Mary as the Ark of the Covenant
A Protestant's Reflections on Mary - Pt. III
Following on from our discussion of Mary as the ‘New Eve’, I want to conclude this series with some reflection o the typological function of Mary as the ‘New Ark of the Covenant’. This is perhaps one of the richest connections I have seen articulated, and it flows naturally from a deeper understanding of Mary’s role in incarnational theology. Just as we explored in our previous post that Christ as the ‘New Adam’ informs our view of Mary as the ‘New Eve’, so too do we see that understanding Christ as a ‘New Moses’ leads us to view Mary as a ‘New Ark’. This is seen both in narrative structure, and also in symbolism and characterisation throughout the New Testament.
The Dwelling of the Most High
The first instance we have of this thematic allusion can be observed in the description of the virgin birth in the Annunciation. Here, upon Mary asking how she will bear a child, seeing that she is a virgin, we read that Gabriel assures her;
“the Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you.” (Lk. 1:35)
The Greek word used here is the verb ἐπισκιάζω ‘episkiaso’. This is the same word used to describe the presence of God in the tabernacle;
“And then the cloud overshadowed [ἐπισκιάζω ‘episkiaso’] the tabernacle of testimony, and the tabernacle was filled with the glory of the Lord”
(Ex. 40:28 LXX [40:34 MT])
Already we can see a conceptual link being made by Luke in his use of ἐπισκιάζω ‘episkiaso’. “The Spirit overshadowing Mary is to be compared with the way in which God’s glory manifested before Israel in the tabernacle.” Just as God achieved his dwelling amongst his people through the tabernacle and the ark in the time of Moses, so too does he set aside a consecrated space, the womb of Mary, as the vehicle for his salvific dwelling in preparation for the New Moses, Christ (cf. John 1:14) And just as the tabernacle and ark were set apart as God’s dwelling place then, now Mary too is set apart as the special dwelling place of God’s Glory in the New Exodus (cf. Luke’s reference to Christ’s ἔξοδος in his account of the transfiguration; Lk. 9:31).
Hence the beautiful Orthodox description of Mary as ‘more spacious than the heavens’ found in the Liturgy of St. Basil:
All of Creation rejoices in thee, O full of grace:
the angels in heaven and the race of men,
O sanctified temple and spiritual paradise,
the glory of virgins, of whom God was incarnate
and became a child, our God before the ages.
He made thy body into a throne,
and thy womb more spacious than the heavens.
All of creation rejoices in thee, O full of grace:
Glory be to thee.
Here, Mary is understood as the fulfilment of the dwelling place of Yahweh. Just as Solomon would exclaim:
“Will God really dwell on the earth? Behold, the heavens and the heaven of heavens could not contain you! How could this house that I have built?”
(1 Kings 8:27)
So too did the early Christian’s marvel at the immensity of the claim that God had ‘overshadowed’ the womb of Mary and become incarnate in the womb of the Virgin.
This was also understood as analogous to the enthronement of God on the ark of the covenant. In Israel’s past, Yahweh had dwelt enthroned amidst the cherubim of the ark (Ps. 99:1; Isa. 37:16), now he dwells enthroned in the womb of a young woman from Nazareth. This connection has implicit ramifications for our understanding of the incarnation. As we read from the Fathers of the Early Church:
“…the things that took place of old in the wilderness, under Moses, in the case of the tabernacle, were constituted types and emblems of spiritual mysteries, in order that, when the truth came in Christ in these last days, you might be able to perceive that these things were fulfilled … At that time, then, the Saviour appeared and showed His own body to the world, (born) of the Virgin, who was the “ark overlaid with pure gold,” with the Word within and the Holy Spirit without; so that the truth is demonstrated, and the “ark” made manifest.”
(St. Hippolytus of Rome, 170 - 236 AD.)
The Coming of the Ark
The second important detail that depicts Mary typologically as the New Ark is her visitation to Elizabeth:
Compare these two passages;
In those days Mary arose and went with haste into the hill country, to a town in Judah, and she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. And when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the baby leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit, and she exclaimed with a loud cry, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! And why is this granted to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For behold, when the sound of your greeting came to my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy…And Mary remained with her about three months and returned to her home.
(Luke 1:39-44, 59)
And David arose and went with all the people who were with him from Baale-judah to bring up from there the ark of God, which is called by the name of the Lord of hosts who sits enthroned on the cherubim…And David and all the house of Israel were celebrating before the Lord, with songs and lyres and harps and tambourines and castanets and cymbals.
