In Catholic theology and scripture studies and really throughout the universal church since the patristic era, scripture is viewed as being polyvalent or having many layers of good meaning, much like a good onion has many layers. One verse can mean several things. There is a literal sense of the passage and many spiritual senses of the passages and how they relate to tradition, the Church and her teachings and solid Christian theology in general. Rev 12 is one of those passages that Catholics believe is polyvalent.

The Women that is mentioned in Rev 12 can be 3 things according to most Catholic scripture Scholars and Ancient fathers of the Church. 1) It is the Blessed Virgin Mary 2) it is the Church 3) It could be Israel. Eve indeed was being discusses in this book As foreshadowed in Gen 3:15-16. Mary is the new covenant fulfillment of Eve, Mary is the new Eve. The Fathers of the Early Christian church(Centuries 1-8) made this plain as they saw Mary as the New Eve, beginning with Mathetes(Late first century) and then St. Justin Martyr(155 Ad), St Irenaeus(180 Ad) and so on.

Mary's other descendants are us, Namely Christians. She is our spiritual Mother(Rev 12:17) just as she was Johns(Jn 19:26-27) . The word "Women" in bible, its references in John and the references from the Fathers is key to understanding the contextual significance of the polyvalent understanding of Rev 12. Of coarse the Fathers give us 2000 years of hindsight. It can definitely be the church, and Mary, and Israel. I think the early fathers saw the Church first as a literal understanding, then Mary second as a spiritual interpretation. I hope that helps.

I would recommend two good bible commentaries for Catholics that display this understanding.

1) Navarre Bible commentary on the New testament compact edition or the revelation edition alone.

2) A Catholic commentary on Holy scripture by Dom Bernard Orchard.
(This commentary is a bit older and from the 1950s but is is a great and highly recommended one that goes very deep over the whole bible and gives studies on the theology of it. I had to to special order this one form a used book store.)


Her is the Catholic Douay Rheims Version online with a very short(almost too short for real study) Commentary.

http://www.newadvent.org/bible/rev012.htm



God bless you all

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Roma locuta est causa finita est