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These are specific ways that the Bible connects Mary with God's original plan for Eve.
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Mary as Promised in Eve:
Mary as New Eve in St. John's Revelation:
Mary as New Eve in the Wedding at Cana:
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These are specific ways that the Bible connects Mary with God's original plan for Eve.
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Genesis 3:
15 "I will put enmity between you [Satan] and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel." ...
20 The man called his wife's name Eve, because she was the mother of all living.
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Argument:
First we see a promise made to Eve to be the mother of Him that would destroy the vile serpent. Then we see her called Eve, which means Life, because she would be the mother of the living. Notice how these two blessings go together: how could she not be the mother of the living, after being promised to bear the defeater of death? He who wounded the devil unto death followed up His masterwork by uniting us to His Body, and therefore Eve, to whom He was promised as an offspring, is our mother not only according to the flesh, but in a certain sense according to grace -- for that is what this promise entails.
How great this blessing, but how ruined she to whom it was given! Was she then an enemy of that snake with whom she had just been acquainted? Was she whose faithlessness produced our death also not less than the mother of our Life? Surely, these promises found greater fulfillment in Mary than in Eve, for Eve is more renowned for friendship with the snake than for enmity with him, and her works are known better for bringing us death than for leading us onwards to life; but things are just the opposite in Mary, about whom no evil is ever told in the Scriptures, but whose seed was so clearly our Life, death's defeater.
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These are specific ways that the Bible connects Mary with God's original plan for Eve.
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Galatians 3:
16 Now the promises were made to Abraham and to his offspring. It does not say, "And to offsprings," referring to many; but, referring to one, "And to your offspring," which is Christ. ...
19 Why then the law? It was added because of transgressions, till the offspring should come to whom the promise had been made. ...
29 And if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to promise.
4:1 I mean that the heir, as long as he is a child, is no better than a slave...
3 So with us; when we were children, we were slaves to the elemental spirits of the universe.
4 But when the time had fully come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law,
5 to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.
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Argument:
A central part of Paul's teaching is the ancient promise of a "[blessed] offspring" to Abraham, first mentioned in Genesis. Gal. 3:16 and Gal. 3:19 show us that this was a promise of Jesus Christ, and Gal. 3:28-29 says that Jews and Gentiles become associated with this offspring collectively, and heirs of God, not by physical descent from Abraham, but by faith in the promised one Himself. So the promised offspring of Genesis is a major part of Paul's theology, and the first occasion of this promise was in Genesis 3:15, when God foretold of "[the woman's] offspring." Mind well then that St. Paul finishes his treatment of the promise, the offspring, and our co-heir-ship by saying that Jesus fulfilled the promise when He was "born of a woman" (Gal. 4:1-4). So Paul himself knew that if Genesis promised us a woman's offspring, then the promise was fulfilled only when a woman bore this offspring. Then even St. Paul is witness of the meaning of Gen. 3:15, that it promised not only an offspring but a woman to bear him, and therefore he is a witness to the fact that Mary and Jesus fulfilled the promise made to Eve and her offspring.
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These are specific ways that the Bible connects Mary with God's original plan for Eve.
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Revelation 12:
17 Then the dragon was angry with the woman, and went off to make war on the rest of her offspring, on those who keep the commandments of God and bear testimony to Jesus.
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Argument:
The dragon's anger is the same as the serpent's enmity in Gen. 3:15; he makes war on the woman but also on her offspring, just as it was promised. The "mother of the seed" in Rev. 12:17 is Mary but the "mother of the seed" in Gen. 3:15 is Mary too. Some Protestants try to sideswipe the Marian dimension of these passages by limiting the woman in Genesis to Eve and the woman in Revelation to a figure of the Church. However, the "woman" in both must be interpreted as one and the same woman, that is, as Mary, and this is confirmed by the fact that John refers to his woman in the Gen. 3:15 language, for this means that whoever we see in the one passage we must admit in the other, and Mary is the only one who CAN be seen in both.
