A great sign was seen in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars. She was with child. She cried out in pain, laboring to give birth. Another sign was seen in heaven. Behold, a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and on his heads seven crowns. His tail drew one third of the stars of the sky, and threw them to the earth. The dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth, so that when she gave birth he might devour her child. She gave birth to a son, a male child, who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron. Her child was caught up to God, and to his throne. The woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God, that there they may nourish her one thousand two hundred sixty days.
There was war in the sky. Michael and his angels made war on the dragon. The dragon and his angels made war. They didn’t prevail. No place was found for them any more in heaven. The great dragon was thrown down, the old serpent, he who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world. He was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him. I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, “Now the salvation, the power, and the Kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Christ has come; for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, who accuses them before our God day and night. They overcame him because of the Lamb’s blood, and because of the word of their testimony. They didn’t love their life, even to death. Therefore rejoice, heavens, and you who dwell in them. Woe to the earth and to the sea, because the devil has gone down to you, having great wrath, knowing that he has but a short time.”
When the dragon saw that he was thrown down to the earth, he persecuted the woman who gave birth to the male child. Two wings of the great eagle were given to the woman, that she might fly into the wilderness to her place, so that she might be nourished for a time, and times, and half a time, from the face of the serpent. The serpent spewed water out of his mouth after the woman like a river, that he might cause her to be carried away by the stream. The earth helped the woman, and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed up the river which the dragon spewed out of his mouth. The dragon grew angry with the woman, and went away to make war with the rest of her offspring, who keep God’s commandments and hold Jesus’ testimony.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, 11, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17 Hitherto hath been the general prophecy comprehended in 2…
Hitherto hath been the general prophecy comprehended in 2 parts, as I showed upon Rev. 11. Now shall be declared the first part of this prophecy, in this and the next chapter and the latter part in chapters 14, 15 and 16. Unto the first part, which is of the conflicting or militant Church belong 2 things. The beginning and the progress of the same in conflicts and Christian combats. Of which two, the beginning or upspring of the Church is described in this Chap. and the progress thereof in the Chap. following. The beginning of the Christian Church, we define to be from the first moment of her the conception of Christ, until the time wherein this Church was as it were weaned and taken away from the breast or milk of her Mother: which is the time when the Church of the Jews with their city and Temple was overthrown by the judgment of God. So we have in this chapter the story of 60 years and upwards. The parts of this chapter are three. The first is, the history of the conception and bearing in womb, in 4 verses. The second, an history of the birth from verse 5 unto verse 12. The third is, of the woman that had brought forth,unto the end of the chapter. And these several parts have every one their conflicts. Therefore in that first part are two things contained, one, the conception and bearing in womb in two verses: and another of the lying in wait of the Dragon against that should be brought forth, in the next 2 verses. In the first point are these things, the description of the mother, verse 1, and the dolors of childbirth, verse 2, all showed unto John from heaven.
A type of the true and holy Church, which then was in the nation of the Jews. This Church (as is the state of the holy Church Catholic) did in itself shine about with glory given of God, trod under feet mutability and changeableness, and possessed the kingdom of heaven as the heir thereof.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv1–17 1 And there appeared a great wonder in heaven;…
1 And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars:
Ver. 1. And there appeared] This and the two next following chapters are an exposition of the former vision.
Read full note →
A great wonder] As shadowing out and showing great wonders.
In heaven] That is, in the Church, or (according to some) in the visible heaven, where sun, moon, and stars are.
A woman] Alma mater Ecclesia. The Church is called a woman, for her, 1. Weakness; 2. Fruitfulness; 3. Lovingness, 2Sa 1:26.
Clothed with the sun] With Christ’s own comeliness, Eze 16:14. She is also conspicuous, Mat 5:14, and scorched with persecution, Son 1:6. All which notwithstanding she is comely. Uxor fulget radiis mariti, saith the Civilian.
And the moon under her feet] She treads upon the world’s trash, bears patiently all changes and chances; and though the curs of the world bark at her, she shines still:
" En peragit cursus surda Diana suas."
A crown of twelve stars] A crown in token of victory.
Twelve stars] Those white horses, Rev 6:2, the twelve apostles and their successors, in and by whom mystical Christ goeth forth conquering and to conquer.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv1–17 And there appeared a great wonder in heaven: I…
And there appeared a great wonder in heaven: I see no reason to doubt, but that John was all this while in heaven, whither he was taken up, Rev 4:2, where he saw in a vision a great wonder, or a most remarkable thing.
A woman clothed with the sun; I find all valuable interpreters agreeing, that this woman represented the church, well enough compared to a woman;
Read full note →
1. As she is the spouse of Christ (though here expressed as his mother).
2. As the woman is the weaker sex, and the church hath always been the weakest part of the world.
(I look upon the interpretation of it by popish authors, with reference to the virgin Mary, as very idle; for when did she flee into the wilderness? When was she with child, and pained to be delivered?) Interpreters also are as well agreed, that by the sun, with which she is said to be clothed, is meant Christ, called the Sun of righteousness, Mal 4:2, and he who giveth light, Eph 5:14; and believers (of whom the church consists) are said to have put on Christ, Rom 13:14; Gal 3:27.
And the moon under her feet: by the moon, most understand the world, by reason of its mutability and uncertainty, which the church of Christ despiseth, and hath under her feet, minding heaven and heavenly things. But Mr. Mede rather understands it of the Jewish worship, which, as to its times, was much directed by the moon; which hand-writing which was against us (the apostle tells us, Col 2:14) Christ took away, nailing it to his cross; so as the gospel church hath it under her feet. The apostle calls them carnal ordinances, Heb 9:10, and the rudiments of the world, Col 2:20, yea, beggarly elements, Gal 4:9.
And upon her head a crown of twelve stars; the ministry of the gospel, preaching and building upon the true foundation, the doctrine of the prophets, and twelve apostles, which is the honour of any church.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
William Burkitt 1703 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 7, 10, 13, 15 Observe here, 1. That by the woman we are…
Observe here, 1. That by the woman we are to understand the Christian church in her militant state, called a woman, in regard of her weakness and dependency; as also in regard of her fruitfulness, she bringing forth many children unto God, which are borne upon her knees.
Observe, 2. This woman, the church, is said to appear in heaven,having her original from heaven, her conversation in heaven, her tendency towards heaven, and her dependency upon heaven.
Read full note →
Observe, 3. The woman described by her rare perfections, which are three; l. Clothed with the sun, that is adorned with those graces which Christ the Sun of righteousness has put upon her, and environed with the pure light of the gospel shining about her.
2. Having the moon under her feet, that is, the legal worship, according to some; the Christian church outshining now the Jewish state of imperfection, casting off and trampling under the yoke of the Mosaic dispensation.
Others by the moon understand the world, which is like the moon, full of spots, defiling and polluting, full of changes and alterations, the fashion of this world passeth away. 1Co 7:31. It is never long in one garb; and her having the moon under her feet implies the church’s being enabled by Christ to overcome and trample upon all the enjoyments and satisfactions of the world, and to despise all the affronts and insults of the world.
3. Upon her head a crown of twelve stars, that is, holding fast the pure doctrine of the gospel, first preached by the twelve apostles, and after them by succeeding ministers, which is as crown on the church’s head.
Where note, That the apostles and all faithful ministers with them, are styled stars. As stars they shine before men, by the light of life and doctrine. As star they shine with a borrowed light, derived from the Sun of righteousness.
Again, as stars are in continual motion for the good of the universe, so are the ministers of the gospel for the good of the church; as stars, they shine in their own orb, attending the proper duty of their place and station: and as stars shine brightest in the cold winter nights, so do they in the times of affliction and persecution.
William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain On vv1, 12 Here we see that early prophecy eminently fulfilled in…
Here we see that early prophecy eminently fulfilled in which God said he would put enmity between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent, Gen 3:15. You will observe,
I. The attempts of Satan and his agents to prevent the increase of the church, by devouring her offspring as soon as it was born; of this we have a very lively description in the most proper images.
Read full note →
1. We see how the church is represented in this vision. (1.) As a woman, the weaker part of the world, but the spouse of Christ, and the mother of the saints. (2.) As clothed with the sun, the imputed righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. Having put on Christ, who is the Sun of righteousness, she, by her relation to Christ, is invested with honourable rights and privileges, and shines in his rays. (3.) As having the moon under her feet (that is, the world); she stands upon it, but lives above it; her heart and hope are not set upon sublunary things, but on the things that are in heaven, where her head is. (4.) As having on her head a crown of twelve stars, that is, the doctrine of the gospel preached by the twelve apostles, which is a crown of glory to all true believers. (5.) As in travail, crying out, and pained to be delivered. She was pregnant, and now in pain to bring forth a holy progeny to Christ, desirous that what was begun in the conviction of sinners might end in their conversion, that when the children were brought to the birth there might be strength to bring forth, and that she might see of the travail of her soul.
2. How the grand enemy of the church is represented. (1.) As a great red dragon - a dragon for strength and terror - a red dragon for fierceness and cruelty. (2.) As having seven heads, that is, placed on seven hills, as Rome was; and therefore it is probable that pagan Rome is here meant. (3.) As having ten horns, divided into ten provinces, as the Roman empire was by Augustus Caesar. (4.) As having seven crowns upon his head, which is afterwards expounded to be seven kings, Rev 17:10. (5.) As drawing with his tail a third part of the stars in heaven, and casting them down to the earth, turning the ministers and professors of the Christian religion out of their places and privileges and making them as weak and useless as he could. (6.) As standing before the woman, to devour her child as soon as it should be born, very vigilant to crush the Christian religion in its birth and entirely to prevent the growth and continuance of it in the world.
II. The unsuccessfulness of these attempts against the church; for, 1. She was safely delivered of a man-child (Rev 12:5), by which some understand Christ, others Constantine, but others, with greater propriety, a race of true believers, strong and united, resembling Christ, and designed, under him, to rule the nations with a rod of iron; that is, to judge the world by their doctrine and lives now, and as assessors with Christ at the great day. 2. Care was taken of this child: it was caught up to God, and to his throne; that is, taken into his special, powerful, and immediate protection. The Christian religion has been from its infancy the special care of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ. 3. Care was taken of the mother as well as of the child, Rev 12:6. She fled into the wilderness, a place prepared both for her safety and her sustenance. The church was in an obscure state, dispersed; and this proved her security, through the care of divine Providence. This her obscure and private state was for a limited time, not to continue always.
III. The attempts of the dragon not only proved unsuccessful against the church, but fatal to his own interests; for, upon his endeavour to devour the man-child, he engaged all the powers of heaven against him (Rev 12:7): There was war in heaven. Heaven will espouse the quarrel of the church. Here observe,
1. The seat of this war - in heaven, in the church, which is the kingdom of heaven on earth, under the care of heaven and in the same interest.
2. The parties - Michael and his angels on one side, and the dragon and his angels on the other: Christ, the great Angel of the covenant, and his faithful followers; and Satan and all his instruments. This latter party would be much superior in number and outward strength to the other; but the strength of the church lies in having the Lord Jesus for the captain of their salvation.
3. The success of the battle: The dragon and his angels fought and prevailed not; there was a great struggle on both sides, but the victory fell to Christ and his church, and the dragon and his angels were not only conquered, but cast out; the pagan idolatry, which was a worshipping of devils, was extirpated out of the empire in the time of Constantine.
4. The triumphant song that was composed and used on this occasion, Rev 12:10, Rev 12:11. Here observe, (1.) How the conqueror is adored: Now have come salvation, strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ. Now God has shown himself to be a mighty God; now Christ has shown himself to be a strong and mighty Saviour; his own arm has brought salvation, and now his kingdom will be greatly enlarged and established. The salvation and strength of the church are all to be ascribed to the king and head of the church. (2.) How the conquered enemy is described. [1.] By his malice; he was the accuser of the brethren, and accused them before their God night and day; he appeared before God as an adversary to the church, continually bringing in indictments and accusations against them, whether true or false; thus he accused Job, and thus he accused Joshua the high priest, Zac 3:1. Though he hates the presence of God, yet he is willing to appear there to accuse the people of God. Let us therefore take heed that we give him no cause of accusation against us; and that, when we have sinned, we presently go in before the Lord, and accuse and condemn ourselves, and commit our cause to Christ as our Advocate. [2.] By his disappointment and defeat: he and all his accusations are cast out, the indictments quashed, and the accuser turned out of the court with just indignation. (3.) How the victory was gained. The servants of God overcame Satan, [1.] By the blood of the Lamb, as the meritorious cause. Christ by dying destroyed him that hath the power of death, that is, the devil. [2.] By the word of their testimony, as the great instrument of war, the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, - by a resolute powerful preaching of the everlasting gospel, which is mighty, through God, to pull down strongholds, - and by their courage and patience in sufferings; they loved not their lives unto the death, when the love of life stood in competition with their loyalty to Christ; they loved not their lives so well but they could give them up to death, could lay them down in Christ's cause; their love to their own lives was overcome by stronger affections of another nature; and this their courage and zeal helped to confound their enemies, to convince many of the spectators, to confirm the souls of the faithful, and so contributed greatly to this victory.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv1–17 And there appeared a great wonder in heaven,.... This…
And there appeared a great wonder in heaven,.... This vision begins a new account of things, and represents the church in the apostles' times, and purer ages of Christianity, and under the Heathen and Arian persecutions; after which an account is given of the beast, mentioned in Rev 11:7, of his rise, power, and reign, and then of the victories of the saints over him and of the vials of God's wrath upon him, and of his utter ruin and destruction; when comes on the marriage of the Lamb, and after that the first resurrection, and the thousand years' reign; and the whole is closed with a most beautiful description of the new Jerusalem state, which is the grand point and utmost period this prophetic book leads unto. This vision was seen "in heavens", whither John was called up to, Rev 4:1; and where the various scenes, in a visionary way, were acted, both before, and after this; and which was an emblem of the state of the church on earth: what was seen is called "a wonder" or "sign", it being very amazing to behold, and very significative of persons and things; and a "great" one, because it respects great affairs, and wonderful events relating to the state of the church in future times, as well as present: and the first thing seen and observed was
a woman: by whom is meant, not the virgin Mary, as highly favoured of God, and big with her firstborn son Jesus; though there may be an allusion to her, and in some things there is a likeness, as is by some observed; as Mary brought forth Christ corporeally, and God in the fulness of time sent forth his Son, made of a woman, so this woman brings forth Christ spiritually, or the manly birth of his kingdom in the world, or one that should be the instrument of enlarging his kingdom; and as Herod sought to destroy Christ in his infancy, and as soon as born, so the dragon here stands watching to destroy the manly birth as soon as brought forth; and as Joseph, with Mary, and her son, by a divine direction, fled into Egypt, where they continued during the reign of Herod, so to this woman are given two wings of an eagle, to flee into the wilderness, where she abides, and is nourished, during the reign of antichrist; and as Herod, after the flight of Mary, killed all the infants of Bethlehem, of two years of age, and under, that he might destroy her son, so the dragon casts out a flood of water after the woman, to carry her away, and makes war with the remnant of her seed; and as the son of Mary, after he had done his work, was taken up to heaven, and made Lord and Christ, so the man child, this woman brings forth, is caught up to God, and his throne, to rule all nations with a rod of iron. But Mary, and the birth of Christ, can never be intended in this vision, that affair being past and over, and would never be represented to John in this manner, who was well acquainted with it: nor is the church of God, among the Jews of the former dispensation, designed; who were highly honoured of God, on whom he shone forth at the giving of the law to them; who had his word and ordinances, to be a light unto them, and had the priests and prophets of the Lord among them; and whose crown and glory it was to descend from the twelve patriarchs; and who were in great expectation of, and most earnestly desired, and longed for, and were, as it were, in pain for the coming of the Messiah; but to what purpose could such a representation of them be made to John now? much less is the church of the Jews, or the Jewish synagogue, as it was at the coming and birth of here designed, which was an evil, wicked, and adulterous generation, and so bad as not to be declared by the tongue and pen of man, and therefore far from answering the description here; but the pure apostolic church is meant, or the church of Christ, as it was in the times of the apostles, and the first ages of Christianity: the description answers to the first of the seven churches, the church at Ephesus, and to the opening of the first seal; and the church apostolical is here called "a woman", because the church was not now in its infancy, in nonage, as under the former dispensation, but grown up, mature, and at full age; and because espoused and married to Christ her husband, to whom she now brought forth many children, in a spiritual sense, as she hereafter will bring forth many more; and, because of her beauty in the eyes of her Lord and husband, which is greatly desired, and highly commended by him; as also because of her weakness in herself her ministers and members, not being able to do anything without her husband, Christ, through whom she can do all things. And who is further described by her habit and attire,
Read full note →
clothed with the sun; which does not point at her future state in glory; see Mat 13:47; but to her then present state on earth; and is expressive of that clear light of Gospel doctrine, which shone out upon her, like the sun in its meridian glory, and of the heat of love to God, Christ, and his people, and zeal for his truths, ordinances, worship, and discipline, which appeared in her; and of that inward holiness of heart which made her all glorious within; and of the outward purity of life and conversation, which greatly adorned her; but, above all, of the righteousness of Christ, who is the sun of righteousness, and the Lord her righteousness; which righteousness, as it was doctrinally held forth by her in the clearest manner, was also as a garment on her, to cover, preserve, and beautify her; and is comparable to the sun for its glory and excellency, outshining that of angels and men; and for its spotless purity, being without any blemish or deficiency; and for its perpetuity, being an everlasting one, and even exceeding the sun in duration.
And the moon under her feet; the church is sometimes compared to the moon herself, because, as the moon receives its light from the sun, so she receives her light from Christ; and as the moon often changes, and has its various "phases" and appearances, so the church sometimes is in the exercise of grace, and sometimes not; sometimes under trials and persecutions, and at other times in rest and peace; one while retaining the doctrines and ordinances of the Gospel in their power and purity, and anon almost overrun with errors and superstition; but this cannot be the sense here. The common interpretation is, that it signifies the church's contempt of, and trampling upon all worldly things, which are changeable, perishing, and passing away; and which very well suits with the primitive saints, who did set their affections on things in earth, but on things in heaven, who sold their worldly possessions, and laid them at the apostles' feet. Brightman thinks, that, as the moon is a luminary, it may denote the light derived from the word of God, which was a lamp to her feet, and a lantern to her paths, by which her discipline and public worship were directed, and all the private actions of life were squared; which is no contemptible sense of the words: but I rather think the ceremonial law is intended, which is very fitly represented by the moon; it consisted much in the observation of new moons, and its solemn festivals were governed and regulated by them; see Ch2 8:12. There was some light in it, and it gave light to the saints in the night of Jewish darkness; it pointed out Christ to them, and was their schoolmaster to teach and lead them to him; yet, like the moon, it was the lesser light, the light it gave was interior to that which the Gospel now gives; and as the moon has its shots had that its imperfections; had it been faultless, there had been no need of another, and a new dispensation, but that could make nothing perfect; and, as the moon, it was variable and changeable; it was but for a time, and is now done away; it is not only waxen old like the moon in the wane, but is entirely vanished away: and yet, though it was abolished by the death of Christ, it was kept up and maintained by many of the Jews, even of them that, believed: persons are naturally fond of ceremonies; and many had rather part with a doctrine of the Gospel than with an old custom, or an useless ceremony; and this was, in a great measure, the case of the Jews; see Act 21:20; so that it was one of the greatest difficulties the Christian church had to grapple with, to get the ceremonial law under foot; for though it was under the feet of Christ, it was a long time ere it was under the feet of the church; and a wonder it was when it was accomplished. Mr. Daubuz has given a new interpretation of this clause; and by "the moon" he understands the Holy Ghost, the Governor of the church, next to Christ, his successor and Vicar, and the minister of him, the sun of righteousness; who is said to be "under the feet" of the church, to assist her in her labour, and in the bringing forth of her man child; and to support and sustain her followers and members; and to be a luminary to them, to guide them in their ways.
And upon her head a crown of twelve stars; by "stars" are meant the ministers of the Gospel, which Christ holds in his right hand, and the church here bears on her head, Rev 1:20. And these "twelve" have respect to the twelve apostles of Christ; and the "crown", which was composed of these stars, designs the doctrine which they preached; and this being on her "head", shows that it was in the beginning of this church state that the pure apostolic doctrine was embraced, professed, and held forth; for in the latter part of it there was a great decline, and falling off from it; in the times of the Apostle Paul, the mystery of iniquity began to work; and in John's time many antichrists were come into the world: and also this signifies, that the church openly owned the doctrine of the apostles, and was not ashamed of it before men, and publicly preached, and held it forth in her ministers, to all the world; and that this was her crown and glory, so long as she held it in its power, purity, and was both what she gloried in, and was a glory, an ornament to her: and this was also an emblem of her victory over her enemies, and of her future happiness, and pointed at the means of both; that it was by a faithful and steadfast adherence to the doctrine of the apostles that she overcame Satan, and all her spiritual enemies, and came to the possession of the crown of life and glory.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv1–17 The great vision of this book goes straight forward,…
The great vision of this book goes straight forward, from the fourth to the twenty-second chapter. Only the tenth, with part of the eleventh chapter, was a kind of introduction to the trumpet of the seventh angel; after which it is said, "The second woe is past: behold, the third woe cometh quickly." Immediately the seventh angel sounds, under whom the third woe goes forth. And to this trumpet belongs all that is related to the end of the book. Verse
And a great sign was seen in heaven - Not only by St. John, but many heavenly spectators represented in the vision. A sign means something that has an uncommon appearance, and from which we infer that some unusual thing will follow. A woman - The emblem of the church of Christ, as she is originally of Israel, though built and enlarged on all sides by the addition of heathen converts; and as she will hereafter appear, when all her "natural branches are again "grafted in." She is at present on earth; and yet, with regard to her union with Christ, may be said to be in heaven, Eph. ii, 6. Accordingly, she is described as both assaulted and defended in heaven, verses 4, 7. chap. xii, 4, 7 Clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars - These figurative expressions must he so interpreted as to preserve a due proportion between them. So, in Joseph's dream, the sun betokened his father; the moon, his mother; the stars, their children. There may be some such resemblance here; and as the prophecy points out the "power over all nations," perhaps the sun may betoken the Christian world; the moon, the Mahometans, who also carry the moon in their ensigns; and the crown of twelve stars, the twelve tribes of Israel; which are smaller than the sun and moon. The whole of this chapter answers the state of the church from the ninth century to this time.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv1–17 The woman clothed with the sun, and in travail,…
CHAPTER XII.
The woman clothed with the sun, and in travail, 1, 2.
Read full note →
The great red dragon waiting to devour the child as soon as
born, 3, 4.
The woman is delivered of a son, who is caught up unto God;
and she flees to the wilderness, 5, 6.
The war in heaven between Michael and the dragon, 7, 8.
The dragon and his angels are overcome and cast down to the
earth; whereupon the whole heavenly host give glory to God,
9-11.
The dragon, full of wrath at his defeat, persecutes the woman,
12, 13.
She flees to the wilderness, whither he attempts to pursue her;
and he makes war with her seed, 14-17.
NOTES ON CHAP. XII.
Before I introduce the comment mentioned at the close of the preceding chapter, I think it necessary to state that the phraseology of the whole chapter is peculiarly rabbinical, and shall insert a few selections which may serve to illustrate some of the principal figures.
In Sohar Exod., fol. 47, col. 187, we find a mystical interpretation of Ex 21:22: If men strive, and hurt a woman with child, so that her fruit depart-he shall be surely punished, as the woman's husband will lay upon him. "If men strive, i.e. Michael and Samael, and hurt a woman with child, i.e. the Israelitish Church, so that her fruit depart, hoc fit in exilio, he shall surely be punished, i.e., Samael. As the woman's husband, that is, the holy and blessed God."
NOTES ON CHAP. XII., BY J. E. C.
Verse 1. There appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun] That the woman here represents the true Church of Christ most commentators are agreed. In other parts of the Apocalypse, the pure Church of Christ is evidently portrayed by a woman. In Re 19:7, a great multitude are represented as saying, "Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him; for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his WIFE hath made herself ready." In Re 21:9, an angel talks with St. John, saying, "Come hither, I will show thee the BRIDE, the Lamb's wife." That the Christian Church is meant will appear also from her being clothed with the sun, a striking emblem of Jesus Christ, the Sun of righteousness, the light and glory of the Church; for the countenance of the Son of God is as the sun shineth in his strength. The woman has:-
The moon under her feet.] Bishop Newton understands this of the Jewish typical worship and indeed the Mosaic system of rites and ceremonies could not have been better represented, for it was the shadow of good things to come. The moon is the less light, ruling over the night, and deriving all its illumination from the sun; in like manner the Jewish dispensation was the bright moonlight night of the world, and possessed a portion of the glorious light of the Gospel. At the rising of the sun the night is ended, and the lunar light no longer necessary, as the sun which enlightens her shines full upon the earth; exactly in the same way has the whole Jewish system of types and shadows has been superseded by the birth, life, crucifixion, death, resurrection, ascension, and intercession of Jesus Christ. Upon the head of the woman is:-
A crown of twelve stars.] A very significant representation of the twelve apostles, who were the first founders of the Christian Church, and by whom the Gospel was preached in great part of the Roman empire with astonishing success. "They that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness, as the STARS for ever and ever." Da 12:3.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv1, 7, 13 Rev 12:1-5. And there appeared a woman clothed with…
Rev 12:1-5. And there appeared a woman clothed with the sun — “It was a well-known custom,” says Lowman, “at the time of this prophecy, to represent the several virtues, and public societies, by the figure of a woman in some peculiar dress, many of which are to be seen in the Roman coins; in particular, Salus, the emblem of security and protection, is represented as a woman standing upon a globe, to represent the safety and security of the world under the emperor’s care. The consecration of the Roman emperors is expressed in their coins by a moon and stars, as in two of Faustina, to express a degree of glory superior to any on earth. Never was any image more expressive of honour and dignity than this in the vision: to stand in the midst of a glory made by the beams of the sun; and upon the moon, as above the low condition of this sublunary world; to wear a crown set with the stars of heaven, as jewels, is something more sublime than any thing whereby antiquity has represented their societies, their virtues, or their deities.” Bishop Newton explains this, and the five following verses, as follows: “St. John resumes his subject from the beginning, and represents the church (Rev 12:1-2) as a woman, and a mother bearing children unto Christ. She is clothed with the sun, invested with the rays of Jesus Christ, the Sun of righteousness; having the moon — The Jewish new moons and festivals, as well as all sublunary things; under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars — An emblem of her being under the light and guidance of the twelve apostles. And she, being with child, cried, travailing in birth, and pained to be delivered — St. Paul hath made use of the same metaphor, and applied it to his preaching and propagating of the gospel, in the midst of tribulation and persecution, Gal 4:19. But the words of St. John are much stronger, and more emphatically express the pangs and struggles which the church endured from the first publication of the gospel to the time of Constantine the Great, when she was in some measure eased of her pains, and brought forth a deliverer. At the same time, there appeared a great red dragon — Which is the well-known sign or symbol of the devil and Satan, and of his agents and instruments. We find the kings and people of Egypt, who were the great persecutors of the primitive church of Israel, distinguished by this title in Psa 74:13; Isa 51:9; Eze 29:3; and with as much reason and propriety may the people and emperors of Rome, who were the great persecutors of the primitive church of Christ, be called by the same name, as they were actuated by the same principle. For that the Roman empire was here figured, the characters and attributes of the dragon plainly evince. He is a great red dragon; and purple or scarlet was the distinguishing colour of the Roman emperors, consuls, and generals; as it hath been since of the popes and cardinals. His seven heads, as the angel afterward (Rev 17:9-10) explains the vision, allude to the seven mountains upon which Rome was built, and to the seven forms of government which successively prevailed there. His ten horns typify the ten kingdoms into which the Roman empire was divided; and the seven crowns upon his heads denote, that at this time the imperial power was in Rome, the ‘high city, seated on seven hills, which presides over the whole world,’ as Propertius describes it, book 3. His tail also (Rev 12:4) drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth — That is, he subjected the third part of the princes and potentates of the earth; and the Roman empire, as we have seen before, is represented as the third part of the world. He stood before the woman, which was ready to be delivered, for to devour her child as soon as it was born — And the Roman emperors and magistrates kept a jealous, watchful eye, over the Christians from the beginning. As Pharaoh laid snares for the male children of the Hebrews, and Herod for the infant Christ, the son of Mary; so did the Roman dragon for the mystic Christ, the son of the church, that he might destroy him even in his infancy. But notwithstanding the jealousy of the Romans, the gospel was widely diffused and propagated, and the church brought many children unto Christ; and, in time, such as were promoted to the empire. She brought forth a man-child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron, Rev 12:5 — It was predicted that Christ should rule over the nations, Psa 2:9; but Christ, who is himself invisible in the heavens, ruleth visibly in Christian magistrates, princes, and emperors. It was therefore promised before, to Christians in general, (Rev 2:26-27,) He that overcometh, and keepeth my words unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations, &c. But it should seem that Constantine was here particularly intended, for whose life the dragon Galerius laid many snares, but he providentially escaped them all; and notwithstanding all opposition, was caught up unto the throne of God — Was not only secured by the divine protection, but was advanced to the imperial throne, called the throne of God; for, (Rom 13:1,) there is no power but of God, &c. He too ruled all nations with a rod of iron; for he had not only the Romans, who before had persecuted the church, under his dominion, but also subdued the Scythians, Sarmatians, and other barbarous nations, who had never before been subject to the Roman empire; and, as Spanheim informs us, there are still extant medals and coins of his with these inscriptions: The subduer of the barbarous nations; the conqueror of all nations; everywhere a conqueror; and the like. What is added, Rev 12:6, of the woman’s fleeing into the wilderness for a thousand two hundred and threescore days, is said by way of prolepsis or anticipation. For the war in heaven between Michael and the dragon, and other subsequent events, were prior, in order of time, to the flight of the woman into the wilderness; but before the prophet passes on to a new subject, he gives a general account of what happened to the woman afterward, and enters more into the particulars in their proper place.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv1–17 And there appeared a great wonder in heaven -…
And there appeared a great wonder in heaven - In that heavenly world thus disclosed, in the very presence of God, he saw the impressive and remarkable symbol which he proceeds to describe. The word “wonder” - σημεῖον sēmeion - properly means something extraordinary, or miraculous, and is commonly rendered “sign.” See Mat 12:38-39; Mat 16:1, Mat 16:3-4; Mat 24:3, Mat 24:24, Mat 24:30; Mat 26:48; Mar 8:11-12; Mar 13:4, Mar 13:22; Mar 16:17, Mar 16:20; in all which, and in numerous other places in the New Testament, it is rendered “sign,” and mostly in the sense of “miracle.” When used in the sense of a miracle, it refers to the fact that the miracle is a sign or token by which the divine power or purpose is made known. Sometimes the word is used to denote “a sign of future things” - a portent or presage of coming events; that is, some remarkable appearances which foreshadow the future. Thus in Mat 16:3; “signs of the times”; that is, the miraculous events which foreshadow the coming of the Messiah in his kingdom. So also in Mat 24:3, Mat 24:30; Mar 13:4; Luk 21:7, Luk 21:11. This seems to be the meaning here, that the woman who appeared in this remarkable manner was a portent or token of what was to occur.
