Queen of heaven

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I keep running into non-catholic thinking about the Queen of Heaven. In the Old Testament in Jeremiah it tells about the false god, called the Queen of Heaven and people would bow down before her and make bread ( apparently for a festival?) I keep seeing and hearing this as “evidence” that Catholic’s reverence for and prayers to Mary is wrong. It does seem strange to me that it has the exact same title the Church has given to Mary, Queen of Heaven.

Can anyone explain this, so I can explain it to the next person who points this out to me?
 
Ask them to go back and look at the way that Solomon treats his mom (Bathsheba). (If they scratch their heads, point them at 1 Kings 2:19.) Remind them that this demonstrates the fact that, in a Davidic kingdom, ‘queen’ doesn’t mean “the king’s wife”, but rather “the king’s mother”. If they’re still confused, point to 1 Kings 2:19 again, and ask them “who sits on a throne at the right of the king?”

Ask them whether Jesus reigns in heaven as the King, the son of David. Then ask them who his mom is. As the light dawns on them, ask them whether there’s any doubt that this means that Mary is the ‘Queen of Heaven’… 😉
 
Mary is clearly a queen. A brief study of the Old Testament shows that the Kings of Israel appointed their mothers to the position of queen and Jesus our king is no different. Jesus’ mother Mary is a queen

There is no doubt that Jesus is our King. The whole theme of Matthew’s Gospel is Jesus and his kingdom; the announcement of the kingdom, descriptions of the kingdom, the establishment of the kingdom, the tearing down of the old kingdom. Jesus spends all of Chapter 13 of Matthews Gospel giving parables about what his kingdom will be like.

When the people saw the sign he had done, they said, “This is truly the Prophet, the one who is to come into the world.” Since Jesus knew that they were going to come and carry him off to make him king, he withdrew again to the mountain alone. (John 6:14-15)

The people around Jesus recognized him as thier King. It’s undeniable.

And we must always remember that the Old Testament is the story of God preparing his people to accept their Messiah, preparing Israel and the whole world to accept their King. And when we look at all the Kings of the Old Testament who come before and prefigure Jesus, we find a curious fact about who these Kings appointed to be their Queens.

Then Bathsheba went to King Solomon to speak to him for Adonijah, and the king stood up to meet her and paid her homage. Then he sat down upon his throne, and a throne was provided for the king’s mother, who sat at his right. (1 Kings 2:19)

Bathsheba was King David’s wife but was the mother of King Solomon. No one in the kingdom was higher than the king, yet Solomon pays homage to his mother and seats her in a throne on his right. Only Kings and Queens sit on thrones. Bathsheba is not only Solomon’s mother but she is also his queen.

It makes sense that kings would appoint their mother’s as queen. Wives were often exchanged as part of a military alliance. Each king would give a daughter or a niece to the king with which he was making a military alliance. This was a way for a king to make sure that he had a person in intimate contact with the king with whom he had made an aliiance, someone in his allies inner court. But for a king to make this wife into a queen was to elevate a blood relative of a potential military rival to a place of great authority in his kingdom, and this was too great a risk. Kings therefor, did not appoint their wives to be queen but appointed their mothers to the position of queen instead. That is why we see Solomon bring a throne for his mother Bathsheba and pay homage to his mother Bathsheba. Bathsheba, Solomon’s Mother, is also Solomon’s Queen.

The Hebrew word for queen-mother, or literally “Grand lady” is Gebirah. We see references to the Gebirah elswhere in the Old Testament.

Jehu met the kinsmen of Ahazi’ah king of Judah, and he said, “Who are you?” And they answered, "We are the kinsmen of Ahazi’ah, and we came down to visit the royal princes and the sons of the queen mother."
(2 Kings 10:13)

This was after King Jeconiah and the queen mother, the court officials, the princes of Judah and Jerusalem, the artisans and smiths had left Jerusalem. (Jerimiah 29:2)


In fact, the various kings throughout he centuries are listed in the Books of Kings and the Books of Chronicals, and with every king, the king’s mother is also listed.

In the eighteenth year of King Jeroboam, son of Nebat, Abijam became king of Judah; he reigned three years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Maacah, daughter of Abishalom. (1 Kings 15:1-2)

In the eighteenth year of King Jeroboam, Abijah became king of Judah; he reigned three years in Jerusalem. His mother was named Micaiah, daughter of Uriel of Gibeah. (2 Chronicals 13:1-2)

Uzziah was sixteen years old when he became king, and he reigned fifty-two years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Jecoliah, from Jerusalem. (2 Chronicals 26:3)


There are twenty seven verses like this! When God repeats something once or twice in the Bible he is trying to tell us something. When God prepeats something twenty seven times, we had better pay attention!!! God is telling us who the mother of the king was because the mother of the king was a queen.

