In the Bible, Marian types are identified in relation to those prefiguring Jesus. A well-developed type for Jesus is Adam. The name Adam is Hebrew for man (Gen. 1:26-27; 3:17), making him—prior to eating the forbidden fruit—the father and archetype for all men. Christ replaces Adam as man’s archetype. As in this archetype, whenever Scripture compliments, praises, or blesses any human being, it implies that Jesus is even more blessed and worthy of praise.
As Eve was an important protagonist, although secondary to Adam (Gen. 2:18-25), early Christians saw Mary as Jesus’ helper and partner. Thus, Mary was the Lord’s handmaid (Luke 1:38,48) just as Eve was Adam’s. Eve’s name is also important. Originally, Adam named her Woman (Gen. 2:23), Ishshah in Hebrew, revealing that she was the archetype for woman prior to the Fall. She is renamed Eve (Gen. 3:20), losing her archetype role.
Jesus renames his mother Woman as woman’s new archetype. This first occurs at the wedding feast of Cana (John 2:1-12), on the seventh day of the new creation. Mary draws Jesus’ attention to the lack of wine, and Jesus says to her, “Woman, what is this to me and to you, my hour has not yet come?” (John 2:4, literal translation). This phraseology seems a bit awkward and impersonal, both in English and in Greek. However, if we replace Woman with a proper name, it reads better: “O Eve, what is this to me and to you?” As Woman, gyne in Greek, Mary helps to launch Jesus’ public ministry.
Jesus again identifies his mother as Woman while on the cross as he looks upon the apostle John and his mother: “Woman, behold, your son!” (John 19:26). Again, we resolve the awkwardness of this phrase by substituting Woman with a proper name, making it read better: “Mary, behold, your son!” Mary is Woman because our Lord’s hour is also her hour of travail. Woman stands at the cross without uttering a word. She stands. She watches. She fulfills Jesus’ command: watch and pray (Matt. 24:42, 26:41, etc.). She listens to Jesus, and she receives his beloved disciple, given her as a son.
As woman is made for man—that is, for Christ (1 Cor. 11:8-9)—feminine roles, figures, and types, especially in supporting men, can give us salient insights into Mary. Tertullian (d. 250) also identifies Mary as the archetype of Woman:
The apostle [Paul] also restricts the term [woman] to the same meaning it has in Genesis . . . when he calls the Virgin Mary “woman” (cf. Gal. 4:4), just as Genesis called Eve “woman.” Writing to the Galatians, he says, “God sent his Son, born of a woman,” which establishes that she is a virgin (De virginibus velandis, 6.1).
How is the virgin Eve the antithetical type of the Virgin Mary? Eve is disobedient, Mary obedient; a fallen angel tempts Eve to transgress God’s will, whereas a faithful angel calls Mary to do God’s will; Eve brings death, Mary brings life—Christ’s incarnation and redemption. Irenaeus of Lyons (d. 202) also used this parallel: “Thus, the knot of Eve’s disobedience was loosed by the obedience of Mary. What the virgin Eve had bound in unbelief, the Virgin Mary loosed through faith” (Adversus haereses, 3.22.4). Justin Martyr (d. 165) also identified Eve as the antithetical type of Mary (Dialogue with Trypho the Jew, 100).
Irenaeus of Lyons (d. 202)—a disciple of John’s disciple, Polycarp—develops this parallel: Eve was betrothed to Adam, Mary to Joseph; Eve disbelieved, Mary believed; Eve leads humanity into bondage, Mary loosed those bonds through her faith.
The typology linking Mary to Eve was no innovation. The apostle John started it in the book of Revelation:
Then God’s temple in heaven was opened, and the ark of his covenant was seen within his temple. . . . And a great portent appeared in heaven, a woman clothed with the sun . . . on her head a crown of twelve stars; she was with child and she cried out in her pangs of birth, in anguish for delivery.
When God reveals the heavenly ark, it appears as a pregnant woman clothed with the sun. This is a great sign in heaven, in whom the male child who will rule the nations dwells. Parallels between this passage and Genesis 3 suggest that Woman is the New Eve: in this passage God clothes Woman with the sun, whereas God in Genesis 3:21 clothes Eve with skins. God curses Eve with birth pangs (Gen. 3:16); the Messiah’s mother is with birth pangs as in Micah (5:2-3).
(This is not to say that Mary’s “travail” is literal labor pains; rather, it is her suffering and groaning for the fulfillment of her son’s mission. Woman’s travail comes as the curse for Eve’s sin. It also prefigures Jerusalem’s destruction (Jer. 6:1-9, 22-26), the end of the world [Isa. 13:4-8], and its redemption [45:9-14]. Matthew links this travail to Bethlehem’s at the slaughter of the infants [2:16-18]; Jesus links it to his disciples’—including Mary’s—suffering at his crucifixion [Isa. 53:10-11, John 16:20-22, Gal. 4:19]; Paul links it to our suffering, the world’s longing for the Messiah, and his redemption over sin [Rom. 8:18-23].)
In both Genesis and Revelation, the serpent battles the woman and her seed. In both, God curses the serpent. God promises to put enmity between the serpent and the woman in Genesis and fulfills that promise in Revelation by giving her “the two wings of a great eagle that she might fly from the serpent.” Eve is “mother of the living” (Gen. 3:20) according to the flesh, yet Woman is mother of the true living, the mother of those who keep God’s commandments (Rev. 12:17). We are Woman’s children because we are brothers and sisters of Christ, “doing God’s will” (Mark 3:33-35) by keeping his commandments.
| Gen. 3 | Parallels | Rev. 12 |
| v. 1 | Serpent (dragon) is subtle (slithery, cunning) . . . pours out a serpentine river | vv. 9,15 |
| v. 1 | Serpent confronts Woman | v. 4 |
| v. 8 | Woman hides from God vs. being in the center of God’s temple | vv. 11:19 |
| v. 14 | God curses serpent . . . banishes him from heaven | vv. 8-9 |
| v. 14 | To crawl on its belly, to eat dirt (below animals) . . . to the earth | vv. 9-10, 12-13 |
| v. 15 | God puts enmity between the serpent and Woman . . . on eagle’s wings | v. 14 |
| v. 15 | Between Woman’s and the serpent’s seeds . . . he tries to devour her seed | v. 4 |
| v. 15 | Serpent snipes at . . . pursues Woman and wars against Woman’s seed | vv. 13,19 |
| v. 15 | Salvation: serpent’s head is crushed . . . by the seed’s blood and testimony | vv. 10-11 |
| v. 16 | God curses Woman with birth pangs . . . pangs in birthing Messiah | v. 2 |
| vv. 17-19 | Ground is cursed against Woman vs. protects Woman | v. 16 |
| v. 20 | Woman becomes mother of the living . . . of those alive in Christ | v. 19 |
| v. 21 | God clothes Woman with skins . . . with the sun | v. 1 |