A woman clothed with the sun - Bright, splendid, glorious, as if the sunbeams were her raiment. Compare Rev 1:16; Rev 10:1; see also Son 6:10 - a passage which, very possibly, was in the mind of the writer when he penned this description: “Who is she that looketh forth as the morning, fair as the moon, clear as the sun, and terrible as an army with banners?”
Read full note →
And the moon under her feet - The moon seemed to be under her feet. She seemed as if she stood on the moon, its pale light contrasted with the burning splendor of the sun, heightening the beauty of the whole picture. The woman, beyond all question, represents the church. See the notes on Rev 12:2. Is the splendor of the sunlight designed to denote the brightness of the gospel? Is the moon designed to represent the comparatively feeble light of the Jewish dispensation? Is the fact that she stood upon the moon, or that it was under her feet, designed to denote the superiority of the gospel to the Jewish dispensation? Such a supposition gives much beauty to the symbol, and is not foreign to the nature of symbolic language.
And upon her head a crown of twelve stars - A diadem in which there were placed twelve stars. That is, there were twelve sparkling gems in the crown which she wore. This would, of course, greatly increase the beauty of the vision; and there can be no doubt that the number twelve here is significant. If the woman here is designed to symbolize the church, then the number twelve has, in all probability, some allusion either to the twelve tribes of Israel as being a number which one who was born and educated as a Jew would be likely to use (compare Jam 1:1), or to the twelve apostles - an allusion which, it may be supposed, an apostle would be more likely to make. Compare Mat 19:28; Rev 21:14.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 10, 14, 15, 16 A woman clothed with the sun, and the moon…
A woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet. By this woman, interpreters commonly understand the Church of Christ, shining with the light of faith, under the protection of the sun of justice, Jesus Christ. The moon, the Church, hath all changeable things of this world under her feet, the affections of the faithful being raised above them all. --- A woman: the Church of God. It may also, by allusion, be applied to our blessed Lady [the Virgin Mary]. The Church is clothed with the sun, that is, with Christ: she hath the moon, that is, the changeable things of the world, under her feet; and the twelve stars with which she is crowned, are the twelve apostles: she is in labour and pain, whilst she brings forth her children, and Christ in them, in the midst of afflictions and persecutions. (Challoner) --- On her head....twelve stars, her doctrine being delivered by the twelve apostles and their successors. (Witham)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
John Nelson Darby 1862 · Public Domain On v1 Revelation Chapter 12
Revelation Chapter 12
Chapter 12 gives us a brief but all-important summary of the whole course of events, viewed, not in their instruments on earth or the judgment of these, but the divine view of all the principles at work, the state of things as revealed of God. The first symbolical person, subject of the prophecy and result of all God’s ways in it, is a woman clothed with the sun, having a crown of twelve stars, and the moon under her feet. It is Israel, or Jerusalem as its centre as in the purpose of God (compare Isa 9:6 and Psa 87:6). She is clothed with supreme authority, invested with the glory of perfect administration in man, and all the original reflected glory of this under the old covenant, under her feet. She was travailing in childbirth, distressed, and in pain to be delivered: on the other hand Satan’s power in the form of the Roman Empire, complete in forms of power, seven heads, but incomplete in administrative supremacy-ten, not twelve horns. But Satan, as the open infidel enemy of God and God’s power in Christ, sought to devour the child as soon as born, who was to have the rule of the earth from God. But the child, Christ, and the assembly with Christ, is caught away to God and His throne - does not receive the power yet, but is placed in the very source of it from which it flows. It is not the rapture as regards joy; for it goes back to Christ Himself, but the placing Him and the assembly in and with Him, in the seat from which power flows for the establishment of the kingdom. There is no time for this: Christ and the assembly are all one. But the woman-the Jews, after this fly into the wilderness, where God has prepared a place for them, for the half-week.
Read full note →
The assembly, or heavenly saints, (as Christ, note,) go up to heaven to be out of the way. The Jews, or earthly ones, are protected by providential care upon earth. This gives the whole state of things, and those in view in this scene, and their respective places. She that is to have glory and hold power in the earth is cast out. The child that is to have power, in and from heaven, is previously taken up there. This makes the position very clear.
The historical course of events is now pursued, the child being supposed to be already caught up. There is war in heaven; and the devil and his angels are cast out, and have no more place there. This brings out yet more clearly the distinction of the heavenly saints and the Jewish remnant. The heavenly ones had overcome the accuser by the blood of the Lamb, and the word of their testimony; the woman’s seed have the commandments of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ, that is, the Spirit of prophecy. What they have of God in the word is according to the Old Testament.
But, to follow up the latter part of the chapter, a loud voice proclaims in heaven that the kingdom of our God and the power of His Christ is come-the testimony still of the second Psalm; only as yet it was only proclaimed from heaven, where the power of the kingdom was already made good by the casting down of Satan. Satan’s anti-priestly power was over forever. King and prophet he might yet put on; but his heavenly place was past. The saints of the heavenlies had overcome him by that which made their conscience and their title to heaven good-the blood of the Lamb, and the word of their mouth, God’s sword by the Spirit-and gave up their lives to the death. The heavens and the dwellers there could now rejoice; but it was woe to the inhabiters of earth and sea; for the devil had come down, knowing he had but a little time left. I think Rev 12:11 implies that there are saints killed after the rapture, who yet belong to heaven. If there were such killed because of their faithfulness, were they not taken up, they would lose earth and heaven, though more devoted than those who had earth. We see them moreover in chapter 20 in the first resurrection. The souls under the altar also had to wait for others-their brethren who had to be killed, as they were; and we are to note here that those celebrated as happy are the slain ones, none others. Yet it is before the last three years and a half.
So that we have these three parties in view: the voice of those in heaven; (our) their brethren who had overcome; and those who would be in the three years and a half of Satan’s rage, which had not yet begun. Now, if the man-child in heaven be, as we have considered it, Christ and the raptured saints, the voice would be that of those already there, [14] and all self evident: the raptured saints associated with Him celebrate the casting down of the accuser and the deliverance of those who belonged to heaven, calling them “our brethren” -the brethren whose conflict with the accuser was over, as he was now cast down, but who had had to resist him as a heavenly potentate, an anti-priest, all which part is mystery for John-and those who now would be in trial, when he would act with rage on earth, as king and prophet. For the dragon, cast to the earth and unable to accuse in heaven or oppose saints having a heavenly calling (and the priesthood refers to such, not to union), persecutes the Jews, and seeks to destroy their testimony; but God gave, not power of resistance-the Lord must come to deliver-but power to flee and escape and find refuge where she was nourished the whole half-week out of the serpent’s reach. He seeks to pursue; wings he has none: but he uses a river, the movements of people under the influence of special motive and guidance, to overwhelm the woman. But the earth, this organized system in which men live, swallowed the waters up. This influence was in vain -was not met by an army, a counter-power, but was nullified. There was such a disposition or course of the earth as neutralized the effort wholly. So God ordered in His providence; and the dragon turned to persecute individually the faithful remnant of the seed-the Jews who held fast by the word.
Footnotes for Revelation Chapter 12
14: I do not continue to put the voice as Christ’s. The application to Him is too questionable.
John Nelson Darby — Synopsis of the Books of the Bible: the New Testament (c. 1857–1862) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures 1864 · Public Domain On vv1, 13 b. The Theocracy. Christ. The Churches of the Wilderness,…
Rev_12:1-12
b. The Theocracy. Christ. The Churches of the Wilderness, or Church of the Cross
Read full note →
1And there appeared [om. there appeared] a great wonder [sign (σημεῖον)—ins. was seen] in [ins. the] heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars: 2And she being with child cried [crieth]1, travailing in birth [om. in birth], and pained [tormented] to be delivered 3[bring forth]. And there appeared [was seen] another wonder [sign] in [ins. the] heaven; and [,] behold [,] a great red [πυῤῥός] dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and [ins. upon his heads] seven crowns [diadems] upon his heads [om. upon his heads]. 4And his tail drew [draggeth2] the third part of the stars of [ins. the] heaven, and did [om. did] cast them to the earth: and the dragon stood before the woman which [who] was ready to be delivered [about to bring forth], for to devour her child as soon as it was born [that, when she should bring forth, he might devour her child]. 5And she brought forth a man child [male son (υἱὸν ἄρσεν3)] who was [is (μέλλει)] to rule [shepherdize] all [ins. the] nations with a rod of iron [an iron rod]: and her child was caught up [away (ἡρπάσθη)] unto [to] God, and to [to] his throne. 6And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she hath [ins. there]4 a place prepared of [by (ἀπό)5] God, that [ins. there] they should feed [may nourish]6 her there [om. there] a thousand two hundred and threescore [sixty] days.
c. Establishment of the Church Triumphant in the Heaven of the inner Spirit-life on Earth. Freedom of the Invisible Church
7And there was [ἐγένετο] war in [ins. the] heaven: [,] Michael and his angels fought against [warring with]7 the dragon; and the dragon fought [warred] and his angels, 8and [ins. they] prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in [ins. the] heaven. 9And the great dragon was cast out [thrown down (ἐβλήθη)], that [the] old [ancient] serpent, [ins. that is] called the [om. the] Devil, and [ins. the] Satan [or adversary], which deceiveth [that seduceth or misleadeth (ὁ πλανῶν)] the whole world [inhabited world (οἰκἰυμένην)]: he was cast out [thrown down] into [unto] the earth, and his angels were cast out [thrown down] with him. 10And I heard a loud [great] voice saying in [ins. the] heaven, Now is come [ins. the] salvation, and strength [the power], and the kingdom of our God, and the power [authority] of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast [thrown] down, which accused [that accuseth] them8 before our God [ins. by] day and [ins. by] night. 11And they overcame [conquered] him by [on account of] the blood of the Lamb, and by [on account of] the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives [life (ψυχήν)] unto the [om. the] 12death. Therefore rejoice, ye heavens, and ye that dwell in them. Woe to the inhabited of [om. the inhabiters of]9 the earth and of [om. of] the sea! for [because] the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath [anger], because he knoweth that he hath but a [om. but a] short [little] time.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
SYNOPTICAL VIEW
Here, manifestly, the beginning of the End commences, and, consequently, the second division of the Apocalypse. It begins with the heavenly pre-celebration of the victory over the Dragon—Satan—and over his representative on earth—the Beast, i. e., Antichrist. This precelebration is linked to the blast of the seventh Trumpet. A striking turn in the description is found in the fact, that the Spirit of prophecy does not make the seven-headed Beast appear immediately upon the blast of the seventh Trumpet, as the seven Trumpet-Angels emerged from the seventh Seal. In like manner, the vision of the seven Seals might not directly follow the picture of the seventh Church; nor, furthermore, can the seven Vials of wrath be immediately linked to the seven heads of Antichrist, and this irrespective of the fact, that these [the heads] constitute, in the first place, a unitous phenomenon. If it had been designed that the seven Thunders should be particularly set forth, they would have followed upon the seventh Trumpet, whilst the seventh Thunder would have been succeeded by the announcement of the Antichristian time. The sealing of the seven Thunders, however, necessitated a modification of the outward consequence of the septenaries; nor could the new Divine manifestations issue from the preceding bad human conditions, but could only follow them as judgments.
From the seventh Trumpet great or powerful voices proceed. Not one voice, but a chorus of voices—and those, mighty, voices—concordantly proclaim the great victory
This is, manifestly, an expression of the strongest assurance of victory, developed in the very face of the emergence of Satan and his Antichrist.
This assurance of victory in Heaven is also an assurance of victory in the spirit-realm of the Kingdom of God in this world, i. e., in the invisible Church. It is a fundamental feature of the Kingdom of God, that this assurance of victory has been in process of more and more glorious development from the Protevangel down to the consummation of the New Testament (1Jn_5:4). And, indeed, with the death and resurrection of Christ the victory is, in principle, decided, so that there is no longer question save as to the full development of the principle into the visible appearance.
But in what manner do the voices proclaim the victory? The kingdom of the world is become our Lord’s and His Christ’s, and He shall reign to the æons of the æons. The position of Christ toward God the Lord is economically modified here, because the kingdom relationship is involved (see 1Co_15:25-27). Since we must distinguish between a Kingdom of power, possessed by God from the beginning, and a Kingdom of His Spirit’s sovereignty in spirits, founded by His grace in Christ, to which, however, the kingdom of darkness stands opposed—an anarchy of spirits, under the lying power of Satan—the point in question here can be nought but the synthesis, already accomplished in principle, of the Kingdom of power and the Kingdom of grace. It is a Kingdom of God over the world, which is at the same time a Kingdom over hearts; or a Kingdom over hearts which, from the invisible Church, goes forth, in dynamic operation, through all the world, finally spreading through the worlds of space, as through the æons of time.
At the close appearing of this Kingdom, the kingdom of darkness is destroyed. With the mere announcement of this absolute Kingdom is conjoined the absolute thanksgiving of pious humanity in the evening of the world; pious humanity as, represented by the twenty-four Elders, the Presbytery of the Theocracy and the Presbytery of the New Testament Kingdom of God, both of which institutions have had so much to suffer from the oppressions of the kingdom of darkness. [See foot-note†, p.152.—E.R.C.]
They, lying upon their faces, rightly return thanks to God as the All-Ruler, Who now has taken to Himself—i. e., brought into full operation—His great power. In these words a grand theological revelation is contained. From the beginning of the world’s history, but, above all, in the humiliation of Christ, in His cross, and His cross-bearing Church, God has so greatly restrained His power, in the maintenance of the liberty, thereunto opposed, of moral agents, and in the service of love, as to make it seem as if He had laid that power aside. Now, however, that the seed of liberty has gradually matured, having sprouted up partly on the right hand side, partly on the left hand side, He can unchain His full majestic power, and He has begun His absolute royal rule.
The first mark of this turn in the current of affairs is peculiar; it has almost the aspect of a contradiction. The heathen [nations] have become wroth, it is declared; the power of darkness seems just now to be more than ever at liberty. But as, in the second Psalm, the strongly emphasized today marks the very date of the general rebellion against Jehovah and His Anointed as the date of the anointing and institution of His Son—as the date of the crucifixion of Christ became the date of His exaltation likewise—so it shall be at the time of the last great apostasy; even above the wrath of the heathen and simultaneously: with it, the revelation of the wrath of God appears. The wrath of God is destination to death (Exo_4:14; comp. Eze_12:24; Psalms 90). The suicidal death-choice of the old world, in its apostasy from the living God, brings the judgment of the Divine destination to death directly upon this old world. The living have become a prey to death; the dead, on the other hand, revive. The time of the dead, when it is their turn to have justice done them, has come; the retributive judgment must be held, in which God gives to His servants their reward, i. e., the final perfect and solemn restoration, which forms the antithesis to all the ignominy and sorrow of their historic life.
And here the Old Testament Prophets and the New Testament saints are beautifully linked together; and with them, all the God-fearing, who have kept the name of God—their knowledge of God—sacred; all, both small and great, in the whole sphere of God’s Kingdom. For they all had to suffer from the destroyers of the earth—of Divine order on Earth, as well as of Nature and Earth in the literal sense.
But the time of compensatory retribution is likewise the time of punitory retribution: the destroyers of the Earth must themselves be destroyed.
The judgment is consummated amid the complete revelation of that idea of justice by which it is put in execution. Hence the Temple of God in the Heaven is opened, i. e., the radiant archetype of the Kingdom of God on Earth is revealed in its ideal and dynamical authority for mankind. The Ark of the Covenant in this Temple becomes visible; the heavenly rule [Norm] of the condemning law, as well as of the real redemption, is made known to all the world.
Nor is the radiant appearance all; it produces, as a vital phenomenon, in the richest manifestations of its powers, lightnings, or revelations of the Spirit; voices, or Divine words and thoughts; thunders, or lively stirrings of soul; earthquake, or convulsions of the old world; and a great hail, as a symbol of the conflict betwixt Heaven and Earth: fire and cold issue from the disclosure of the heavenly spirit-world at the end of the world.
And now the history of Antichristianity on Earth is prefigured by the history of it in Heaven. Here Heaven is manifestly the pure celestial sphere of spirit and of spirits, the background of all occurrences in that general history of the world which is visible to all. A great sign appears in this Heaven. A Woman, the Kingdom of God, modified by the feminine receptivity of the human mind, is seen. She makes her appearance in the unity of the Old Testament Theocracy and the New Testament Kingdom of Heaven; she is adorned with the sun of revelation; with the moon, as a symbol of nature, in its subserviency to the Kingdom of God (and also as symbolizing the change of times), under her feet; and a crown of twelve stars upon her head—the adornment of a plenary number of elect spirits appertaining to her. The Seer has deeply felt the conflict of the transition from the Old Covenant to the New, as is proved by the words: And she, being with child, crieth, etc.; the Lord’s people, together with Himself, have experienced these throes of the Messiah (see Joh_16:21). This sign is accompanied by another: Behold, a great fiery-red Dragon. In Heaven! how is this possible? Heaven is that realm of spirit and of spirits in which Christ overcame Judas (see the author’s Leben Jesu, Book ii., p. 1328), without the observation of mere historical men, in their external world; hence, it is the spiritual back-ground of worldly history. In this Heaven, the great red Dragon appears; the winged primeval serpent, at once serpent and swine; signalized as a monster, not only by the fiery hue of the murderer, but also by the seven heads, and especially by the disproportion between the seven heads, or the caricature symbol of holy intelligence—not to say of a Holy Spirit—and the ten horns or the symbols of worldly power; the heads only are adorned with diadems, thus making the worldly power appear as unauthorized might, obtained by artifice. Farther on, the Dragon, the ancient serpent (Genesis 3), is expressly called the Devil and Satan (Rev_12:9; Rev_20:2). These seven heads of the Dragon are not to be identified with the seven heads of the Beast, nor are they to be referred to historical shapes; they are seven spiritual deformities which ape the seven Spirits, or ground-forms of the Spirit.
It is declared concerning his first exertion of violence: His tail draggeth the third part of the stars of the Heaven, and cast them upon the Earth. This cannot be regarded as significant of the apostasy of a portion of the angels, since the angels of the Dragon are spoken of, further on, as still in Heaven.
The passage should rather be interpreted in accordance with Revelation 8, particularly Rev_12:10.
The third part of the spirits designed as light-bearers in the human Heaven are, by the violent oscillations of the demonic tail—overpowered, that is, by the impressions of apparently irresistible vivacity and might—swept from the Heaven of spiritual purity, and cast upon the Earth; made subservient to worldly-mindedness, in order to the more thorough transformation of God’s Earth (Psalms 93) into an Earth estranged from God. The preliminaries to the crucifixion of Christ were, in particular, the fruit of this act of the Dragon. Fallen stars constituted the government of Palestine and the majority of the Sanhedrin; even the Messianic hopes of the Jews were satanically empoisoned. In the face of Christ’s appearance, however, the machinations of the Dragon concentrate themselves; for Christ is the glorification of the personal God, of love in the love-kingdom of personal life, by means of an absolutely worthy personal conduct; Satan, on the other hand, is the seducer and accuser of men, who tends to sink the whole world in worldliness—to plunge the personal kingdom into the service of impersonal things, by means of the lying perversion of his own true creaturely essence into the semblance of a false divinity.
Shamelessly, therefore, the Dragon takes his stand before the Woman who is about to be delivered, that he may devour her child. Thus was the power of evil concentrated in Israel at the very moment when Christ, in respect of His historical descent from the eternal congregation of God, extending through the Theocracy and the Church, was about to be born.
But the new-born Child is a man—the Man, simply (Isaiah 9)—destined, in the words of the Old Testament (Psalms 2), to rule [shepherdize] the nations with a rod of iron; ordained to the government of the world in redemptive and judicial righteousness—for Satan, therefore, unattainable in His essence (Joh_14:30). His own name for Himself is the Son of Man, in the highest sense. Pilate calls Him the Man [ὁ ἄθρωπος=Mensch, human being]. The vision calls Him the Man [Mann (υἱὸν ἄρσεν)], in the highest sense of the term. And here, in accordance with the spiritual, æonic aspect of the history, there is no special reference to the sufferings of Christ; His death itself forms a part of His elevation above every assault of Satan; hence it is declared: her Child was caught away to God and to His Throne. This exaltation (Php_2:6 sqq.) is at the same time the foundation of the Church Triumphant in Heaven and on Earth.
Of the Woman it is said, that she fled into the wilderness. She is the same who bore Christ—hence, the Old and New Testament Church in undivided unity. The wilderness, prepared for her by God as a place of shelter,10 exhibits a transformation similar to that presented by the cross. As the cross, from the tree of the curse, has become the symbol of salvation, so this wilderness, from being the abode of demons (Lev_16:22; Matthew 4; Mat_12:43), was changed into a refuge from the Arch-demon. This wilderness is the perfect New Testament renunciation of the world, which makes the Church on Earth, in respect of its invisible kernel, like unto the Church in Heaven. The entrance thereto is baptism into the death of Christ (Romans 6); its external form is asceticism; its security is courage for the cross; its verdant oases are the triumphs of the martyrs. The time of residence in this wilderness is modified after the measure of the New Testament trial-time; not in the form of the change of times (Rev_11:2), but in that of uninterrupted days’ works—twelve hundred and sixty days (Rev_11:3). In regard to the Woman herself, the notation of time is more obscure, less definite, and gloomier: a time, two times, a half time (Rev_12:14; Dan_12:7)—running, we may say, into apparently endless helplessness or destitution (Luk_18:1).
The succeeding scene is most wonderful. The theatre of this war in Heaven—a conflict marvellous when considered merely in the abstract—is, we believe, the spiritual and spirit world of the Church Invisible—not, however, the Heaven of Christ’s glory.
The nature of the conflict is equally remarkable: Michael and his angels (as the attacking party) war with the Dragon; but the Dragon also wars, and his angels (as the resisting party). We have shown elsewhere that the Archangel Michael is an image of Christ victoriously combatant. Christ is an Archangel in His quality of Judge; and He appears as Judge, not only at the end of the world, but also in the preservation of the purity of His Church (Act_5:1 sqq.; 1Co_5:1 sqq.). That Christ has His angels also—those that war with Him—not merely in the evening of the world, but from the beginning, is a fact which John has previously intimated in his Gospel (Joh_1:51); they are the principles and spirits which are with Him absolutely. And so the Dragon also has his angels, his assistants. Since the foundation of Christ’s Church, Christian and Antichristian principles have been warring with each other—primarily, in spiritual, intellectual and ethical forms (John 14 [John 15?]).
These battles are not simply central general combats, but a sum of great single conflicts. Michael wars; the angels war; the Dragon wars, and his angels. But, with them, he is defeated.
Why is it so concisely declared: they prevailed not? Be it observed, in the first place, that the principial victory of Christ has already taken place, and that the final historic victory cannot yet be intended. But Satan is totally defeated, in so far as respects the fact, that the New Testament Heaven, in its central essence, is thoroughly purged from him and his angels; in Heaven their place is no more found. That is, as the Church Triumphant is now established in Heaven, so, in correspondence with it, the Church on Earth has also a place that is purified from all Satanic essence—the sphere of pure Christian spiritual life, the communion of saints. Out of this Heaven, therefore, is cast the great Dragon, the ancient Serpent (the demonic seducer of Adam); the Devil and Satan, as the slanderer and enemy of mankind (Job 2), who has continually changed the conception: man is sinful and wicked—into the calumniatory sentence: he is fundamentally bad; and this, on account of his success in approving himself the seducer of the whole world.
When it is declared, that the whole Satanic troop is cast upon the Earth, in company with its leader, it cannot be necessary to apprehend the declaration in an astronomical or local sense. Expelled from the inner Church, Satan now directs his whole assault against the outer Church. The wheat of Christ’s field remains pure; but the field, as such, becomes impure: the enemy sows his tares amongst the wheat.
The foundation of the holy Church, the communion of saints, is an infinitely glorious achievement. A great voice pronounces the hymn of victory; it is a single, common triumphant consciousness of all the heavenly throng. Now there is founded, with Christ and through Him, a pure, eternal Heaven, which descends from Heaven to Earth. And with the pure Church, the New Testament Kingdom of Heaven is established, in which God reigns with three attributes: He has taken upon Himself the salvation—the perfect and final redemption from all evil; He has, further, taken to Himself the power over redeemed souls, and has called in the current of worldly affairs as co-operative in redemption (Romans 8); and, consequently, He has finally assumed the real Kingdom of His Spirit as a sovereignty over all good spirits. The attribute of Christ is, henceforth, the authority, the executive power (ἐξυσία). Such is the constitution of the Kingdom (Rev_11:15).
How all this has come to pass, is intimated in the following words. The negative term runs thus: the accuser of our brethren is cast down, who accuseth them before our God by day and by night. The temptations to despair, which Satan brought to bear upon the consciences of men, subsequent to his seduction of them into sin, are annihilated, throughout the whole realm of faith, by the sure and perfect peace of reconciliation (comp. 1Jn_3:20; Heb_2:15).
And they conquered him by [on account of] the blood of the Lamb, is the reason assigned for their victory; for it is upon the triumph of Christ that the triumphs of Christians are grounded. Their heart-victories, however, have become intellectual victories likewise, through the word of their testimony; and victories of their entire life, because they loved not their life unto death, when martyrdom was the price of adherence to the truth (Mat_16:24-25).
Therefore rejoice, ye Heavens, and ye that dwell (take up your abode)in them—such is the festal conclusion. Heaven spreads out into a plenitude of Heavens (Joh_14:2), and these Heavens become peopled with blessed conquerors.
