{"id":43,"date":"2010-07-14T13:07:24","date_gmt":"2010-07-14T21:07:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thisrestlesspilgrim.wordpress.com\/?p=43"},"modified":"2015-03-19T14:14:39","modified_gmt":"2015-03-19T21:14:39","slug":"ark-of-the-new-covenant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/2010\/07\/14\/ark-of-the-new-covenant\/","title":{"rendered":"Biblical Mary: The Ark of the New Covenant"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>The other day I wrote about the trials of trying to be an “Ecumenical Apologist<\/a>“, so today I would like to write a post about something rather controversial, or rather someone<\/span> rather controversial – Jesus’ mother, Mary.<\/p>\n

Mary is something of a source of contention between Catholics and non-Catholics. \u00a0At best, Catholics are told that the attention they give to Mary draws glory away from God. \u00a0At worst, Catholics are charged with unbiblical\u00a0doctrine, necromancy and\u00a0idolatry.<\/p>\n

In this post I will not attempt to try and convince any non-Catholics of the veracity of Mary’s Immaculate Conception, her Assumption or any of the other particularly Catholic Marian doctrines. I would simply like to show you a scriptural perspective on Mary of which you may be unaware. My aim is that after reading this post you would be awed at the cohesiveness of God’s master plan and declare that Mary truly is “blessed”<\/span><\/em> (Lk 1:48-49<\/a>)<\/p>\n

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Ungrateful Son<\/h3>\n

I came across this particular biblical\u00a0perspective\u00a0of Mary at a time in my life when I wasn’t at all<\/em> a fan of the Catholic Church. \u00a0At that time I denied all the particularly Catholic doctrines about Mary (Immaculate Conception, Ever Virgin etc). \u00a0I flattered myself that I knew my Bible pretty well and knew all the passages which referred to her – it wasn’t hard as there weren’t many of them, or so I thought.<\/p>\n

However, when I heard the explanation of Scripture which I am about to present, I was stunned! \u00a0I was excited, definitely, because it was an amazing insight, but I was also stunned. \u00a0Here was an understanding of Mary I could never recall having heard before and yet it had been under my nose the entire time, in the pages of my Bible. \u00a0Maeve, the missionary who brought my faith to life\u00a0in my early twenties often spoke of “the hidden treasures of the Church”<\/em> and I was never completely sure of what she meant, until I tripped over one of them…<\/p>\n

I was humbled when I\u00a0realized\u00a0my arrogance in thinking that a 2,000 year-old Church wouldn’t have anything to teach me. \u00a0All those saints in its history had a few insights I might have missed? \u00a0Shocking!<\/p>\n

The Catholic Church declares that Mary is the “Ark of the New Covenant” <\/em>and it is this title that I would like to examine in this post. \u00a0But before we can look at how Mary is the Ark of the N<\/em>ew <\/em>Covenant, we must first look at the Ark of the Old <\/em>Covenant…<\/p>\n

Raiders of the Lost Ark<\/h3>\n

The Ark of the Covenant is an item referred to in the Old Testament. \u00a0Whilst on Mount Sinai God tells Moses how to build the Ark:<\/p>\n

“Have them make a chest of acacia wood…o<\/span><\/em><\/span>verlay it with pure gold, both inside and out…<\/span><\/em><\/span>Cast four gold rings for it…<\/span><\/em><\/span>Then make poles of acacia wood and overlay them with gold. <\/span><\/em><\/span>Insert the poles into the rings on the sides of the chest to carry it…<\/span><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

…And make two cherubim out of hammered gold at the ends of the cover…<\/span><\/em><\/span>The cherubim are to have their wings spread upward, overshadowing the cover with them”<\/span><\/em><\/span> – <\/span><\/em><\/span>Exodus 25:10-20<\/span><\/a><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

So from this description we see that the Ark is a container covered from head-to-toe in gold, with golden statues of two angels placed on top:<\/p>\n


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The fact that the entire Ark was covered in gold demonstrated that this was something extremely holy, set apart for a sacred purpose. \u00a0The Ark would travel with the Israelites throughout the desert, be the focus of the\u00a0Israelite worship to God, was a spiritual weapon in battle (Joshua 6<\/a>) and eventually find its resting place in the Temple of Jerusalem built by Solomon, in the Holy of Holies.<\/p>\n