Now observe how God has crafted this many parallels between these two texts, Gen. 3 and Rev. 12; are all of them devoid of meaning? May it never be! The dragon who chases the woman in Rev. is called "that ancient serpent" in verse 9. Well, if the serpent who rages in war is the same, then she upon whom he makes war is the same. Her offspring is Jesus, Satan's foe. This maternity was the promise made to Eve: but it was answered in Mary, so that they are linked, and hence Holy Mary is the New Eve.
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These are specific ways that the Bible connects Mary with God's original plan for Eve.
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Revelation 12:
4 ... And the dragon stood before the woman who was about to bear a child, that he might devour her child when she brought it forth;
5 she brought forth a male child, one who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron...
9 And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the Devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world -- he was thrown down to the earth.
17 Then the dragon was angry with the woman, and went off to make war on the rest of her offspring...
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Argument:
The picture John paints here is so evocative of Eve in the Garden of Eden. The woman is faced with a dragon or serpent, just as Eve was; he is at enmity with her and with her seed, just as Eve was promised; he is thrown down upon the earth, just as it was foretold to him, "upon thy breast shalt thou go, and earth shalt thou eat." (Gen. 3:14) The imagery is so parallel that St. John calls the dragon "that ancient serpent," explicitly the scene at hand to the characters in the garden of Eden. Do all of these parallels imply no connection? Does he recast Christ's mother in the role of Eve for nothing? Are we meant to learn something from this or not?
Indeed we are: Mary brought forth the promised Messiah, a role which Eve was not granted, though He was her descendant. Eve was faced with the devil's opposition and failed to follow through on God's will; here a devil wishes to prevent the safe delivery of the child, but Mary carries on and brings Him forth. She is not Eve, but she is that woman which was promised through Eve, the mother of that Child who crushed the devil into the earth. Protestants, see, that where Eve failed through unbelief, Mary conquered through faith. The Scripture shows Mary replacing Eve in the garden, faced with the serpent, remaining in God's will; she is a model for us, a sign of faith for us, a seal of promise for us, she is a mother for us, she was at war for us, and she brought Jesus to us. We do well to see her as the contrary of that Eve who brought us death, for Scripture presents us with this picture in advance.
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These are specific ways that the Bible connects Mary with God's original plan for Eve.
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Revelation 12:
1 And a great portent appeared in heaven, a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars;
2 she was with child and she cried out in her pangs of birth, in anguish for delivery.
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Argument:
St. John tells us in three ways of Mary's agony so that we might be distinctly reminded of that curse which was foretold to all women in the person of Eve: "I will greatly multiply your pain in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth children." (Gen. 3:16) Yet this was a result of Eve's sin, whereas other Scriptures would have us believe that the Messiah's birth was without travail, immaculate against the curse of Eve. (Cf. Isaiah 66:6-8, Isaiah 7:14)
Then how do we explain Mary's travail? It is explained in this word "childbearing." Mary experienced suffering in childbearing, that is, the child she bore endured a pain so strong that it pierced Mary's heart as well, and she suffered by bearing this child's pain in her heart, not in her body by bringing Him forth. She suffered "the pangs of birth," yes; not Christ's birth from her body, but our re-birth from His. She suffered in the heart what Christ suffered in the body to bring about our regeneration: the piercing of His hands were the pangs of our re-birth, and this Mary suffered in her soul.
Thus Eve's curse found its defeat at the Cross, since woman's travail, being one of the wages of sin, must not be kept separate from the sufferings of Christ, lest we say He did not pay all our debt. Mary received in her heart the sufferings of her Son, the pangs of our re-birth, the anguish of our delivery, because she consented in charity to His self-immolation. That was the role of Eve: to be receptive to God's will even in adversity. Eve failed her role when the devil enticed her away, and therefore Eve was cursed, but Mary received the pains of that curse in her heart with Christ, and conquered in freedom the temptation which had seduced Eve. Thus she has become Eve's advocate, Eve's more glorious parallel, and the New Adam's most wonderful associate.
