We Are the Moon

A Biblical Theology of the Moon

“And God said, ‘Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night. And let them be for signs and for seasons, and for days and years, and let them be lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light upon the earth.’ And it was so. And God made the two great lights—the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night—and the stars. And God set them in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth, to rule over the day and over the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening and there was morning, the fourth day” (Genesis 1:14-19)

What is the purpose for which God created the sun, the moon and the other celestial bodies? In the above quoted text from Genesis we read: “To separate the day from the night. And let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and for years and let them give light upon the earth”. To separate the day from the night is to participate in the trinitarian communion of union in and through distinction. In order for things to relate and be united, there must be a distinction between them, through which they participate in one another. Interior to this very notion of communion is also the concept of light. In order to unite with another thing you must be able to perceive that other thing, and it is by light that we do this. Not just in being able to see that to which we are uniting to with our eyes (which is what light allows us to do); but also just by the very notion of intellective union, the functional properties of light are required, given the interlocking in our brains between electromagnetism (light) and conscious thought. The sun and the moon are said to be for signs and for the seasons; for the days and years. The concept of time, as we experience it, is deeply intertwined with the cycles of the heavenly bodies. This is not to say time is cyclical, or to fall into the trap of certain ancient philosophers and reduce time to the cycles of the heavenly bodies, but rather just to say there is something illuminating to our experience of time in this cycle. I talk about this in almost every article, so if you haven’t already connected this to the concept of time as explained by Fr. Dumitru Staniloae in his essay Eternity and Time you need to read that ASAP (truly one of the most important theological texts ever written — and available on our reading list!!). Fr. Staniloae describes time as the waiting period between acts of love. In the Trinity there is no time, but rather eternity, because there is no waiting period between the love of the Father and the love of the Son and Spirit. In the Trinity there is an instantaneous giving of love between all persons. The waiting period between the communion of subjects is what we call time, and we see this symbolised in the constant back and forth between the sun and moon. As one sets the other rises to respond to the call of the first and vice versa. As the sun hides behind the horizon, the moon comes forth, responding quickly to the call of the sun for dialogue. 

As with all forms of communion, there must exist an initiative principle, which we call masculine, and a feminine principle, which we call feminine. Do not confuse these categories with maleness and femaleness. The masculine is simply that from which the communion is initiated (finding its archetype in the person of the Father – the monarch of the Trinity). This makes the feminine that which receives and reciprocates the love of communion (the archetype of this is in the reception of the Father’s love by Son and Spirit and their reciprocation of this love by glorifying and participating in of the Father’s love). To anyone already familiar with these concepts, the masculine and feminine principles in the heavenly bodies should become immediately apparent. The sun is the initiative light-bringer, and the moon is the receptive feminine light-bearer. This is an astronomical truth we participate in every day (and night). The moon functions not by providing us with light from itself, but rather by receiving and making the light of the sun part of its very being and reflecting that light for us to see during the night. This astronomical truth, as with all truths reflects a deeper principle to the way in which creation functions. Since Psalm 19 is true, and the heavens really do declare the glory of God, the communion between the sun and the moon is loaded with and representative of deeply biblical and theological concepts.

In the vision of Joseph in Genesis 37 we see this association between the feminine and the moon playing out. Joseph dreams of the sun, moon and eleven stars bowing before him, symbolising his father (Jacob), who is the sun; his mother (Rachel), who is the moon; and his eleven brothers who are the stars. We see this same association between the moon and the feminine spelled out in Revelation 12, where the woman who gives birth to the saviour is clothed by the sun and stands on the moon. Revelation 12 is about the growing up of Israel, the endurance of the birth pains which whittle Israel down to the single righteous woman – Mary –  who gives birth to the saviour. Mary is sanctified into the house and bride of God (feminine terminology going back to Genesis 2 where Eve is built like a city out of the side of Adam), which is of course is given back to us by Jesus in His glorified body and blood (the eucharist which is what constitutes the new testament Church. We then see the Church in Revelation 12 enduring persecution from the death dealing serpent. Revelation 12 gives us a chronological account of the transformation of Israel into the Church, hinging upon the birth of Jesus out of the virgin Mary who sums up all of Israel in herself as a eucharistic offering to God. Revelation 12 is about Israel, Mary and the Church and the continuity between all three of these feminine bodies, who act as receivers and reciprocators of the love of God. When we hear that this woman, who stands on the moon is clothed by the sun, we should think about how this is the way the moon as an actual celestial entity functions. The moon isn’t that bright by its own merits, the moon receives its brightness and its light by being clothed with and reflecting the light of the sun. “Knowledge of created beings is one thing, and knowledge of the divine truth is another. The second surpasses the first just as the sun outshines the moon.” (St. Mark the Ascetic). Just as creation is feminine to God, receiving its light from above, the moon is feminine to the sun.

Isaiah 30:26 tells us: “the light of the moon will be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun will be sevenfold, as the light of seven days, in the day when the LORD binds up the brokenness of his people, and heals the wounds inflicted by his blow.” In the day of the Lord’s healing, which is of course the eschatological age, the sun’s light will shine sevenfold and the moon will shine like the sun. Reconsider how time functions simply as the waiting period between the initiatory act of love from God in creating creation and the reciprocation of this love by creation. Colossians 1 tells us that creation exists by and through the Son, meaning we exist as a gift from the Father, through the Spirit to the Son, and we will find our place in eternity by joining our reciprocation of this love to the eternal reciprocation of love by the Son to the Father through the Spirit. This is what Christ accomplishes by coming down and joining creation to His act of love to the Father in His crucifixion and resurrection. Christ’s coming down and opening the door for us to join ourselves to His eternal love to the Father, through the Spirit is precisely the day which Isaiah 30:26 is talking about, it is the day when the LORD binds up the brokenness of his people, and heals the wounds inflicted by his blow. It is the day when the moon, symbolising creation shines as bright as the sun, symbolising the light of God which we exist in the image of. 

The words used in Isaiah 30:26 for moon and sun are not common at all in the Hebrew, only showing up 3 and 6 times respectively. Interestingly enough they show up together two times. One of these times is of course Isaiah 30:26, and the other time is Song of Songs 6:10 which reads: “Who is this who looks forth like the dawn, beautiful as the moon, bright as the sun, awesome as an army with banners [or alternatively translated, majestic as stars in procession – both translations compliment each other].” This section of Song of Songs is describing the bride, who is a symbol of the bride of God, the Church (and more generally, creation). The bride is described as beautiful like the moon and as bright as the sun. Reading this in the light of Isaiah 30 we can see that the eschatological age is the age in which the bride of God, beautiful as the sun, is joined to such an immediate timeless degree with the sending forth of the light of the sun that it shines as bright as the sun. 

The task of creation, through the Church, is to join ourselves to the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross. By doing this we join ourselves to the eternal reciprocation of love by the Son to the Father through the Spirit. It is in Christ that we become receptive to the light of God, who wants nothing more than to make us bright with divine glory. The task of the Church is the ushering in of the eschaton. We are called to strive towards that day where the moon shines as bright as the sun, and we are adopted as heirs, and friends of Christ.