Thursday, October 12, 2023

Heinrich Bullinger (1504-1575) on the “Woman” in Revelation 12

  

Bullinger and Apocalypse 12

 

Bullinger devotes three short sermons (52, 53, and 54) to Apc 12, which he considers, as we saw, as the beginning of either the third or fourth vision. His exegesis of the chapter is for the most part profoundly unoriginal and resembles nothing so much as a patchwork of interpretations drawn from earlier Western commentators.

 

Aware of the dominant interpretation which takes the woman to be the church and of the less well-known interpretation of her as Mary, Bullinger naturally prefers the former and cites several passages form other books of the Scripture (Eph. 5, Gen. 2, etc.) in which a woman embodies the church. However, as we shall see, he does not discard the Marial exegesis altogether but weaves it skillfully into the “ecclesiastical” interpretation. Following Bede and François Lambert in particular, Bullinger takes the sun to represent Christ, “the sun of righteousness.” His interpretation of the moon under the woman’s feet is, however, very much his own. He agrees with Bede, Lambert, and others that the church tramples underfoot the moon, which stands for all things corruptible and changeable. (Cent sermons, 1565, 223r) However, he also takes the passage to refer to the light of the church’s righteousness, which waxes and wanes in a similar fashion to the moon, as it is subject to the influence of the flesh. (Cent sermons, 1565, 223r) Such flashes of individuality are isolated, and it is obvious that Bullinger is very much influence by Victorinus of Poetovio as well as by Primasius, Bede, and Lambert, seeing as he interprets the stars in the woman’s crown as standing for patriarchs, prophets, and apostles. (Cent sermons, 1565, 223r) However, like Lambert, he insists that it is the doctrine of the ministry that is being expounded.

 

Who or what is the woman pregnant with? We saw that according to Bede she was pregnant with the truth faithful (to whom the church constantly gives birth), whereas for Lambert she was pregnant with Christ in the sense of “pregnant with the message of Christ.” Bullinger adopts neither interpretation wholeheartedly, although he inclines toward Lambert’s. Like the Wittenberg commentator, he notes that Christ is born in the faithful whenever they are reborn by his faith and, again like Lambert, he cites Gal. 4.19 in support of this. (Lambert, In Apc, 15828, 199v) However not wishing to do away with the Marial exegesis, he also insists that the church can be pregnant with Christ in the sense of wanting Christ to be born of the Virgin. He does, however, admit, after Primasius, that the woman herself cannot represent the Virgin, seeing as she suffers from birth pangs, which are not possible in a virgin birth. (Cent sermons, 1565, 223r) (Irena Backus, Reformation Readings of the Apocalypse: Geneva, Zurich, and Wittenberg [Oxford Studies in Historical Theology; Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000], 107)