Part II Mariology Series: MARY AS THE NEW ARK



Mary as revealed through the Scriptures from The Old Testament to The New Testament


The Ark of the Covenant vs Mary, the new Ark


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 An anticipation for Our lady


As always, if we are to understand who Mary is, we always have to start with Jesus and who he is. Jesus comes to inaugurate a New Exodus in addition to undoing the effects of the fall of Adam and Eve.


Original Exodus: Delivered the Israelites from slavery, through the desert for 40 years then home to the promised land.


Through the transfiguration of Jesus, Jesus himself accomplished a new exodus. 


“And behold, two men talked with him, Moses and Eli′jah, who appeared in glory and spoke of his departure, which he was to accomplish at Jerusalem.” Luke 9:30-31

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His passion. His death. His resurrection. His ascension.


Jesus wants to take us to the promised land of the Kingdom of God; eternal life with God the Father. That is the exodus that he is going to accomplish at Jerusalem. His exodus.


As a first century Jew, hearing in the Gospels that Jesus was going to accomplish an exodus, then one of the first questions you are going to have is, “If there is going to be a new exodus, then where is the new Ark of the Covenant? 


Every first century Jew knew that the first exodus of the Old Testament wasn’t just a trip through the desert. It was a pilgrimage that was led by God through the Ark. The Ark was at the center. This time it is a person, Mary. 


Exodus 25 and 40 is the story of the Ark’s features. 


  1. The Ark is the dwelling place of God on earth.

  2. Sacred chest/box, in Hebrew  ARŌN, was made to be also a container in which the first things placed there were the tablets of the 10 Commandments which were written with the finger of God.

  3. The Ark was made of a special wood; acacia wood. This wood is very durable, precious and signifies permanence. The ancient Jews referred to it as incorruptible wood, it will never rot and it will never perish.

  4. The Ark was covered with pure gold. Gold that was completely free from any impurity.

  5. Whenever the Israelites would take out the Ark, it was always veiled. They covered it with a veil and God said that the veil needed to be blue.

  6. The Glory Cloud would come down from heaven to cover (overshadow) the Ark.


The Ark then moves around to different locations until King David, around 1,000 years before Jesus, takes the Ark to Jerusalem. In 2 Samuel 6, David wants to bring the presence of God into Jerusalem and make it the center of the Kingdom. Psalm 132 is all about David bringing the Ark up to Jerusalem. In verse 8 ur says:


“Arise, O Lord, and go to thy resting place, thou and the ark of thy might.”


When David dies, and Solomon rises to the throne, Solomon builds the famous temple. In 1 Kings 8 the cloud of God again overshadows the Ark. What happened to the Ark after the temple was destroyed? The Glory Cloud leaves. As Catholics we have an advantage and don’t need to worry  because our Bible tells us where the Ark is. Prophet Jeremiah ordered that the tent and the Ark should follow him to the mountain where Moses had gone up to and sheen the inheritance of God. (Mount Nibo, end of Deuteronomy where he dies). 


In 2 Maccabees 2:4-8,


“It was also in the writing that the prophet, having received an oracle, ordered that the tent and the ark should follow with him, and that he went out to the mountain where Moses had gone up and had seen the inheritance of God. And Jeremiah came and found a cave, and he brought there the tent and the ark and the altar of incense, and he sealed up the entrance. Some of those who followed him came up to mark the way, but could not find it. When Jeremiah learned of it, he rebuked them and declared: “The place shall be unknown until God gathers his people together again and shows his mercy. And then the Lord will disclose these things, and the glory of the Lord and the cloud will appear, as they were shown in the case of Moses, and as Solomon asked that the place should be specially consecrated.”


They wait until the Glory Cloud and the Ark both appear again. The Glory Cloud appears again when The Holy Spirit overshadowed Mary in the Annunciation, so where is the Ark? Mary being overshadowed, shows us that she is the New Ark. Let’s look at the typology here going into the New Testament. How is Mary revealed as the new Ark of the Covenant?