A terrible contrast to the above is presented by the last words: Woe unto the inhabiters11 of the earth and of the sea. The danger is heightened for the world-church of external order and authority, as well as for the surging popular life and the fluctuations of society. For the Devil, as the poisoner of the truly historical powers, has made their common destruction his aim. He has great anger; the principle of demonic worldly-mindedness is excited—the more, as it is a final paroxysm, or because he knoweth that he hath little time.
The fact that the Heaven-picture continues to this passage, is proved, among other things, by the concluding hymn (Rev_12:10-12).
[ABSTRACT OF VIEWS, ETC.]
By the American Editor
I. Rev_12:15-17
[Elliott regards Rev_12:14 as setting forth the cessation of the Turkish woe—the period of cessation beginning with the battle of Lepanto, A. D. 1571, and extending to the peace (humiliating to Turkey) in 1791, between Turkey on the one side and Russia and Austria on the other. He connects this “second half” of the Turkish woe with the visions of Rev_10:1 to Rev_11:13, as follows: It was just after the “slaying of the third part of men” (Rev_9:18), i. e., the fall of Constantinople—and the ineffectiveness of the catastrophe to induce repentance (see p. 210, foot-note), that the Covenant Angel descended (Rev_10:1)—betokening the Reformation (see p. 218); and also it was just after the fall of the tenth part of the City and the seven Chiliads (Rev_11:13), i. e., the political earthquake following the Reformation (see p. 228), that the announcement of Rev_12:14 was made. (The beginning of this earthquake he places about A. D., 1569; the battle of Lepanto was fought A. D. 1571.) Rev_12:15-17 he interprets as a general Heaven-picture of the last time (including the establishment of Christ’s Millennial Kingdom), the development of the great events of this vision being deferred until after “the parenthetic Visions” in chs. 12–14.
Barnes regards the description of the events of the seventh Trumpet as closing with Rev 12:18 (Rev_13:1); the period extending to the establishment of the Millennial Kingdom, and the vision closing the series of visions beginning at Rev_5:1. He regards Rev 12:19 (Rev_13:2) as commencing “a new series of visions, intended, also, but in a different line, to extend down to the consummation of all things.”
Stuart: “One powerful and bitter enemy of Christianity is now, or is speedily to be, put down. The judgments of Heaven, which had been so gradually proceeding, and seemingly so slow, are immediately to be consummated. The triumph of Christianity over opposing and embittered Judaism is to be completed. ‘Their place and nation are now to be taken away.’ The progress of the Gospel can no longer be stayed by them.”
Wordsworth agrees with Barnes in regarding this section as closing the first series of visions, and with commentators generally, in regarding it as referring to the last time.
Alford: (Rev_12:14). “Transitional—The episodical visions of Rev_10:1-11; Rev_11:1-13 are finished; and the prophecy refers to the plagues of the sixth Trumpet, Rev_9:13-21. These formed the second woe, and upon these the third is to follow (Rev_12:15-17). But in actual relation and detail it does not immediately follow. Instead of it, we have voices of thanksgiving in Heaven, for that the hour of God’s Kingdom and vengeance is come. The Seer is not yet prepared to set forth the nature of this taking of the Kingdom, this reward to God’s servants, this destruction of the destroyers of the earth. Before he does so, another series of prophetic visions must be given regarding not merely the dwellers on the earth, but the Church herself, her glory and her shame, her faithfulness and her apostasy. When this series has been given, then shall be declared in its fullness the manner and the process of the time of the end.”—“Notice (1), that the seventh Seal, the seventh Trumpet, and the seventh Vial, are all differently accompanied from any of the preceding series in each case; (2) at each seventh member of the series (a) we hear what is done, not on earth, but in Heaven (chs. Rev_8:1; Rev_11:15; Rev_16:17); (b) we have it related in the form of a solemn conclusion (with slight variations), ἐγένοντο βρονταὶ κ.τ.λ., chs. Rev_8:5; Rev_11:19; Rev_16:18 sqq.; (c) we have plain indication in the imagery or by direst expression, that the end is come, or close at hand, by (α) the imagery of the sixth Seal, and the two episodes preceding the seventh Seal, (β) the declaration, here ἦλθεν ὁ καιρὸς τῶν νεκρῶν κριθῆναι, (γ) the Γέγονεν sounding from the Temple and the Throne on the pouring out of the seventh Vial; (3) all this forms strong ground for inference, that the three series of visions are not continuous, but resumptive; not indeed going over the same ground with one another, either of time or of occurrence, but each evolving something which was not in the former, and putting the course of God’s providence in a different light. It is true that the Seals involve the Trumpets, the Trumpets the Vials; but it is not mere temporal succession, the involution and inclusion are far deeper,” etc.
Lord: The seventh Trumpet is to be followed by 1. The assumption by the Redeemer of the dominion of the earth in a new and peculiar relation as its King, and the commencement of a visible and eternal reign. 2. The resurrection, and public adoption as heirs of the Kingdom, of all saints who have suffered the penalty of death; and the acceptance and reward of all living saints. 3. The destruction of the apostate powers, the Wild-beast, False Prophet, etc. This Trumpet is cotemporaneous with the seventh Vial (comp. Rev 12:19 with Rev_16:18 sqq.); the lightnings, voices, etc., denoting excitements, commotions, and revolutions among the nations, and the descent on them of judgments. The opening of the inner Temple and the exhibition of the Ark (Rev 12:19)(Rev_13:2), denote, probably, that the mysteries of the former administration are finished, and that thenceforth the reasons of the Divine procedure are to be understood.
Glasgow regards the prophecy of the period of the seventh Trumpet as contemplated in only Rev_12:15. This period he holds to begin with the Reformation and to extend “through all the period of the Vials.” “The Trumpet declares the Kingdom to be Christ’s, and goes on to announce the events by which all rebels are to be brought to submission or extinction.” The voices he interprets as “The voice of Jesus through the instrumentality of ecclesiastical voices. They are the voices of Luther, Zwingli—all the Reforming preachers.” He explains the expression: “His Christ’s,” as relating to the Church (see Expl. in Detail). Rev_12:16-17 describe a Heaven scene (at the opening of or throughout the period?); Rev 12:18 (Rev_13:1), an Earth scene at the beginning of the Reformation. Rev 12:19 (Rev_13:2), he refers to the day of Pentecost, when “Peter and the other apostles, by preaching, ‘opened the door of faith instrumentally!’ ” (See Expl. in Detail.)
II. Rev_12:1-12
[Elliott: With this section this author regards Part IV. of the Apocalypse as beginning, including chs. 12, 13, 14. This Part presents a “supplemental and explanatory history of the Rise, Character, and Establishment of the Beast from the Abyss, or Popedom; with its chief Adjuncts; and the contrasted Impersonation of Christ’s faithful Church.” The vision of this section be holds to be retrogressive. By the Travailing Woman he understands Christ’s true visible Church, in the heaven of political elevation (invested with Christ as the Sun of Righteousness; the moon, representing the civil authority, under her feet; the stars, ecclesiastical ministers, recognized as dignified authorities before the world); bringing forth with pain (the Diocletian persecution) a son who is to rule, etc., i. e., producing children who, united and multiplied into a nation, are to be raised to dominant political power; (this elevation being first accomplished under Constantine, to whom, according to Ambrose, was given the title “Son of the Church”). The Dragon he interprets as the Roman Empire as a persecuting power hostile to Christianity. He presents the following indications as to the time of the birth and effort to destroy: (1) not until after the close of the Second century, as it was then that the dragon was first used as a Roman ensign; (2) not until the time of Diocletian, as it was then that the diadem was first assumed as one of the imperial insignia; (3) the drawing by the Dragon of a third part of the stars of Heaven indicates that though he was still in the political heaven, his power was diminished to a third part of the Imperial power, and this occurred about A. D. 313, when in two divisions of the Roman Empire, Europe and Africa (under Constantine and Licinius), Christianity was in the ascendancy, but in the third, Asia (under Maximin), Christians were still exposed to persecution; (4) this was the period of the termination of forty weeks (280 prophetic days from Pentecost) of the Church’s gestation. The attempt to destroy he explains by (1) the persecution of Maxi min (see Gibbon II. 489); (2) the apostasy of Licinius, A. D. 323, and the following persecutions. The catching up of the child to God and His throne he regards as the elevation of Constantine, as an avowed Christian, to the undivided throne of the Roman Empire, and the consequent establishment of Christianity, after the defeat of Licinius at the battle of Adrianople, A. D. 323 (see Gibbon and historians generally). (For the explanation of the flight of the Woman, see the following abstract, p. 258.) The war in Heaven he regards as indicating the struggle of Paganism for re-elevation to political power under Licinius and Julian the Apostate, and the throwing down of the Dragon (or Satan, who inspired them) as the final downfall of Paganism, primarily in the defeat of Licinius, and finally in the death of Julian in the Persian War, A. D. 363. Rev_12:10-12 (1st clause) he interprets as the Church’s song of victory in the “symbolic Heaven of political elevation and power.” The last clause of Rev_12:12 he regards “as a detached and solemn notification by the dictating prophetic Spirit of some woe on the Roman Empire soon about to follow,” reference being had “primarily, to heretical persecutors within the Church and Empire; and, secondarily, to the Gothic scourge.”
Barnes agrees, in the main, with Elliott. His most important variations are as to—1. The adornment of the Woman: by the moon under her feet he understands “the ancient (Jewish) and comparatively obscure dispensation now made subordinate and humble; and by the twelve stars, “the usual well-known division of the people of God into twelve parts.” 2. The war in Heaven: he writes, “Another vision appears. It is that of a contest between Michael, the protecting Angel of the people of God, and the great foe, in which victory declares in favor of the former, and Satan suffers a discomfiture, as if he were cast from Heaven to Earth.”
Stuart interprets (1) the Woman as the Church (“not simply as Jewish, but in a more generic and theocratic sense, the people of God”) at the period of Christ’s birth; (2) the child as Christ Himself; (3) the dragon as Satan inspiring Herod, Judas and other persecutors; (4) the attempt to destroy as the massacre at Bethlehem and the other assaults on our Lord; (5) the catching up to Heaven as the Ascension; (6) the War in Heaven (the lower heaven, the air) as a struggle between good and bad spirits, “according to the usual popular modes of conception;”12 (7) “the words of the voice in Heaven (Rev_12:10 sqq.) are to be regarded mainly as anticipative of victory in respect to the future, grounded on a reminiscence of victory with regard to the past.”
Wordsworth regards Revelation 12 as a “Prophetic View of the History of the Church relatively to Rome” (Rev_12:1-12, relatively to heathen Rome). “The Woman in this vision is the Christian Church; she appeared in Heaven, for her origin is from above; she is clothed with the Sun, for Christ is the Sun of righteousness; she has the moon under her feet, because she will survive the changes of this world; she has on her head a crown of victory (στέφανος); the crown of twelve stars indicates the Twelve Apostles.” The Dragon is the Old Serpent, who is called in this Book the Dragon, see Rev_12:9; Rev_12:15-16, where the names Satan, Devil, Dragon and Serpent are interchanged; the Dragon is also described here as having Seven Heads, etc.; diadems are symbols of royally; horns are emblems of power (Luk_1:69); the number seven represents completeness, and combined with the number ten (ten horns), it connects this manifestation of the Dragon with the display of his power, as wielded by the fourth great Monarchy, that of Rome.” He refers the Male Son primarily to Christ, secondarily to the people of Christ; the rod of iron is Christ’s word, the Holy Scriptures, and by it the male children, the masculine spirits of Christ’s Church, are endued with power from Him to rule the nations and overcome the world.” (On the flight of the Woman see the Abstract on p. 261.) Concerning the war in Heaven, he writes: “St. John now reverts to an earlier period, in order to recite the antecedent history of the Dragon, and to explain the circumstances under which he was led to persecute the Woman, and he traces that history till it is brought down, in Rev_12:14, to the same point as in Rev_12:6, namely, to the escape of the Woman in the Wilderness; Satan is displayed as he was before his fail from Heaven.”
Alford regards the vision of this chapter “as introductory to the whole imagery of the latter part of the Apocalypse,” and holds that “the principal details of the present section (chapter) are rather descriptive than strictly prophetical.” By the Woman he understands “the Church, the Bride of God, and, of course, from the circumstances afterwards related, the Old Testament Church, at least at this beginning of the vision;” by the Dragon, the Devil (“he is πυῤῥός, perhaps for the combined reasons of the wasting properties of fire, and the redness of blood;” the seven crowned heads represent “universality of earthly dominion;” “the magnitude and fury of the Dragon are graphically given by the fact of its tail … sweeping down the stars of heaven”); by the child, “the Lord Jesus, and none other” (“the exigencies of this passage require that the birth should be understood literally and historically, of that Birth of which all Christians know;” (see also Expl. in Detail, Rev_12:5). Concerning the war, he writes: “The war here spoken of appears in some of its features in the Book of Daniel, Dan_10:13; Dan_10:21; Dan_12:1 (also Judges 9) … Satan’s being cast out of Heaven to the Earth is the result not of the contest with the Lord Himself, of which it is only an incident leading to a new phase, but of an appointed conflict with his faithful fellow angels led on by the Archangel Michael.” (See also Expl in Detail.) In conclusion he writes: “I own that I have been led … to think whether after all the Woman may represent, not the invisible Church of God’s true people, which under all conditions of the world must be known only to Him, but the true visible Church: that Church which in its divinely prescribed form as existing at Jerusalem was the mother of our Lord according to the flesh, and which continued as established by our Lord and His Apostles, in unbroken unity during the first centuries, but which, as time went on, was broken up by evil men and evil doctrines, and has remained, unseen, unrealized, her unity an article of faith, not of sight, but still multiplying her seed, those who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus, in various sects and different countries, waiting the day for her comely order and oneness again to be manifested—the day when she shall ‘come up out of the wilderness, leaning on her Beloved;’ when our Lord’s prayer for the unity of His people being accomplished, the world shall believe that the Father has sent Him. If we are disposed to carry out this idea, we might see the great realization of the flight into the wilderness in the final severance of the Eastern and Western churches in the seventh century, and the flood cast after the Woman by the Dragon in the irruption of the Mohammedan armies. But this, though not less satisfactory than the other interpretations, is as unsatisfactory. The latter part of the vision yet awaits its clearing up.”
Lord. “The Woman is the representative of the true people of God; … her sunbeam robe, her station above the moon, and her crown of stars, bespeak her greatness, conspicuousness, and majesty; … her cry and labor to bear, denote the importunate desire and endeavor of those whom she symbolizes to present to the empire one who should, as their son, rise to supreme power, and rule the nations with an iron sceptre, etc.” “The great red Dragon symbolizes the rulers of the Roman Empire; the seven heads denoting the seven species of the chiefs of its ancient government; the ten horns the chiefs into which its western half was divided on its conquest by the Goths; … its sweeping its tail through the sky, dragging one-third of the stars, and casting them to the earth, represents its violent dejection of one-third of the Christian teachers from their stations by imprisonment,” etc. By the child he understands Constantine; and his being caught up to God and His throne he takes as denoting “both (1) that he was rescued in an extraordinary manner from the attempts of the Pagan Emperor to destroy him, and exalted to supreme power in the Empire; and (2) that he became in that station a usurper of the rights of God, and an object of idolatrous homage to his subjects.” “That the Woman fled into the desert, signifies that the people of God, wholly disappointed in their expectation of a more favorable rule from monarchs professing to be Christian and exposed to greater evils than they had suffered from their pagan persecutors, were compelled, in order to safety, to retire from the nationalized Church into seclusion.” (See also Abstract on p. 262). Concerning the war, he writes: “Michael and his angels are symbols of believers in Christ, who gain a victory by faith in His blood, by proclaiming His word, and by submitting to martyrdom rather than swerve from fidelity to Him. … Satan13 and his angels, on the other hand, symbolize antagonists of believers, who endeavor by contradiction to countervail, or by persecution to prevent, their testimony and to maintain the supremacy of idolatry. … The period of this war was the period of the persecutions by Diocletian, Galerius, Maxentius, Maximin, and Licinius; and the victory, that change of feeling that rendered persecution and paganism itself unpopular, prompted Constantine to espouse the cause of the Christians, and finally led to the rejection of paganism as the religion of the State.” “The chant (Rev_12:10) was uttered by the victors, and indicates that the Church was to regard … (the victory) as insuring the speedy Advent of Christ, and commencement of His millennial reign. The heavens summoned to rejoice are the new heavens, the symbol of the risen and glorified saints; … they who dwell in those heavens are the sanctified nations who are to live under their sway; … the land and the sea … denote the nations at rest and in agitation anterior to the establishment of that millennial kingdom.” “That the dejection of Satan and his angels was to be a woe to the earth, indicates that the decline of the pagan party into a minority was to exasperate its priests and rulers, and lead them to more violent measures, to overwhelm their antagonists, and reinstate themselves in authority.”
Glasgow regards the Woman as denoting the invisible Church; the Child, all the regenerated children of God, the assumption of the Child, the elevation of the members of the Church invisible to a heavenly status; the Dragon (“the seven headed monster, with his sixth head now fully developed ”),14 the heathen empire; the attempt to devour, the persecution of the Church begun, in a public and national sense, in A. D. 51, under Claudius, but in an indirect sense in Herod’s massacre of the babes; the flight (Rev_12:6, distinguished from that of Rev_12:14), the banishment of Christians in the first persecution, A. D. 51. The war he interprets as the intellectual and polemical warfare waged between Jesus (Michael) and His ministers (Quadratus, Aristides, Justin, etc.), and Satan and his ministers (Celsus, Porphyry, Diocletian, etc.), resulting in the dejection, i, e., the destruction of Pagan supremacy under Constantine. The hymn (Rev_12:10) he regards as that of Christians raised to the Heaven of ecclesiastical superiority; the woe (Rev_12:12) as implying that Satan instigated the pagan priesthood to resist Christianity to the utmost, and also that after Constantine, Arianism prevailed.
Auberlen.15 “Woman and Beast form manifestly the same contrast as in Daniel the Son of Man and the Beasts. … In both cases it is the human which is opposed to the bestial, only with Daniel in male, with John in female shape. Daniel beholds the Man, the Bridegroom, the Messiah; because he looks into the time when Christ shall reappear visibly and establish His Kingdom upon earth. John, on the other hand, within whose horizon lies, to speak at present only in a general way, the time before the second advent, beholds the Woman, the Bride, the Congregation of God in the world. He beholds her in the figure of a Woman, and this symbolism is not confined to the Apocalypses, but is a consummation of the whole usus loquendi of the Old and New Testaments. It begins in the Pentateuch … (for example Exo_34:15; Lev_17:7; Lev_20:5-6; Num_14:33; Num_15:39; Deu_31:16; Deu_32:16; Deu_32:21). We find a further development of this view in the writings of the Prophets … (Isa_1:21; Isa_1:1; Isa_54:1; Jer_2:2; Jer_2:20; Jer_2:23-25; Jer_3:1; Eze_14:23; Hosea 1, etc.). In the New Testament the same expression is used by John the Baptist (Joh_3:2-9 ). Thus from the very outset Christ is introduced in the place of Jehovah: in the time of fulfillment Jehovah became Jesus Christ, as His name manifests, ὁ Κύριος, the Lord. He Himself calls Himself the Bridegroom (Mat_9:15). … We meet the same view in the Apostolic Epistles (Eph_5:23-32, comp. with Genesis 2.) … All this the Apocalypse sums up in one word, Woman (Rev_12:1). The characteristic of woman, in contradistinction to that of man, is her being subject (Eph_5:22-24), the surrendering of herself, her being receptive. And this is in like manner the characteristic of man in his relation to God, and receiving from Him. … Humanity, in so far as it belongs to God, is the Woman; therefore it is said of Christ, the Son of the woman (Rev_12:5), that He is a Male-Son. True, He is born of a woman; …but at the same time, He is the Son of God, and as such His relation to the Church is that of Husband to Wife. … This is the simple meaning of the addition of male to son, apparently pleonastic. … Beside Him no man dare deny his receptive, woman-like position; for they who imagine to have life in themselves, who separate themselves from God, rise against Him, and, trusting to stand in their own strength, sink to the level of irrational beasts. The proud nature-strength of man is not of a manly, but of a beastly kind; it is nothing but the brute force of the beast. … The choice of symbols is (not) accidental or arbitrary, but based on the essential characteristics of Woman and of the beast. … Woman and Beast designate the Kingdom [Church] of God, and the kingdom of the world, not only in this or that period of their development in time; but also in general universality.” By the male-son, this commentator understands (as above) Christ; by the Woman, at the period of Christ’s advent, “the congregation of God in its Old Testament shape;” by her adornments—the sun, the supernatural Divine light borne by her; the moon under her feet, heathenism vanquished and conquered by her; the crown of stars, the twelve-fold division of Israel (continued in the twelve-fold New Testament shape, Rev_21:12). The wilderness he regards as indicating the heathen world whither the Church fled from Canaan; “the flight of the Woman into the wilderness is nothing else but the passing away of the Kingdom, [Church] of God from the Jews, and its introduction among the Gentiles: Mat_8:11-12; Mat_22:43; Act_13:46-47; Act_28:25-28.” (“The Acts of the Apostles gives us a grand comment upon this in the description it contains of the Church’s migration from Jerusalem to Rome. … The Church’s life is nourished by the kind ministrations from on high; she lives in the wilderness, even as Israel on manna from Heaven; … but though she finds no nourishment, yet she finds a refuge and an asylum in the Gentile world, even up to this day.”) Concerning the war in Heaven (Rev_12:7-12) he writes: “We cannot possibly find anything else but a description of the fact, known to us from other parts of Scripture … that the Prince of this world is judged by the completion of Christ’s work of reconciliation … There are three stages of the conflict of Christ and Satan. The first is the temptation of Christ in the wilderness; … (the second, the assault upon) those who were near Christ, in order to oppose the Saviour’s work; the third, in which the victory is consummated, is the sufferings and death, the resurrection and ascension of Jesus. (What Paul expresses in Col_2:15, in a didactic form, John saw in a prophetic vision. The devil is now cast out of Heaven after the Son is raised to the throne of God, Rev_12:5. The Archangel Michael is appointed the executor of the judgment. For according to Dan_10:13; Dan_10:21; Dan_12:1, he, among the high angelic Princes, is the Angel to whom is entrusted the defence of God’s Church against the opposing powers in the invisible world of spirits.)” Rev_12:12 sqq. he regards as setting forth the second period16 in the history of Satan during which, having “lost his power and place in Heaven, and chiefly for this reason, because (ὅτι) he can no longer accuse men before God,” “he concentrates all his strength (by temptation and persecution) to ruin as many souls as possible.” (See also in loco.)—E. R. C.]
EXPLANATIONS IN DETAIL17
Rev_11:15. Great voices.—Voices simple are prophecies. In view of the hasty movement of the Kingdom of Darkness toward the revelation of Antichristianity, Heaven is filled with the triumphant and prophetic presentiment that now the judgment upon the dark kingdom and, consequently, the appearance of Christ’s Kingdom, are near. “The question—to whom did these voices belong?—need neither be asked nor answered” (Düsterdieck). For various insignificant hypotheses on this subject, see Düsterdieck. This commentator also rightly discards the limitations of the circuit of the seventh Trumpet (Hengstenberg: it embraces Rev_12:15-17; Ebrard: Rev_12:15-17), and, in connection with others, maintains the proleptical import of the voices. On the other hand, the interpretation of the words:
In the Heaven, as indicative that John is still in Heaven, reposes upon a comprehensive misapprehension of the structure of the Book.
The kingdom of the world.—Simultaneously with the Satanic and Antichristian uprising, the imminent emergence of the Kingdom of Christ is decided (Mat_26:64; comp. Psalms 2.)—as beginning, however, with dynamical operations which are in constant process of development, and do not become perfectly apparent until the end, at the Parousia.
Is become our Lord’s.—Rapturous feeling of the Christian consciousness, in face of the apparent rule of the Beast who is about to come forth.
He shall reign.—See Dan_7:14.
Our Lord’s and His Christ’s.—Careful observation of the economical relation.
Rev_12:16-17, 18. The twenty-four Elders.—These, therefore, are distinguished from the voices; doubtless, however, as forming the concentrated acme of them. The prophecy concerning the Kingdom of God likewise assumes a stronger expression. First, in the circumstance that the Elders fell upon their faces (see Rev_4:10; Rev_5:8; Rev_5:14; Rev_7:11; Rev_19:4). The contemplation of the sublime, thrills us with a sense of our own littleness and nothingness; the adoring and admiring consideration of the sublime, triumphant Divine rule, in its moments of grandeur, casts angels and men upon their knees. In the twenty-four Elders we see, as ever, the elect representatives of the human race. [See foot-note†, p. 152.—E. R. C.]
The second element in which the prophecy of the Kingdom presents a stronger tinge, is the form of their adoration: they give thanks, in the loftiest assurance of spirit; they regard what is to come as already decided. “They give thanks, not because they regard themselves as participants in the great power and government of God (Hengstenberg), a conception which is as remote from the subject here as in Rev_12:15” (Düsterdieck). As remote, in the sense of hierarchical superiority, and as near, in the sense of humble co-heirship with Christ. Furthermore, the feeling that God is the All-Ruler assumes additional prominence, and the future of His consummate sovereignty has become present—hence the omission of ὁ ἐρχόμενος.
Because Thou hast taken, etc.—In the economy of grace, God had suffered human spirits to pursue their own way in liberty, emptying Himself, as it were, of His power, even to the semblance of impotency (Christ on the cross), that He might then make conquest of souls in this their liberty, and educate them to salvation. Now, however, this economy of salvation is ended, and God brings His whole authoritative sway into active and visible operation again.
Thirdly, there is a particular grandeur in the sign by which the Elders recognize the turning-point of the times. This sign consists in the fact that
The nations [Lange: heathen] were wroth.—In the very wrath of the revolt, the apostasy of the heathen—and also of the Christian peoples, which have, by apostasy, become heathen again,—the Seer—as, approximately, the singer of Psalms 2 (particularly in the to-day that exegetes have misunderstood)—perceives that the wrath of God is on the point of executing its judgment. Not only has He arisen “against the wrath of His enemies,” but in the very wrath of His enemies, the judgment of His wrath is revealed. Undoubtedly, however, the wrath of God first issues forth, in full revelation, in the Vials of wrath [or anger]18 which follow upon the wrath of the heathen under the domination of the Antichristian Beasts.
The time of the dead.—We understand this, not as significant of the judgment upon the awakened dead, Rev_20:12, with Düsterd., but as indicative of the satisfaction imparted to the pious dead by the judgment upon living transgressors (see Rev_6:10-11). This judgment is two-sided: first, it gives reward to all the servants of God, and that in all proportionate degrees: to Prophets, saints, even to simple God-fearing men—and not only the great, but also the small. This reward does not necessarily begin with the heavenly glory; the most affecting reward is satisfaction, vindication of honor, justification. Hence the second side of the judgment, the antithesis:
To destroy those who destroy the earth.—The latter expression recurs in Rev_19:2. It is in every respect highly significant, whether by earth we understand the theocratic Divine institution, or the basis thereof, the cosmos, which, in all points of its ideal destinations, is laid waste by the enemies of the Lord, even in the direction of an ungodly civilization.
Düsterdieck refers τοῖς δούλοις to the Prophets only, apprehending τοῖς φοβουμένοις as a summary expression for the entire mass of the godly. The distinction of Bengel, adopted by Hengstenberg, accords better, however, with New Testament usage; namely, the servants of God and the God-fearing—by servants understanding the saints together with the Prophets. Nor must the antithesis, the small and the great, be confounded with the same antithesis in Rev_13:16; Rev_19:18—interior relations being contemplated here.
Rev 12:19 (Rev_13:2). And the Temple of God which was in the Heaven was opened.—Herewith begins the heavenly fulfillment of the preceding festal prophecies.
The Heavenly Temple is the archetype of the earthly Temple (see Exo_25:9; Exo_25:40); it is, therefore, the ideal Kingdom of God. The Church Invisible, then, begins to become visible; even the Ark of the Covenant in the Holy of Holies is seen. The meaning of this is, we believe: the ideal import of the holiness of the law and the truth of the redemption becomes a matter of Christian knowledge manifest to all the world. Hence, also, there proceed from this great ideal appearance lightnings, and voices, and thunders, and earthquake, and a great hail—all kinds of awakening and vitalizing convulsions of the spiritual world. They commence with lightnings, with grand radiations of new illumination, and close with a great hail, in which the grand conflict of hostile winds with the heavenly spring-wind in the spiritual atmosphere seems to be set forth. So far as the idea of the heavenly Temple, the heavenly Ark of the Covenant, etc., is concerned, we may remark that the Jewish axiom cited by Düsterdieck [see p. 150 and foot-note.—E. R. C.]: quodcunque in terra est, id etiam in cælo est, does not stand on the same footing with the Jewish tradition to the effect that the lost Ark of the Covenant had been transported to Heaven. On the confusions of construction attaching to Rev 12:18-19 (Rev_13:1-2), see Düsterdieck, p. 388.