And David was afraid of the Lord that day, and he said, “How can the ark of the Lord come to me?” So David was not willing to take the ark of the Lord into the city of David. But David took it aside to the house of Obed-edom the Gittite. And the ark of the Lord remained in the house of Obed-edom the Gittite three months, and the Lord blessed Obed-edom and all his household...
So David went and brought up the ark of God from the house of Obed-edom to the city of David with rejoicing. And when those who bore the ark of the Lord had gone six steps, he sacrificed an ox and a fattened animal. And David danced before the Lord with all his might. So David and all the house of Israel brought up the ark of the Lord with shouting and with the sound of the horn.
(2 Sam. 6:2, 5-11, 12-15)
Note the parallels in both descriptions;
i) Mary ‘arose and went with haste – David “arose and went with all the people
ii) Into the hill country, to a town in Judah – to Baale-Judah (ownership of Judah, in the hill country)
iii) Elizabeth filled with the Spirit, exclaimed, “How can the mother of my Lord come to me – David filled with fear cries “how can the ark of the Lord come to me?
iv) The baby lept for joy in her womb – David dances before the ark
v) Mary sings a song of praise – David and the people rejoice with praise and ‘the sound of the horn’ at the coming of the ark
vi) Mary remains in the hill country with Elizabeth for three months – the ark stays in the home of Obed-edom for three months.
These parallels are expertly woven into Luke’s account in a profound way. They show the coming of the Mother of God as the fulfilment of the arrival of God’s throne to Jerusalem. Here, the humble journey of the young virgin into the hill country of Judah is spiritually understood as the royal entrance of the throne of God. Again, we have examples of these connections being made by the Fathers of the Church:
“The Mother, Virgin and Blessed, was even more beautiful than the ark full of mysterious of the House of God. While the ark was being carried, David had danced for joy. He typified in figure the way of Mary with John the Baptist, for also that maiden was the ark of the Godhead.”
(Jacob of Serog, Homily III on the Mother of God, 691 AD.)
The Woman Clothed with the Sun
Leaving aside the earthly representations of the ark, I want to turn our attention finally to the representation of the ‘heavenly ark’ and its connections with Mary. The most explicit connection between the two can be found in the Apocalypse of St. John:
Then God’s temple in heaven was opened, and the ark of his covenant was seen within his temple. There were flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder, an earthquake, and heavy hail. And a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars.
(Rev. 11:19-12:2)
While it might seem strange to connect the end of chp. 11 with the beginning of chp. 12 in our translations, remember that in the original Greek manuscripts, there were no chapter or verse markers. Thus, for the original readers, the appearance of the ark in heaven, and then the women in heaven, would seem a logical connection. Thus “the revelation of the ark marks the beginning of a new section, thus linking it to the woman revealed in heaven – in that it introduces the vision in which the woman appears.”
We can see that this conceptual connection between the two seems to stem from John’s source material for this vision, a prophecy from Isaiah:
The sound of an uproar from the city!
A sound from the temple!
The sound of the Lord,
rendering recompense to his enemies!
“Before she was in labor
she gave birth;
before her pain came upon her
she delivered a son.
(Isa. 66:6-7)
Then God’s temple in heaven was opened, and the ark of his covenant was seen within his temple. There were flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder, an earthquake, and heavy hail.
And a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars. She was pregnant and was crying out in birth pains and the agony of giving birth.
(Rev 11:19-12:2)
The fact that Isa. 66:6-7 positions the uproar and the sound from the temple with the labour of the woman parallels directly with John’s portrait in Rev 11:19-12:2. Because of this, scholars conclude that ‘the passage situates both the ark and the woman in the heavenly temple” and thus conceptually connects them. Notice that the Greek word ὤφθη ophthay ‘appeared’ is used in reference to both the ark and the woman , which again, connects their two appearances. This implies that “the woman, who is portrayed as the Mother of the Messiah (Rev 12:5) is in the same place/ position as the heavenly ark, and is revealed in the same manner. For John then, the woman and the ark are dual symbols for the same reality.”
We see that John frequently uses dual symbols throughout both this section:
Dragon + serpent = the devil (Rev 12:3, 9)
Male child + Lamb = Jesus Christ (Rev 12:5, 11)
Ark + woman = Mary (Rev 11:9, 12:2)
Thus as Pitre summarises, “the presence of the ark in the heavenly temple implies that it is the ‘true ark’, but that it is also associated with the heavenly woman, depicting her also as the ‘true ark’”. These parallels are why many Catholic, Orthodox and some Protestant exegetes alike, view the woman in heaven as ‘Mary, the Mother of God’.
