Deepertruth: Who is the Woman of Revelation 12, the Mother of Jesus

"I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel." To the woman he said, "I will greatly multiply your pain in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth children, yet your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you."

Writing Revelation 12, we see the Woman, the child offspring, and the serpent or the Devil based from Genesis 3:15.  We know that the Early Church Fathers recognized the Virgin Mary to be the "New Eve" (Against Heresies by St. Irenaeus 180 A.D.) as Jesus is the New Adam (Romans 5:12-21).

Considering some of the earliest writing on the subject of the Woman of Revelation 12, St. Epiphanus, Bishop of Salamisstates in a homily he gave around 374-377 A.D. that the Woman was indeed The Virgin Mary.

In his writing, "Panarion" (Bread Box) 350 A.D., St. Epiphanus explains the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary understanding the passages of Revelation 12 as written.  He is using the apostolic teaching given to him by his teachers in combating early heresies of his time such as the Arians.

Of the Virgin Mary, St. Epiphanus states, “The first Christians, whose lives are an example for us, showed a loving veneration to the Virgin. In the paintings produced during the first three centuries of Christianity, those that are conserved in the Roman catacombs, the Virgin is contemplated through her representation with the Child God in her arms. We can never be contented in the way we imitate this attitude of the first Christians!"