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

We see from Sri's statements how central was the 2 Sam 7 prophecy, which is further confirmed by Isaiah, which mentions the Virgin-Queen Mother. Matthew shows from the beginning pages of his Gospel that Jesus is fulfilling the Davidic kingdom and that he is the Divine, Royal Son of David. Bathsheba is even one of the four women mentioned in Matthew's genealogy, which we believe is showing the importance of the role of the queen mother. Dr. Scott Hahn says this about this fulfillment: "The immediate, though penultimate, fulfillment of this covenant was found in David's son, Solomon, who, like David, was an "anointed" one-that is, a "Messiah" (Hebrew) or "Christ" (Greek) (1 Kings 1:34, 39). He also enjoyed the status of "son of God" according to the terms of the covenant (2 Sam 7:14; Ps 2:6-7). In Solomon we have a "Christ," a Temple-builder, and the first individual in the canon of Scripture to be described as "son of God." ¹ We will continue to try to show how 2 Sam 6 & 7 should be read as a unit in tandem as they relate to Jesus and Mary in the New Testament. We will further try to show that the aspect of Mary as new Ark of the Covenant is one of battle, which relates to the Queen Mother (Gebirah/warrior queen).

Manelli points out that there are parallels in the passage in 2 Sam 6 where David brings the Ark up to Jerusalem with the Lucan account of the Visitation of Mary to Elizabeth: "In fact, the infancy Gospel of St. Luke (1:39-44) applies to Mary all that was said of the Ark in 2 Sam 6:2-11. Compare, for example, 2 Sam 6:9 with Luke 1:43 and 2 Sam 6:11 with Luke 1:56." ² Putting the verses side by side helps highlight the parallelism that is going on in these passages.

2 Samuel 6 - David brings up the Ark, Luke 1:39-56 - The Visitation

"David arose and went ... to bring up from there the ark of God" (2 Sam 6:2)

"Mary arose and went ... the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth" (Luke 1:39)

"How can the ark of the Lord come to me?" (v. 9)

"Why is this granted me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?" (v. 43)

"And David danced before the Lord with all his Might ... King David leaping and dancing" (vv. 14-16)

"For behold, when the voice of your greeting came to my ears, the babe in my womb leaped for joy" (v. 44)

"The ark of the Lord remained in the house of Obededom for three months" (v. 11)

"Mary remained with her about three months" (v. 56)

Some significant things to point out about these passages are: 1) David and the people do not follow proper liturgical protocol by bringing the ark up on a cart (it was supposed to be carried on the shoulders of the priests). Because of this, the Lord "broke forth upon Uzzah," who touched the ark and died. This puts fear in David and he leaves the ark in the house of Obededom for three months, and the house of Obededom is blessed because of the presence of the ark. 2) The encounter between Mary and Elizabeth is a mini-Pentecost event. Verse 41 states that Elizabeth was "filled with the Holy Spirit." Before Mary had even told her, Elizabeth says, "Blessed are you among women and blessed is the fruit of your womb." These are the words from the "Hail Mary," and Mary confirms that "all generations" will repeat these words in her Magnificat a few verses later.

The significance of this revelation of the Holy Spirit in connection with the ark of the covenant is that when the glory of the Lord appeared in the tent of meeting where the ark was, there were theophanic phenomena, like that which happened at Sinai, at Pentecost, and in Revelation 12 (cf. Ex 19:16; 24:15-18; 40:34-38 Acts 2:1-4 and Rev 11:19). The ark is synonymous with God's glory and power, as is the Mariological reality that wherever Mary is, there is the Holy Spirit, mighty in power. In Revelation 11:19, there is the vision of the Ark of the Covenant in God's temple in heaven and immediately following there is the sign; the woman clothed with the sun. In the Greek there is no chapter break. We would argue that John is linking the ark with the woman, both the context and language, and what foreshadows them shows this. Manelli, commenting on Luke 1:35, where St. Luke uses the word "overshadow," confirms what we have been saying here:

The "Holy Spirit" is the "power of the Most High": it is God, One and Triune, who intervenes in the Incarnation, but the work is attributed "by appropriation" to the third Person of the Most Holy Trinity. St. Luke is the Evangelist of the Holy Spirit ... It is precisely Mary, then, who is the first, through the angelic message, to receive the revelation of the mystery of the Most Holy Trinity and the "descent" of the Holy Spirit ... The verb "to overshadow," then and the metaphors "shadow" and "cloud" have a characteristic meaning in biblical language, connoting the "presence of God" in the meeting tent (Ex 40:34-35) and in the Temple of Yahweh where the Ark was kept (1 Sam 8:10-11). Mary also, "overshadowed" by "the power of the Most High," is transformed into a true "tabernacle" of the Most High, into a sanctuary of the living presence of God who also makes Himself her Son. ³

These quotes show that Mary becomes the new Ark of the New Covenant at the Annunciation, as soon as she gives her "yes" to God. Just as the Ark of old mediated the presence of God to his people, so Mary, at the Annunciation mediated to us the Savior of the world. This was also an act of Coredemption. Mother Teresa said, "Of course Mary is the Co-redemptrix, she gave Jesus his body and his body is what saved us." ⁴ The other significant thing is that Jesus' Body becomes the new Temple (cf. John 2:19). Jean Cardinal Danielou, S. J. has this to say about this "new order:" "A new order appears with Christ, who is the reality of which the Temple was only a symbol. Henceforth the abode of God, the Shekinah, is no longer the Temple, but the manhood of Jesus. 'In this place is one greater than the Temple'" (Matt 12:6). ⁵ So, at the Annunciation, Mary would provide the new Temple in the body of Jesus from her own Immaculate DNA, and the sign of the definitive replacement of the Old Temple and order would be at the destruction of Herod's Temple in 70AD. Incidentally, Herod's Temple did not contain the Ark or the Shekinah, which had not been present since the 6^th century B.C. At the Presentation of Jesus in the Temple, both the new Ark and the Presence of God return to the Old Temple for the first time in over four hundred years.

At the Crucifixion, the new Ark and the new Temple are present. The Cross is the central aspect of the Christian faith and the central act of redemption. At the Cross you have the Redeemer and the Co-redemptrix as we have shown. Fast-forward to Revelation 12 and there is the glorious new Ark in the glorified new Temple in heaven. The significance is, that in a mysterious way God wanted to carry on what he had begun in our forefathers in the faith, in that the central symbol for the Jewish faith before the Temple was the Ark of the Covenant. When Solomon moves the Ark into the Temple, they both become the most important aspects of the Jewish faith. This is where God meets man upon earth. At the Cross, these symbols of the Jewish faith are fulfilled in the Redeemer and the Co-redemptrix. Revelation 12 shows that they continue to exist in the eternal kingdom in heaven.

As we have already stated, 2 Sam 7 is one of the central passages in the Old Testament that foretells of the Messiah, the Son of God. Preceding this, in chapter 6, David had just brought the Ark up to Jerusalem. Now, he wants to build a house for God. God tells him that He will build David a house (dynasty), a kingdom that will last forever. It is clear here that God is not speaking of the kingdom of David, but of the eternal kingdom of God which is a fulfillment of the Davidic kingdom which foreshadowed it, and is fulfilled in Christ the King, the Only Begotten Son of the Father. Solomon is the one who builds the temple and Israel enjoys peace from their enemies under his reign.

So, we see 2 Sam 6 & 7 as foreshadowing Jesus and Mary in the images of the Ark and the Temple which is fulfilled in Luke 1; John 19; and Rev 12. We don't have time and space here to go into the battle aspect of the Ark of the Covenant. The story of Jericho, where the Ark is responsible for the walls of Jericho coming tumbling down is an example of this battle element. With this we see Rev 12 as representing the "warrior queen" Gebirah who has triumphed over the ancient serpent with her Son, and they are glorified together in heaven. The battle continues until "he has put all of his enemies under his feet." Song of Songs 6:10 mentions also this battle element of the "warrior queen' as it says: "Who is she that comes forth like the dawn, fair as the moon, bright as the sun, terrible as an army arrayed for battle." St. Bernard interpreted this verse as referring to Our Lady. Note how it resembles Revelation 12.