The different expositions of the present section follow the lead of the various conceptions of the whole Book. According to the Church-historical view, reference is had to the conquest of the Goths and other Arians by Narses (Lyra). According to the synchrono-historical view, we have an announcement of the truth, that access to the heavenly Sanctuary is open to all through Christ (Herder), or a reference to the destruction of Jerusalem (Eichhorn), or to Barcocheba (Grotius). According to Hofmann, the law has now received its due through the medium of the judgment; therefore, the Ark of the Covenant, which contains the law, can now appear. According to Hengstenberg, the Ark of the Covenant appears, because the Covenant now meets with its visible realization. Similarly Düsterdieck. Sander better explains: “The testament [covenant] which the Lord made with His Church and, particularly, with Israel, becomes manifest in all its glory; to many, profound glimpses into the mysteries of the covenant are vouchsafed,” etc.
Rev_12:1. “If that judgment upon Antichristianity, which the Lord comes to execute, is to be represented in exact completeness and reasonableness [Begründung=state of being based upon just and sufficient reasons.—Tr.], not only must the deepest Satanic foundations of Antichristianity as a whole be laid bare but, likewise, the most essential shapes in which this radically Satanic Antichristianity appears in the world, must be depicted“ (Düsterdieck).
A great sign was seen in the Heaven.—According to Ebrard, this means simply a symbol. Hengstenb. is of the same opinion. Düsterd. strives to distinguish this symbol from other figures, which, he declares, are in no whit allegorical in their nature; he, however, cites, in illustration, no figures that are not allegorical; for dearth, for instance, in Revelation 6., is assuredly presented in an allegorical figure. Hengstenberg, on the other hand, superfluously suggests that John is continually seeing only signs.
Be it observed, in the first place, that the Seer here speaks of a great sign; and, furthermore, that the Woman cannot be intended as a symbol of the Church or the Theocracy simply in and for herself; but that her condition forms an important element in the symbolism. The great sign in Heaven presents, in a highly striking picture, which is no mere symbol, but a historical life-picture or parabolical phenomenon (an entire composition of single symbols), the whole spiritual conflict betwixt the Kingdom of God and the kingdom of Satan—a conflict which is at the same time a presage of the imminent emergence of Antichristianity, to do battle against Christianity in this present visible world.
A woman.—In reality, only three explanations are possible here:
1. The Woman (as the Bride of the Lord, in accordance with a standing Biblical view, based upon deep and essential spiritual relations, the contrast of spiritual receptivity and spiritual creative power) is the Christian Church (Bede et al. to Bengel et al.), or, particularly, the Christian Church of the last time (à Lapide, Stern, Christiani). The attempt has been made to remove the contradiction which makes the Christian Church the mother of Christ, by saying that by the birth of the Messiah we are to understand the birth of Christ in believers; or even by declaring that His birth is His return to judgment (Kliefoth).
2. The Woman can be only the Old Testament Church of God, the true Israel (Herder et al. to Düsterdieck). Ebrard even apprehends by the Woman, the natural people of Israel qua possessor of the promises.
3. The Woman is the Old and New Testament Church of God in undivided unity (Victorinus to De Wette, Hengstenberg, Auberlen). The fact that the Woman cannot be referred to the New Testament Church alone, results clearly from Rev_12:5; the Christian Church did not bear Christ. Holding fast the identity of her in the Heaven and her in the wilderness, neither can the Woman be significant of the Old Testament Church by itself, since the same Woman lives on in the wilderness throughout the New Testament period of the cross. The unity of the Old and the New Testament Church of God lay, doubtless, much nearer to the contemplation of John than to that of an exegesis whose view is, in many respects, too exclusively fixed upon externalities. Though it is impossible that John could have apprehended the Woman as Mary herself, yet the fact was most closely present to his consciousness that this Mary, whose bodily offspring Christ was, was the final concentration of the Old Testament Theocracy—the Theocracy which, in respect of its inner essence, spiritually gave birth to the Messiah, and which, in respect of this inner essence again, continued, as the Kingdom of God, in a new and New Testament shape.
But who then are the λοιποί of Rev_12:17? queries Düsterdieck. This we shall touch upon later.
Clothed with the sun.—It is an obvious fact that the sun is a symbol of the Divine revelation of salvation; comp. Mal_4:2; also Psalms 19, where the sun is spoken of in connection with the law, i. e., revelation. The distinct reference of the sun to the historic Christ, which many have sought to establish (Bede, etc.), is not pertinent here, because Christ is the Son of the Woman. According to Hengstenberg, the sun is the glory of the Lord; but with the glory of the Lord, the Lord Himself is clothed (Psa_104:1-2).
So far as the moon is concerned, Diana of the Ephesians was well known to the Apostle as a symbol of nature, and to readers of Asia Minor there was something peculiarly striking in the circumstance that the Seer represents the moon as appearing under the feet of the Woman whose clothing was the sun. The symbol of Isis also denotes nature. Thus Constantine saw the cross over the sun, because in his time the latter was adored, as a symbol of the nature-divinity, by a sublimated heathenism, and particularly in his own family.
The figure of the moon has likewise been variously interpreted—as significant of: Worldly glory (Bede); the light of the Old Testament (Grotius); the light of Church teachers, in so far as that is derived from Christ (Calov.); the light of the Turkish crescent (Bengel; to make this true, however, half of the moon must be invisible. The same commentator regards the sun as the Christian Empire!); created light (Hengstenberg; the same looks upon the sun as significant of uncreated light); pale night with her half (?) moon-light (Ebrard). Poetic description (Düsterdieck).
A crown of twelve stars.—Twelve is the number of completeness; the crown, as a wreath or garland [prize], is an ornament which has been obtained by a struggle; the stars are the elect spirits of the Kingdom of God (Dan_12:3). The number twelve has been taken literally, and, in accordance with the whole interpretation, referred either to the twelve Apostles (Vitringa, et al.), or to the twelve Tribes of Israel (De Wette, et al.).
Rev_12:2. And she, being With child, crieth.—Several grand contrasts successively appear here. First, the Woman in her heavenly garb of light; then the same, crying out in the pains of a hard travail and menaced by the hellish Dragon. Again, the Woman in her simply beautiful and sublime raiment of light, over against the Dragon in the startling forms and glaring colors of demonico-bestial unnaturalness. Furthermore, the third part of the stars of Heaven; swept away and cast down by the tail of the Dragon. Next, the Son lifted up to the Throne of God, and the mother sheltered in the retirement of the wilderness. The crying Woman represents the sufferings of the true Israel at the time of Christ’s crucifixion—sufferings of which John had the deepest experience.
Rev_12:3. Another sign.—The sign is not only the symbolical form of the Devil, as the prince of darkness, the adversary of the Kingdom of God, the murderer of man and mortal enemy of Christ, but also a presage of the imminent outburst of the Antichristian power. The allegorical figure of the serpent, originally significant of Satan, was blended, even upon Israelitish ground, with the figure of the crocodile or leviathan; in Jewish tradition, together with the features of the dragon of story, it received the name thereof, especially through the mediation of the Septuagint (δράκων=תנין and לויתן). Though the dragon, in the narrower sense, has, in accordance with passages in the Psalms, been represented as king of the sea and of marine animals (like the Midgard serpent in Scandinavian mythology), he also occupies the position of a hostile ruling power toward the Earth; and the present figure in the Apocalypse symbolically indicates that which in the Gospel of John is denoted by “the prince of this world” (Joh_12:31; Joh_14:30; Joh_16:11). Greek mythology elevated the dragon, subsequent to its killing by Hercules, into a constellation, situated near the polar star, and embracing several stars in its folds. Jewish tradition elaborated the original figure of a serpent into a dragon with seven heads (see De Wette, p. 127).—Even in Christian story, the dragon-slayer, under different names (Michael, St. George), Occupies an important place.
A great red [Lange: fiery red] dragon.—Πυῤῥός, the designation of the color, is looked upon by many as blood-color, in accordance with Rev_6:4, and considered as referring to him who, from the beginning, has been the murderer of man (John 8 and 44), and who now seeks to kill, in particular, the Son of the Woman also. Ebrard combats this interpretation, maintaining that blood-red and fire-red are two different things, and that fire is a symbol of destruction and ruin. The fire-hue certainly is susceptible of several shades, from pale to brownish red. In Rev_6:4, blood-color is unmistakably indicated. In the Neronic persecution, John had, moreover, become acquainted with the prelude to those stakes at which, since then, the hues of blood and fire have so often mingled.
Seven heads and ten horns.—“The picture is not to be conceived of (with De Wette) as so utterly without taste, as if on four of the heads there were one horn and on the remaining three, two horns, but (with Bengel, et al.) as having ten horns on one of the heads.” This is said to be proved by Rev_17:5; Rev_17:9; Rev_17:12; but the horns of Satan must not be identified with the horns of the Beast. Neither is it possible for us to see how one head with ten horns could, beside these, carry a crown likewise. A correct appreciation of the symbolism, however, will leave the disposition of the ten horns amongst the seven heads to exegetical controversy. The appearance is designed to be monstrous, however. By many, a wrong leap is taken from the figure of the heads and horns of the Dragon to the heads and horns of the Beast (see Düsterdieck, p. 395; Ebrard, p. 355; Hengstenberg, p. 603), although the Seer himself has taken sufficient pains for their distinction. The seven heads of Satan are not, in the abstract, to be divided into historical phases, any more than are the seven archangelic forms, or the seven Spirits, that, from the Throne of God, go forth into all lands, to be thus distributed. In the case of the seven heads, the septenary bears the import of the whole Satanic week, so to speak—in its continuance, as a plenary number of lying works, from the beginning of the Satanic labor in Paradise: this week, with its demonic days’ works, gives promise of a new Paradise, an absolute witches’ Sabbath19—which, however, shall be celebrated in the lake of fire.
The same emphasis must be laid upon the symbolical element in the case of the ten horns; i. e., neither are they to be identified with the ten kings who appear as ten horns of the Beast. Ten is the complete course of the world; ten horns are the complete world-power, here, indeed, appearing as lying powers. This circumstance [of their falsity] is manifest in the fact that Satan has three more horns than crowns. In more ancient times Vitringa, at least, pointed out the difference of equipment between the Dragon and the Beast; the same has been done in modern times by De Wette. Ancient exegetes have, moreover, taken the difference for granted, by referring the seven heads of the Dragon to seven bad spirits, or the whole number of bad spirits; to seven capital vices, or the seven deadly sins: or by apprehending, by the ten horns, the ten sins against the ten commandments; or worldly power; or the multitude and might of the demons.
According to Hofmann, the seven heads symbolize the non-unitous power of Satan; according to De Wette, they are a symbol of wisdom—that is to say, of consummate cunning. In the Indian mythology, the members of the divine forms are multiplied, for the purpose of portraying the superhuman greatness of the qualities indicated.
Erroneous historical interpretations see cited by Düsterdieck: Diocletian, the one head with ten horns. Düsterdieck himself: the Roman empire [imperium], etc. Düsterdieck, p. 390; De Wette, p. 127.
The Heaven, in which the Dragon makes his appearance, can be neither the antemundane Heaven of the angel-world—since the fallen angels did not immediately fall to earth—nor the Heaven in which the glorified Christ is enthroned. That which is intended, therefore, is the Heaven that Christ has instituted on earth—the invisible Church, the Communion of saints—into which Satan, as a Dragon, has found entrance, just as, long ago, he pressed into Paradise.
Rev_12:4. And his tail, etc.—De Wette: “The strength of dragons is resident in their tails, Solin., Rev 30 in Wetstein.” Three is the number of spirit. A third is a fraction in reference to spiritual things. The significance of the third has already been set forth in Revelation 8. From the one star of embitterment, of merely germinant apostasy, an apostasy of the third part of the stars, i. e., the spiritual Church-heaven, has resulted. These stars are, by the lashings of the Satanic tail, by the magic of an apparently prodigious vital power, cast from Heaven to earth, i. e., from being stars of the invisible Church, they become demonic organs of the external Church and of Christian political order.
The reference of the stars to angels (Vitringa, et al., Ebrard) is most erroneous: further on, the Dragon himself, together with his angels, is found still in Heaven. The division of the stars into two classes, based upon their reference to churchly teachers (Grotius, et al.), and to believers or saints (Alcasar, et al.), is inadmissible. According to Ewald, the action of the Dragon’s tail constitutes merely a poetic trait—being indicative of eagerness for combat. Düsterdieck also reduces the description, in essence, to a poetic picture. Other interpretations see quoted by the last named commentator, p. 398.
And the Dragon stood [trat=stepped—took his stand].—According to Pliny viii. 3, dragons move in an upright posture. Comp. Wetstein, De Wette.
Rev_12:5. A male son.—Jer_20:15. The strong expression of the manfulness of the Child by the neuter ἄρσεν, is not merely explanatory of His destination, in accordance with Psa_2:9, to shepherdize (in accordance with the Sept.) all the nations-with a rod of iron (Düsterd.); it also contains a slight intimation of the fact that Christ has, by His resurrection, frustrated the attempt of Satan to devour Him. De Wette totally denies the emphasis in the apposition; Düsterdieck, unnecessarily, discovers an announcement of the shepherdizing of Antichristian nations in judgment.
Manifestly the Messiah is here denoted in the literal sense of the term—not in any metaphorical sense whatsoever. This truth, however, does not invalidate the typicalness of the facts set forth: the people of Christ, in whom He is born on earth, are, like Him, themselves caught away into Heaven, through the medium of suffering and death, from Satan’s plots for their destruction.
Manifold interpretations of the words, as referring to the Christ born of the Church, from Bede onward, see in Düsterdieck, p. 400, De Wette, p. 128 (Christians; Constantine the Great: the Nicene confession; the Roman Church; Christianity, etc.).
[“These words (who is to shepherdize all the nations, etc.), cited verbatim from the LXX. of the Messianic Psalms 2, and preceded by the ὅς of personal identification, leave no possibility of doubt who was here intended. The man-child is the Lord Jesus Christ, and none other.’ Alford. See also the abstract of Auberlen, p. 243, and the Add. Notr. p. 250sq.—E. R. C.]
And her child was caught away.—Sub specie æterni, the sufferings of Christ, as instigated by Satan, down to His very death upon the cross, are a baffled machination, resulting in the consummation—opposite to that desired—of His exaltation to the Throne of God. De Wette pertinently cites the words of Jesus (Joh_14:30): The prince of this world hath nothing in Me. Mark also his comment on the “absurd interpretation” of Grotius concerning the translation of Christ, on the hypothesis that the Roman Church is meant. On the same hypothesis of a mystical birth of Christ, Lyra spoke of the liberation of the Church, and Eichhorn of its growth. The fact that the actual history of the humiliation and exaltation of Jesus (hence also the fact of the Ascension) underlies the Apocalyptic description, is vainly denied by Düsterdieck; he himself subsequently admits it, in a certain degree, by saying that the historical actuality serves merely as a firm, concrete substratum for the idea.
Rev_12:6. And [Lange: But] the woman fled into the wilderness.—On the repetition of this passage, see above. The wilderness becomes a place in the heavenly region itself by its perfect symbolico-ideal import: heroic abnegation of the world. On the term designating the period of retirement in the wilderness, see Symbolism of Numbers in the Introduction. Also De Wette, p. 121. In commenting on the wilderness, exegetes have referred to the wandering of Israel through the wilderness; the sojourn of Elijah in the wilderness; the flight of the parents of Jesus to Egypt; withdrawal from the world and renunciation of it; the flight of the Christians into the wilderness; the flight of the Christians to Pella, etc. Even waste-lying Palestine is mentioned (by Hofmann) as the wilderness in which the Woman, who is still fleeing, will one day arrive (!).
De Wette calls the interpretation of the flight as the flight of the Christians into the wilderness, “pettily literal”—a comment which is ungrounded, since in that flight, the external fact originally coincided with its inner significance—as was the case in regard to Christ’s sojourn in the wilderness.
[Auberlen supports his view that by the wilderness is meant the heathen world (see p. 243), by considerations such as the following: “It is by flight that the Woman comes into the wilderness. If we remark whence she flies, we shall also find whither. It is before the persecutions of the Devil, through Herod, and in general through the Jews. But whither does she fly?. . Undoubtedly from the Jews to the heathens. Therefore it is that, in this passage, the attribute given to Christ elsewhere, that He will rule the heathen with an iron sceptre (Rev_2:27; Rev_19:5; Psa_2:9), is expressly mentioned. From the time of His ascension, the heathen are given to Him as His field; thither His Church, persecuted by the Jews, takes her refuge (from Acts 8. onwards). There God has prepared a place for her to be sheltered and nourished… This signification…is corroborated by the prophetic usus loquendi. We know that Canaan, as the seat of all temporal and spiritual blessings of God, is called the land of glory, of pleasantness, etc. (Jer_3:19; Eze_20:6; Eze_20:15; Dan_11:16; Dan_11:41; Dan_8:9). The land of the heathen, on the contrary, is a wilderness, because forsaken by the fullness of Divine life and strength. As God dwells and reveals Himself in the land of glory, the demons dwell in the wilderness (Mat_12:43; Mar_1:13; Lev_16:21-22; Isa_34:14); they are the rulers and princes of the heathen world (1Co_10:20; Rev_9:20). Hence, when Israel is exiled to Babylon, it is said to be in the wilderness (Isa_40:3; Isa_41:17-19; Isa_42:10-12; Isa_43:19-20,” etc.—E. R. C.]
Rev_12:7-12. Expulsion of Satan from the Heaven of the spiritual Church, the communion of saints.
“The assumption that the Dragon pursued the Child even to the Throne of God, and that this was the cause of the conflict that arose in Heaven (Eichhorn, Herder, De Wette, Stern), is not only utterly without foundation in the context, but is also incompatible with what is stated in Rev_12:5” (Düsterdieck). The commentator from whom we have just quoted, will, however, listen to no conjectures as to the signification of this Heaven, and calls even Bede’s explanation (which is also that of Primasius and others), in ecclesia, “allegorical interpretation.”
Rev_12:7. War in the Heaven.—Treatises on the difficult reading which we meet with here, see in De Wette (p. 131; Düsterd., p. 404). [Sea Text. and Gram.—E. R. C.]
Michael.—We read this as in apposition to the war in Heaven. The war in Heaven is the eternal, holy, and warlike opposition against the Satanic Kingdom; an opposition represented by Michael, the warlike form of Christ, a form which also manifests itself in His Church as the spirit of discipline.
“The view of Vitringa, of which Hengstenberg is an earnest advocate, that Michael is not an Angel (according to Dan_10:13; Dan_12:1, the guardian Angel of the Old Testament people of God; according to Judges 9, an Archangel), but Christ Himself, or, as Hengstenberg prefers to say, the Logos—suffers shipwreck at the very outset—irrespective of the passage Judges 9, where the express title ὁ ἀρχάγγελος, according to Hengstenberg, no more contains a proof against the divinity of Michael than the utterance of our Lord, Joh_14:28, bears testimony against the homoöusia of the Son—in the impossibility of regarding the Michael of Rev_12:7 and the Child of Rev_12:5 as one and the same person” (Düsterd.). Within the range of sensuous apperception this is, undoubtedly, impossible; in Christology, however, Christ can, at the same time, be a child, in Bethlehem, and the Son of God, in universal relations and manifestations. We take it that Michael, in accordance with the difficult reading, is, from the outset, Christ in warlike array against Satan, and that hence it is that the angels of Michael are appointed to be angels of war against the Kingdom of Darkness. The very designation of Michael in Jewish Theology as the συνήγωρ, or advocate of the pious, in opposition to the κατήγωρ, is expressive of the assumption that Michael is no mere angel. [See foot-note, p. 241.—E. R. C.]
Rev_12:8. “Hofmann, Ebrard and Auberlen preposterously dogmatize on this verse, maintaining that it presents the idea that until then (until the Ascension of Christ, Rev_12:5, Auberlen [see pp. 243 sq.]; during the whole‘ world-period,’ from the Ascension, Ebrard) Satan and his angels have really had their place in Heaven. In the presentation of this view, reference is had to the appearance of Satan before the Lord, Job 1, in the sense of an historical fact, and from Zechariah 3 it is shown that Satan’s occupation in Heaven is that of accusing” (Düsterd). Ebrard even assumes that during the whole world-period of the 1260 days, Satan has a right to appear before God as the accuser of the people of Israel, etc., p. 365.
We have already called attention to the conciseness of the expression: they prevailed not; neither was their place (as a permanent position) found any more in the Heaven.
Rev_12:9. And the great Dragon was thrown down [Lange: cast out], etc.—A solemn and comprehensive expression, declaratory of the expulsion of Satan, hence also of his lying arts and motives, from the Church of God, the kernel of humanity. First, the symbolical term: the ancient serpent. The great Dragon, as the mortal enemy of Christ, long ago began his murderous sport as the ancient serpent. The serpent of Paradise has become the great Hell-dragon. And, similarly, in accordance with his true essence, the fiend has, from being the Devil, or slanderer and accuser of mankind, become its unmasked foe, Satan. Although known in, and cast out from, Heaven under these titles, he resumes his old courses in the world as the seducer of the whole world. In antithesis to the holy kernel of the Church of God, he now becomes, more truly than ever, the seducer of the world.
He was thrown down unto the earth.—That is, not out of the cloud-heaven upon the terrestrial globe, but out of the inner Church upon the external Church and the ecclesiastico-political institution. It is a truth supported by historical data, that the antithesis of the external Church to the inner spiritual Church of faith has, in many impure, egotistical organs of the former, been the cause of the more perfect development of the hypocritical world-spirit in hierarchical and sectarian forms. The second clause of the sentence, therefore:
And his angels were thrown down with him, must not be regarded as relating purely to demonic powers of the other world. The declaration concerning the angel of Satan, Who buffeted the apostle Paul [2Co_12:7], is suggestive of the hatred of Jewish or Judaizing fanaticism; and such fanaticism was also at work in the rise of the synagogues of Satan, of which the Apocalyptist speaks.
Rev_12:10-12. The song of triumph over the liberation of the invisible Church, the communion of saints, from the deceptive arts of Satan and his angels.—This song is expressive of the great contrast betwixt the inner and the external Church—a contrast as great as that between Heaven and earth, nay, between wheat and tares, though, notwithstanding it, the Church in its totality continues to be a unitous organic phenomenon until the end of the world. Hail to the one! Woe to the other!
Rev_12:10. Now is come (ἐγένετο) the salvation and the power and the Kingdom of [Lange: with] our God.—These words, difficult in an exegetical point of view, are explained by the assumption of a traditional antithesis. In this holy region, which is purged from all Satanic works, but one salvation is known, which, as principial and final σωτηρία, is with God alone. Here, therefore, there is no condition of the forgiveness of sins, or of the going home to the Father through human mediation. Here the mighty rule of God alone prevails, and the Church is purely and alone His Kingdom, in which the authority of no other ruler is of any account. The rule of the Divine authority, however, is mediated singly and only by the pure and infallible mighty rule of Christ.
For the accuser (κατήγωρ) of our brethren is thrown down.—Satan is, on the one hand, the seducer, of the natural life to levity by the sophism, that sin is nothing, and on the other hand, the accuser of the spiritual life, and the deluder into melancholy, by the sophism, that sin is unpardonable; in both aspects, he is the calumniator of man before God, in the declaration that man is worthless to the very core. As seducer, he endeavors to rule in the world; as accuser, he seeks dominion in the Church. So long as men’s consciences are unperfected (Heb_9:9; Heb_9:14), so long are they in fear of death (Heb_2:14-15); and just so long are they not free from the power of the accuser, as exercised through hierarchs and sectarian heads of parties. If, however, the accuser be but decidedly cast out of the sanctuary by means of the perfect peace of the reconciliation, then is salvation found here alone with God, and all the might of hypocrites influenced by Satan is here broken. But how has this Divine freedom in the peace of God been brought about?
Rev_12:11. They conquered him on account of [Lange: by virtue of] the blood of the Lamb.—The appropriation of the reconciliation in the death of Christ was, at the same time, a being baptized, with Him, into His death, resulting in their joyful confession of Him. [Alford: “They conquered by virtue of that blood having been shed; not as in E. V., ‘by the blood,’ as if διά had been with the genitive. The meaning is far more significant; their victory over Satan was grounded in, was a consequence of, His having shed His precious blood; without that, the adversary’s charges against them would have been unanswerable. It is remarkable, that the rabbinical books give a tradition that Satan accuses men all days of the year, except on the day of Atonement. Vajikra Rabba, §21, fol. 164. 3, in Schöttgen.”—E. R. C.]
The word of their testimony. In the consistent bearing of this testimony, they loved not their life unto death; they were, in respect of the posture of their hearts, ideal martyrs, even though real martyrdom should not have been required of them. That the Heaven on earth is here intended throughout, is evident from the fact that the great voice in Heaven says: The accuser of our brethren is thrown down. Thus do the blessed in the Heaven beyond, speak of the sealed in this present world.
Interpretations of the heavenly brethren: As the Angels; the twenty-four Elders; the perfected saints in the other world. According to Ebrard, the voice proceeds from the whole number of individual Israelites who are converted throughout the period of the 1260 days; by the brethren in this world, he understands Israel as converted at the end of the world-period.
Rev_12:12. Therefore rejoice, ye heavens.—Significant plural. The dwellers in the Heaven beyond this life, as well as the dwellers in the Heaven in this life. Düsterdieck combats the declaration of Hengstenberg, that the saints on earth are included in this apostrophe (in accordance with Php_3:20; Eph_2:6). The former commentator regards the inhabitants of Heaven as proleptically celebrating the victory, yet future, of their brethren. This explanation is foreign to the context, and does not hold fast the antithesis.
Woe to the earth and the sea.—Even here Bengel looks upon earth and sea as significant of Asia and Europe. Düsterdieck utterly rejects every “allegorical interpretation,” and thus the two unreconciled propositions stand contrasted: woe to the earth (with the Accusative)—“Satan is made a conquered foe even for believers on earth” [Düsterdieck’s comment on Rev_12:11.—Tr.]20 If the terrestrial orb were meant, in its merely literal sense, the mention of the sea would be superfluous. Hengstenberg rightly refers the sea to the sea of nations, and thus, here also, a contrast to it is formed by the earth as the theocratic institution and order, as ecclesiastical and, relatively, ecclesiastico-political authority.
The devil is come down unto you.—Even within the sphere of the earth there is an above and a below. The devil, after being cast down, makes pretence of a voluntary descent, as a sort of Mentor, to the pastors of the earth and the agitators of the sea.
Having great anger.—The animosity of the kingdom of darkness and its prince is heightened by the presentiment of its imminent judgment—a presentiment conditioned by the sense of its vileness.
