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MARY IN THE OLD TESTAMENT

Mary as the Ark of the New Covenant
As we mentioned in the previous program notes on the Perpetual Virginity, Mary was considered to be the “Ark of the New Covenant” and thus her womb would be considered sacred to Joseph, her pious Jewish husband. Let us examine Scripture to see if this idea is indeed biblical.

Luke 1:35 The Archangel Gabriel announces to Mary, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the Most High will overshadow you…” These words are an echo of Exodus 40:34-35 at the consecration of the newly erected tabernacle which housed the Ark, where Moses says, “Then the cloud overshadowed the tent of meeting and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. And Moses was not able to enter the tent of meeting because the cloud had overshadowed it and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle….and the cloud overshadowed it by day and there was fire in it by night.”

The tabernacle was not merely “another tent” and the Ark were not just another ordinary box, they were sacred. Mary was not merely “just another woman”. Her womb was the place God dwelt in His fullness, not merely in type and shadow.

Luke 1:43 Elizabeth greets Mary, “How is it that the mother of my Lord should come to me?”
Elizabeth’s greeting is a recognition that Mary is the Mother of Elizabeth’s God. But again the language is an Old Testament reference to the Ark in II Samuel 6:8-9. Uzzah has been killed for touching the Ark, and David fears God and says, “Who am I that the Ark of the Lord should come to me?” Any Jew of the first century would have recognized this reference and regarded Mary as the Ark of the New Covenant, more holy than the archetype which Uzzah touched and David feared with awe and reverence.

Rev. 11:19 says “The temple of God which is in heaven was opened and the ark of His covenant appeared in His temple….” Note the Ark of HIS covenant. Which one? The NEW covenant, of course. But note the next verse, which is 12:1: “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 was with Child…” We do not see the connection between the two verses because of the chapter break, but the two chapters are one continuous thought. It is clear that Mary is the Ark and the crowned “Queen of Heaven” .

Mary, the Queen of Heaven
The concept of Mary as “Queen of Heaven” has been discredited by modern “scholars” as being a politically motivated title given to Mary to appease the pagans who worshipped Diana, a Greek godess of Ephesus. But Scripture makes it clear that this is a BIBLICAL title, not a political ploy by the early Church to synchretize the Faith.

Luke 1:48 Mary says, “From henceforth all generations shall call me blessed”. In the Magnificat there are several OT references, but this one is particularly interesting from Psalm 45:6-18, a Messianic prophecy:
“…the Queen takes her place at your right hand in the gold of Ophir….So shall the King desire your beauty, for He is your Lord, and you must worship Him…I will make your name (the Queen’s) memorable throughout all generations, and all nations shall praise you forever and ever.”

This passage references a relationship that was known and understood by ALL Jews: the Queen Mother, or the Mother of the King. Mary was the Mother of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. This relationship was a special one and the understanding of it holds great meaning for a proper understanding of the relationship between Mary and Jesus and Mary and Christians, the subjects of the King.

Mary as the Queen Mother
There is an Aramaic word, "Gebirah", which means "Queen Mother". Traditionally, next to the throne of the King was a second throne. Many would assume that the second throne belonged to the wife of the King, but in Israel it belonged to the mother of the king. The Gebirah was an official position, one with which everyone (Jesus and His disciples included) was entirely familiar. Her role was as an advocate of the people; anyone who had a petition or sought an audience with the King did so through her. She was an intercessor, presenting the wishes and concerns of the people to the King. This does not imply that the King was unapproachable, or that people were afraid or unable to speak to him. It merely means that the King honored his mother and took her requests into special consideration. On the part of the people, they felt close to her, as if they too were her children. This role is mentioned in:
1 Kings 15:13 " He also deposed his Maacah from her position as queen mother"
2 Kings 10:13 " "We are kinsmen of Ahaziah," they replied. "We are going down to visit the princes and the family of the queen mother.""
Jeremiah 13:18 " Say to the king and to the queen mother: come down from your throne"

Her specific place of honor and intercession is dramatically illustrated in the following passage from 1 Kings 2: 13-21: "Adonijah, son of Haggith, went to Bathsheba, the mother of Solomon. "Do you
come as a friend?" she asked. "Yes," he answered, and added, "I have something to say to you." She replied, "Say it." So he said: "...There is one favor I would ask of you. Do not refuse me." And she said, "Speak on." He said, "Please ask King Solomon, who will not refuse you, to give me Abishag the Shunamite for my wife." "Very well," replied Bathsheba, "I will speak to the king for you." Then Bathsheba went to King Solomon to speak to him for Adonijah, and the king stood up to meet her and paid her homage. Then he sat down upon his throne, and a throne was provided for the king's mother, who sat at his right. "There is one small favor I would ask of you," she said. "Do not refuse me." "Ask it, my mother," the king said to her, "for I will not refuse you." So she said, "Let Abishag the Shunamite be given to your brother Adonijah for his wife.""