The Ark, the Priest and the Prophet
Finally, we should note how Mary’s role as the new ark of the covenant correlates directly with Jesus’ as the Great High Priest (Heb. 4:14-16) and as the Prophet Like Moses’ (Deut. 18:15-19; Acts 3:22)
In this we note that Mary, in carrying Jesus in her womb, becomes the vessel for:
The Word of God (Jn. 1:1, 14) – Tablets of the Covenant (Ex. 24:16; Deut. 31:24)
The True Bread of Life (Jn. 6:35) – The Manna (Ex. 16:33; Heb. 9:4)
The True High Priest (Heb. 4:14-16) – Aarons staff (Num. 17:10; Heb. 9:4)
We see this on view in some early Christian Homilies regarding Mary:
“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
O’ Ark of the New 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
You carry within you the feet, head, the entire body of the perfect God
You are God’s place of rest.”
(Athanasius of Alexandria, Homily From Papyri of Turin, 4th c. AD.)
We should note that these parallels between Mary and the ark of the covenant are what lead Orthodox and Catholic Christians to the conclusion of the bodily assumption of Mary - though, it should be noted, there are differences in how each conceive of this. The Roman Catholic Church hold that she did not taste death, but was taken up, akin to Enoch and Elijah. The Orthodox Church teaches that she indeed, died a human death, but was resurrected on the third day like her son, and taken bodily into heaven.
In any case, the argument is articulated from the basis of Mary’s role as the ‘New Ark’. As Pitre puts it, “the New Ark is not just Mary’s soul, but her body, It was in Mary’s body that ‘the Word became flesh and dwelt among us’ therefore it is fitting that her body, the true ark, be taken up into the Heavenly Holy of Holies.”
We can see this in early accounts of the death and assumption of Mary:
“When she [Mary] had completed her life’s voyage happily, the one who gave the law on Sinai, and who administered it from Zion, Our God, summoned his Ark of Sanctification to be brought home from Zion to himself, just as David, her ancestor had said of her in a Psalm:
Arise O’ Lord, to the place of your rest, you and your Ark of Sanctification (Ps. 132:8)
She is not carried like Moses’ Ark of old, drawn by oxen, but she is escorted and surrounded by an army, heavens holy angels.”
(St. Modestus of Jerusalem, Incumion on the Dormition of Mary, 7th c. AD.)
***
In all of this, we can see how the beautiful tapestry of Old Testament symbolism and typology anticipates the unique role of Mary, just as much as it leads us to anticipate the Salvific role of Jesus Christ. As I stated at the beginning of these posts, our view of Christ is very closely connected to our view of his Mother. In many ways, our understanding of the Mystery of the Incarnation spills over into all areas of Christian faith, especially into Mariology. What’s more, understanding the deeper significance of these ancient traditions and beliefs can help us to understand the grand plan of God running through the Old Testament and into the New. In many ways, it glorifies the shades and patterns (Heb. 8:5) that we see in the worship of Israel, and brings them into their fullness in the traditions of the Church. As Pitre concludes:
“when you begin to understand Mary as the New Eve, it does not take anything away from Jesus, instead it helps you to see more clearly that he is the New Adam, who comes to triumph over sin and death, and usher in the new heavens and the new earth. When you behold Mary as the New Ark, it no more takes away from the glory of Christ than the ark of the covenant took away from the glory of God. Instead, you come to realise that Jesus is the new bread of life, who came down from heaven and was hidden inside the new ark. He is also the New Moses, who has come to lead us on a journey that begins in this world and will end in the new Promised Land of the world to come…”
While we may not want to assume all of the traditions and practices of our Catholic and Orthodox brothers and sisters, the hope is that the theological and typological portraits held in the core of their traditions may lead us to re-evaluate our perspectives on Mary, and ultimately lead us to glorify Christ more.
In this, we should ask ourselves;
How should we relate to her as an example of faith?
How should we recognise her special position as both the ‘Mother of God’ and the ‘highly favoured one’?
What does it mean for us to recognise her role as the ‘New Eve’ and as the ‘New Ark’ of God’s new covenant with his people?
It is my prayer then that this series of brief introductions to the theology surrounding traditional views of Mary can aid even us Protestants in deepening our appreciation for Mary, and lead us, as Luther had put it, to ‘give her due honour’.