Little time.—We cannot identify καιρός with χρόνος, as if the whole time from the Dragon’s expulsion from Heaven to the coming of the judgment were intended, as the “time of Anti-christ,” or, according to Bengel, the period from the year 947 to 1836. The καιροί of Satan do not run through the whole Chronos of the Church of the cross; they emerge from time to time only, as particular moments of apparent triumph for the kingdom of darkness, even though Satanic temptations pervade all times; see Luk_22:53. Here, therefore, the kingdom of darkness, in its deepest demonic foundation, as represented by Satan himself and his angels, appears first as an ultramundane spiritual kingdom—which, however, in its onslaughts against the Kingdom of God and His Anointed, begins, in the centre of the Theocracy in this world, as, subsequently, in the periphery of the Church, to belong to this world. Satan already has his instruments in this world, as prefigured by his organs in the specific Antichristian sphere, the Beast out of the sea and the Beast from the earth. The attributes of this hellish triad are attributes of falsehood and hypocrisy. The Dragon has seven heads, the sea-Beast has seven heads; and whilst the plurality of heads announces the monster, the septenary, as holy, seems to cover this drawback; it is the number of holy days’ works, promissory of an entrance upon the eternal Sabbath, the new Paradise. In still more hypocritical guise, the Beast from the earth appears; he has two horns like the lamb. This is the pseudo-Christian figure which comes to the aid of the Antichristian shape, by means of which the latter succeeds in obtaining perfect apparent victory. The consummate hypocrisy of this second Beast forms a contrast to the insolent boldness of the Beast out of the sea. The ten horns of Satan are themselves indicative of complete earthly world-power, as well as the ten horns of the first Beast; but the former wears the crowns, a sacred seven, with the semblance of legitimacy, upon his heads, whilst the Beast has ten crowns, which he boldly sets upon his horns, as manifest signs of his usurped revolutionary power. This hellish triad agree, however, in blasphemous speech; even the Lamb speaks as a Dragon.21
[ADDITIONAL NOTE ON THE SECTION]
By the American Editor
[In the judgment of the writer, this Section is divisible into two parts. The first, Rev_11:15-18, presents the doxology of the heavenly host22 in view of the events of the seventh and last Trumpet, which events are immediately in order to the establishment of the Millennial Kingdom, and issue in that establishment. At the first blast of the Trumpet this doxology is begun. The second part, Rev_11:19 to Rev_12:12, forms the introduction to the development of the events of the Trumpet. Rev_11:19, like the preceding doxology, may indicate purely a Heaven-scene in which, under circumstances of inexpressible grandeur, the Divine purposes in fulfillment of the promises of the Covenant will be unveiled to the inhabitants of Heaven; or it may betoken a fearful convulsion, shaking Heaven and Earth, which will inaugurate, and perhaps be continued throughout, the period of this Trumpet.
The Woman and the Dragon
The writer adopts the view, that the Woman symbolizes the True Church; and the Dragon, Satan, or more probably the host of evil spirits under the leadership of Satan (possibly one-third of the original number of blessed spirits, Rev_12:4). He regards them as Classical Symbols (see p. 146), as also the male Son of Rev_12:5, representing the ἀπαρχή (see below). He cannot adopt the conclusion that the vision is retrogressive. This seems to be forbidden by the phraseology of the Apocalyptist. There is here no strong disjunctive (καὶ μετὰ τοῦτο εἶδον) as in the beginning of the account of the intercalated vision of Revelation 7, not even the secondary disjunctive καὶ εἶδον (see Add. Note, p. 193; and footnotes, pp. 150, 190); the whole narrative flows on as though the Seer were describing one continuous scene. And not only so, but there is nothing to require an unannounced and unprecedented break in the description at this point, and still further, as will appear, the idea that the actions ascribed to these symbols occurred after the blowing of the seventh Trumpet gives a unity to the whole description unattainable on any other hypothesis.
As to the adornment of the Woman, the writer adopts the general view set forth by Lange (pp. 237, 246), understanding, however, by the crown of twelve stars the dignified position and completeness of her ministers. (On the number twelve, see p. 15; and for an inspired exposition of the stars, Rev_1:20.) He has formed no decided opinion as to what is symbolized by the seven crowned heads and the ten horns of the Dragon. He would suggest, however, that this symbolization may have been employed because of the relation of Satan to the seven-headed and ten-horned Wild Beast (the World-power, developing in seven Empires, the last being divided into ten kingdoms, see p. 272), which he inspires, which is his earthly representative and instrument. On this hypothesis, the Dragon appropriately wears the crowns on all his heads, as the one inspirer and ruler of all; but the Wild-beast is introduced as wearing the crowns upon his horns (Rev_13:1) as indicative of the time of his appearance on the Apocalyptic platform.
By the male Son, the writer understands the ἀπαρχή, who, with Christ, their Elder Brother and Head, are to rule all nations with an iron sceptre (comp. Rev_2:26-27; Rev_3:21; Rev_20:4; Rev_20:6; Mat_19:28; Luk_22:29-30; 1Co_6:3; see also Add. Note, p. 193). In one point of view (exclusive of Christ), this body constitutes the Bride of the Lamb, and is so symbolized, Rev_21:2; Rev_21:9; but in another (as forming one body with Christ—a body of which He is the Head, the Root, the King, the Elder Brother, the Husband) it may appropriately be styled the male Son. The travail of the Woman commenced with the Advent of Jesus, and from that time until the present the Dragon has continually stood before her striving to destroy her offspring, which continually has been caught away from his grasp to the Throne of God. She is brought into the field of Apocalyptic vision in the last time, when her long labor is near its end. John beheld the completion of the birth, the last assault of the Dragon, and the completed deliverance of the male Son from his attacks. Then the completed body, the ἀπαρχή, the 144,000, delivered from Satan and the woe that is to come upon them that dwell upon the Earth, stand in safety, with their Head, on Mount Zion (comp. Rev_12:5; Rev_12:12; Luk_21:35-36; Rev_3:10; Rev_7:4; Rev_7:14; Rev_14:1-5; see also Note on the Great Tribulation, pp. 191 sq., and Add. Note, p. 193).23
The War in Heaven the writer also refers to the period of the seventh Trumpet. It may, indeed, have begun on, or before, the Ascension of Jesus; but for reasons already given, we must conclude, that it comes into the view of the Seer as waged to its completion under this Trumpet. As additional reasons for this opinion may be urged the following: 1. The declaration concerning the Dragon following his dejection, “he knoweth that he hath little time,” Rev_12:12; the time accorded could not have been characterized as little if the dejection occurred at either the Ascension of our Lord or the establishment of Christianity under Constantine. 2. The declaration that the woe following the dejection should be visited upon the Earth. This seems to point to the period of the great tribulation (see above; and also 2Th_2:8-13, comp. with Mat_24:21-24, in which the last and most violent outburst of Satanic malice is directly connected with the great tribulation). The writer adopts in the main the views of Auberlen as to the nature and place of demons; holding, however, that the dejection is still future; that when it takes place, the hosts of evil spirits being concentrated on Earth, the fulfillment of the last quoted prophecies, which lie parallel with the remaining portions of this vision, will begin.
By the flight of the Woman into the Wilderness, the writer thinks it probable, is intended the removal of the vital Church to some earthly retreat of seclusion and safety. By the victory of Rev_12:11 he understands not that of Michael, but the victory of the Saints whom the Dragon persecuted and accused.—E. R. C.]
Footnotes:
[1]Rev_12:2. The reading καὶ ἔκραξεν is probably an alteration of the original reading. [Alf., Treg. and Tisch. read κράζει with א. A. P.; Tisch. (8th Ed.), Lach. (maj.), prefix καί with א. C.; Tisch. (1859), Lach. (min.), Treg, omit with A. B*. P.; Alf. brackets; Lach. reads ἔκραζεν with C.; B*. gives ἔκραξεν.—E. R. C.]
[2]Rev_12:4. The imperfect is probably an alteration. [The reading σύρει is unquestioned.—E. R. C.]
[3]Rev_12:5. Codd. A. C. give the reading ἄρσεν instead of ἄῤῥενα. [So Crit. Eds. generally. א. and B*. give ἄῤῥενα(B*. ἄρενα).—E. R. C.]
[4]Rev_12:6. Ὅπου ἔχει ἐκεῖ. [Alf. and Tisch. give ἐκεῖ with א. A. B*. P., etc.; Rec. Lach. and Treg., omit with C. 1, etc.—E. R. C]
[5]Rev_12:6. [Crit. Eds. give ἀπό with א. A. C P.; B*. reads ὑπό.—E. R. C.]
[6]Rev_12:6. [Lach. and Alf. give τρέφωσιν with A. P.; Gb. and Tisch. (1859), ἐκτρέφωσιν with B*.; Treg. and Tisch. (8th Ed.), τρέφουσιν with א. C. For the א. T. use of ἵνα with the Ind. Pres, see Winer, § 4, par. 3.—E. R. C.]
[7]Rev_12:7. [We follow the best authenticated, although difficult and venturesome reading τοῦ πολεμῆσαι. [Crit. Eds. give πολεμῆσαι with א. A. B*. C. P., Gb, Sz, Lach, Tisch. (1859), Treg. prefix τοῦ with A. C P.; Tisch. (8th Ed.), omits with א. B*.; Alf. brackets. Winer (§ 44, 4) confesses his inability to explain the construction, and thinks it probable that there is a corruption of the text. Alford comments: “The construction is remarkable, but may easily be explained as one compounded of (τοῦ) τὸν M. καὶ τοὺς ἀγγ.αὐτοῦ πολεμῆσαι (in which case the τοῦ depends on the ἐγένετο as in Act_10:25) and ὁ M. καὶ οἱ ἀγγ. αὐτοῦ ἐπολέμησαν. In the next clause it passes into this latter” Lillie, assuming the correctness of the text (τοῦ πολεμῆσαι) prefers “to construe ὁ M. καὶ οἱ ἀγγ. αὐτοῦ as absolute nominatives, with the participle of the substantive verb understood.” This gives a construction equivalent to the one adopted above. For other explanations see Winer and Lillie.—E. R. C.]
[8]Rev_12:10. There is an unimportant difference between αὐτῶν and αὐτούς. [Alf. and Tisch. read the latter with A. P.; Treg, the former with א. B* C.—E. R. C.]
[9]Rev_12:12. The reading τοῖς κατοικοῦσιν is a gloss. [It is supported only by 1.—E. R. C.]
[10]The Seer seems to repeat himself in Rev_12:14, the flight into the wilderness being again depicted there. But in this very fact, the architectonics of the Book may be seen. Here, in Rev_12:9, we have the Heaven-picture; in Rev_12:14, the Earth-picture.
[11]In the Text (see Rev_12:12 and note 17) our author properly omits these words.—E. R. C.
[12] [Scriptural Angelology]
[Stuart gives, in the Appendix of his Commentary on the Apocalypse, an elaborate Excursus on this subject, of which the following is an abstract.
I. Good Angels
1. They are very numerous, Dan_7:10; Psa_68:17; 2Ki_6:16-17; Heb_12:22; Mat_26:53; Judges 14; Rev_5:11.
2. They accompany the Divine Majesty and the Saviour, and take part in all the peculiarly glorious displays which they make, either in the way of mercy or of judgment. (1). At the giving of the Law, Deu_33:2; Psa_68:17; Heb_2:2; Act_7:53; Gal_3:19. (2). At the destruction of Jerusalem, Mat_24:30-31. (3). At the final judgment, Mat_13:39-41; Mat_25:31; 1Th_4:16; 2Th_1:7-9.
3. They are guardians—(1). Of the Lord Jesus, Luk_1:11-20; Luk_1:26-38 : Mat_1:20-21; Mat_2:13; Mat_2:19-20; Mat_4:11; Joh_1:51; Luk_22:43; Mat_28:2-7; Mar_16:5-7; Act_1:10-11. (2). Of individuals, Mat_18:10; Gen_32:1; 2Ki_6:17; Psa_34:7; Act_12:7-15; Heb_1:14. (3). Of nations and kingdoms, Exo_14:19; Exo_23:20; Exo_33:2; Num_20:16; Num_22:22-35; Jos_5:13; Isa_63:9; Dan_10:5-13; Dan_10:20-21; Dan_11:1; Zec_1:8-14; Zec_3:1-2; Zec_12:1; Judges 9. From all this it is apparent that not only the Jews but other nations—that not only Jesus and the saints, but little children have their guardian angels.
4. They are employed as special ministers for executing Divine justice. See many of the preceding passages; also Gen_19:1-23. comp. with Rev_18:1-2; Exo_12:23; Jos_5:13-14; 2Sa_24:16-17; 2Ki_19:35; Act_12:23; Revelation 7-11; Revelation 16.
5. They seem to watch over and govern the different elements, Rev_7:1-2; Rev_14:18; Rev_16:5, (prob. 7); Rev_19:17; (also probably Psa_104:4; Heb_1:7).
6. They were regarded as intercessors, Job_33:23; Zec_1:12-13. In Rev_8:3 an Angel takes his station by the altar in Heaven, and presents “much incense …. with the prayers of all saints.” (He endeavors to show, by copious extracts from Jewish and contemporary Christian writings, that John is not singular in his alleged meaning in Rev_8:3. This view, be it observed, does not involve the utterly unscriptural idea that Angels may themselves be invoked.)
II. Evil Angels
1. These are numerous, Mat_25:41; Mat_12:26; Mar_5:9.
2. They were originally good, but fell from their first estate, 2Pe_2:4; Judges 6.
3. One is more distinctly marked and made very prominent. He is called (1). Satan (השטן), the adversary, Job_1:6-12; Job_2:1-7; 1Ch_21:1; Zec_3:1-2; Mat_12:26; Mar_4:15; Luk_22:3; Act_5:3; Rom_16:20, etc. (2). The Tempter, Mat_4:1-11; Mat_13:19; Luk_22:3; Luk_22:53; Act_5:3; 1Co_7:5; 1Th_3:5; 2Co_11:3; Rev_12:9; Rev_20:2; Rev_20:8; Rev_20:10. (3). The Destroyer (Ἀπολλύων), Rev_9:11. (4). The Devil (ὁ διάβολος), the accuser, calumniator. This designation is too frequent to need references.
4. The extent of Satan’s power, together with that of other evil spirits (demons), is very great, 2Co_4:4; Joh_12:31; Joh_14:30; Eph_6:12; Col_1:13; Rev_12:17; Rev_20:8. (This extensive influence is the result of corruption in men, rather than of any irresistible power in Satan, Jam_4:7; 1Pe_5:8-9; Eph_4:27.)
5. Place of evil spirits before the general judgment. (1). The Abyss. This word means without bottom, unfathomable. The idea of the Hebrews respecting it was that of a deep, dark pit or chasm, which was, or might be, closed up, and where darkness perpetually reigned; hence Judges 6, “angels…… kept in perpetual chains under darkness,” i. e., in the deep and dark abyss. See also 2Pe_2:4; Luk_8:31; Rev_9:1; Rev_9:11; Rev_17:8; Rev_20:1-3 (this, Rev_12:9, is styled φυλακή). (2). Deserts, Isa_13:21; Isa_34:14; Rev_18:2; Mat_12:43. (3). The air, Eph_2:2; Eph_6:12.
6. They are sometimes employed as executioners of Divine justice or chastisement, Job_1:2; 1Ki_22:21-23; 1Co_5:5; 1Ti_1:20.
The Excursus concludes with the following: “Is angelic interposition unworthy of the Godhead? What then are the laws of nature, and all the intermediate agencies by which the Maker of Heaven and earth carries on His designs and accomplishes His purposes? On the other hand, I can conceive of no more magnificent and ennobling view of the Creator and Lord of all things, than that which regards Him as delighting to multiply, even to an almost boundle’s extent, beings made in His own image, and therefore rational, and moral, and immortal, like Himself. How different from representing Him as the Master of a magnificent puppet-show, all of which He manages by merely pulling the wires with His own hands! To make Him the only real agent in the universe, and all else as mere passive recipients of His influence, is to take from Him the glory that results from the creation of numberless beings in His own image—beings which reflect the brightness of their great Original. It is this intelligent and rational creation in which John lives, moves, thinks, and speaks. The universe, as viewed by him, is filled with ministers swift to do Jehovah’s will. They stand before His throne; they preside over nations; they guide the sun in his shining course; the moon and stars send forth radiance at their bidding; the very elements are watched over by them; even infants are committed to the guidance of presence-angels; and ‘the Angel of the Lord encampeth round about all that fear Him.” Such is the Universe, which the God Who is, and was, and is to come has created and governs; and amid the contemplation of productions and arrangements such as these, John wrote the glowing pages of the Apocalypse.”—E. R. C.]
[13]Lord distinguishes between the great Dragon of Rev_12:9, and the great red Dragon of Rev_12:6, identifying the former with Satan.—E. R. C.
[14][Glasgow: “The pagan empire occupied the place and character of all the heads developed and gone. … Various enumerations of them (the heads) have been propounded. That which bears most verisimilitude is: 1. Egypt…2. Palestine or Arabia (Amalek, Idumea, etc.)… 3. Assyria …4. Babylon …5. Persia … 6. Yavan, or Hellas, dating from Alexander’s conquest of Persia, B. C. 331, and comprehending Greece and Rome, until Paganism fell, and which, when it became complete, assumed the nature and received the name of Dragon. 7. Rome, which began first with Constantine, who adopted Byzantium as his capitol, B. C. 329, and thus led the way to the rise of that new or second Roman empire, called Θήριον, the monster with seven heads (the first six represented by the last) and ten horns.” (See footnote†, p. 272.)—E. R. C.
[15]Although this distinguished author cannot be classed with English and American commentators, it is deemed proper here to present an abstract of his views.—E. R. C.
[16]Auberlen holds that the history of Satan and evil spirits “consists of an ever deeper downfall, in four gradations or periods. The first extends to the first coming of Christ (Rev_12:8 (ἔτι) presupposes that hitherto, up to the ascension of Christ, the demons were in Heaven like the other angels, and that like them, they influenced Earth from their abodes in Heaven, in which there are many mansions. See Job_1:6; Job_2:1; 1Ki_22:19-22; Zec_3:1-2). The second period is from Christ to the commencement of the Millennium; then Satan is cast out of Heaven to earth, where he exercises yet free power … The third period embraces the millennium. The enemy is bound; and as he was cast out of Heaven to Earth, he is now cast into the bottomless pit [pit of the Abyss] and rendered harmless, Rev_20:1-3. After having been let loose for a little while, he is, fourthly, judged and cast for ever and ever into the lake of fire (Rev_20:7-10; Mat_25:41; 1Co_6:3). Thus the whole history which the Apocalypse gives of Satan, is a continual succession of his being cast out, hurled down (βληθῆναι, Rev_12:9; Rev_20:3-10).”—E. R. C.]
[17]Special comments are reserved for the Add. Note, p. 250 sq.—E. R. C.]
[18]See note 29, p. 275; and foot-note on p. 276.—E.R.C.]
[19]Witch’s Sabbath (Hexensabbath): “the festive conventicle of witches and spirits. for the indulgence of wild uproar and dissolute mirth.” Sanders Wörterbuch.—Tr.]
[20][The precise position of Düsterdieck is, that Rev_12:11 contains a proleptical celebration of the future victory of earthly believers, whilst Rev_12:12 rather reverts to the actual condition of affairs, proclaiming joy to the Heavens and the dwellers therein, on account of the victory over the Dragon; but woe to the earth and all its inhabitants—even to believers, since it is theirs now to make good the triumph proleptically rejoiced over, and to fight the raging Dragon, even to the death.—The contrast between the “two propositions,” therefore, is not quite so irreconcilable as would appear from Dr. Lange’s statement of the case.—Tr.]
[21]The hypothesis earlier advanced by Bleek, to the effect that the Book originally closed with Rev 40, has since been declared by himself to be untenable (Apok., p. 120; Beiträge, p. 81). This dispatches the note in Hengstenberg I., p. 589.
[22]For the writer’s views concerning the Elders see foot-note to p. 152,—E. R. C.]
[23][An objection to the interpretation given above may arise in the minds of some from the fact, that after the dejection of the Dragon to Earth, he is represented as making war with the remnant of the Woman’s seed, Rev_12:17. The writer will here only remark, that in his mind there is a growing conviction that the ἀπαρχή does not include all true Christians, but that it consists of a select portion of them—the specially faithful. He regards Rev_12:17 (τῶν λοιπῶντοῦ σπέρματος αὐτῆς) as strongly confirmative of this view. See Add. Notes, pp. 193 and 291.—E. R. C.]
[24]The notation of Lange and of Critical Editors of the Greek Testament is here adopted. That which is here styled Rev 12:18 is the first clause of Rev_13:1 of the English Version. See Note 7 above.—E. R. C.]
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 17 pained--Greek, "tormented" (basanizomene). DE BURGH explains this of the…
pained--Greek, "tormented" (basanizomene). DE BURGH explains this of the bringing in of the first-begotten into the world AGAIN, when Israel shall at last welcome Him, and when "the man-child shall rule all nations with the rod of iron." But there is a plain contrast between the painful travailing of the woman here, and Christ's second coming to the Jewish Church, the believing remnant of Israel, "Before she travailed she brought forth . . . a MAN-CHILD," that is, almost without travail-pangs, she receives (at His second advent), as if born to her, Messiah and a numerous seed.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17 PERSONALITIES OF THE ANTICHRISTIC WAR, Rev_12:1 to Rev_13:18.
PERSONALITIES OF THE ANTICHRISTIC WAR, Rev_12:1 to Rev_13:18.
Satanic dragon and man child Christ, Rev_12:1-6.
Read full note →
1. And—In the opening of this chapter three representative beings appear on the scene. The man child, Christ; the mother; and the dragon, ready to devour the child. The grouping at once suggests the source whence the symbolism is drawn. We at once think of the virgin mother, the infant Jesus, and the murderous Herod. Yet the subsequent wilderness history of the woman shows that the virgin is here introduced as a symbol of the Church; that as Herod is not actually named, the dragon is truly the literal Satan, and that the man child is truly Christ. Yet the habiliments of the dragon show that he is Satan as representative of pagan Roman antichrist, and the man child is Christ as representative leader in the battle against antichrist. As the woman is symbol, and the Herod is symbol, so the man child is here symbol. Alford is right in insisting that “the man child is the Lord Jesus Christ and none other,” (not Constantine, nor any other Roman emperor;) but he is wrong in ignoring the plain fact, that both Christ and the dragon are here representatives of Christianity and paganism in the Roman world; that the battle here is truly between the two great causes, and that the overthrow of the dragon is the downfall of paganism.
As the beast of Rev_13:1, is the specific antichrist of the New Testament, according to the apocalypse, so Gebhardt holds the dragon to be rather anti-god. This may in due degree be admitted. The paganism of the Old Testament, and even as it laps over into the New, is opposed not so much to Christ as to God. It supplies a rival, and denies the true divine existence. Yet, by another view, as Christ is the Jehovah of the Old Dispensation, so the anti-god is, through all ages, the lineal antichrist. See introductory note to 2 Thessalonians, chap. 2. We might, then, (and some of our readers may prefer the view,) reckon the contest with the dragon as part of the coming anti-christic war, and so reckon four rather than three “overthrows of antichrist.” Yet as the man child and the dragon are here presented as the two powers which, after this antecedent contest, are reserved in the background as the source, inspiration, and controllers of the manifest war, we prefer to consider this contest as preludial, introduced to show the genesis of the main war and to authenticate the personalities introduced in the next chapter as the combatants; thereby leaving but three main “overthrows.”
There appeared—From the symbolic heaven, where the panorama was in action, the seer looks upward to a higher ethereal region, the atmospheric heaven, where the woman, and subsequently the dragon, appear; yet higher still, the third heaven, is the throne whither the child was caught up. Note Rev_4:11.
Wonder—Rather, sign, token, symbol, a phenomenon significant of some idea. So 1Co_14:22; Mat_12:39; Mat_24:3.
Sun—In the gorgeous imagery investing the woman is truly to be seen a recognition of the unparalleled honour of the blessed virgin in becoming the mother of the Incarnate. Sad as is the error of the Romanistic adoration of her person, no reaction of thought should prevent our recognising the due honour which Scripture pays her. And one honour is, that she is clearly here the basis of the symbol of the Church in its struggle with paganism. Note on Mat_1:18.
There is an apparent incongruity in the Church’s being here the mother of Christ and also, hereafter, the bride of Christ. But the two are to be separated in thought as different symbols. The maternal symbol of the Church is a specialty, terminating at a particular historic point. The bridal symbol comes from another region of thought, and extends into the final glorification.
Clothed with the sun—”Invested,” Newton well says, “with the rays of the sun of righteousness.”
The moon—The symbol of sublunary change, over and upon which the ideal Church stands exalted.
Crown of twelve stars—The twelve apostles, under whom she stands as the apostolic Church. The three orders of heavenly luminaries combine to do her homage. Robed with the sun, and crowned with the stars, she stands on the moon—her silver pedestal. While each of these investments may have its symbolic import, the clustering of the whole is to render glorious the personified Church. The dragon, on the contrary, in a different hemisphere of the firmament, is clothed in no such glory, but equipped with symbols of power and fierceness.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 17 The Woman with the Man-Child. Chap. 12 Rev_12:1-6
The Woman with the Man-Child. Chap. 12 Rev_12:1-6
1. a great wonder] Should be sign, as in the margin, both here and in Rev_12:3.
Read full note →
a woman] Who is this? The two answers most commonly given are (1) the Virgin Mary, (2) the Church. Neither seems quite satisfactory. There can indeed be little doubt that the Son born of this woman is the Son of Mary: nor ought theological or ecclesiastical considerations to exclude the view that Mary is herself intended by the mother; the glory ascribed to her is no greater than that of a glorified saint (Dan_12:3; St Mat_13:43), and St John was not bound to suppress a truth for fear of the false inference Pius V. or Pius IX. might seek to draw from it. But it is not in harmony with the usage of this book for a human being, even a glorified saint, to be introduced in his personal character: if St John saw (see on Rev_4:4, Rev_5:5) himself, who was not yet glorified, sitting among the elders, it is plain that it is typical, not personal, glory or blessedness that this description indicates.
Who then, or what, is the typical or mystical Mother of Christ? Not the Christian Church, which in this book as elsewhere is represented as His wife: but the Jewish Church, the ideal Israel, “the daughter of Zion.” See especially Mic_4:10; Mic_5:3 : where it is her travail from which He is to be born Who is born in Bethlehem. This accounts for the only features that support the other view, the appearance in her glory of the Sun, Moon, and stars of Son_6:10, and the mention of “the remnant of her seed” in Rev_12:17.
It may, however, perhaps be true that the ideal mother of the Lord is half identified in St John’s mind, and intended to be so in his reader’s, with His human mother: she embodies the ideal conception, just as the ideal of the false enemy of goodness in Psalms 109 received embodiment in Judas, or as the king of Israel who was to come is called “David,” by Hosea and Ezekiel.
clothed with the sun &c.] There may be a reference to Son_6:10, where however there is no mention of the stars. More certain is the reference, or at least similarity of imagery, to Gen_37:9, where “the eleven stars,” i.e. signs of the zodiac, represent Jacob’s eleven sons, bowing down to Joseph, the twelfth. Here, the ideal Israel appears in the glory of all the patriarchs: Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and their wives, are hers, and of the Twelve Tribes none is wanting. The whole description, in fact, is interpreted in Rom_9:5.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv1–17 (1) And there appeared . . .—Better, And a…
(1) And there appeared . . .—Better, And a great sign was seen in the heaven. The word sign is preferable to “wonder,” both in this verse and in Rev_12:3. It is the same word which is rendered sign in Rev_15:1. It is a sign which is seen: not a mere wonder, but something which has a meaning; it is not “a surprise ending with itself,” but a signal to arrest attention, and possessing significance; there is “an idea concealed behind it.” (Comp. Note on Joh_2:11.)
A woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars.—All the lights of heaven are brought together here for a description which cannot fail to remind us of the picture of the Shulamite in the Canticles (Son_6:10): “Who is she that looketh forth as the morning, fair as the moon, clear as the sun, and terrible as an army with banners (or, the heavenly host)?” It is the picture of the bride, the Church. The beams of the divine glory clothe her; she has caught—like Moses—the radiance of her Lord, whose countenance was as the sun (Rev_1:16); the moon is beneath her feet; she rises superior to all change, and lays all lesser lights of knowledge under tribute; she is crowned with a crown of twelve stars: the illustrious members of the Church (twelve being the representative number in Old Testament as well as New Testament times) form her crown of rejoicing in the day of Christ.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17 This chapter commences another series of revelations. Again St.…
This chapter commences another series of revelations. Again St. John returns to the beginning, and traces the spiritual history of the Church and the Christian in their warfare with Satan. But the visions which now follow are somewhat different in character from those already related, inasmuch as the conflict is now described rather as between the powers of heaven and hell than between the individual Christian and his oppressors. As with the other visions, so here, the recital seems calculated to support the suffering Christian in his trials, since the overthrow of the powers of darkness is foretold; and the whole series culminates in an account of the final abasement of the devil, and the exaltation of the Church and the bliss of heaven.
The following analysis will help to make clear the relation of the several parts of the vision.
Read full note →
I THE ORIGIN OF THE ENMITY BETWEEN CHRIST AND THE WORLD. (Rev_12:7-13)
II THE PROGRESS OF THE WARFARE.
