Why is Mary the Queen of Heaven?

Mary said, "Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word."  Luke 1:38


In my personal opinion, most of all Marian doctrine comes down to this one passage. In this one passage A LOT of what our Blessed Virgin Mother is, is distinctly implied. Let’s take one step back for a second and analyze this passage. To begin with, let’s ask ourselves a series of questions: 1) Was Mary fully 100% human? The answer to that is yes, she was a human who was created by the Creator. 2) Since she was fully human, does this mean that she had free-will? The answer to that is yes, as a human she had only her humanly will – not divine – to prompt her towards the goodness of God, such as it is with all of us humans. 3) If in fact Mary was human and had free-will, what would’ve happened if she would’ve refused God and instead, would’ve told God that she did not want His Grace nor to bear the savior of the World?

That last question is the lynchpin against a whole slew of Protestant attacks against the Blessed Virgin because the answer to that question naturally takes us towards the Immaculate Conception and from there all of the other Marian doctrines that flow from it. But, it is this central passage in Luke that the hinge from a God-Fearing girl to the Mother of God occurs. Indeed, Mankind would not of been saved had she not of said “yes.”

Mary’s “yes” is the seal between the Old Covenant and the New Covenant. Who else could facilitate dialogue between the people of the Jewish Tradition and the people of the Christian tradition if not Mary? She was both perfect Jew and perfect Christian – I’ll even argue that she was THE FIRST CHRISTIAN.

The image of Mary as Queen of Heaven comes from the powerful Old Testament image of the Queen-Mother tradition. We recall that the kings in the line of David had as their queen, not one of their wives but rather, their mother. This is glaringly apparent in how Scripture treats Bathsheba; on one hand she has a humble and subservient attitude as the spouse of King David (1 Kings 1:16-17, 31) and compare that, on the other hand, with her majestic dignity as mother of Solomon, the next king  in 1 Kings 2:19. Notice also how Bathsheba commands authority as Queen-Mother! Food for thought: nowhere else in the Bible does a king ever honor someone as Solomon honored his mother. Not only that but, look where she is to be seated, at the right hand of the king! As Psalm 110:1 points out, the right hand is an appointment from God and of the utmost authority so, for the Queen-Mother to be seated at the king’s right hand not only solidified her position but, it also solidified her authority.

1 Kings 11:1-3 states:

When Athaliah, the mother of Ahaziah, saw that her son was dead, she began to kill off the whole royal family. But Jehosheba, daughter of King Jehoram and sister of Ahaziah, took Joash, his son, and spirited him away, along with his nurse, from the bedroom where the princes were about to be slain. She concealed him from Athaliah, and so he did not die. For six years he remained hidden in the temple of the LORD, while Athaliah ruled the land.

The fact that Athaliah was able to get away with this AND CONTINUE to rule the kingdom in the absence of a king points to her strong power base and demonstrates the high ranking of the queen-mother’s office.

In Hebrew the queen-mother was called the Gebirah, which means “the great lady.” These women exercised their influence from the time their sons ascended the throne and sometimes even into the reign of their grandsons, it is especially telling, and significant, that that every mother of a Davidic king is listed along with her son in Sacred Scripture at least 14 different times:

1 Kings 14:21

1 Kings 15:9-10
1 Kings 22:42
2 Kings 12:2
2 Kings 14:2
2 Kings 15:2
2 Kings 15:33
2 Kings 18:2
2 Kings 21:1
2 Kings 21:19
2 Kings 23:31
2 Kings 23:36
2 Kings 24:8
2 Kings 24:18

Additionally, it should be noted that the Hebrew term Gebirah is used 13 times in the Old Testament. In Genesis chapter 16 verses 4, 8, 9, it is used to describe Sarah, Abraham’s wife. In 1 Kings 11:19 it is used to describe the Egyptian Queen-Mother. The other examples are, 2 Kings 5:3, 2 Kings 10:13, 2 Chronicles 15:16, Psalm 123:2, Proverbs 30:23, Isaiah 24:2, Isaiah 47:5, 7, Jeremiah 13:18,* and Jeremiah 29:2. The Gebirah, or the queen-mother had 2 critical tasks in the government of the people of Isreal: 1) She was the principle intercessor for the people of Israel to the king (1 Kings 2:17-20) and 2) she was to watch over dynastic succession, that is, if her son died she was the one in charge for overseeing who’d be the next king. When Mary says “yes” to God’s will to be the mother of Jesus, she says “yes” to becomes the mother of the King in the line of David. She therefore becomes the new Gebirah.

As Elizabeth proclaims to Mary in Luke’s Gospel (with my emphasis):

 

“And how does this happen to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?”

If Jesus was of the Davidic line and the Davidic kings had queen-mothers who ruled with their sons then, isn’t it fitting that Jesus, the true King, has a Queen-Mother who also rules with Him? Additionally, if both are in heaven, then doesn’t that make Mary the one and only Queen of Heaven? If she is the Queen-Mother in heaven then she must enjoy the role of Gebirah infinitely more ideal and in perpetuity. Also,just as her earthly predecessors interceded for the Israelites to the king, so must Mary in heaven continuously do so in absolute perfection of her motherly role to both us, as loyal subjects of the King, and to the King Himself.

It is in this sense that Catholics call her "the Queen of Heaven" and not in the pagan sense of that title as it is translated in English and found in Jeremiah 7:18, 44:17, 18, 19, and 25 which is a designation for an Egyptian goddess.  Since Jeremiah uses both terms, the Hebrew title Gebirah for the Queen mother of a Judahite king of the House of David, and the Hebrew word "queen" = meleketh for the Egyptian goddess, it is obvious there one does not equate to the other due to the fact that the author uses two different terms for the title of these women.

Reconcile: Sacred Scripture indicates that the Gebirah assumed a throne alongside her son (1 Kings 2:19) and exercised her role as counselor (2 Chronicles 22:3) and intercessor to the king (1 Kings 2:13-21).  In times of conquest both the king and his mother represented royal power and both were deposed (2 Kings 24:12).  The Gebirah was clearly the most important woman in the Kingdom of Judah; a king had many wives, but only one mother.  The Gebirah of the eternal Davidic Kingdom of Jesus Christ is Mary of Nazareth.  Upon her Assumption into heaven He Son placed her in her well deserved place beside His throne as mother of the King of kings.  She appears in this role in Revelation 12:1 'clothed with the sun and standing on the moon.  As Christ's mother she reflects His light just as the moon reflects the light of the sun and she calls all her children in the family of the Church to follow her Son and to do, as she advised the servants at the wedding at Cana, whatever He tells you (John 2:5).

*I think this is particularly striking passage because in it, God chastises the King and the Queen-Mother, condemning their lack of leadership, but God never questions the role of the Queen-Mother nor does God abolish it.