Who Is The Woman Of Revelation 12?

        The Roman Catholic Church has taught as dogma a plethora of unbiblical and spurious ideas about Mary. It has traditionally identified the "woman" figure of Revelation 12 to be Mary, the mother of Jesus Christ. This interpretation of Revelation 12:1-2 has been a springboard for the development of doctrines such as the bodily assumption of Mary, her being called the Queen of Heaven, and the Mother of the Church. It accounts for the existence of portraits with her being dressed in cosmic clothing standing over the world. Belief in the assumption of Mary is the logical outworking of belief in her remaining sinless for her entire earthly life.

        Pope Pius XII wrote in an Apostolic Constitution, “The scholastic Doctors have recognized the Assumption of the Virgin Mother of God as something signified, not only in various figures of the Old Testament, but also in that woman clothed with the sun whom John the Apostle contemplated on the Island of Patmos.” (Munificentissimus Deus)

         Observe how Revelation 12:2 depicts this "woman" figure as experiencing birth pangs. Also, a part of the curse of original sin is pain during childbirth (Genesis 3:16). The Roman Catholic interpretation of Revelation 12 is weakened because according to official Roman Catholic teaching, Mary was preserved from receiving a fallen nature. Thus, she could not experience pain when bearing children. However, this is clearly not the case, according to Revelation 12:2. 

          The text identifies "her" as being in distress. If Mary was sinless, then she would not have endured pain in labor. A rejoinder to this could be that the birth pangs spoken of in Revelation 12:2 possibly refer to something painful in the life of Mary such as witnessing the crucifixion of her own Son, but that is merely speculative and hypothetical. There are other problems with claiming that Mary is mentioned in Revelation 12 besides this.

         If Mary is the woman clothed under the sun, then does that mean that she has eagle's wings (Revelation 12:14)? Where in Scripture do we ever hear of Mary going to Egypt to be fed for 1,260 days? What about the fact that the flight of this "woman" took place after Jesus Christ's ascension to God's throne (Revelation 12:5-6)? Did Mary have children who experienced persecution in the wilderness (Revelation 12:17)? The Roman Catholic New American Bible Revised Edition gives this interpretation of the "woman" figure of Revelation 12:

        "[12:1] The woman adorned with the sun, the moon, and the stars (images taken from Gn 37:9–10) symbolizes God’s people in the Old and the New Testament. The Israel of old gave birth to the Messiah (Rev 12:5) and then became the new Israel, the church, which suffers persecution by the dragon (Rev 12:6, 13–17); cf. Is 50:1; 66:7; Jer 50:12."

        Marius Victorinus, in his Commentary on the Apocalypse, wrote concerning the identity of the woman in Revelation 12:1-2:

        "The woman clothed with the sun, and having the moon under her feet, and wearing a crown of twelve stars upon her head, and travailing in her pains, is the ancient Church of fathers, and prophets, and saints, and apostles, which had the groans and torments of its longing until it saw that Christ, the fruit of its people according to the flesh long promised to it, had taken flesh out of the selfsame people…."

        Karl Keating, in his book titled Catholicism And Fundamentalism, p. 275, writes in regard to biblical evidence for the assumption of Mary:

        "...fundamentalists ask, where is the proof from Scripture? Strictly, there is none. The mere fact that the Church teaches the doctrine of the Assumption as something definitely true is a guarantee that it is true."

        As a side note, one cannot help but sense the irony of Keating's critiques of fundamentalists. He criticizes them for relying solely on Scripture in determining the truthfulness of doctrine, yet he similarly relies solely on the authority of the Roman Catholic Church to defend the assumption of Mary. This creates an ironic parallel in his use of unwavering adherence to a single source of doctrinal authority. Keating acts just like the kind of person that he so disagrees with.

        The best case scenario for one who makes the argument that Revelation 12 supports the assumption of Mary would be one that is inconclusive. We cannot fully grasp every aspect of the symbolism of the Book of Revelation, since its time and culture of composition is foreign to us. Finally, a twofold interpretation of this passage (i.e. that the "woman" is both Mary and the people of God) would be highly unlikely and only contrived to put in motion a self-serving agenda. It would be problematic due to its interpretative complexity, leading to confusion between the symbolic meanings of Mary and the church. Blending these interpretations can only create contextual inconsistencies, as certain elements might align more naturally with one interpretation over the other.