*A great sign appeared in the sky, a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars. (Revelation 12:1) *

We can argue who the woman in Revelation 12 is but the fact that she wears a crown is clear. Only kings and queens wear crowns. The woman wearing a crown is clearly a queen. The woman is described as giving birth to a male child who rules the nations, and the image of a son who is a ruler and a mother who wears a crown is 100% consistent with the kings and their queen-mothers in the Old Testament. The fact that the woman’s son in Revelation 12 is “Caught up to God and his throne” leads most Christians to believe that the child is Jesus. The mother can only be Mary, and Mary is a Queen.

I have no idea about the false queen in Jerimiah but I would like to research it. But the Catholic doctrine which calls Mary “Queen of Heaven and Earth” is one hundred percent scriptural and 100% historically accurate.

Mary is a queen, just like all the other Jewish Mother’s of the Kings in the Old Testament. Jesus is the King of kings, and his Mother is his queen.

-Tim-
 
There was a pagan “Queen of Heaven” Goddess named Asherah. Some in the ancient world worshipped this pagan goddess, including Manasseh who was an Israelite king.

He immolated his son by fire. He practiced soothsaying and divination, and reintroduced the consulting of ghosts and spirits. He did much evil in the LORD’S sight and provoked him to anger. The Asherah idol he had made, he set up in the temple, (1 Kings 6:7)

Manasseh sacrificed his son to the god Molech which was done by burning children alive. 1 Kings 6 also says that he set up an idol to the goddess Asherah in the temple.

Apparently the Greek goddess Aphrodite was thought of a “Queen of Heaven” as well.

The existence of these false goddesses no more takes away anything from Mary than does a false God take away anything from Jesus.

-Tim-
 
The existence of these false goddesses no more takes away anything from Mary than does a false God take away anything from Jesus.
Indeed. And I learned recently that the title “morning star” has been given both to Jesus and… Satan. Those who make the link between the mother of Christ and the queen of heaven goddess better get their priorities straight–by their own logic these folks should be up in arms already about such a great atrocity as two billion people who think they’re worshipping our lord and saviour actually adoring the great deceiver.
 
It never ceases to amaze me in regard to the amount of disinformation is out there in regard to Mary.
 
As Tim stated above, Revelation very clearly indicates Mary as the Queen of Heaven. The problem is that people try to equate the Eucharist with the worship to ‘the queen of heaven’ in the old testament, because it’s bread. Tell them to go back and see what Abraham and Melchizedek did together long before that time.

[bibledrb] Genesis 14:17-24 [/bibledrb]
 
It never ceases to amaze me in regard to the amount of disinformation is out there in regard to Mary.
St. Mary, blessed Theotokos, pray for the mis-/disinformation campaign about who you are and what your devotees really believe and practice to come to an end as swiftly and decisively as did the Soviet Union under General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev. Thanks for your time. Amen.
 
Mary and the Church have always been seen by normal Christian tradition as the opposite to pagan goddesses. For example, in the Book of Revelation, the figures of Jezebel and the harlot of Babylon are opposed by the Woman and the New Jerusalem.

Calling Mary the “Queen of angels”, “Queen of Heaven”, etc. was not only a truism (since she’s the Davidic heir’s “queen mother”), but an obvious pointer to Christians getting to be co-heirs with Christ. We are also anointed ones, little Christs. We shall reign with Him, if we have suffered and died with Him.

An awful lot of evangelical Christian ladies call themselves (rightly!) “daughters of the King.” Well, who’s Mary, then? Chopped liver?

Meanwhile, Judaism never had any problem using poetic terms like calling the Sabbath God’s bride. If strict monotheists, that build huge fences around what they say about God, don’t mind that kind of thing, I think a little Christian poetic love for God’s mom is definitely in order.

Of course, the other problem with the “queen of heaven” argument is that it leaves evangelical Christians wide open themselves to the “pagans did it, so you’re pagan” argument. Lots of Middle Eastern religions had an El or a Baal with similar titles to God’s biblical titles, mostly because they spoke similar Middle Eastern languages and had a similar Middle Eastern culture. The Chesterton/Lewis arguments help; but mostly you just have to have clarity yourself about what is traditionally Christian or Biblical, and why. Otherwise you are leaving the door open to lose your faith to the first smartypants fast talker who comes along.
 
I keep running into non-catholic thinking about the Queen of Heaven. In the Old Testament in Jeremiah it tells about the false god, called the Queen of Heaven and people would bow down before her and make bread ( apparently for a festival?) I keep seeing and hearing this as “evidence” that Catholic’s reverence for and prayers to Mary is wrong. It does seem strange to me that it has the exact same title the Church has given to Mary, Queen of Heaven.

Can anyone explain this, so I can explain it to the next person who points this out to me?
Someplace I have seen the argument that the existence of false whatever is a strong indication that there is a true one someplace…
 
I was going to mention that false gods (baals) are also in the bible. Using the reasoning of the ignorants, we should not worship the true God simply because there are also false gods? :confused:
Since they go by bible alone, ask them where it says that all queens of heaven are false. Conversely, ask them where it says that there cannot be a true queen of heaven.

As usual, ignorance flashes like lightning, while truth plods along slowly.
 
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