Vessel of Blessing<\/h3>\n

But what did the Ark actually contain? \u00a0We are told in the letter to the Hebrews:<\/p>\n

“Behind the second curtain was a room called the Most Holy Place, which had the golden altar of incense and the gold-covered ark of the covenant. This ark contained the gold jar of manna, Aaron’s staff that had budded, and the stone tablets of the covenant. Above the ark were the cherubim of the Glory, overshadowing the atonement cover.”<\/span><\/em> – <\/span>Hebrews 9:3-5<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

So we see that the Ark contained three things:<\/p>\n

1. The Word Of God:<\/strong> The tablets of stone containing the commandments given by God to Moses which Moses smashed following the Israelite\u00a0idolatry\u00a0of the Golden\u00a0Calf (Exodus 32:1-19<\/a>)<\/p>\n

2. The High Priest’s Staff:<\/strong> This was the staff which belonged to Aaron that symbolized\u00a0his priestly office (Numbers 17:1-18:7<\/a>)<\/p>\n

3. The Bread of Heaven:<\/strong> Some of the manna which God used to feed the\u00a0Israelites (Exodus 16<\/a>)<\/p>\n

We now leave the Old Testament and ask: “What was contained within Mary’s womb?”<\/em> The short answer, of course is simply “Jesus”<\/em>, she is, after all, the Theotokos<\/em>, the “God Bearer”<\/em>. \u00a0But who exactly is Jesus?<\/p>\n

1. The Word Of God:<\/strong>\u00a0Jesus himself is the incarnate Word of God, the “logos” described in the beginning of John’s Gospel (John 1:1<\/a>)<\/p>\n

2. High Priest:<\/strong>\u00a0As the author of the letter to the Hebrews says, Jesus is our “great High Priest”<\/em> who has offered that one, perfect sacrifice – Himself on the cross (Hebrews 4:14<\/a>)<\/p>\n

3. The Bread of Heaven:<\/strong>\u00a0In John’s Gospel Jesus says again and again that He is the bread that “comes down from heaven” (John 6:51<\/a>)<\/p>\n

I remember being dumbstruck when I first had these parallels pointed out to me. \u00a0Mary is the new Ark! \u00a0This started to shed some light for me on the place Catholics give Mary \u2013 Mary is holy in the same way the Ark was holy and Mary should be given similar honour for the sacred purpose for which she was set apart.<\/p>\n

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Priest offering incense before the Ark<\/p><\/div>\n

As I started to dig a bit more I started to find yet more parallels…<\/p>\n

The Very Presence of God<\/h3>\n

At the Annunciation,\u00a0Gabriel tells Mary that God will “overshadow”<\/span><\/em> (episkiazo<\/em>) her\u00a0and she will bear a child:<\/p>\n

The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you” – Luke 1:35<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

The Septuagint was the Greek translation of the Old Testament made two centuries earlier, and with which Luke would have been very familiar. This same word for “overshadow”<\/em> is used in the Septuagint to refer to another event involving the Ark:<\/p>\n

Then the cloud [overshadowed]\u00a0the Tent of Meeting, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle.\u00a0Moses could not enter the Tent of Meeting because the cloud had settled upon it, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle – Exodus 40:34-35<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

In the Old Testament the Ark was the very place where God would dwell (Ex. 25:8<\/a>) and in the fullest sense Jesus came to dwell in the New Ark, His mother (Lk 1:31<\/a>). \u00a0Could anyone be more blessed?<\/p>\n

Luke’s\u00a0Plagiarism<\/h3>\n

Luke’s Gospel is certainly one of the Gospel accounts which mentions Mary more often. \u00a0However, I was shocked when I saw that Luke had cheated! \u00a0If you place side-by-side the story of “The Visitation”<\/em> in\u00a0Luke 1:26-56<\/a> and the story of the Ark in 2 Samuel 5-6<\/a> you will notice some rather striking similarities:<\/p>\n