1. The assaults of the devil.
(1) The dragon"s direct attacks on Christ. (Rev_12:1-7, Rev_12:13-17)
(2) On the Church by means of the wild beast. (Rev_13:1-10)
(3) On the Church by means of the two-horned beast. (Rev_13:11-18)
2. The overthrow and punishment of the devil. (Rev_20:1-10)
(1) The fate of the dragon. (Rev_14:7)
(2) The fate of the wild beast (Babylon). (Rev_14:8 Re 17 Re 18 Rev_19:19, et seq. )
(3) The fate of the two-horned beast. (Rev_14:9 Rev_19:19, et seq. )
3. The victory of the faithful. (Rev_14:13 Rev_19:1-10 Re 21 Re 22)
And there appeared a great wonder; and a great sign was seen (Revised Version). This sign consists of the whole of the appearances, the account of which is contained in this verse and the following one. The vision is thus plainly declared to be figurative. (cf. the use of the corresponding verb in Rev_1:1) In heaven. Though the scene of the vision opens in heaven, it is immediately afterwards transferred to the earth. It is doubtful whether any particular signification is to be attached to the expression, though Wordsworth notes concerning the Church, "For her origin is from above; hers is the kingdom of heaven." And Bengel, "The woman, the Church, though on earth, is nevertheless, by virtue of her union with Christ, in heaven." A woman. The woman is undoubtedly the Church of God; not necessarily limited to the Christian Church, but the whole company of all who acknowledge God, including the heavenly beings in existence before the creation, as well as creation itself. The figure is found both in the Old Testament and in the New. Thus Isa_54:5, Isa_54:6, "For thy Maker is thine Husband... For the Lord hath called thee as a woman forsaken and grieved". (cf. also Joh_3:29 2Co_11:2 Eph_5:25-32) Clothed with the sun. The whole description is intended to portray the glory and beauty of the Church. Most of the ancient commentators give particular interpretations of the symbols employed. Thus the sun is believed to represent Christ, the Sun of Righteousness. Primasius quotes Gal_3:27, "For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ." And the moon under her feet. This is interpreted as showing the permanent nature of the Church; she treads underfoot the moon, the symbol of changing times and seasons. It is thought that a reference is thus intended to the futility of the endeavours made to subvert the Church. (cf. Son_6:10) Others variously interpret the moon of
(1) the Mosaic Law;
(2) the irreligion of the world;
(3) the Mohammedan power.
But the figure is probably intended simply to enhance the beauty of the vision, and to portray the exceeding glory of the Church. We may also imagine the symbol to denote stability of existence in the midst of change of outward appearance, as the moon is ever existent and ever reappearing, though obscured for a time. And upon her head a crown of twelve stars. This image immediately suggests a reference to the twelve apostles of the Christian Church, and the twelve tribes of the Jewish Church. Wordsworth observes, Twelve is the apostolic number, and stars are emblems of Christian teachers." In like manner the Jews were accustomed to speak of the minor prophets as "the twelve." The crown is stefanov the crown of victory the idea of which is prominent throughout the vision.
Vers. 1-17. The foes of God and of his Church.
"That old serpent. " In previous chapters of this book there have been hints of sundry evil forces which would at divers times harass the Church of God. Who they would be, or what, or how they would work, has not yet been shown to us. This is done, however, in chapters which we have yet to consider. Of them there are several. Of each one we have a representation in the form of allegory or parable. In this chapter the first of them is shown us. We can be in no doubt as to who it is that is intended; nor is there any very great difficulty about the main features of the sketch, however obscure some of the minor details may be. The enemy is the devil. The object of his rage is the faithful Church, represented under the symbol of "a woman, clothed with the sun," etc. When we find, too, that this woman brought forth a man child, who is sought to be devoured as soon as born; who is, in spite of all, caught up to God and to his throne, from which seat of power he is to rule the nations as with a rod of iron; we have very distinctive marks pointing unmistakably to our Lord. The enemy, failing to devour him, persecutes the woman, and lulling in his designs against her, he goes on to war with the remnant of her seed. But, as the chapter shows, in every instance the evil one rushes on only to his own defeat. So that this chapter contains a parable of glorious meaning, as it sets forth the working of Satan against the Church of God. His present work is to make war against those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus. Why should he select these as the objects of his attack? Why? Because others are doing his work for him! He disturbs himself only about his disturbers. He has little need to look after others. Let us, then, try, in the light of this chapter, to look our foe full in the face, and to find out what he is, what he can do, and what he cannot. Our subject, then, isour foe, as sketched by a Divine hand.
I OUR FOE IS A PERSONAL ONE. (Ver. 9) It would be of little avail to say that the personality of the evil one cannot be decided from such a chapter as this; for the allusions to Satan elsewhere are so numerous and so varied that they shut us up to the conviction of his personality; i.e. that he is a distinct being, with a will, plan, and pro-pose of his own, moving in "the heavenly places," i.e. in the realm of spirit. We often find the personal pronouns used concerning him. (Joh_8:44) The names and epithets applied to him indicate the same. The name "the devil" means "the slanderer." He is represented in Scripture as slandering God before men, and as slandering men before God. The apostle speaks of him as "going about seeking whom he may devour." Nor can there be a doubt that we are taught by our Lord and his apostles that to Satan"s pernicious agency much of the evil in the world must be traced. Let us remember our Lord"s conflict with him.
II HE IS AN OLD ONE. "The devil sinneth from the beginning". (1Jn_3:8 Joh_8:44) He first sinned in heaven, and was cast out from thence ere he came to deceive the whole world. Then he tempted Adam in Eden. He came into conflict with our Lord. He hindered apostles in their work. (1Th_2:18) He has been counterplotting the sowings of the Son of man for eighteen hundred years. (Mat_13:39) And he is at work still. We well know, indeed, that there is one difficulty which often presses upon thoughtful minds. It is this: Can it be that God should let one being have such tremendous power for evil? Now, although the devil"s power is not so great as stone people seem to think it to be, we confess that it would be a very great relief to us if we felt warranted in saying, No. But there are three remarks which have to be set over against this question.
1. Whatever evil is in the world is here, whether there be a devil or no. And if evil is only a spontaneous product of man himself, then human nature is much worse than the Bible declares it to be.
2. But if we grant that some of it comes from outside, it is then merely a question whether the outside evil is led on by one single force, or by an indefinite number of agents, organized or unorganized.
3. If we accept the doctrine of the unity of leadership in the forces of ill outside earth, the difficulty is merely one of degree, not of kind; e.g. if one pope can by his will move his organized forces at any part of the world, why may not a like power be, for aught we know, outside the limits of this globe?
III HE IS A DARING ONE. The flashes of light which we get on this point in Scripture are many. Michael and his angels. Our Lord. Peter. Judas. In heaven. In Eden. In the desert. At the last Supper. In Gethsemane. He carefully selects those on whom he will try his temptations. The greater the object, the fiercer the onset. If a man stands up for Jesus, Satan will desire to have him, that he may sift him as wheat. It is a far greater thing to bring an eagle to the ground than a sparrow. It is a vaster achievement to batter a fortress than a hut. And the greater our influence, and the higher our standing in the Church, the more fiercely will the evil one assail us.
IV HIS ATTEMPTS ARE OFTEN FAILURES. (Ver. 8, "The dragon warred and his angels, and they prevailed not.") It is a relief to find that it is so; and that the evil one"s most daring attempts have been the signal for most humiliating failures. The supreme illustration of this is his onset upon our Lord in the desert. (Mat_4:1-11) From heaven he was cast out, and even on this earth he is an outcast still (vers. 9-11). His power in far off realms is at an end. His pride was his condemnation. He was overpowered by a Greater, when Jesus died. "Now is the prince of this world cast out". (Joh_12:31) And already, in prospect of his complete, utter, and final defeat, is the heavenly song begun, "Now is come the salvation," etc. (vers. 10, 11). It is no wonder that we go on to read that
V HE IS AN ANGRY FOE. (Ver. 12, "He has great wrath, knowing that he hath but a short time.") In what way this has been revealed to the evil one, we do not know; but we shall do both ourselves and Scripture a wrong if we refuse to let this thought bring us its appropriate inspiration and comfort. Truly it is good to know that the end of his power is foreseen.
VI HE IS A MALICIOUS ONE. (Ver. 13) If defeated in one scheme, he tries another. It cast out of heaven, he will plague the earth. "He worries whom he can"t devour." And as he prevailed not against the Lord of the Church, he persecutes the Church of the Lord. He has long been engaged in plotting schemes against the people of God, desiring to have them, that he may sift them as wheat.
VII HE IS A WATCHFUL AND CRAFTY ONE (vers. 4, 13, 15), varying his methods according to the case in hand. "We are not ignorant of his devices". (2Co_2:11) We have to contend against "the wiles of the devil". (Eph_6:11) He is active, too, in executing his plans. The whole of this chapter is one lengthened sketch, in symbol, of the manifold forms of his activity. And perhaps we are hardly prepared to see how varied are his methods of work, until we collect the several hints scattered throughout the Word of God. In the world at large he counterplots the sowing of the Son of man; (Mat_13:38, Mat_13:39) he deceives by powers, and signs, and lying wonders; (2Th_2:9, 2Th_2:10) in a city like Pergamos he sets up his throne; (Rev_2:12, Rev_2:13) he collects his followers in a synagogue of his own; (Rev_2:9) he preys on the body, inflicting dumbness on one, (Mar_9:17) and binding another for eighteen years; (Luk_13:16) he casts some of the saints into prison, (Rev_2:10) and hinders apostles in their work; (1Th_2:18) he inflicts on Paul a thorn in the flesh, (2Co_12:7, 2Co_12:8) and goes about in search of prey, (1Pe_5:8) in a constant state of unrest; (Mat_12:43) he lays snares for the ungodly; (2Ti_2:26) causes many to turn aside after him; (1Ti_5:15) he puts it into the heart of Judas to betray his Master, (Joh_13:2) and leads Ananias and Sapphira to lie to the Holy Ghost; (Act_5:3) if men are just coming to Jesus, he throws them down and tears them; (Luk_9:42) and while the Word is being heard, he stealthily takes it out of the heart, lest they should believe and be saved. (Luk_8:12) So terrible is the tale of his deceit that we are ready to give up heart, till we note
VIII HE IS A CIRCUMSCRIBED FOE. This chapter tells us of three limits put to him and to his power.
1. One, of space. He is cast down to earth. He is "the god of this world". (2Co_4:4)
2. A second, of time. "A time, and times, and half a time." The same mysterious period of twelve hundred and sixty days, during which the witness bearing is to go on, and the beast (Re 13) is to continue.
3. There is yet a third limit, that of force (ver. 16, "The earth helped the woman," etc.). Nothing can be plainer than that in this chapter we are shown the cheering fact that the evil one cannot have it all his own way. If his work counterplots the good, none the less surely does the good counteract him. He is mighty; but there is a Stronger than he. We are taught in Scripture that there are five ways by which his power is restricted and his intention foiled.
(1) There is providential dispensation. (vers. 6, 14, 16 1Co_10:13)
(2) There is angelic ministry (ver. 7).
(3) There is the direct exertion of Christ"s commanding word. (Mat_17:18)
(4) There is the counteracting power of Divine grace. (2Co_12:9)
(5) There is the intercession of our Redeemer. (Luk_22:31, Luk_22:32)
IX HE IS A FOE WITH WHOSE DEVICES WE HAVE TO RECKON IN FIGHTING THE BATTLE OF LIFE. (Ver. 17) Note:
1. He is one at whom we cannot afford to laugh, and whose existence we cannot afford to deny. Nothing gives the enemy such leverage as the denial of his existence. It is the very lie he loves to put into our mouths. The only "father," surely, who loves his children to disown his existence.
2. He is a foe before whom we need not quail. While we may not laugh in careless indifference, we need not cower in fear. Life is not so easy as if there were no devil to fight; it is not so hard but that we may ensure his defeat.
3. He is a foe to whom not an inch of room should be given. (Eph_4:27) Let us ever be wary lest he get advantage over us; and let us swear eternal enmity to him and all his works.
4. He is a foe for whose onsets we should prepare, by a survey and appropriation of heavenly forces. We stand between two opposing agencies the Spirit of God on one side, and the devil on the other. Let us not grieve the Spirit by toying with the devil.
5. He is a foe on whose ultimate defeat and complete discomfiture we may surely and confidently reckon if we look to Jesus. "Greater is he that is for us," etc. Our Lord hath overcome him for us, and in his strength we shall overcome too. And we shall be better and stronger Christians for having had such a foe to fight. Not only is it the battle that tries the soldier, but that makes him. We have, however, not just one skirmish, and then peace. Oh no! "Patient continuance in well doing." Daily fighting, daily praying, daily victory, till the end. "The land of triumph lies on high; There are no foes t" encounter there!
HOMILIES BY R. GREEN Vers. 1-6. Signs.
It has been wisely said, "The Revelation of St. John gives no regularly progressive disclosure of the future, advancing in unbroken series from beginning to end; but it falls into a number of groups, which, indeed, supplement each other, every successive vision giving some other aspect of the future, but which are still formally complete in themselves, each proceeding from a beginning to an end." We have but just heard the accents of the shout of final triumph. Now we are thrown back again to scenes of strife, and conflict the prevailing condition until the end cometh. This section is preparative. The agents in the great strife are set before us in symbolical form The things signified it behoves us to seek to know.
I THE FIRST IS THE SIGN OF "A WOMAN ARRAYED WITH THE SUN, AND THE MOON UNDER HER FEET, AND UPON HER HEAD A CROWN OF TWELVE STARS." In this we are to see a symbolical representation of the Zion of God the Church; not the Christian in contradiction to the Jewish; but the true Israel of God under the Old and perpetuated in New Testament times. Not an unfamiliar figure of both Old and New Testaments to represent the Church as a woman, whether a bride or a mother. (Isa_54:5, 6 Rev_21:2, Rev_21:9) Is the sun that glory of God which now lightens the holy city; and the moon the previous, the lesser light which ruled the comparative night before the morning star appeared? The crown of the Church is ever the twelve tribes supplanted by the twelve apostles of the Lamb.
II THE SECOND SIGN IS THE MAN CHILD BORN OF THE WOMAN. Christ in his human nature, born of that Church which for so long before his coming endured the pangs of travail. From the bosom of the people of God, Christ according to the flesh came. This is he of whom it is declared, "Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee. Ask of me... thou shalt rule them with a rod of iron.
III THE THIRD SYMBOL OR SIGN IS "A GREAT RED DRAGON, HAVING SEVEN HEADS AND TEN HORNS, AND ON HIS HEADS SEVEN DIADEMS." The interpretation of this is given explicitly in ver. 9. The seven heads may fitly represent the multiplied worldly powers which the evil one brings against Christ and his Church, and in the ten horns may be hidden a reference to that great world power which, in the days of St. John, sought, as the agent of Satan, to destroy the Church of Christ. The whole scene is expressive of the great powers which from the beginning wage war with the Lamb.
IV A FOURTH SIGN IS FOUND IN THE ATTITUDE OF THE RED DRAGON BEFORE THIS WOMAN, SEEKING TO DESTROY HER CHILD, But the Divine care defends him, and the woman flees into the wilderness place prepared," and that "they may nourish her.
Let the whole for our instruction resolve itself into a teaching concerning:
1. The habitual antagonism of the great powers of evil to him who is the Church"s Lord and Son. The whole book portrays the strife between the great antagonistic powers light and darkness, sin and holiness, Christ and Satan proper factors of history." This vision is, for us, one of warning and admonition. We learn the conditions on which we hold life. Our hearts are the battleground, and for dominion over them the two forces contend. Our duty is plain.
2. The Divine care for the Church. The "wilderness" is not a place of danger, but of safety. The city, with its corruption, is the deadly place. True, the wilderness affords not luxury; but luxury is danger. In the wilderness the Church is fed and nourished. God has prepared the conditions of safety for his Church during the times of the great strife which is afterwards to be detailed. Then let the lowly disciple have both faith and hope. The Lord will defend him in the day of battle, and will nourish him unto eternal life. R. G.
HOMILIES BY D. THOMAS Vers. 1-6. Social Christhood and social fiendhood.
"And there appeared a great wonder in heaven," etc. What strange objects the human imagination can create, or in a passive state receive! What a remarkable dream or vision this is of the apostolic hermit on Patmos! "A woman arrayed with the sun, with the moon beneath her feet, and a crown of twelve stars around her head, brings forth a man child. A huge scarlet dragon with ten horns and seven diademed heads, whose tail sweeps after it the third part of the stars to the earth, stands before her to devour the child the moment it is born, since the child is to rule the nations with a rod of iron. But the child is snatched up to the throne of God, and the woman flies into the wilderness, where she is nourished for twelve hundred and sixty days." I shall take this strange creature of the imagination as I have taken the other visions not to represent things of which we know nothing, but to illustrate some important realities with which we are more or less acquainted. There are two subjects here
(1) social Christhood, and
(2) social friendhood.
I SOCIAL CHRISTHOOD. By "social Christhood" I mean the existence of Christ in a human society, or in a community of men. I use this language in preference to the term "Church," for that term now, alas! seldom represents Christhood, but often the reverse. The expressions in the Episcopal community, "our Church," and, in the Nonconformist domain, "our Churches," are, alas! far enough from representing Christ, either in his doctrines, ethics, or spirit. Self-sacrificing love is the essence of Christhood; but where do we find that, either in "our Church" or "our Churches"? Christhood is peace, eternal antipathy to all anger, resentment, ambition, war. But "our Church gives war a sanction, a licence, a blessing. The word "Church," therefore, in its conventional sense, I repudiate as a calumny on Christ. Using this vision, therefore, to illustrate social Christhood, two remarks are suggested concerning the society or community in which Christ lives and works.
1. It is glorious. "A woman clothed arrayed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars" (ver. 1). It is encircled with the solar beams of Divine truth. Beneath the feet is the world. It treads down all worldliness in its spirit and aims. Around its brow, as a peerless diadem, are twelve stars. The true Church as a community of Christly men Christly in idea, spirit, and pursuit is the most glorious object under the grand heavens. It reveals more of God than all the globes that roll through immensity. It is a glorious Church. The conventional Church is a crawling sycophant; the true Church is a crowned sovereign.
2. It is multiplying. "She being with child cried, travailing in birth, and pained to be delivered" (ver. 2). The true Church is not sterile or barren, but otherwise; it is fecundant and multiplying. Three remarks are suggested concerning its offspring:
(1) It is brought forth in pain. "In pain to be delivered." "All life," it has been said, "dawns in anguish, according to the fiat." (Gen_3:16) There is an anguish of the Church which Christ laid upon her; it is the law of her life that she must bring forth Christ to the world, but she cannot work deliverance without knowing suffering. Paul speaks of himself as "travailing in birth." Who knows the anguish of those earnestly engaged in endeavouring to form Christ in men, and to bring him forth? What is genuine, personal religion but Christ in men, working within them to "will and to do his own good pleasure"?
(2) It is brought forth to govern. "And she brought forth a man child who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron" (ver. 5). Every Christly convert is a ruler is born to rule. Servility and flunkeyism in all its forms are foreign to its instincts and spirit. His instincts and bearing are imperial. All the offspring of the true Church are kings as well as "priests unto God.
(3) It is destined for Divine fellowship. "And her child was caught up unto God, and to his throne" (ver. 5). Whatever might be the trials of the truly Christly, here is the end. Sublime destiny this. "God hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus." Though the mother had in her trials and persecutions to flee unto the "wilderness," even there she was secure. "She had a place prepared of God.
II SOCIAL FIENDHOOD. Not only is there a society on earth in which Christ is, but there is a society in which the devil is. "And there appeared another wonder in heaven; and behold a great red dragon, having seven heads," etc. There is as truly a social fiendhood as there is a social Christhood. The "great red dragon," the old serpent, the "prince of the power of the air," works in the children of disobedience everywhere. Two facts are suggested by the highly symbolic and probably uninterpretable description here given of this fiend in human society.
1. His possession of enormous power.
(1) Enormous power of intellect. "Seven heads." The devil has a larger amount of human intellect at his command than Christ; sevenfold, peradventure, more.
(2) Enormous power of execution. "Ten horns." Horns are the emblems of force. How mighty is the devil amongst men! He works in all the navies and armies of the world.
(3) Enormous power of empire. "Seven crowns diadems upon his heads." The human world abounds with chiefs and princelets, and kings and queens; but in how many is there Christhood? The "great red dragon" seems to master most, if not all; the "kingdom of Satan" is all but worldwide.
(4) Enormous power of mischief. "And his tail drew draweth the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth." There are stars in the moral firmament of the human soul, stars of social love, of reverent piety, of moral intuition, of spiritual insight, of infinite worship. These stars Satan sweeps away, and leaves us to grope our way in nocturnal gloom. Where are these stars seen in the political management of England today? Truly we are walking in darkness and have no light.
2. His determined antagonism to Christhood. It is said, "The dragon stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered, for to devour her child as soon as it was born." It is against Christ in his true Church, Christ in his few but multiplying progeny, that this "great red dragon" stood.
CONCLUSION This determined and active antagonism between social Christhood and social friendhood is a commentary on the old text, "I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed." It explains, moreover, all domestic conflicts, all political battlings, and national wars. Evil and good are at war on this earth. This is the grand campaign, inspiring and explaining all other feuds. D. T.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On vv1, 3, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10, 12, 16 A great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with…
Rev_12:1-2
A great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun.
Read full note →
The sign of the woman in heaven
Let us consider the scene. There is a woman clothed with the sun, crowned with stars, and having the moon under her feet. A woman has ever been the chief symbol of the Church. The relation between the Lord and the Church is most correctly represented by the relation between a true husband and a faithful wife. The husband is delighted to supply his wife with every comfort; his counsel guides, his strength defends her. So is the Lord to the whole universe, but especially to heaven and the Church. A wife, on the other hand, loves her husband, and him only, as a husband. She trusts in his judgment, she has confidence in his strength and protection, she delights in carrying out his views so far as she can see them to be right (Psa_45:10-11). The Church, then, is the Lords wife: she loves Him--leans upon Him--confides in Him--is jealous for His honour, worship, and dignity, and clings fondly to Him in life, death, and eternity. She, therefore, is represented by this glorious woman. And the teachings of this chapter show us that when the Church would be manifested to the world, she would be a great wonder, she would startle and astonish mankind, and would have to encounter the fierce opposition of those who are meant by the dragon, which sends out floods from his mouth to destroy her and her man child. The Church, then, especially as to her love for the Lord, His law, His kingdom, and His children, is meant by this woman. And, in truth, it is this love which forms the very essence of the Church (Joh_13:34-35). No other qualifications have the Church in them if there be not charity in them. To be, then, in the love of truth and goodness, is to be in that blessed community, the Church, which is represented by the magnificent symbol presented to the spiritual sight of St. John, a woman clothed with the sun. The sun corresponds to the Divine love, and this all-essential source of blessedness appears to the angels of heaven as a sun immeasurably surpassing ours in splendour, and while its holy glow warms, it also blesses them. The Lord (Jehovah) is a sun and a shield, lie giveth grace and glory: no good thing will He withhold from them that walk uprightly (Psa_84:11). The sun is the centre of the solar system. Divine love is the centre of the spiritual system. The sun warms all nature, Divine love warms all heaven, and every heaven-seeking spirit in the world. The soul is cold, chilled, and barren, until Divine love cheers, encourages, and quickens the affections. The woman, then, was clothed with the sun, to teach us that the Church in her purity is filled, nourished, embosomed, and blessed, by the Divine love of the Lord. To be clothed with the sun is then the privilege of the Church, when she is single-hearted and true to the Saviour. She feels His presence cheering, purifying, exalting, and blessing her; He raising her up far above all that is low and sordid, with healing in His wings. The object next offering itself for our attention is the moon. The moon was under her feet. And when we remember the two great lights mentioned in Genesis, the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night, we shall readily perceive that the moon corresponds to the light which shines in the soul when we are in states of spiritual night. Our limited powers tire, and must have rest, variety, and restoration. In spiritual things the mind opens with delight to the beauties of the Divine Word. Worship is welcome, and we enjoy a delightful season of refreshing. There are showers of blessing, and, like the apostles of old, we exclaim, It is good for us to be here! Let us make tabernacles and abide. It is full day. But, after a season, we feel the necessity of a change. We have been hearing and enjoying, now we must go and act. We have had our spiritual day, now we must have night, and that is often the period of external activity. We are engaged in natural business, and our natural feelings and perceptions become dim. It is night; we are no longer conscious of the cheering presence of the light of love in which we formerly rejoiced, but we are not without light, we have the light of faith: this is the moon. Faith, like a beautiful moon, rules the night. Upon such a moon, then, the woman was observed to stand. And so it is with the true Church. She relies on an enlightened faith, not upon dark mysteries. The moon reflects light, and illuminates the darkness, and just in proportion as it faces and reflects the sun. Faith, in proportion as it perceives the Divine love prevalent in all things, affords light and comfort to its possessor. While, then, the sun of Divine love is described as embosoming the woman, the moon of faith is under her feet. The one affords nourishment, support, and joy, the other yields a firm foundation. Faith is a rock, derived from the Rock of Ages. And a clear, firm, heartfelt, rational, spiritual faith, will enable the members of the Church to stand firm under every trial, and to conquer in every conflict. There was upon her head a crown of twelve stars. The stars are used to represent the glorious possessions of this woman, because they correspond to the smaller lights of religion afforded by individual truths. When we clearly see and know the spiritual lesson afforded by each verse of the Holy Word, it becomes a star in the firmament of the soul. When the mind is well stored with the sacred knowledge of Divine things, it is like the heavens in the night-time, when the sky is radiant and robed with brilliancy. When the soul has no longer the bright manifest presence of the Sun of Righteousness, and shade and darkness come on, it is a blessed thing to have one and then another small but holy light breaking in upon us like star after star, which shows its lovely ray in the evening, until the whole gorgeous canopy is lighted up. The twelve stars represent all the knowledge of Divine things. The number twelve in the usage of the Divine Word represents all things both of goodness and truth: it is the compound of four and three multiplied together. The woman is said to have a diadem of twelve stars, to teach us that she loves and honours all the instructions that come from the Lord: all the knowledges of goodness and truth are to her as so many stars, and she makes them her glory and her crown. The head represents the highest intellectual faculty, and a diadem the wisdom which enriches and adorns that faculty in the Lords true servants. They do not esteem the knowledge of Him and His kingdom as things indifferent; they are the glories of their intellect: they do not wear them about their feet; they are their crown. And she, being with child, cried, travailing in birth, and pained to be delivered. The man child which she desired to bring forth represents the new system of doctrine and order and society, which she desired to initiate. Instead of the love of self which had so long desolated society, and made Gods earth a scene of turmoil, struggle, and distress, she desires to substitute the love of God, and love to one another. Instead of lifes business being regarded as a mere worldly pursuit, she would teach all men in all things to live the life of heaven. Such is the new system of doctrine and practice which the Lords new Church would fain engender. But ah! she cries, travailing in birth, and pained to be delivered. When society has been so long formed upon the two great sources of mischief, selfishness and mystery, as so-called Christendom has, we need not wonder that purer principles shored at first be received with difficulty. This difficulty arises from two causes, a contrary faith and a contrary life. Let it then be our first and chief aim to bring the rule of the man child fully into our daily conduct, and evincing an example in our lives of the blessedness of living for heaven and earth at the same time, we shall then be able to assist others in their life-work by encouragement and counsel, and that not only in private but in public matters. For surely the woman cries loudly that the earth is groaning from a thousand sorrows, which are but the results of ignorance, folly, and falsehood. (J. Bailey, Ph. D.)
The sun-clothed woman
1. We have the image of a woman. Woman was made out of Adam. Adam was the figure of Him that was to come. Christ is the second Adam. And the wife of the second Adam is the Church, made out of Him by the hand and Spirit of God from that deep sleep of His for the sins of the world.
2. This woman is in the way of motherhood. This is the characteristic of the Church in every period of its existence. The Church is meant for the work of begetting and bearing saints. It is not for show but for fruitfulness--for the bringing forth of a royal seed of God, to inherit His kingdom, and to rule and reign in the ages of eternity.
