Clothed with the Sun

Joseph's dream supplies the picture: "the sun and the moon and the eleven stars made obeisance to me," which Jacob reads as the house of Israel (Gen 37:9-10). Man was made in the image of Elohim (Gen 1:27) and "crowned... with glory and honour" (Ps 8:5), a glory forfeited in Genesis 3. The light is Yahuah's own: He covers Himself "with light as with a garment" (Ps 104:2), and Zion is promised, "Yahuah shall be unto thee an everlasting light" (Isa 60:19). The woman clothed with the sun wears borrowed light, the favor of Yahuah resting on His covenant people. The Roman reading of Mary as queen of heaven fails: the woman has no light of her own.