Originally posted by Theresa
I understand what you're saying, but think about it deeper. Think about this as well. The Church is the bride of Christ, and Christ is the Bridegroom (John 3:28-30 - "The bridegroom is the one to whom the bride belongs; but the bridegroom's friend....." [there are many more verses that show this]) so therefore, does Christ have one Bride (one church) or many brides (or churches)?
There's so much imagry and typology to help us to understand better. The holy spirit "overshadowed" Mary. The Holy Spirit "overshadowed" the Ark, which was the shekna, or glory cloud. I put the question out there to get some answers and opinions I never said it was doctrine or anything, I don't know if it is. It's just one of the things I would like to discuss.
What does this mean? Jeremiah 31:22: A woman shall encompass a man???
Thanx, Luv
Theresa
Hi Theresa,
I see what you're saying, but I don't know if I can fully agree with it. If Mary is the 'New Eve' is that to say that she's married to the 'New Adam' in terms of physical union like Adam and Eve? I don't think we can keep 'stretching' typology to fit it with Mary.
As for Jer 31:22, the rest of the verse helps to:
How long will you wander, O unfaithful daughter? The LORD will create a new thing on earth- a woman will surround a man." (Jer 31:22)
Also keep in mind the rest of the chapter explains the context as well. Jer 31:1-26 is a reference to God restoring his people in the covenant. How? By establishing a new covenant (Jer 31:27-33). And Hebrews 8:7-13 literally quotes Jer 31:31-33.
So I think the 'new thing on earth' mentioned in Jer 31:22 is a 'new heavens and new earth', which is a 'new creation' (2 Cor 5:17) as Hahn would say.
In anycase, I believe the 'woman encompassing a man' is a reference to the heavenly Jerusalem, our mother (Gal 4:26). [Honestly I think Rev 12's reference to the 'woman giving birth to the messiah' may also be about the Church, the bride of christ as well as a reference to Mary.]
Anyway, here's what the New Jerome Biblical Commentary says about this passage:
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The only difficulty in the passage lies in the last sentence of v 22. The MT reads
neqeba tesobeb gaber, "female shall encompass a man"; the LXX has an entirely different text, i.e., "men will walk in salvation." A host of explanations have been proposed since Jerome's theory of a pure maiological and christological prophecy (PL 28.255; 24.880-81). We shall indicate only two explanations. The verb
sabab would mean "to protect," as in Deut 31:10 and Ps 32:7,10; thus, woman protecting man is a sign of the great security to be experiened during the return and the new settlement in Palestine (Penna, Rudolph). But this seems to be foreign to the immediate context. We prefer to interpret the sentence in the context of symbolic language, where "woman" personified Israel and "man," Yahweh. Indeed, Jeremiah still talks of Israel as an adulterous wife (Hos 1-3; Jer 2:20ff.) who has to be divorced by Yahweh, her husband (3:1). If she now adheres to her husband, certainly this is something new- something unheard of in her entire history (cf v. 19)
(New Jerome Biblical Commentary, P. 289)
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God bless!
-Jason
