From a different thread Cathode had a comment and I responded. Here is the two statements. Who is the woman of Revelation 12:1-6? Cathode says it's Mary. I say it's the Israel of God, the Church. Perhaps both of us are wrong. Who is the woman?
It’s full of misunderstandings.
Mary is Queen of Heaven because you can see it in Revelation.
She is the mother of the one who rules the nations with an Iron sceptre.
Crowned by stars and standing on the moon.
Where in Revelation do you extrapolate Mary? Is it Revelation 12:1-6?
"And a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars. She was pregnant and was crying out in birth pains and the agony of giving birth. And another sign appeared in heaven: behold, a great red dragon, with seven heads and ten horns, and on his heads seven diadems. His tail swept down a third of the stars of heaven and cast them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth, so that when she bore her child he might devour it. She gave birth to a male child, one who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron, but her child was caught up to God and to his throne, and the woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God, in which she is to be nourished for 1,260 days."
Nowhere in this text is Mary ever mentioned. The apocalyptic, allegorical, understanding of this passage is that the woman is the Israel of God (the church). God's promised one was born of Israel and God kept Satan from killing the Promised, Anointed, King of Israel. Jesus, the King, ascended to heaven while the Israel of God, the Church, was protected in the wilderness and in fact grew from a mustard seed to a giant tree while people from every nation tribe and tongue become a part of that seed, which is the Israel of God.
So, nowhere is Mary even alluded to in Revelation 12:1-6.
Does the Pope and his theologians misunderstand this passage by reading Mary into the verses?