Queen of Heaven - Biblical Basis

Biblical Basis

In the New Testament, the title has several biblical sources. Mary is mother of the messianic king. Luke 1:32 says of Jesus, He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David. He will rule over the house of Jacob forever and his reign will be without end. It is therefore held in Christianity, that the throne of King David has passed to Jesus. The biblical precedent of ancient Israel is that the mother of the king becomes the queen mother. Since Jesus is the heavenly king, of the lineage of David and Solomon, many see Mary as the queen mother.

The Roman Catholic Church views Mary as the woman clothed with the sun in the Book of Revelation 12:1-3: "1 A great and wondrous sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars on her head. She was pregnant and cried out in pain as she was about to give birth. Then another sign appeared in heaven: an enormous red dragon with seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns on his heads."

For Catholics, the reference to the ark of the covenant immediately prior to this passage(chapter 11, verse 19) confirms the woman's identification with Mary, as she is seen as the ark of the "new covenant" bearing the Word of God (Christ) in her womb, as the old ark carried the Ten Commandments. Catholics interpret Psalm 45, "A Song Celebrating the King's Marriage", as referring to the Messiah, to suggest in verse nine, that Jesus, the Messiah, would have a queen at his right hand. Although Mary was Jesus' mother, she is often portrayed as that queen. Other views are that Psalm 45 refers to the marriage of Jesus to His people, i.e. the church which is called the "Bride of Christ" or that Psalm 45 is simply a celebration upon the marriage of an earthly king, giving thanks to God but not referring to the Messiah. It is also believed by those assigning a special significance to Mary, and believing in her Annunciation, that in Luke 1:26-35 of the New Testament the Archangel Gabriel seems to praise Mary, although she would otherwise be inferior to him.

The Roman Catholic Church generally reasons that the Bible speaks of the mother of Jesus as "a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars" - (Revelation 12:1). As Mary is a perfect model of the Church, she also represents the Church as a whole. Some non-Catholic Bible scholars interpret these verses to refer not to Mary, but rather to Israel or the Church and they do not view Mary as the Queen of Heaven. They reason that the Bible generally refers to nations and tribes as female characters, as in Matthew 2:18 and Revelation 17 and that Jesus is the Alpha and Omega (Revelation 22:13), through Him all things were created (Colossians 1:15-17). However, the Roman Catholic Church accepts Revelation 12 as a reference to Mary, Israel, and the Church as a three-fold symbolism through the Book of Isaiah and affirms Mary as the mother of Jesus as the prophetic fulfilment described in Revelation 12 (cf. Isaiah 7:14, 26:17, 54:1, 66:7). These interpretations have not been resolved within Christianity, and are not necessarily accepted by all denominations.

In the Old Testament the term "queen of heaven" appears in a context unrelated to Mary. The prophet Jeremiah writing circa 628 BC refers to a "queen of heaven" in chapters 7 and 44 of the Book of Jeremiah when he scolds the people for having "sinned against the Lord" due to their idolatrous practices of burning incense, making cakes and pouring out drink offerings to her. This title was probably given to Asherah, a Caananite idol and goddess worshipped in ancient Israel and Judah. For a discussion of "queen of heaven" in the Old Testament, see Queen of heaven (Antiquity).