Dear Mark,
I was referred to you by Gail Buckley regarding a question I have.
Along with other women from my parish, I am studying the book of Revelation, using your study guide. It has been most informative and sheds new light on interpreting this difficult book. I am troubled by conflicting opinions between your commentary and footnotes in my New American Bible, St. Joseph Edition, copyright 1970.
In one example, identifying the Blessed Mother in Revelation 12 versus identifying Israel, or God's people, as does the NAB.
We are inundated with various slants from fundamentalist sects on how to read Revelation. We, of course, are looking for a unified authoritative interpretation in the Catholic Church, so it is troubling to see this disagreement among Catholic theologians. Can you help us, please?
Sincerely,
Beth Snyder
St. Mary's, Wimberley, TX
Dear Beth:
The first thing I would recommend is this short essay: Catholic Officialdom and Theological Ambiguity.
It is not the task of theologians to be in monolithic lockstep agreement about minute points of scriptural interpretation. It is their job to explore and to propose new ideas and chew things over. So long as the chewing does not directly contradict the teaching of the Church, it is legitimate theological exploration.
Both Scott Hahn and I would argue that the NAB notes are partly right. In Revelation, a symbol almost never means one thing and one thing only. So the Ark in Revelation 11 is an image of the Woman in Revelation 12. And the woman is an image of Mary. But since Mary is herself the fulfillment of the image of the Virgin Daughter of Zion and of the Church, the image of Revelation can refer to all these things at once.
Bottom line: there is no dogmatic “This is what each verse of Revelation means” teaching from the Church. There never has been and there never will be. The unity of the Church is not monolithic. As Chesterton said, “Catholics agree about a few cosmic truths (summed up in the Creeds). They disagree about everything else.” That would include the enormous variety of ways of understanding the Book of Revelation.
Mark Shea
Senior Content Editor
Catholic Exchange
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