associated with him in that struggle against the infernal foe which, as foretold in the protoevangelium, (Gen 3:15) would finally result in that most complete victory over the sin and death which are always mentioned together in the writings of the Apostle of the Gentiles (Rom 5-6; I Cor. 15:21-26, 54-57). Consequently, just as the glorious resurrection of Christ was an essential part and the final sign of this victory, so that struggle which was common to the Blessed Virgin and her divine Son should be brought to a close by the glorification of her virginal body, for the same Apostle says: "When this mortal thing hath put on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: Death is swallowed up in victory" (I Cor 15:54).

40. Hence the revered Mother of God, from all eternity joined in a hidden way with Jesus Christ in one and the same decree of predestination,(The Bull Ineffabilis Deus, loc. cit., p. 599) immaculate in her conception, a most perfect virgin in her divine motherhood, the noble associate of the divine Redeemer who has won a complete triumph over sin and its consequences, finally obtained, as the supreme culmination of her privileges, that she should be preserved free from the corruption of the tomb and that, like her own Son, having overcome death, she might be taken up body and soul to the glory of heaven where, as Queen, she sits in splendor at the right hand of her Son, the immortal King of the Ages (I Tim 1:17). ⁹

A few paragraphs earlier Pope Pius XII referenced the teachings of the Fathers and Medieval theologians and saints whom in their exegeses point out Psalm 45 and Psalm 132 which make reference to the queen and ark respectively enthroned in heaven. We point out below that this is highlighted in the liturgy with the readings for the Solemnity of the Assumption of Mary. This is also confirmed and summed up in Rev 12 where it shows the Ark and Queen of Heaven together. It is from these connections, which the Church makes herself that we will try to show the foreshadowing of the new Ark/Gebirah in the Old Testament passages of 2 Sam 6 & 7, 1 Kings 1 &2 and Proverbs 31:10-31.

2 Samuel 7 is one of the central prophecies of the coming Messiah in the Old Testament. This is confirmed in Matthew as he links the coming Messiah to the Davidic kingdom and most clearly at the Annunciation in Luke 1:32-38 where the exact language of 2 Sam 7 is used by Luke to link the Messiah as the successor to King David. We link 2 Sam 6 and 7 together because we see a connection between Mary's Queenship on the one hand, with her title as Ark of the Covenant on the other, with the coming of Christ, the Messiah, whose body becomes the new Temple (John 2:19). It will take several passages of Scripture to show these connections, suffice it to say, we see in this link the one Marian aspect of the warrior queen or (Gebirah). ¹⁰