Discovering Mary in Scripture – Ark of the New Covenant | KAIROS GLOBAL | AUGUST 2022

New Testament completes the Old

(Inset Visual of Holy Bible)

When interpreting the Scripture, the Catholic Church always reads verses in its context. 

‘The Old Testament is the new concealed, but the New Testament is the old revealed’ (St Augustine). We look at the New Testament in the light of the Old Testament and the Old in light of the New. One such principle is ‘typology’ (a ‘type’ is a person, thing, or event in the Old Testament that foreshadows something in the New Testament). For example, we see how in the Gospel, Jesus is presented as a new Adam connecting back to Genesis, as a new Moses connecting back to the Exodus, bringing about a new Passover, and a new Solomon, going back to Kings, as the son of David bringing about a new Jerusalem. On closer study, we also begin to discover paired typology. In creation for instance, it wasn't just Adam – there was also Eve by his side and at the time of the Exodus, it wasn't just Moses – there was the Ark of the Covenant as the sign of God's presence. Likewise, at the time of David's Kingdom it wasn't just Solomon – it was the Queen Mother enthroned at the King’s right hand. 

John shocks the early Bible readers

(Title visual: image of OT Ark)

While exiled on the island of Patmos off Greece, the apostle John recorded the divine revelations he received (the Book of Revelation in the Bible). In Chapter 11:19, he makes a dramatic assertion: ‘God’s temple in heaven was opened, and the ark of his covenant was seen within his temple.’ This would have shocked any first-century Jew, since the (Old Testament’s) Ark of the Covenant had been lost for centuries – no one had seen it for about 600 years! At this verse – rather abruptly, chapter 11 ends and chapter 12 begins. But remember, chapter divisions were only added to the Bible in the 12th century. So the very next verse John wrote was: ‘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 with child’ (Revelation 12:1-2). Early Christians understood that he's describing Mary revealed as the Ark of the New Covenant – the Queen Mother in the heavenly Jerusalem, who brings forth ‘a male child, one who is to rule all the nations’ (Revelation 12:5).

Inside the Ark     ––    Inside Mary

(Silhouette icons inset in Parallel Table)

Ark-Mary typology in Luke’s Visitation 

(Visual of Expectant Mary & Elizabeth at Visitation)

The presence of God would come upon the ark and overshadow it. (Exodus 40:34)	The Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. (Luke 1:35)
How can the ark of the Lord ever come to me? (2 Samuel 6:9)	But why am I so favoured that the mother of my Lord should come to me? (Luke 1:43)
As the ark of the Lord was entering the city of David… Michal looked down and saw King David leaping and dancing.(2 Samuel 6:16)	As soon as the sound of your (Mary’s) greeting reached my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. (Luke 1:44)
The ark of the Lord remained in the house of Obed-Edom the Gittite for three months. (2 Samuel 6:11)	Mary remained with her (Elizabeth) for about three months. (Luke 1:56)

Reverencing the Ark is giving God worship

The Ark of the Old Covenant was made of the purest gold for God’s Word (Exodus 25:11-21). Mary – the Ark of the New Covenant is the Immaculate vessel for the Word of God made flesh. Reverencing the old arc did not subtract from the worship of God, but irreverence to it was considered an offense to God. ‘Mary, in whom the Lord himself has just made his dwelling, is the daughter of Zion in person, the Ark of the Covenant, the place where the glory of the Lord dwells. She is “the dwelling of God… with men”’ (CCC 2676).

In venerating Mary as the Ark of the New Covenant who has been taken up into the heavenly Jerusalem (Assumption), we remember our own eternal destiny of a beatific life with God and entrust it into the hands of our Queen Mother (1 Kings 2:17-19).