The Annunciation. Luke 1:26-28, 30-31, 34-35 


"In the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a town of Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man named Joseph, of the house of David, and the virgin’s name was Mary. And coming to her, he said, “Hail, favored one! The Lord is with you... And the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus... And Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I have no husband?” And the angel said to her,

“The Holy Spirit will come upon you,
and the power of the Most High will overshadow you;
therefore the child to be born will be called holy,
the Son of God."


 The Glory Cloud returns (v35). There are parallels between Luke’s accounts of the Annunciation, the visitation of Mary and the story of the Ark in the Old Testament. 


She is the new dwelling place of God. The new Ark of the Covenant. She has the Word of God in her womb and God has come back to be with his people again.


Revelation 11:19 and 12:1,


“Then God’s temple in heaven was opened, and the ark of his covenant was seen within his temple; and there were flashes of lightning, loud noises, peals of thunder, an earthquake, and heavy hail… And a great portent appeared in heaven, a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars;”


The  true Ark is in heaven. 


Here are some Theological implications by the early Christians. The Church Fathers in the 4th Century A.D.


Athanasius of Alexandria: Homily from the Papyrus of Turin (west)

‘O noble Virgin, truly you are greater than any other greatness. For who is your equal in greatness, O dwelling place of God the Word?... O [Ark of the] Covenant, clothed with purity instead of gold! You are the Ark in which is found the golden vessel containing the true Manna, that is, you carry within you the feet, the head and the entire body of the perfect God… you are God’s place of repose.’


Jacob of Serug: Homily III on the Mother of God (east)

‘The Mother, Virgin and Blessed, was even more beautiful than the Ark full of mysteries of the house of God… While the Ark was being carried, David had danced for joy… He typified in figure the way of Mary with John [the Baptist], for also that maiden was the Ark of the Godhead.’ 5th Century A.D.


Mary’s bodily Assumption by some quotes of Ancient Christianity:


Logic: If Mary is the TRUE Ark of the Covenant, and if Jesus’ new exodus led to the Heavenly Promised Land and the Heavenly Temple, then it's fitting that she as the true Ark should be with him in the Heavenly Temple. If she is the Ark, in body and spirit, then it is fitting that her body will be with the Lord in the Heavenly Temple. 


Ancient Church Fathers when they would preach on the Feast of the Assumption (7th & 8th Centuries A.D.) would make these connections.


Modestus of Jerusalem: Encomium on the Dormition of Mary

‘When she [Mary] had completed her life’s voyage happily… out God summoned his “ark of sanctification” to be brought home from Zion to himself, just as David, her ancestor, had said of her in Psalm, “Go up, O Lord, to the place of your rest, you and your ark of sanctification” Psalm 132:8. She is not carried like Moses’ ark of old, drawn by oxen, but she is escorted and surrounded by an army, heaven’s holy angels…’


John of Damascus: On The Dormition of Mary, II.2


‘Today the holy, incomparable virgin enters heavenly sanctuary that lies above the universe… Today the holy, living ark of the living God, the one who carried her own maker within herself, comes to her rest in the temple of the Lord not made by hands. David-her ancestor and God’s - leaps for joy; the angels join in the dance…’


The Catechism of the Catholic Church still teaches this today. 


CCC 2676


‘Mary, in whom the Lord himself has just made his dwelling, is… the Ark of the Covenant, the place where the glory of the Lord dwells.'


Benedict XVI: Homily on the Solemnity of the Assumption, August 15, 2011

‘The passage from the Book of Revelation also indicates another important aspect of Mary’s reality. As the living Ark of the Covenant, she has an extraordinary destiny of glory because she is so closely united to the Son whom she welcomed in faith and generated in the flesh, as to share fully in his glory in Heaven. This is what the words we have heard suggest: “A great portent 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 with child.... She brought forth a male child, one who is to rule all the nations” (12:1-2; 5).’ Click here for full homily. 


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