If there is still any doubt that Mary is the great Gebirah who does battle with the infernal enemy, consider some historical events in the life of the Church. 1) The battle of Lepanto: Pius V is Pope. Rome is about to be overthrown by invading Muslim forces threatening by sea with the greatest navy in the world. Pope Pius V, a Dominican, calls on all Christendom to pray the Rosary to ward off the enemy and save Rome. In a miraculous turn of events, the inferior navy of the Holy See, outnumbered in ships by 5:1, route the Muslim fleet and win the victory in the battle of Lepanto and save Rome. Saint Padre Pio, five centuries later would call the Rosary, "the weapon!"

Consider Our Lady of Guadalupe, who resembles the "woman" of Revelation 12. She is "clothed with the sun," with "the moon under her feet." She effects the greatest evangelization effort in the history of the Church - the conversion of nine million native Americans, in which is considered the greatest mass conversion of peoples in the history of civilization. The god that these people worshipped was a serpent. The missionary image of Our Lady of Guadalupe (the woman clothed with the sun), has been carried in procession outside abortion clinics and shut them down.

St. John Chrysostom, d. 407 - from a homily on the Assumption of Mary

The Father predestined her, the prophets foretold her through the Holy Ghost. His sanctifying power overshadowed her, cleansed and made her holy, and, as it were, predestined her. Then Thou, Word of the Father, not dwelling in place, didst invite the lowliness of our nature to be united to the immeasurable greatness of Thy inscrutable Godhead. Thou, who didst take flesh of the Blessed Virgin, vivified by a reasoning soul, having first abided in her undefiled and immaculate womb, creating Thyself, and causing her to exist in Thee, didst become perfect man,, not ceasing to be perfect God, equal to Thy Father, but taking upon Thyself our weakness through ineffable goodness. ⁶

The apostolic band lifting the true ark of the Lord God on their shoulders, as the priests of old the typical ark, and placing thy body in the tomb, made it, as if another Jordan, the way to the true land of the gospel, the heavenly Jerusalem, the mother of all the faithful, God being its Lord and architect. Thy soul did not descend to Limbo, neither did thy flesh see corruption. Thy pure and spotless body was not left in the earth, but the abode of the Queen, of God's true Mother, was fixed in the heavenly kingdom alone.

When the Ark of God, departing from Mount Sion for the heavenly country, was borne on the shoulders of the Apostles, it was placed on the way in the tomb. First it was taken through the city, as a bride dazzling with spiritual radiance, and then carried to the sacred place of Gethsemane, angels overshadowing it with their wings, going before, accompanying, and following it, together with the whole assembly of the Church. King Solomon compelled all the elders of Israel in Sion to bear the ark of the covenant of the Lord from the city of David, that is Sion, to rest in the temple of the Lord, which he had built, and the priests took the ark and the tabernacle of the testimony, and the priests and Levites raised it. And the king and all the people sacrificed numberless oxen and sheep before the ark.

And the priests carried in the ark of the testimony of God into its place, into the Holy of Holies, beneath the wings of the cherubim. So is it now with the dwelling-place of the true ark, no longer of the testimony, but the very substance of God the Word. The new Solomon, the Prince of peace, the Creator of all things in the heavens and on the earth, assembled together to-day the supporters of the new covenant, that is the Apostles, with all the people of the saints in Jerusalem, brought in her soul through angels to the true Holy of Holies, under the wings of the four living creatures, and set her on His throne within the Veil, where Christ Himself had preceded her. Her body the while is borne by the Apostles' hands, the King of Kings covering her with the splendor of His invisible Godhead, the whole assembly of the saints preceding her, with sacred song and sacrifice of praise until through the tomb it was placed in the delights of Eden, the heavenly tabernacles.