These are some important lessons:
1.Adonijah assumed that the queen mother would approach the King on his behalf. She was an intercessor to the King.
2. The reaction of the King is noteworthy: he stood up to meet her and paid her homage. This is a picture of Christ’s regard for Mary. Can we or should we regard Mary LESS than Christ Himself regards her?
3. A throne was provided for her, and she sat at his right hand.
4. Her power as intercessor is stressed by the repetition of the idea that the king "will not refuse her".
5. The Queen Mother was the second most powerful person in the kingdom.

The Church, knowing this type and shadow of the Queen of Heaven and Queen Mother, regarded Mary as the fulfillment of that relationship in Christ. We assume that she will approach the King on our behalf. Now, many Protestants will say "We don't need to go through anyone; we can speak to God directly, Christ is our only Mediator between God and man." Yes, Christ is our only Mediator, but we are all intercessors. We ALL ask our friends to pray for and with us, not because we feel that we can't approach God directly, but because we are a family in Christ. We ALL have the ministry of intercession on behalf of others. We care about each other, and approach God on behalf of those we love.

Why limit that care and assistance to those living on this earth now? Saint Paul tells us that we are surrounded by a cloud of witnesses-- do we think that these witnesses care nothing for us? Revelation tells us that the prayers of the saints rise like incense before God. If we ask those we know here to pray for us, how should we refrain from asking those who are in the presence of God? James 5 says the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much. Who is more righteous than the Mother of God? And if we ask those who are in the presence of God to pray for us, how should we refrain from asking the very mother of the King? The issue is not “mediation” but intercession, which is something all Christians are called on to do for one another.

Mary is not “worshipped”, but paid homage to in her unique role and relationship to our King. She is not
our “redeemer”, only Christ is. She is a unique intercessor, but not a “Mediator” as Christ alone is to God.
Mary rejoiced in “God her Savior”. She stands uniquely between the human race and God as the one who
joined heaven and earth in her flesh by giving flesh to God. This is the icon of Mary behind the altars of the Orthodox Churches: The Panagia, or “The More Spacious Than the Heavens”. Mary is above the Altar and below the Pantocrator (the icon of Christ in the Dome, the “Creator of All”), with Christ in her womb.
She is the bridge between heaven and earth, the one who contained the uncontainable God in her womb.

Other OT Types

Ezekiel 44:2 The East Gate of Jerusalem. The Church Fathers saw this as a type of Mary and her perpetual virginity. “And the Lord said to me “This gate shall be shut, it shall not be opened, and no man shall enter by it, for the Lord God of Israel has entered by it., therefore it shall be shut”. If one visits Jerusalem today, you can still see that the East Gate is still walled up in fulfillment of this command.

The Fathers of the Church also saw the Burning Bush of Moses and the fiery furnace and the Three Youths as types of Mary. Remember the Exodus 40:35 passage that spoke of the flame by night in the tabernacle?
This is a reference to God as a “consuming fire”, which is also referenced in Hebrews 10. Mary bore the full divinity of God in herself and yet was not consumed by the fire of His divinity. Our Katavasia prayers during Matins of the Nativity season says, “Verily the dewey furnace did shadow the sign of the supernatural wonder; for it burned not the youths whom it received, as the fire of divinity also burned not the womb of the Virgin in which He dwelt.”

This sums up the Orthodox view of Mary quite well: Her relationship to Christ is a “supernatural wonder”.
It is an awesome mystery, unique, unfathomable, sacred and yes, human, foreshadowed and foretold in many types in the life of Israel. It is clear that the early Church, being Jewish and knowing the OT scriptures would have understood these things clearly and recognized these passages and relationships.
This brings the relationship of Mary and Christ and their relationship to us into a Scriptural perspective and balance. We need not speculate about these things because the Scriptures are clear, and as long as we hold to these teachings we will not ignore Mary, nor will we give her more honor and homage than God Himself gives her.

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