3. This woman is magnificently arrayed. Of course, no mere creature, or any number of creatures, can be literally dressed with the sun. It is only a pictorial representation, which is to be figuratively understood. The sun is the fairest and most brilliant thing our eyes have ever seen. It is the great orb of brightness. To be clothed with it, one would needs be clothed with light. And so it is with the Church and the people of God. Jesus says, they are the children of light (Luk_16:8). It is the office and end of all Gods merciful appointments to turn men from darkness to light (Act_26:18). The Church has ever been an illuminated body. Its children are not of darkness, but of the day. While others grope in darkness they are arrayed in light. The sun is at the same time the great lightgiver. It radiates brightness as well as possesses it. And to be clothed with the sun, one must necessarily be a glorious dispenser of illumination. And such is the Church. Its members and ministers have been the brightest lights of the ages. It is constituted and ordained for the teaching of the nations, and the bearing of the light of heaven to the benighted souls of men. The sun is likewise an orb of great excellence and purity. Nothing can diminish its glory, or taint its rays. To be clothed with it is to be clothed with unsullied excellency. And so it is with the Church. It may have shabby members, but they are not really of it. Light is the garment of God. It is the symbol of His own nature. And as all true people of His are partakers of the Divine nature, being begotten unto Him from above, they enter also into the same clothing. The Church is robed with the sun.
4. This woman is victorious in her position. She has the moon under her feet. As the sun is the king of day, so the moon is the empress of night, and is a fit picture of the kingdom of darkness. And as to be clothed with the sun is to be light in the Lord, so to tread the moon under foot is the image of victory over the powers of darkness, whether of nature, or aught else. And this is a blessed characteristic and honour of the Church. All her true members are conquerors. They have subdued their prejudices, and brought their bodies and passions under the sway of another and better dominion and discipline. The moon is under their feet. And the same is equally true of the Church as a body. She is the hero of battles and victories. Kings have combined to exterminate her, tyrants haw oppressed her, children have betrayed her, friends have deserted her, but still she has lived on. The moon is under her feet.
5. Still further: this woman is royal in rank and dignity. Regal gems glitter about her brow. There is on her head a crown --a crown of stars. Whatever the particular allusion may be, whether to patriarchs, or tribes, or apostles, or all of these, or to the totality of her teaching agency, there flashes forth from this the unmistakable idea of kinghood and authority; yea, of celestial royalty and dominion (1Pe_2:9). People look with contempt upon the Church. They think her mean among the majesties of this world. They esteem her manner of life a letting down of mans proper dignity and consequence. They scorn her modesty and humility as effeminacy. But the Church is a royal woman, crowned with the stars of heaven.
6. And she is ha travail to bring forth. She is persecuted; but these are not so much pains of persecution. Persecution has its spring in halls malignity; this agonising has its origin in the love, and faith, and hope of a pious maternity. (J. A. Seiss, D. D.)
Social Christhood and social fiendhood
I. Social Christhood.
1. It is glorious. Encircled with the solar beams of Divine truth. Treads down all worldliness in its spirit and aims.
2. It is multiplying.
(1) Its offspring is brought forth in pain. Who knows the anguish of those earnestly engaged in endeavouring to form Christ in men, and to bring Him forth?
(2) It is brought forth to govern. Every Christly convert is a king, as well as a priest unto God.
(3) It is destined for a Divine fellowship. Sublime destiny.
II. Social fiendhood. The great red dragon, the old serpent, the prince of the power of the air, works in the children of disobedience everywhere.
1. His possession of enormous power.
(1) Of intellect. Seven heads.
(2) Of execution. Seven horns.
(3) Of empire. Seven crowns.
(4) Of mischief (verse 4).
2. His determined antagonism to Christhood. (D. Thomas, D. D.)
The Church a woman
1. Where John says, there appeared a great wonder in heaven, this shows us that Gods works for His Church, and against her enemies, are most part wonderful.
2. In the comparing the Church to a woman, we see that of herself she is but weak, but strong is He who owns her.
3. By her description, we see that all her decking and ornaments are heavenly and spiritual.
4. More particularly, she is clothed with the sun: herewith should we likewise be clothed, to make us glorious before God, and acceptable.
5. She has the moon under her feet, which teaches all her true members in like manner to tread upon the world in affection, and never to let it have place, either in heart or head.
6. It is first said that she was clothed with the sun, and then that she trod on the moon, to show us that we will never despise the world till we put on Christ, and know the excellence of Christ and of heavenly things. (Wm. Guild, D. D.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Expositor's Bible 1887 · Public Domain On v1
CHAPTER I X.
THE FIRST GREAT ENEMY OF THE CHURCH.
Read full note →
Rev_12:1-17.
THE twelfth chapter of the Revelation of St John has been felt by every commentator to be one more than usually difficult to interpret, and that whether we look at it in relation to its special purpose, or to its position in the structure of the book. If we can satisfy ourselves as to the first of these two points, we shall be better able to form correct notions as to the second.
Turning then for a moment to chap. 13, we find it occupied with a description of two of the great enemies with which the Church has to contend. These are spoken of as "a beast" (Rev_13:1) and "another beast" (Rev_13:11), the latter being obviously the same as that described in Rev_19:20 as "the false prophet that wrought the signs" in the sight of the former. At the same time, it is evident that these two beasts are regarded as enemies of the Church in a sense peculiar to themselves, for the victorious Conqueror of chap. 19 makes war with them, and "they twain are cast into the lake of fire that burneth with brimstone."* This fate next overtakes, in Rev_20:10, "the dragon, the old serpent, which is the devil, and Satan," so that no doubt can rest upon the fact that to St. Johns view the great enemies of the Church are three in number. When, accordingly, we find two of them described in chap. 13, and chap. 12 occupied with the description of another, we are warranted in concluding that the main purpose of the chapter is to set before us a picture of this last. (* Rev_19:20)
Thus also we are led to understand the place of the chapter in the structure of the book. We have already seen that the seven Trumpets are occupied with judgments on the world. The seven Bowls, forming the next and highest series of judgments, are to be occupied with judgments on the degenerate members of the Church. It is a fitting thing, therefore, that we should be able to form a clear idea of the enemies by which these faithless disciples are subdued, and in resisting whom the steadfastness of the faithful remnant shall be proved. To describe them sooner was unnecessary. They are the friends, not the enemies, of the world. They are the enemies only of the Church. Hence the sudden transition made at the beginning of chap. 12. There is no chronological relation between it and the chapters which precede. The thoughts embodied in it refer only to what follows. The chapter is obviously divided into three parts, and the bearing of these parts upon one another will appear as we proceed.
"And a great sign was seen in heaven; a woman arrayed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars: and she was with child; and she crieth out, travailing in birth, and in pain to be delivered. And there was seen another sign in heaven; and behold a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his heads seven diadems. And his tail draweth the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them into the earth: and the dragon stood before the woman that was about to be delivered, that when she was delivered he might devour her child. And she was delivered of a son, a man-child, who as a shepherd shall tend all the Rations with a scepter of iron: and her child was caught up unto God, and unto His throne. And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she hath a place prepared of God, that there they may nourish her a thousand two hundred and threescore days (Rev_12:1-6)."
In the first chapter of the book of Genesis we read, "And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: He made the stars also."1 Sun, and moon, and stars exhaust the Biblical notion of the heavenly bodies which give light upon the earth. They therefore, taken together, clothe this woman; and there is no need to search for any recondite meaning in the place which they severally occupy in her investiture. She is simply arrayed in light from head to foot. In other words, she is the perfect emblem of light in its brightness and purity. The use of the number twelve indeed suggests the thought of a bond of connection between this light and the Christian Church. The tribes of Israel, the type of Gods spiritual Israel, were in number twelve; our Lord chose to Himself twelve Apostles; the new Jerusalem has "twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels, and names written thereon, which are the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel."2 (1 Gen_1:16; 2 Rev_21:12)
But though the light is thus early connected with the thought of the Christian Church, and though the subsequent portion of the chapter confirms the connection, the woman is not yet to be regarded as, in the strictest sense, representative of that community or Body historically viewed. By-and-by she will be so. In the meantime a comparison of Rev_12:6 with Rev_12:14, where her fleeing into the wilderness and her nourishment in it for precisely the same period of time as in Rev_12:6 are again mentioned, together with what we have already seen to be a peculiarity of St. Johns mode of thought, forbids the supposition. The Apostle would not thus repeat himself. We are entitled therefore to infer that at the opening of the chapter he deals less with actual history than with the "pattern" of that history which had existed from all eternity in the mount. Hence also it would seem that the birth of the child, though undoubtedly referring to the birth of Jesus, is not the actual birth. It, too, is rather the eternal "pattern" of that event. Similar remarks apply to the dragon, who is not yet the historical Satan, and will only be so in the second paragraph, at Rev_12:9. The whole picture, in short, of these verses is one of the ideal which precedes the actual, and of which the actual is the counterpart and realization.
The resemblance, accordingly, borne by the first paragraph of this chapter (Rev_12:1-6) to the first paragraph of the fourth Gospel (Joh_1:1-5), is of the most striking kind. In neither is there any account of the actual birth of our Lord. In both (and we shall immediately see this still more fully brought out in the apocalyptic vision) we are introduced to Him at once, not as growing up to be the Light of the world, but as already grown up and as perfect light. In both we have the same light and the same darkness, and in both the same contrariety and struggle between the two. Nor does the comparison end here. We have also the same singular method of expressing the deliverance of the light from the enmity of the darkness. In Joh_1:5, correctly translated, we read "The light shineth in the darkness, and the darkness overcame it not," the thought being rather negative than positive, rather that of preservation than of victory. In the Apocalypse we read, And her child was caught up unto God, and unto His throne, the idea being again that of preservation rather than of victory.
Such is the general conception of the first paragraph of this chapter. The individual expressions need not detain us long. The woman s raiment of light has been already spoken of. Passing therefore from that, it need occasion no surprise that He who is Himself the Giver of light should be represented as the Son of light. God "is light, and in Him is no darkness at all."1 Jesus, as the Son of God, is thus also the Son of light. No doubt the conception is continued even after we behold the woman in her actual, not her ideal, state. Jesus is still her Son.2 Yet there is a true sense in which we may describe our Lord not only as the Foundation, but also as the Son, of the Church. He is "the First-born among many brethren,"3 the elder Brother in a common Fathers house. He is begotten by the power of the Holy Spirit4; and they that believe in His name are "born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God."5 So close indeed in the teaching of St. John is the identification of Christ and His people, that whatever is said of Him may be said of them, and what is said of them may be said of Him. Human thought and language fail to do justice to a relation so profound and mysterious. But it is everywhere the teaching of the beloved disciple - in his Gospel, in his Epistles, in his Revelation although the Church may not fully understand it until she has lived herself more into it than she has done. Her "life" will then bring her "light."6 (1 1Jn_1:5; 2Comp. Rev_12:17; 3 Rom_8:29; 4 Mat_1:20; 5 Joh_1:13; 6Comp. Joh_1:4)
The dragon of the passage is great and red: "great" because of the power which he possesses; "red," the colour of blood, because of the ferocity with which he destroys men: "He was a murderer from the beginning;" "Cain was of the evil one, and slew his brother;" "And I saw the woman" (that is, the woman who rode upon the scarlet-coloured beast) "drunk with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus."1 The dragon has further seven heads, - seven, the number of completeness, so that he possesses everything to enable him to execute his plans; and ten horns, the emblem at once of his strength and of his rule over all the kingdoms of the world. Upon the heads, too, are seven diadems, a word different from that which had been employed for the womans "crown" in the first verse of the chapter. Hers is a crown of victory; the diadems of the dragon are only marks of royalty, and may be worn, as they will be worn, in defeat. The dragons tail, again, like the tails of the locusts of the fifth Trumpet and of the horses of the sixth, is the instrument with which he destroys2; and the third part of the stars of heaven corresponds to "the third part" mentioned in each of the first four Trumpets. The figure of casting the stars into the earth is taken from the prophecy of Daniel, in which it is said of the "little horn" that "it waxed great, even to the host of heaven; and it cast down some of the host and of the stars to the ground, and stamped upon them."3 (1 Joh_8:44; 1Jn_3:12; Rev_17:6; 2 Rev_9:10; Rev_9:19; 3 Dan_8:10)
The dragon next takes up his position before the woman which was about to be delivered, that when she was delivered he might devour her child; and the first historical circumstances to which the idea corresponds, and in which it is realized, may be found in the effort of Pharaoh to destroy the infant Moses. Pharaoh is indeed often compared in the Old Testament to a dragon: "Thou didst divide the sea by Thy strength: Thou brakest the heads of the dragons in the waters;" "Speak, and say, Thus saith the Lord God; Behold, I am against thee, Pharaoh king of Egypt, the great dragon that lieth in the midst of his rivers, which hath said, My river is mine own, and I have made it for myself."1 The power, and craft, and cruelty of the Egyptian king could hardly have been absent from the Seer s mind when he employed the figure of the text. But he was certainly not thinking of Pharaoh alone. He remembered also the plot of Herod to destroy the Child Jesus.2 Pharaoh and Herod men quailed before them; yet both were no more than instruments in the hands of God. Both worked out His "determinate counsel and foreknowledge."3 (1 Psa_74:13; Eze_29:3; 2 Mat_2:16; 3 Act_2:23)
The child is born, and is described in language worthy of our notice. He is a son, a man-child; and the at first sight tautological information appears to hint at more than the mere sex of the child. He is already more than a child: he is a man. There is a similar emphasis in the words of our Lord when He said to His disciples in His last consolatory discourse, "A woman when she is in travail hath sorrow, because her hour is come: but when she is delivered of the child, she remembereth no more the anguish, for the joy that a man is born into the world."* From the first the child is less a child than a man, strong, muscular, and vigorous, who as a shepherd shall tend all the nations with a scepter of iron. Strange that we should be invited to dwell on this ideal aspect of the Sons work rather than any other! No doubt the words are quoted from the second Psalm. This, however, only removes the difficulty a step further back. Why either there or here should the shepherd work of the Messiah be connected with an iron scepter rather than a peaceful crook? The explanation is not difficult. Both the Psalm and the Apocalypse are occupied mainly with the victory of Christ over His adversaries. His friends have already been secured in the possession of a complete salvation. It remains only that His foes shall be finally put down. Hence the "scepter of iron." Strange also, it may be thought, that in this ideal picture we should find no "pattern" of the life of our Lord on earth, of His labors, or sufferings, or death; and that we should only be invited to behold Him in His incarnation and ascension into heaven I But again the explanation is not difficult Over against Satan stands, not a humbled merely, but a risen and glorified, Redeemer. The process by which He conquered it is unnecessary to dwell upon. Enough that we knew the fact. (* Joh_16:21)
The womans child being thus safe, the woman herself fled into the wilderness, where she hath a place prepared of God, and where she shall be nourished by heavenly sustenance. Thus Israel wandered forty years, fed with the manna that fell from heaven and the water that flowed from the smitten rock.1 Thus Elijah fled to the brook Cherith, and afterwards to the wilderness, where his wants were supplied in the one case by the ravens, m the other by an angel.2 And thus was our Lord upheld for forty days by the words that proceeded out of the mouth of God.3 This wilderness life of the Church, too, continues during the whole Christian era, during the whole period of witnessing.4 Always in the wilderness so long as her Lord is personally absent, she eats heavenly food and drinks living water. (1 1Co_10:3-4; 2 1Ki_17:6; 1Ki_19:5; 3 Mat_4:4; 4 Rev_11:3)
Such is the first scene of this chapter; and, glancing once more over it, it would seem as if its chief purpose were to present to us the two great opposing forces of light and darkness, of the Son and the dragon, considered in themselves.
The second scene follows: -
"And there was war in heaven, Michael and his angels going forth to war with the dragon; and the dragon warred and his angels: and they prevailed not, neither was their place found any more in heaven. And the great dragon was cast down, the old serpent, he that is called the devil, and Satan, the deceiver of the whole inhabited earth: he was cast down into the earth, and his angels were cast down with him. And I heard a great voice in heaven, saying, Now is come the salvation, and the power, and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of His Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accuseth them before our God day and night And they overcame him because of the blood of the Lamb, and because of the word of their testimony; and they loved not their life even unto death. Therefore rejoice, O heavens, and ye that tabernacle in them. Woe for the earth and for the sea! because the devil is gone down unto you, having great wrath, knowing that he hath but a short season (Rev_12:7-12)."
If our conception of the first six verses of the chapter be correct, it will be evident that the idea often entertained, that the verses following them form a break in the narrative which is only resumed at Rev_12:13, is wrong. There is no break. The progress of the thought is continuous. The combatants have been set before us, and we have now the contest in which they are engaged. This consideration also helps us to understand the personality of Michael and the particular conflict in the Seers view.
For, as to the first of these two points, it is even in itself probable that the Leader of the hosts of light will be no other than the Captain of our salvation, the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. The dragon leads the hosts of darkness. The Son has been described as the opponent against whom the enmity of the dragon is especially directed. When the war begins, we have every reason to expect that as the one leader takes the command, so also will the other. There is much to confirm this conclusion. The name Michael leads to it, for that word signifies, "Who is like God?" and such a name is at least more appropriate to a Divine than to a created being. In the New Testament, too, we read of "Michael the archangel"1 - there seems to be only one, for we never read of archangels2 - and an archangel is again spoken of in circumstances that can hardly be associated with the thought of anyone but God: "The Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God."3 Above all, the prophecies of Daniel, in which the name Michael first occurs, may be said to decide the point. A person named Michael there appears on different occasions as the defender of the Church against her enemies,4 and once at least in a connection leading directly to the thought of our Lord Himself: "And at that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince which standeth for the children of Thy people: and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time: and at that time Thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book. And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt. And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars forever and ever."5 These considerations justify the conclusion that the Michael now spoken of is the representative of Christ; and we have already seen, in examining the vision of the "strong angel" in chap. 10, that such a mode of speaking is in perfect harmony with the general method of St. John. (1 Jud_1:9; 2Brown, The Book of Revelation, p. 69; 3 1Th_4:16; 4 Dan_10:13; Dan_10:21; 5 Dan_12:1-3)
Light is thus thrown also upon the second point above mentioned: the particular conflict referred to in these verses. The statement that there was war in heaven, and that when the dragon was defeated he was cast down into the earth, might lead us to think of an earlier conflict between good and evil than any in which man has part: of that mentioned by St. Peter and St. Jude, when the former consoles the righteous by the thought that "God spared not angels when they sinned, but cast them down to hell, and committed them to pits of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment,"1 and when the latter warns sinners to remember that "angels which kept not their own principality, but left their proper habitation, He hath kept in everlasting bonds under darkness unto the judgment of the great day."2 The circumstances, however, of the war, lead rather to the thought of a conflict in which the Son, incarnate and glorified, takes His part. For this "Son" is the opponent of the dragon introduced to us in the first paragraph of the chapter. "Heaven" is not so much a premundane or supramundane locality as the spiritual sphere within which believers dwell even during their earthly pilgrimage, when that pilgrimage is viewed upon its higher side. And the means by which the victory is gained - for the victors overcame by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony - distinctly indicate that the struggle referred to took place after the work of redemption had been completed, not before it was begun. (1 2Pe_2:4; 2 Jud_1:6)
Several other passages of the New Testament are in harmony with this supposition. Thus it was that when the seventy returned to our Lord with joy after their mission, saying, "Lord, even the demons are subject unto us in Thy name," He, beholding in this the pledge of His completed victory, exclaimed, "I beheld Satan fallen as lightning from heaven."1 Thus it was that when charged with casting out demons by Beelzebub, the prince of the demons, our Lord pointed out to His accusers that His actions proved Him to be the Conqueror, and that the kingdom of God was come unto them: "When the strong man fully armed guardeth his own court, his goods are in peace: but when a stronger than he shall come upon him, and overcome him, he taketh from him his whole armour wherein he trusted, and divideth his spoils."2 To the same effect are all those passages where our Lord or His Apostles speak, not of a partial, but of a complete, victory over Satan, so that for His people the great enemy of man is already judged, and overthrown, and bruised beneath their feet: "Now is a judgment of this world now shall the prince of this world be cast out;" "And when He" (the Advocate) "is come, He will convince the world of judgment, because the prince of this world hath been judged;" "Since then the children are sharers in flesh and blood, He also Himself in like manner partook of the same; that through death He might bring to nought him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; and might deliver all them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage;" "Whatsoever is begotten of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith;" "We know that whosoever is begotten of God sinneth not; but He that was begotten of God keepeth him, and the evil one toucheth him not."3 (1 Luk_10:17-18; 2 Luk_11:21-22; 3 Joh_13:31; Joh_16:11; Heb_2:14-15; 1Jn_5:4; 1Jn_5:18)
In passages such as these we have the same thought as that before us in this vision. Satan has been cast out of heaven; that is, in his warfare against the children of God he has been completely overthrown. Over their higher life, their life in a risen and glorified Redeemer, he has no power. They are forever escaped from his bondage, and are free. But he has been cast down into the earth, and his angels with him; that is, over the men of the world he still exerts his power, and they are led captive by him at his will. Hence, accordingly, the words of the great voice heard in heaven which occupy all the latter part of the vision, words which distinctly bring out the difference between the two aspects of Satan now adverted to, - (1) his impotence as regards the disciples of Jesus who are faithful unto death: Rejoice, O heavens, and ye that dwell in them; (2) his mastery over the ungodly: Woe for the earth and for the sea! for the devil is gone down unto you in great wrath, knowing that he hath but a short season. Although, therefore, the fall of the angels from their first estate may be remotely hinted at, the vision refers to the spiritual contest begun after the resurrection of Jesus; and we ask our readers only to pay particular regard to the double relation of Satan to mankind which is referred to in it: his subjection to the righteous and the subjection of the wicked to him. One phrase only may seem inconsistent with this view. In Rev_12:9 Satan is described as the deceiver of the whole inhabited earth, for that, and not "the whole world," is the true rendering of the original.1 "The whole in habited earth" cannot be the same as "the earth." The latter is simply the wicked; the former includes all men. But the words describe a characteristic of Satan in himself, and not what he actually effects. He is the deceiver of the whole inhabited earth. He lays his snares for all. He tempted Jesus Himself in the wilderness, and many a time thereafter during His labors and His sufferings. The vision gives no ground for the supposition that Gods children are not attacked by him. It assures us only that when the attack is made it is at the same instant foiled. There is a battle, but Christians advance to it as conquerors; before it begins victory is theirs.2 (1Comp. R.V. {margin}; 2Comp. 1Jn_5:4)
One other expression of these verses may be noted: the short season spoken of in Rev_12:12. This period of time is not to be looked at as if it were a brief special season at the close of the Christian age, when the wrath of Satan is aroused to a greater than ordinary degree because the last hour is about to strike. The great wrath with which he goes forth is that stirred in him by his defeat through the death, resurrection, and ascension of our Lord. It was roused in him when he was "cast into the earth," and from that moment of defeat therefore the "short season" begins.
The third paragraph of the chapter follows: -
"And when the dragon saw that he was cast down into the earth, he persecuted the woman which brought forth the man-child. And there were given to the woman the two wings of the great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness, unto her place, where she is nourished for a time, and times, and half a time, from the face of the serpent. And the serpent cast out of his mouth after the woman water as a river, that he might cause her to be carried away by the stream. And the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed up the river which the dragon cast out of his mouth. And the dragon waxed wroth with the woman, and went away to make war with the rest of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and hold the testimony of Jesus; and he stood upon the sand of the sea (Rev_12:13-17, - Rev_13:1 a)."
We have already seen that the woman introduced to us in the first paragraph of this chapter is the embodiment and the bearer of light. She is there indeed set before us in her ideal aspect, in what she is in herself, rather than in her historical position. Now we meet her in actual history, or, in other words, she is the historical Church of God in the New Testament phase of her development. As such she has a mission to the world. She is "the sent" of Christ, as Christ was "the sent" of the Father.* In witnessing for Christ, she has to reveal to the children of men what Divine love is. But she has to do this in the midst of trouble. This world is not her rest; and she must bear the Saviours cross if she would afterwards wear His crown. (* Joh_20:21)
Persecuted, however, she is not forsaken. She had given her the two wings of the great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness, unto her place - the place prepared of God for her protection. There can be little doubt as to the allusion. The "great eagle" is that of which God Himself spoke to Moses in the mount: " Ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bare you on eagles wings, and brought you unto Myself;"1 and that alluded to by Moses in the last song taught by him to the people: "As an eagle stirreth up her nest, fluttereth over her young, spreadeth abroad her wings, taketh them, beareth them on her wings: so the Lord alone did lead him, and there was no strange god with him."2 The same eagle was probably in view of David when he sang, "How excellent is Thy lovingkindness, O God! therefore the children of men put their trust under the shadow of Thy wings;"3 while it was also that on the wings of which the members of the Church draw continually nearer God: " They mount up with wings as eagles."4 To the woman then there was given a "refuge from the storm," a "covert from the heat," of trial, that she might abide in it, nourished with her heavenly food, for a time, and times, and half a time. Of this period we have already spoken. It is the same as that of the three and a half years, the "forty-two months," the "thousand two hundred and threescore days." It is thus the whole period of the Churchs militant history upon earth. During all of it she is persecuted by Satan; during all of it she is preserved and nourished by the care of God. At first sight indeed it may seem as if this shelter in the wilderness were incompatible with the task of witnessing assigned to her. But it is one of the paradoxes of the position of the children of God in this present world that while they are above it they are yet in it; that while they are seated "in the heavenly places" they are exposed to the storms of earth; that while their life is hid with Christ in God they witness and war before the eyes of men. The persecution and the nourishment, the suffering and the glory, run parallel with each other. One other remark may be made. There is obviously an emphasis upon the word "two" prefixed to "wings." Though founded upon the fact that the wings of the bird are two in number, a deeper meaning would seem to be intended; and that meaning is suggested by the fact that the witnesses of chap. 11 were also two. The protection extended corresponds exactly to the need for it. The "grace" of God is in all circumstances "sufficient" for His people.5 No temptation can assail them which He will not enable them to endure, or out of which He will not provide for them a way of escape.6 Therefore may they always take up the language of the Apostle and say, "Most gladly will I rather glory in my weaknesses, that the strength of Christ may spread a tabernacle over me. Wherefore I take pleasure in weaknesses, in injuries, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christs sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong."7 (1 Exo_19:3-4; 2 Deu_32:11-12; 3 Psa_34:7; 4 Isa_40:31; 5 2Co_12:9; 6 1Co_10:13; 7 2Co_12:9-10)
The woman fled into the wilderness, but she not permitted to flee thither without a final effort of Satan to overwhelm her; and in the manner in which this effort is made we again recognize the language of the Old Testament There the assaults of the ungodly upon Israel are frequently compared to those floods of waters which, owing to the sudden risings of the streams, are in the East so common and so disastrous. Isaiah describes the enemy as coming in "like a flood."1 Of the floods of the Euphrates and the destruction which they symbolized we have already spoken; and in hours of deliverance from trouble the Church has found the song of triumph most suit able to her condition in the words of the Psalmist, "If it had not been the Lord who was on our side, when men rose up against us: then they had swallowed us up quick, when their wrath was kindled against us: then the waters had overwhelmed us, the stream had gone over our soul: then the proud waters had gone over our soul. Blessed be the Lord, who hath not given us as a prey to their teeth."2 The main reference is, however, in all probability to the passage of Israel across the Red Sea, for then, says David, calling to mind that great deliverance in the history of his people, and finding in it the type of deliverances so often experienced by himself, "the sorrows of death compassed me, and the floods of ungodly men made me afraid. ... In my distress I called upon the Lord, and cried unto my God. ... He sent from above, He took me, He drew me out of many waters."3 (1 Isa_59:19; 2 Psa_124:2-6; 3 Psa_18:4-16)
The most remarkable point to be noticed here is, however, not the deliverance itself, but the method by which it is accomplished. To understand this, as well as the wrath of Satan immediately afterwards described, it is necessary to bear in mind that twofold element in the Church the existence of which is the key to sc many of the most intricate problems of the Apocalypse. The Church embraces both true and false members within her pale. She is the "vine" of our Lords last discourse to His disciples, some of the branches of which bear much fruit, while others are only fit to be cast into the fire and burned."1 The thought of these latter members is in the mind of St. John when he tells us, in a manner so totally unexpected, that the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed up the river which the dragon cast out of his mouth. He is thinking of the nominal members of the Church, of the merely nominal Christianity which she has so often exhibited to the world. That Christianity the world loves. When the Churchs tone and life are lowered by her yielding to the influence of the things of time, then the world, "the earth," is ready to hasten to her side. It offers her its friendship, courts alliance with her, praises her for the good order which she introduces, by arguments drawn from eternity, into the things of time, and swallows up the river which the dragon casts out of his mouth against her. When Christs disciples are of the world, the world loves its own.2 They are helping "the earth" to do its work. Why should the earth not recognize and welcome the assistance given it by foolish foes as well as friends? Therefore it helps the woman. (1 Joh_15:5-6; 2 Joh_15:19)
But side by side with this aspect of the Church which met the approbation of "the earth," the dragon saw that she had another aspect of determined hostility to his claims; and he waxed wroth with her. She had within her not only degenerate but true members, not only worldly professors, but those who were one with her Divine and glorified Lord. These were the rest of her seed, which keep the commandments of God and the testimony of Jesus. They were the "few names in Sardis which did not defile their garments,"l "the remnant according to the election of grace,"2 "the seed which the Lord hath blessed."3 Such disciples of Jesus the dragon could not tolerate, and he went away to make war with them. Thus is the painful distinction still kept up which marks all the later part of the Apocalypse. The spectacle was one over which St. John had mourned as he beheld it in the Church of his own day: "They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us: but they went out, that they might be made manifest that not all are of us. Little children, it is the last hour."4 It was a spectacle which he knew would be repeated so long as the Church of Christ was in contact with the world; and he notes it now. (1 Rev_3:4; 2 Rom_11:5; 3 Isa_61:9; 4 1Jn_2:18-19)
One other point ought to be noticed in connection with these verses. The helping of the woman by the earth seems to be the Scripture parallel to the difficult words of St. Paul when he says in writing to the Thessalonians, "And now ye know that which restraineth to the end that he may be revealed in his own season. For the mystery of lawlessness doth already work: only there is one that restraineth now, until he be taken out of the way."* This "restraining" power, generally, and in all probability correctly, understood of the Roman State, is "the earth" of St. John helping the woman because it is helped by her. (* 2Th_2:6-7)
We have been introduced to the first great enemy of the Church of Christ. It remains only that he shall take up his position on the field. The next clause therefore which meets us, and which ought to be read, not as the first clause of chap. 13, but as the last of chap. 12, and in which the third person ought to be substituted for the first, describes him as doing so: And he stood upon the sand of the sea, upon the shore between the earth and the sea, where he could so command them both as to justify the "Woe" already uttered over both in the twelfth verse of the chapter. There we leave him for a time, only remarking that we are not to think of ocean lying before us in a calm, but of the restless and troubled sea, raised into huge waves by the storm-winds contending upon it for the mastery and dashing its waves upon the beach.