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Comparing the opening chapters of John's Gospel with the beginning of Genesis, it becomes apparent that St. John intentionally drew parallels between the days of Genesis and the opening of his gospel. He begins with the same "in the beginning" of Genesis (John 1:1, Gen. 1:1) and a reference to the world's creation (John 1:3), followed by three sequential "next day"s that reflect the sequence of days in Genesis. Then he opens chapter 2 with "On the third day," bringing us to day six, the same day as the creation of Adam and Eve, except he now calls them Jesus and Mary.
Moreover, John's first day focuses on Jesus the light of the world just as Genesis focuses on the creation of light (John 1:4-5, Gen. 1:3-4); John's second day focuses on Jesus being baptized on earth and from on high just as Genesis states that there is water both on earth and on high (John 1:29-32, Gen. 1:7-8); John's third day focuses on Jesus setting Peter apart from His other followers and naming him "Rock" just as Genesis focuses on God separating the land from the seas and naming it "Earth" (John 1:45-42, Gen. 1:9-10); and John's fourth day focuses on Jesus calling the disciples who would represent Him just as Genesis focuses on God calling the stars to represent days and seasons (John 1:43-51, Gen. 1:14-19).
It is as though we are looking at a mirror all the way through: Genesis is reflected in John, light is reflected in light, water is reflected in baptism, naming is reflected in renaming, Eden is reflected in Cana. But what this all leads to is that Eve is reflected in Mary; deny not, then, that we are meant to learn from this. If God has placed it in the text, and you choose to ignore it, O non-Catholic brethren, then you are in danger. If, on the other hand, you see these connections, then God bless you, and see what may be seen in the parallel between Mary and Eve.
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These are specific ways that the Bible connects Mary with God's original plan for Eve.
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Genesis 2:
22 and the rib which the LORD God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man.
23 Then the man said, "This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man."
John 2:
1 On the third day there was a marriage at Cana in Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there;
2 Jesus also was invited to the marriage, with his disciples.
3 When the wine failed, the mother of Jesus said to him, "They have no wine."
4 And Jesus said to her, "O woman, what have you to do with me? My hour has not yet come."
5 His mother said to the servants, "Do whatever he tells you."
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Argument:
It is a point of worthy of contemplation that Adam, whose name means "Man," was pleased to call his wife "Woman, for she was taken out of man." Adam and Eve were the first of all men and women; the representatives of the human race they would produce; mankind's relationship to God depended on this one Man, this one Adam, with women represented by this single Woman, Eve. Then how great the fall, how great our plight, when those first members of our race were plunged into sin!
Then St. John in his Gospel recounts our restoration; and how does it begin? With a parallel to Genesis, culminating his own new "creation story" in a new Man and a new Woman, just as did Moses. Consider these words: "O woman, what have you to do with me?" That is, You are Woman, for I was taken out of your womb; and shall your concerns be mine, as Eve's concerns were Adam's? Mary's concern was wine, Eve's concern was fruit. Adam took the fruit, making Eve's concern his own; Jesus produced the wine, answering Mary's prayer in His own time. Eve took the fruit of the tree in disbelief of God; Mary asked for fruit of the vine because of her belief. Jesus' actions led to belief for His disciples (John 2:11); Adam's actions led to unbelief for His descendants.
See then how Mary reflects Eve in this account, and Jesus Adam! And well it should be, since John here intended, as we have seen, to reflect the opening of Genesis. In this context of the New Creation, then, should it not strike us that Mary is called Woman, just as Eve was, when she is acting just as Eve did, except in faith? If God has made it so, it is not to be discounted; these parallels are all significant: what they tell us is that Mary is all women's model just as Eve had been all women's source.
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