Light and Dark Images of Apocalypse
Шрифт:
Woman robed with sun
This image astounds all who seek to interpret it by virtue of its uncommon cosmic order. The Holy Bible affords a host of stern condemnations of all who worship Sun, Moon or stars, yet here all these attributes are unexpectedly positive. "Next appeared a great portent in heaven, a woman robed with the sun, beneath her feet the moon, and on her head a crown of twelve stars. She pregnant, and in the anguish of her labor she cried out to be delivered" 12:1-2.
The air and the earth help her to escape the dragon's clutches:
"But the woman was given two great eagle's wings to fly to the place in the wilds…out of reach of the serpent. From his mouth the serpent spewed a flood of water after the woman to sweep her away with its spate. But the earth came to her rescue and opened its mouth and swallowed the river which the dragon spewed from its mouth" 12:14-16.
If we are to take this vision as a prophecy referring to a real woman active in the apocalyptic epoch, then who could she be?
Woman of the Apocalypse. Mexican painter Cristobal de Villalpando, 1686
Could she be the very soul of nature that had become human being?
May we explain what it means.
Practically all global religious cognition invests the material nature with spiritual features and in this respect the Holy Bible is no exception.