12:1 A
Woman Clothed with the Sun
The
Church Is Adorned with Heavenly Glory. Hippolytus: By the “woman
clothed with the sun,” he meant most manifestly the church, endued with the
Father’s Word, whose brightness is above the sun. And by “the moon under her
feet,” he referred to [the church] being adorned, like the moon, with heavenly
glory. And the words “upon her head a crown of twelve stars” refer to the
twelve apostles by whom the church was founded. On the Antichrist 61.
The
Ancient Saints Will Rise. Victorinus of Petovium: This is the
ancient church of the fathers and the prophets and the holy apostles. For they
experience the groans and torments of their desire until that which was long
since promised was fulfilled out of their own people and according to their own
flesh. That [the woman] was “clothed with the sun” signifies the hope of the
resurrection and the promise of glory. The “moon” refers to the fall of the
bodies of the saints on account of their irreversible debt to death which can
never fail. For just as the life of people is diminished and so again is
increased, so also the hope of the sleeping is never utterly extinguished, as
some think, but in their darkness they will have light as of the moon. The
“crown of twelve stars” indicates the [crown] of the fathers from whom the
spirit was to assume flesh, according to the birth of the flesh. Commentary on
the Apocalypse 12:1.
The
Church Labors to Bring Forth a Perfect New Birth.
Methodius: The woman who “appeared in heaven … clothed with the sun” and
crowned with “twelve stars,” having the moon for her footstool, and being with
child, and travailing in birth, is certainly, according to the accurate
interpretation, our mother, … a power by herself distinct from her children,
whom the prophets, according to the aspect of their subjects, have called
sometimes Jerusalem, sometimes a Bride, sometimes Mount Zion, and sometimes the
Temple and Tabernacle of God. For she is the power mentioned by the prophet
which the Spirit urges to give light, crying to her: “Arise, shine; for your
light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon you. For, behold,
darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people: but the Lord
shall arise upon you, and his glory shall be seen upon you. And the Gentiles
shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising. Lift up
your eyes round about, and see; all your children gather themselves together,
they come to you: your sons shall come from far, and your daughters shall be
nursed at your side.” It is the church whose children shall come to her with
all speed after the resurrection, running to her from all quarters. She
rejoices receiving the light which never goes down, and clothed with the
brightness of the Word as with a robe. For with what other more precious or
honorable ornament was it becoming that the queen should be adorned, to be led
as a Bride to the Lord, when she had received a garment of light, and therefore
was called by the Father? Come, then, let us go forward in our discourse, and
look on this marvelous woman as on virgins prepared for a marriage, pure and
undefiled, perfect and radiating a permanent beauty, wanting nothing of the
brightness of light. Instead of a dress, she is clothed with light itself. And
instead of precious stones, her head is adorned with shining stars. For instead
of the clothing which we have, she had light; and for gold and brilliant
stones, she had stars. But not stars such as those which are set in the
invisible heaven, but better and more resplendent, so that our own may rather
be considered as their images and likenesses.
Now the statement that she stands on the moon, I think,
denotes the faith of those who are cleansed from corruption by baptism, because
the light of the moon has more resemblance to tepid water, and all moist
substance depends on the moon. The church, then, stands on our faith and
adoption, under the figure of the moon, until the fullness of the Gentiles come
in, laboring and bringing forth natural people as spiritual people; for which
reason she is also a mother. For just as a woman receiving the unformed seed of
her husband, within a certain time brings forth a perfect child, in the same
way, one should say, the church conceives those who flee to the Word, and,
shaping them according to the likeness and form of Christ, after a certain time
produce them as citizens of that blessed state. Thus it is necessary that she
should stand on the laver, bringing forth those who are washed in it. And in
this way the power which she has in connection with the laver is called the
moon, because the regenerate shine being renewed with a new ray, that is, a new
light. Hence, also, they are by a descriptive term called “newly-enlightened,”
the moon [church] always showing forth anew to them the spiritual full moon,
namely, the period and the memorial of the passion, until the glory and the
perfect light of the great day will appear. Symposium 8.5–6.
The
Church of the Heretics Is Not Glorified by Christ’s Presence.
Tyconius: “And a great sign was seen in heaven.” We now see that which has
occurred in the church, God has taken form in man. “A woman,” it says, “clothed
with the sun, and the moon under her feet.” We have already noted that a genus
may divide into many species. For what [in one passage] is heaven, here
signifies the temple placed in heaven. In the woman he indicates the church who
in the purification of baptism puts on Christ, the “sun of righteousness,” as
the apostle Paul testifies, “As many as were baptized into Christ have put on
Christ.” However, in this passage the moon is described as placed under the
feet of the woman and so indicates the church of the heretics that the “sun of
righteousness,” that is, Christ, does not allow to be illumined by his
presence. Yet, since everything which is found in the Scriptures concerning the
church may be interpreted in a twofold way, we can also interpret the moon in a
good sense and compare it with the church. As it is written in the psalms,
“Once I have sworn by my holiness; I will not lie to David. His seed shall
endure forever. His throne [will endure] as the sun before me and as a full
moon forever. The witness in the skies is sure.” And again, “Bright as the sun
and fair as the moon in her beauty.” “And on her head a crown of twelve stars.”
