In my work
on Mariology, I have discussed the identity of the “woman” in Rev 12:1 (e.g., Refuting
Taylor Marshall on the Bodily Assumption of Mary Interestingly, many early
Latter-day Saints tied this passage and v. 5, speaking of the Man Child and the
woman fleeing into the wilderness as a symbolic prophecy of the Church being “hidden”
due to the Great Apostasy, only to return from the wilderness due to the
Restoration through the prophet Joseph Smith (see D&C 5:14; 33:5; 109:73 for
allusions to such) as well as tying this, and related (11:19; 12:5) texts to Latter-day Saint temple theology.
In his
recent (and highly recommended) biography of Brigham Young, Thomas G. Alexander
wrote the following about the construction of the Nauvoo temple and how Rev
11:19; 12:1, 5 played a role informing the symbolism thereof):
Perhaps because of the Mormons’ general
belief that Christ’s Second Coming and the Millennium were close at hand, on
the exterior of the temple, artisans reproduced in graphic form some features
of John’s Revelations. The temple’s pilasters consisted from top to bottom of
starstones, sunstones, and moonstones in an apocalyptic motif. Construction
foreman Wandle Mace wrote that the stones were placed in the same order as
those surrounding the woman described in Revelation 12:1, which said: “And
there appeared a great wonder in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, and the
moon under het feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars.” She bore, in
Revelation 12:5, “a man child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron:
and her child was caught up unto God and to his throne.” Significantly, John wrote
in verse 11:19, immediately preceding 12:1, that “the temple of God was opened
in heaven, and there was seen in his temple the ark of his testament: and there
were lightnings, and voices, and thunderings, and an earthquake, and great
hail.” (Thomas G. Alexander, Brigham
Young and the Expansion of the Mormon Faith [Norman, Okla.: University of
Oklahoma Press, 2019], 63)
In a sermon
delivered April 6, 1853, Brigham Young tied Rev 12 to the Great Apostasy and
Restoration, with a focus on v. 5, speaking of the Man Child (and the “woman”)
fleeing into the desert:
If Jesus could not lay his head in an unholy,
polluted temple, how can the Latter-day Saints expect that the Holy Spirit will
take and abide its residence with them, in their tabernacles and temples of
clay, unless they keep themselves pure, spotless, and undefiled?
It is no wonder that the Son of Man, soon
after his resurrection from the tomb, ascended to his Father, for he had no
place on earth to lay his head; his house still remaining in the tressession of
his enemies, so that no one had the privilege of purifying it, if they had the
disposition, and otherwise the power, to do it; and the occupants thereof were
professors in name, but hypocrites and apostates, from whom no good thing can
be expected.
Soon after the ascension of Jesus, through
mobocracy, martyrdom, and apostacy, the Church of Christ became extinct from
the earth, the Man Child—the Holy Priesthood, was received up into heaven from
whence it came, and we hear no more of it on the earth, until the Angels
restored it to Joseph Smith, by whose ministry the Church of Jesus Christ was
restored, re-organized on earth, twenty-three years ago this day, with the
title of "Latter-day Saints," to distinguish them from the Former-day
Saints.
Soon after, the Church, though our beloved
Prophet Joseph, was commanded to build a Temple to the Most High, in Kirtland,
Ohio, and this was the next House of the Lord we hear of on the earth, since
the days of Solomon's Temple. Joseph not only received revelation and
commandment to build a Temple, but he received a pattern also, as did Moses for the Tabernacle, and Solomon for his
Temple; for without a pattern, he could not know what was wanting, having never
seen one, and not having experienced its use. (JOD 2:30-31)
