I Think I Have Already Said It : Catholics Aren't Offering Sacrifice "limleket hashamayyim"

Great Bishop of Geneva! Jeremias 7 and 44 and the Duchess of Dorchester · Duchess of Dorchester, Revisited · New blog on the kid: I Think I Have Already Said It : Catholics Aren't Offering Sacrifice "limleket hashamayyim"

We call, in English, the Blessed Virgin "Queen of Heaven".

We also call Her, in Latin, "Regina Cæli".

In Hebrew, we could certainly NOT call Her "meleketh hashamayyim", we would call Her "gebirah". I don't know the construct state for the noun, bear with me.

Also, every mention of the evil entity that Jeremias called "meleketh hashamayyim" involves a preposition, all five of the mentions are "limleketh hashamayyim" because in all five verses, I've looked them up, God through Jeremias upbraids Judeans for offering sacrifice to her.

7:18 "laasoth kawanim limleketh hashamayyim" (make atonement cakes for the queen of heaven)
44:17 "leqatter limleketh hashamayyim" (burning to the queen of heaven)
44:18 "leqatter limleketh hashamayyim" (dito)
44:19 "meqatterim limleketh hashamayyim" (dito)
44:25 "leqatter limleketh hashamayyim" (dito)

Now, some would say, 6999. "qatar" here means burn incense. This is also a translation offered in the other verses in chapter 44. However, Exodus 29:18 has wə-hiq-ṭar-tā with burning something else than incense, namely doing a holocaust or burned offering of a ram.

Translating "burn incense" is calculated to make it look more like Mariology. We do burn incense before statues of the Blessed Virgin. However, in chapter 7, there is question of a food offering, which we do NOT offer to the Blessed Virgin. Therefore, She is absolutely not the Queen of Heaven that Jeremias is talking of.

And I suspect, something else than just incense was burned to that false deity.

But there is another reason, one I've already mentioned: Queen or Regina here doesn't translate "meleketh" but "gebirah". In Jeremias 29:2 we read:

"aharê sêt yekaneyah ha melek we haggebirah ..."

After that were departed Jeconias the King and the Queen ... as in Queen Mother of Judah. Jesus is ruling in Heavenly Jerusalem. One or possibly ten light days up, above the fix stars. The King of Heaven is King of the Jews.

And platting a crown of thorns, they put it upon his head, and a reed in his right hand. And bowing the knee before him, they mocked him, saying: Hail, king of the Jews
[Matthew 27:29]

And it had a wall great and high, having twelve gates, and in the gates twelve angels, and names written thereon, which are the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel On the east, three gates: and on the north, three gates: and on the south, three gates: and on the west, three gates And the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and in them, the twelve names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb And he that spoke with me, had a measure of a reed of gold, to measure the city and the gates thereof, and the wall
[Apocalypse (Revelation) 21:12-15]

And that means, the Queen up there is Queen Mother of Judah, Gebirah.

The title is different. The type of reverence is different. This is not what Jeremias condemned.

I just thought a video was turning up in my feed for a reason, maybe someone's prayer: Who was the so-called Queen of Heaven? • Spotlight • The Cult of the Mother Goddess, and it links to an article: The Cult of the Mother Goddess / Who was the so-called Queen of Heaven?. Here is a further repudiation by citing this article:

While this false deity certainly seems to have had many different names, this goddess always appears to be connected with the heavenly bodies, and specifically the moon. As a matter of fact, the original language itself seems to suggest this as the Hebrew word used in the Masoretic Text (מְלֶ֣כֶת) isn’t the normal word for queen (מַלְכָּה, H4893). Others, including the translators of the Septuagint, understood this word to mean “handiwork.” Thus, the queen of heaven would be “the army of heaven.” Similarly, the Aramaic Targum translates this title as simply “stars.”[7] Several Bible commentators also identify the queen of heaven with the moon, including the renowned Bible scholar Matthew Henry.

OK, the moon. Would Catholics willingly identify Our Lady with the Moon? See Apocalypse 12:

And a great sign appeared in heaven: A woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars
[Apocalypse (Revelation) 12:1]

Doesn't sound as if the moon were getting Her honour ... but "crown" does sound like some kind of Queen (presumably a Gebirah).

Hans Georg Lundahl
Nanterre UL
Sts. Philip and James
11.V.2026

Natalis beatorum Philippi et Jacobi Apostolorum. Ex his Philippus, cum omnem fere Scythiam ad Christi fidem convertisset, tandem apud Hierapolim, Asiae civitatem, cruci affixus et lapidibus obrutus, glorioso fine quievit; Jacobus vero, qui et frater Domini legitur et primus Hierosolymorum Episcopus, e pinna Templi praecipitatus, confractis inde cruribus, ac fullonis fuste in cerebro percussus, interiit, ibique, non longe a Templo sepultus est.