He is indicating the twelve apostles whom Christ placed as a crown over the
twelve tribes of Israel upon the head of his church and adorned her with
spiritual gems. Commentary on the Apocalypse 12:1.
The
Mother of God Portrayed As a Citizen of Heaven.
Oecumenius: The vision intends to describe more completely to us the
circumstances concerning the antichrist.… However, since the incarnation of the
Lord, which made the world his possession and subjected it, provided a pretext
for Satan to raise this one up and to choose him [as his instrument]—for the
antichrist will be raised to cause the world again to fall from Christ and to
persuade it to desert to Satan—and since moreover his fleshly conception and
birth was the beginning of the incarnation of the Lord, the vision gives a
certain order and sequence to the material that it is going to discuss and
begins the discussion from the fleshly conception of the Lord by portraying for
us the mother of God. What does he say? “And a sign appeared in heaven, a woman
clothed with the sun and the moon was under her feet.” As we said, it is
speaking about the mother of our Savior. The vision appropriately depicts her
as in heaven and not on the earth, for she is pure in soul and body, equal to
an angel and a citizen of heaven. She possesses God who rests in heaven—“for
heaven is my throne,” it says—yet she is flesh, although she has nothing in
common with the earth nor is there any evil in her. Rather, she is exalted,
wholly worthy of heaven, even though she possesses our own human nature and
substance. For the Virgin is consubstantial with us. Let the impious teaching
of Eutyches, which makes the fanciful claim that the Virgin is of another
substance than we, be excluded from the belief of the holy courts together with
his other opinions. And what does it mean that she was clothed with the sun and
the moon was under her feet? The holy prophet, Habakkuk, prophesied concerning
the Lord, saying, “The sun was lifted up, and the moon stood still in its place
for light,” calling Christ our Savior, or at least the proclamation of the
gospel, the “sun of righteousness.” When he was exalted and increased, the
moon—that is, the law of Moses—“stood still” and no longer received any
addition. For after the appearance of Christ, it no longer received proselytes
from the nations as before but endured diminution and cessation. You will,
therefore, observe this with me, that also the holy Virgin is covered by the
spiritual sun. For this is what the prophet calls the Lord when concerning
Israel he says, “Fire fell upon them, and they did not see the sun.” But the
moon, that is, the worship and citizenship according to the law, being subdued
and become much less than itself, is under her feet, for it has been conquered
by the brightness of the gospel. And rightly does he call the things of the law
by the word moon, for they have been
given light by the sun, that is, Christ, just as the physical moon is given its
light by the physical sun. The point would have been better made had it said
not that the woman was clothed with the sun but that the woman enclothed the sun,
which was enclosed in her womb. However, that the vision might show that the
Lord, who was being carried in the womb, was the shelter of his own mother and
the whole creation, it says that he was enclothing the woman. Indeed, the holy
angel said something similar to the holy Virgin: “The Spirit of the Lord will
come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you.” For to
overshadow is to protect, and to enclothe is the same according to power. Commentary
on the Apocalypse 12:1–2.
The
Church Overcomes All That Is Mutable. Primasius: This is what
now appears in the church, namely, that by the operation of the Holy Spirit the
human nature is joined to the Wisdom of God and that from the two the selfsame
Christ becomes the mediator of God and humanity and is so proclaimed and
believed. As he himself said, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will
raise it up,” and the Evangelist said, “He was speaking of the temple of his
body.”32 “A woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her
feet.” It is frequently said that a genus is divided into many species which
are the same thing. For what was heaven itself is now a temple in heaven and
now is the woman clothed with the sun and having the moon under her feet.
Namely, this is the church who has put on Christ and on account of her love is
trampling upon every mutable thing. For [the church] is not enraptured by these
changeable things who, clinging to the immoveable good, says truthfully, “But
for me it is good to be near to God.” From this fact comes those expressions
which we read concerning the church, “fair as the moon, bright as the sun,” and
again, “as the full moon forever, and the witness in the heaven is true.” He
aptly says that the church is a sojourner, for after the human birth of Christ
we see many false opinions expressed by heretics. For concerning this temple
the heresiarchs, falsifying as they willed, taught variously, Valentinus saying
one thing and Bardesanes another, Apollinaris yet another and Nestorius
another, Eutyches another and Timothy Aelurus another. It was as though truth
sprang from the earth and controversies followed. And from all of this the
orthodox and faithful acquired their reward, while by evil ideas concerning the
incarnation of Christ, the heretics incurred the punishment of eternal
damnation. Commentary on the Apocalypse 12:1.
Hypocrites
and Evil Christians. Caesarius of Arles: [The moon under her
feet] refers to the hypocrites and evil Christians which the church has under
her feet.… The twelve stars are to be interpreted as the twelve apostles. That
the woman is clothed in the sun signifies her hope in the resurrection. For
this reason it is written, “then the righteous will shine like the sun in the
kingdom of their Father.” Exposition of the Apocalypse 12:1, Homily 9. (Revelation,
ed. William C. Weinrich; Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture; Downers
Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 2005], 173-76)
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