I have been looking at your posts off and on for quite a while now, but just this week I realized, reading the scripture you are posting and looking at the accompanying art work, just what a phenomenal body of work you have put together. What a great way to encourage people to dust off their bibles ( me included)! I love the older impressions by medieval artists, the Great Masters, and even the contemporaries, especially Howard David Johnson. How would anyone ever see all of these great works if you hadn’t taken the time to do it?
You are a FreeRepublic Treasure.
Thank you!
“Golly...has anybody since the 7th Century figured out what the Crescent Moon beneath the feet of the Woman stands for?
I have an idea what it could possibly mean......”
When you have a symbolic image, first identify what you can.
Woman=Israel & the Church—the two become one in the NT, since the Gentiles are grafted on to Israel.
Dragon=Satan
12 stars=12 tribes of Israel
child=Jesus born and caught up to heaven.
sun=I did not see a clear symbolism of the sun in the Bible, other than a glorious comparison, like for Jesus in Rev. 1:6 He had in His right hand seven stars, out of His mouth went a sharp two-edged sword, and His countenance was like the sun shining in its strength.
moon=There is again no clear symbol using the moon in scripture.
The sun and moon were created by God to mark times and seasons in Genesis 1. However, we do have this prophecy in Genesis 37:9 Then he [Joseph] dreamed still another dream and told it to his brothers, and said, “Look, I have dreamed another dream. And this time, the sun, the moon, and the eleven stars bowed down to me.”
10 So he told it to his father and his brothers; and his father rebuked him and said to him, “What is this dream that you have dreamed? Shall your mother and I and your brothers indeed come to bow down to the earth before you?” 11 And his brothers envied him, but his father kept the matter in mind.
Here Jacob interprets Joseph’s dream giving himself the role of the sun and the moon the role of Joseph’s mother. Jacob’s interpretation proved to be accurate.
So who’s the Father of the Church/Israel? God. Clothed in the sun would be clothed with God’s glory, a glorified Israel, the Church.
And who’s the mother? Israel is the mother of the church.
That’s my best explanation.
The crescent moon isn’t mentioned in this scripture, or anywhere in the Bible, but crescents are mentioned as ornaments in Judges 8:21, Judges 8:26, Isaiah 3:18
Since scripture doesn’t say anything about the phase of the moon in this vision, I thought I’d track how the artists portrayed the moon.
12 crescents
8 full moons
1 gibbous moon
The remaining pictures had no image of the moon.
A wide variety. I guess I’d portray the moon as full, but I’m not an artist.