William Robertson Nicoll, ed., The Expositor's Bible (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1887–1910) — public domain. 65 of 66 books (1 Corinthians is not separately keyed, as that volume carries no machine-parseable verse references); section-level commentary keyed to the opening verse. Introductory and overview sections not keyed to a specific passage are excluded.
B. W. Johnson 1891 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17 1, 2. A woman clothed with the sun. A…
1, 2. A woman clothed with the sun. A woman is used as a symbol many times in the Scriptures. “Say you to the daughter of Zion, Behold, thy salvation cometh.” (Isa. 62:11.) Here the reference is to the Church. Again Paul (Gal. 4:31) says, “Ye are not the children of the bond woman, but of the free woman.” All are agreed that here the free woman represents the Church. Again (Rev. 21:2), John sees the New Jerusalem descending adorned as a bride to meet her husband. The bride, the Lamb's wife, here and in the ninth verse, indeed in every place spoken of, is the Church. Once more: Paul speaks of Jerusalem, the mother of us all, alluding again to the Church. This symbol, then, is a common one to represent the Church, and we are justified in declaring that to be its meaning in this passage. The fact that she is clothed with the sun symbolizes the fact that the true Church shines with the light of the sun of righteousness. The moon under her feet represents the Old Testament, or dispensation, which shone by a reflected right and is subordinate to the New Covenant of the Church. The crown of twelve stars is explained by the twelve apostles, lights of the Church and a crown of glory to it.
B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain On v1 “IN the set of visions now before us, the…
THE MISSION OF CHRIST’S CHURCH AND ITS GREAT HINDERER
CRITICAL AND EXEGETICAL NOTES
Read full note →
“IN the set of visions now before us, the Apocalypse unveils the spiritual aspects of the conflict, that we may know that the issue is not between Christianity and un-Christianity alone, but between Christianity and anti-Christianity. Hitherto we have seen the more outward aspects of the great war. Now we are to see its secret, hidden, spiritual—yes, supernatural—aspects, that we may understand what immeasurably divergent and antagonistic principles are in conflict under various and specious aspects in the history of the world” (Bishop Boyd Carpenter).
Rev_12:1. Woman.—Symbol of the kingdom of heaven. The Church conceived under the figure of the Virgin Mary, as mother of Messiah. Clothed with the sun, etc.—Compare Son_6:10. (Simcox thinks the Jewish Church, the ideal Israel, is meant.) Mystically treated, the work of the Church is to bring forth Christ to men, and never to be satisfied until Christ is formed in them. Exactly this its work is ever in the resistance of the devil, but in the assistance of God through His angels.
Rev_12:3. Red dragon.—A half mythical kind of serpent, combining strength, subtlety, and power to inspire terror, in doing malicious and evil work. As the woman is an ideal, so is the dragon; he is the personification of the subtle evils that afflict the Church, and hinder her from carrying through her mission. Seven heads and ten horns.—Implying that all kinds of unsanctified power are embodied in him, and represented by him.
Rev_12:4. Drew.—Draweth. Stars.—Represent leaders of men, men of prominent influence. These are led away by the subtleties of the evil power. Stood before the woman.—Figuring the intense keenness with which evil ever watches its opportunity. Some of the ideas here are evidently taken from the jealous schemes of Herod the Great, in connection with the infant Messiah.
Rev_12:5. Brought forth a man-child.—Refer tins both to Christ, and to the Spirit of Christ in the Church. Caught up unto God.—This seems to refer to the historical Christ.
Rev_12:6. Place prepared of God.—Compare flight of Virgin Mary to Egypt, which may be the suggestion of this.
Rev_12:7, War in heaven.—Nothing to do with Milton’s fall of the angels. It is something happening since the Incarnation, and consequent upon it. Michael.—Dan_10:13; Dan_10:21; Dan_12:1. The special patron, or guardian angel, of the people of Israel. What we have here is a pictorial representation of the spiritual war actually being waged upon the earth. It is pictured in heaven in its completeness, and so we are cheered by the assurance that Michael is going to conquer. Compare the mission of pictorial prophetic anticipations in the Old Testament.
Rev_12:9. Old serpent.—Perhaps with allusion to Gen_3:1. Devil.—Adversary. Satan.—Deceiver. The two words suggest the power and subtlety of evil. “Satan is thrown down from the position which he is still holding, and cast upon the earth; and he it is who, in order to avenge himself, calls forth from the depths of the seas—that is, from the midst of the nations—Antichrist—his instrument for waging a final conflict against Christ.”
Rev_12:12. Woe to the inhabiters of the earth—Simcox suggests that the idea may be this: “The Incarnation, as it broke the otherwise invincible power of sin, so made sin more deadly, if it remains in spite of Christ’s coming.” It certainly refers to the intenser features of the conflict of the Church with evil, when evil failed to destroy the power of the Son of God, even when it secured His death. The present fight with evil is altogether more subtle and more perilous than Christ knew, or waged, while He was actually on earth.
Rev_12:13. Persecuted the woman.—Which we have seen is the symbol of the Church in the world.
Rev_12:15-16. These figures have not been satisfactorily explained. Bishop Boyd Carpenter, treating the verses mystically, says: “By the flood, or river, we understand all great popular movements against Christianity: the earth swallows up all these; they diffuse themselves for a time but mother earth absorbs them all. The eternal laws of truth and right are ultimately found stronger than all the half-truths, whole falsehoods, and selfishness, which give force to such movements.”
Rev_12:17. Remnant of her seed.—From attacking the Church as a whole, the power of evil turns more hopefully to deal with sections and individuals. Antichristianism has had its power on sects, parties, and persons, but it has failed in every attempt to ruin the one, universal, spiritual Church of Christ.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Rev_12:1-17
Victory over the Dragon.—To understand this text (Rev_12:11), we must gain some general idea of the chapter to which it belongs. Bishop Boyd Carpenter is our best guide in the endeavour to find the spiritual meanings and suggestions of the book of Revelation. He points out that the book is not a continuous history, but a review of the great struggle between evil and good, made over and over again, from different points of view. The visions are in series. One set is connected with the “seals,” another with the “trumpets.” In this chapter a distinct set of visions is commenced. “It deals with the spiritual conditions of the great war between evil and good; it disrobes the false appearances which deceive men; it makes manifest the thoughts of men’s hearts; it shows that the great war is not merely a war between evil and good, but between an evil spirit and the spirit of God, and that, therefore, the question is not only one between right and wrong conduct, but between true and false spiritual dispositions. Men look at the world, and they acknowledge a kind of conflict between evil and good; their sympathies are vaguely on the side of good; they admire much in Christianity; they are willing to think the martyred witnesses of the Church heroes; they think the reformers of past ages worthy of honour; they would not be averse to a Christianity without Christ, or a Christianity without spirituality. They do not realise that the war which is raging round them is not a war between men morally good and men morally bad, but between spiritual powers, and that what the gospel asks is not merely a moral life, but a life lived by faith in the Son of God, a life in which the spiritual dispositions are Godward and Christward. The Apocalypse, in this set of visions, unveils the spiritual aspect of the conflict, that we may know that the issue is not between Christianity and un-Christianity, but between Christianity and anti-Christianity.” The chapter opens with the vision of “a woman clothed with the sun.” It is the symbol of the bride, the Church of Christ. She is represented as suffering in child-birth. It is the symbol of the continual work of Christ’s Church. That work is to bring forth Christ to men, and never to be satisfied till Christ is formed in them, until the Spirit of Christ, and the teaching of Christ, and the example of Christ, are received, loved, and obeyed, and men transformed into the same image, “even as by the Spirit of the Lord.” But the work of the Church would not be unhindered. There would be constant opposition. The spiritual enemy would be ever on the watch, by subtle or by violent means destroying the likeness of Christ wherever it was seen. There appeared a dragon. “The dragon is that fabulous monster of whom ancient poets told, as large in size, coiled like a snake, blood red in colour, … unsatiable in voracity, and ever athirst for human blood.” It is the emblem of the evil spirit, the devil, the perpetual antagonist of good, the persecutor of the Church in all ages. His many heads and horns and crowns suggest the manifold forms and phases of his malicious influence. This dragon is watching, and whenever the woman, the Church of Christ, brings forth any good, the dragon is as keen in his efforts to destroy it as Pharaoh was to kill the Hebrew male children, or Herod to slaughter the babes of Bethlehem. The vision of the man-child caught up to God reminds us that the Divine defence of all good is even more sure than the active enmity of evil. The flight of the woman brings before us the persecutions which the Church undergoes, because of her active effort to bring forth good. Then the vision changes, and we have pictured the great fight between Christ and the dragon, under the figure of Michael and his angels. This is to explain how it is the spirit of evil is so resolutely attacking the Church. He has attacked in vain the Church’s Head and Lord. He has been conquered. He has been driven out. The “Prince of the world came to Christ, and had nothing in Him.” So, turning aside from Christ, the dragon attacks Christ’s Church. But there is every hope for the Church. That victory of Christ’s means this: “Now is come salvation and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of His Christ.” The dragon may try to devour all the good brought forth by Christ’s earth-bride, the Church. He will fail. The Church will overcome him, even as Christ has overcome him. The Church will overcome the dragon of each age, and of all ages, “by the blood of the Lamb,” or because of the blood of the Lamb, and because of the word of the testimony. Who is he that condemneth, when Christ hath died? What power can the accusations of the adversary have when the Lamb of God hath taken away the sin of the world? and when we have boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus? And their victory is, on their side, due to the firmness with which they stood to the word of their testimony, witnessing ever for Christ and truth, and not counting their lives dear unto themselves. Christ’s martyrs are many more than those who die in prison, at stake, or on scaffold, for Him. “He may bid us die for Him; He does bid us live for Him. If we do not the one—the less—we may be quite sure that we shall never rise to the other—the higher and the more glorious.” I would impress on you, therefore, that the conflict with evil is really a spiritual conflict, carried on within us. It is represented and illustrated by the conflict with outward evils which we see being waged in the large world-spheres. If we are Christ’s, then the Christlike is being formed in us. We are bringing forth things which bear Christ’s stamp. Good and right and gracious things are like our children. And just as there are perils surrounding infant life, foes and diseases watching to destroy this life, so the dragon watches every birth of goodness. We must accept the fact, but we will in no way be daunted by the fact, for we shall overcome because of the blood of the Lamb, and because of the word of our testimony. The secrets of overcoming are our Inner Life, and our Open Confession.
I. Our inner life.—“Because of the blood of the Lamb.” “Christ, who is our life.” It is important that we notice how the child-figure is sustained. The Lamb is represented as being the Bride’s husband, the Church’s husband, and we are to think of His life as being in the Church’s child. And it is this thought which gains expression in the figures of the text. It is quite a favourite figure with St. John, recurring again and again in his writings. That very striking sentence uttered by John the Baptist to his disciples, as he pointed to the young man, Jesus of Nazareth—“Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sins of the world!”—entered into the apostle’s very soul, and gave him his best thoughts concerning Christ, especially when he learned how to get at the deeper, mystical meanings of the sentence. We may accept the figure of the Lamb as suggestive of the gentle, submissive, and loving character of Christ: but we cannot be satisfied with that only; neither John the Baptist, nor John the Apostle, nor any other Jew, could keep from the figure its associations of sacrifice. A lamb to take away sin must have meant, to them, a lamb offered as a sacrifice for the removal of sin. But there are still other ideas suggested when prominence is given to the “blood of the lamb.” For the “blood is the life.” Blood shed stands for life yielded. This the writer of the epistle to the Hebrews states for us in a very impressive manner. “For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkling them that have been defiled, sanctify unto the cleanness of the flesh: how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish unto God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God.” By the expression “the eternal Spirit” we are to understand the sovereign freeness of His own will; the voluntariness of His full self-surrender. We have, then, two supreme truths to receive. Christ’s life is given to us: that is another truth, and the one we want for our text. Christ in you. Christ formed in you. This will at once suggest to us the meaning of this passage. We shall overcome that dragon who is ever ready to devour all the goodness we can bring forth by the virtue of the blood of the Lamb, the Christ-lite that is in us. But have we entered into this higher apprehension of Christ, who is our life? The apostle Paul could say, “I live, yet not I; Christ liveth in me.” That is the assurance of victory over all the forms, and all the powers, of evil.
II. Our open confession.—“The word of their testimony.” Life only keeps healthy when it finds expression and exercise. The first suggestion of these words may be of martyrs, such as Polycarp, who, when importuned to blaspheme the name of Christ, answered, “Fourscore years have I served Him, and shall I now blaspheme my King and my Saviour?” At Eastbourne, near the pier, they show three iron stakes fixed firmly in the sand, now very old and rusty, and the one farthest out to sea very nearly rusted off. Round those stakes gathers a martyr-story. A father and mother and their little daughter, because of their religion, were tied to those stakes when the tide was out, and were told that, if they did not renounce their faith, they would be drowned by the rising tide. But they remained firm. The father, being the farthest out, was drowned first; then the mother; and then the priests gathered round the little girl, who was chained to the stake nearest the high-water mark, and told her, as the waves were dashing up around her, that if she would renounce her religion she would be saved. Sue said, “No, no, I will not deny my Saviour; I will die for Jesus; He died for me.” That was the “word of her testimony,” whereby she conquered the dragon. But much of our earth-struggle stops short of martyrdom. In firm standing by the right, in all earnest expressions of Christian energy and activity, we find our power to overcome. The “word of our testimony” may be said to include
(1) our firm resolve daily renewed, and
(2) our personal experience, which gives to our word the force that was in the words of the once blind man, when he said concerning his Healer, “Whether He be a sinner or no, I know not: one thing I know, that, whereas I was blind, now I see.” Look, then, once again at the points which have come out to view. Christ’s Church is ever bringing forth goodness, as it were Child-Christs. The dragon of evil is ever on the watch to devour every Child Christ of goodness. If we save the child it can only be by the power of the Christ-life that is in us, and by the power of the testimony for Christ that we persistently make as the natural and proper expression of the Christ-life. That life of Christ in us is the assurance of our final triumph over all evil, and in anticipation of that full victory which is certainly coming, for which we wait and for which we pray, we sing in our souls, comfort one another, and say, “Now is come the salvation, and the power, and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of His Christ; for the accuser of our brethren is cast down.” “And I saw,” says St. John, “an angel coming down out of leaven, having the key of the abyss and a great chain in his hand; and he laid hold of the dragon, the old serpent, which is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years, and cast him into the abyss, and shut it, and sealed it over him, that he should deceive the nations no more.”
SUGGESTIVE NOTES AND SERMON SKETCHES
Nature Serving Christianity.—“The earth helped the woman,” who is regarded as the symbol of the Church of Christ. Nature helps Christianity in various ways. By—
I. Its grand revelations.—It reveals that there is—
(1) God;
(2) law;
(3) mediation;
(4) responsibility;
(5) mystery.
II. Its moral impressions—
1. Sense of dependence.
2. Reverence.
3. Contrition.
4. Worship.
III. Its multiplied inventions.—Men, by studying nature, have attained to the arts. There is
(1) merchandise;
(2) the Press;
(3) painting;
(4) music;
(5) government.—Dr. Thomas.
The War in Heaven.—The appearance of Antichrist is preceded by a combat waged in heaven (perhaps in the heavenlies or the spiritual spheres) between Michael, the champion of God, the representative of monotheism—that is the meaning of his name, “who is like unto God”—and Satan, the seducer of men, who entices them into idolatry, into that worship of imaginary beings which is, at bottom, only the adoration of Satan himself, and of his angels. This combat represents the final conflict between monotheism and Paganism. Satan loses his place in the celestial spheres, from whence he had been ruling over men’s hearts, and making himself worshipped as God. He is cast down to earth; that is to say, his reign in the sphere of religion comes to an end. The diabolical superstitions of Paganism disappear from human society. But a certain degree of power is still left to this enemy in the terrestrial sphere. Only he cannot exert it directly; and, just as evil spirits require the body of those who are possessed as a medium for their action, so Satan needs a man wholly given up to him, to enable him to realise the plans of vengeance which he is revolving in his heart. And the coming of the Antichrist is the means which he employs for realising this threat.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
William B. Godbey 1900 · Public Domain On v1 WOMAN throughout the Bible symbolizes Church. In this verse…
WOMAN throughout the Bible symbolizes Church. In this verse the sun represents the New Dispensation of entire sanctification, with which the Church is clothed during the Gospel Age; while the moon emblematizes Mosaic justification, and the twelve stars are the apostles.
3. Christ was born of a woman — i.e., the Church — amid the terrible menaces of Satan, who sent wicked Herod to destroy Him in His infancy. The seven heads and seven diadems emblematize the seven governments of Rome, the mighty empire of Satan; i.e., the kings, consuls, dictators, triumvirs, tribunes, emperors, and popes, who ruled the world two thousand years. The ten horns are the ten great political powers into which the Roman world was disintegrated when the barbarians dethroned the Csars.
Read full note →
4. “His tail draws the third part of heaven and casts them upon the earth.” This is evidently a prophetical retrospection, in which John sees the fall of Lucifer and the angels who followed his influence. Isa 14:12 :
“How thou art fallen, O Lucifer, the son of the morning!”
This was the first origin of sin, and one-third of the angels seemed to have followed in the sad apostasy. In this unfortunate defection all the fallen angels became devils, were cast out of heaven, and have since populated earth and hell. Of course, the angels were on probation, as we are, or they would not have fallen. Presumptively the probation in these heavenly worlds has already expired, as ours will at the end of time. Therefore, there is no longer a probability of apostasy in heaven. As Satan in his Unfallen state was one of the brightest and most intellectual of all created intelligences, and doubtless had been present, and perhaps performed some important offices in the creation of this world, therefore, when cast out of heaven, he immediately set his heart on the earth, determined to possess it, and thus augment the narrow dominions of hell. After the conquest of Eden, he was constantly on the lookout for Immanuel, his old enemy, who had led the embattled host and ejected him from heaven.
5. Here is a retrospection of the incarnation and the terrible persecution against the Messiah, which began under Herod in His infancy, hounded Him to the bloody cross, and has pursued His Church, with diabolical malignity, ever since; and rest assured, he will never let up till the millennial angel binds him and casts him into hell.
7. In this graphic description of the war in heaven, Dr. Clarke (as in Dan 12:1) identifies Michael with Christ. “The Angel of the Covenant,” so frequently mentioned in the Old Testament, is believed be the excarnate Christ.
10. We learn here that Satan, from his apostasy, has been the accuser of the brethren, as he wickedly and falsely maligned the innocent angels before the Almighty, thus filling heaven with confusion till he was cast out. So he has indefatigably pursued that course on earth. Martin Luther says he appeared before him in an embodied form, held up for his inspection the long, dark catalogue of his sins, and assured Luther that they were too great to ever be forgiven; but when he approached the devil and wrote beneath that long, black catalogue, “The blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth us from all sin,” Satan cowardly fled away. In Nehemiah we have the scene of Joshua, the high priest, standing before God in polluted apparel, and Satan standing at his right hand, relentlessly accusing him, and pretentiously vindicating the divine glory with wonderful assiduity, persistently berating the impudent presumption of Joshua to think the aggravated and persistent idolatry of Israel could be forgiven consistently with the purity and glory of the divine sovereignty. In the midst of Satan’s accusations, a bright angel sweeps down from heaven, strips Joshua of his soiled garments, which symbolized Israel’s sins, and invests him with a shining robe, white as snow. At this moment, the devil takes his flight.
Satan upsets more Christians in this way than any other; i.e., by holding up the dark columns of their flagrant sins for their contemplation. Though these sins have already been forgiven, if Satan can get you to look at them in the absence of the cross, he will first inject discouragement, then doubt, and finally throw his black wing over you, dragging you into apostasy and damnation. Oh, how Satan, by this stratagem, tilts over the sanctified! Introspection is good and helpful, if you will always see your old, dark depravity under the blood. But Satan will try to get you to look at the old rattlesnake den of diabolical passions and lust in the absence of the blood. If you let him play that stratagem on you, he will down you every time.
11. “They conquered him through the blood of the Lamb, and through the word of their testimony, and they loved not their lives unto death.” Amid all the devices of Satan, you should constantly keep your eye on the blood. If you ever persistently introspect your own heart in the absence of Jesus and the blood you will be in imminent danger of getting into darkness and trouble. Satan will do his utmost to absorb all your attention in the contemplation of your sins, so you will have none for Jesus and the blood. Besides, he will magnify your little innocent infirmities which are not removed in sanctification, but remain till you are glorified, when the soul leaves the body. This glorification not only sweeps away all your infirmities, but confers on you angelic perfection, in which you live in heaven forever. Satan’s fond caprice is to magnify these infirmities into mountains of sin, and get yon to look at them instead of keeping your eye on Jesus and the blood. Remember, as this verse says, you conquer all of your sins by the blood and defeat the devil by your testimony. If you permit your testimony to flicker, the devil will get the advantage of you discourage, weaken, and ruin you. Your heart is for Jesus; you give it to Him and keep it in His possession by faith. Hence, your consecration and faith are for God; but your testimony is for the devil. In this way you get the victory, and keep him off of you. Did the angels in heaven need the blood of Jesus to conquer the devil? Heb 9:23 :
“It was therefore necessary that the patterns of things in the heavens should be purified with these; but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these.”
Here is a contrast between the sacrifices of the Levitical law and that of Christ. We see in this Scripture that all heaven needed the purgation which Jesus brought in by His expiatory death. At that time the inhabitants of the heavenly worlds were on probation (which has doubtless since expired). The irregularity of Lucifer’s insurrection was felt and recognized throughout the celestial empire. Christ was the Michael who then led the embattled host to victory in the ejectment of Satan and all of his followers out of the celestial worlds. But this would not suffice. The Divine government must be perfectly vindicated and order completely restored.
Hence, then and there the foundation of the redemption scheme was laid, Christ having volunteered to take the trouble into hand, prosecute the war against sin and Satan to the bitter end, exterminate the malady, completely expurgating all worlds by His precious blood, thus in the finale restoring perfect order and eternal loyalty throughout the universe.
Eph 1:10 : In the economy of the fullness of the times to reveal all things in Christ, both the things which are in the heavens and the things which are on the earth were even in Him. Col 1:20 corroborates the above, which you see is in harmony with Heb 9:23. The word “heaven” in your Bible is “heavens” in the Greek, confirmatory of the universally received astronomy revealing innumerable worlds, which constitute the celestial empire. There is a sense in which Satan’s revolt infected these heavenly worlds. As to this world, the devil actually cut its head off in the capture of its king and queen. Spiritual life is the head of the man. Satan cut it off. Hence the great work of Christ is the restoration of this world and the confirmation of all worlds in their eternal, unshaken, unshakable, and perfect loyalty to the Divine administration. Therefore, the victory over Satan in his ejectment out of heaven and his final defeat on earth, ultimate and eternal banishment from God’s illuminated universe into the darkness of nonentity, infinitely beyond the ultimathule, where the combined illumination of one hundred and seventeen millions of glowing suns have never shot one cheering ray, is all from his first revolt in heaven to his final and immutable doom through the blood of the incarnate Son.
12. No wonder all heaven rejoiced when Satan and his followers were cast out; and we do not wonder that a dismal woe is pronounced on land and sea, because the devil and his innumerable demons have come down, if possible, to ruin every human being, dragging men and women indiscriminately into hell. Satan is in a great rage, burning with the enthusiasm of hell-fire to utilize every possible opportunity, because his time is short. He has already had this world by the throat six thousand years, sweeping them into hell by millions. But this period is very short, when contrasted with the never-ending eternity. While Satan is utterly dead spiritually, and destitute of spiritual light, yet he has a great and powerful intellect. To what extent he understands the Scriptures and fathoms the prophecies, we know not; but it is certain his mighty intellectual perspicacity has a wonderful diagnosis of the divine plans. He is fully assured that embargoes rest on his prerogative in the near future. Doubtless the fearful apostasy of the Churches, and the awful increase of wickedness in the world, especially in the last fifty years, result from Satan’s unprecedented activity and adroitness in the prosecution of every conceivable stratagem for the seduction of souls and the population of hell. The solution of this alarming phenomenon is evidently in the fact that he has prophetic inklings that the Lord’s kingdom is nigh, and his time is very short. Comparatively with eternity it has always been short; but now it is almost gone. No wonder the hosts of hell are all under double duty to get the caverns of damnation filled up before his impending arrest and final imprisonment.
14. Here we see the woman, the persecuted Church, fly before the bloody dragon into the wilderness, where she is kept time, times, and a half-time from the venomous serpent. You see from the phraseology that mysterious period — i.e., “‘time, times, and a half-time,” which Daniel also gives (12:7) — is synonymous with one thousand two hundred and three score days (Rev 12:6). So you see, from former expositions, it is the well-known prophetic period, 1260 years.
15-17. In these verses we have a prophetical description of what was verified when the Goths, Huns, and Vandals destroyed the Roman Empire, A.D. 476. After the conversion of Constantine, the empire became the upholder of Christianity. When the heathen armies invaded and destroyed imperial Rome, and with her fall ancient civilization passed away, the Christian Church was in imminent peril. These barbarian armies were the floods which Satan poured out of his month to carry away the Church. How did the earth help the woman? When those ruthless barbarians, triumphant in the Roman world, and enriched in the spoils of war, saw the beautiful sunny Southern Europe contrasted with the bleak wilds of their Northern haunts, they desisted from the excitements of conquest, settled down, and became peaceful and enterprising cultivators of the soil. Then the Church preached to them the gospel, and converted them to Christianity. This signal defeat so enraged the devil that he blew up the fires of persecution hotter than ever.
William B. Godbey, Commentary on the New Testament (1896–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Sermon Bible 1900 · Public Domain On v1 Science and the Church.
Rev 12:16
Science and the Church.
Read full note →
The "woman" mentioned here is a symbol of the New Testament Church. She is represented as pursued by the devil, who ejects from his mouth a river of water after her. Just then the earth opens; the deluge is swallowed up, so the woman is saved. Hence we can catch from so rapidly flitting a vision at least as much as this welcome proposition: nature is on the side of genuine religion; science is ready now to be helpful to the Church when it needs succour.
I. Note the somewhat ungenerous way in which the woman has been treating the earth in modern times. There is a violence of prejudice in the minds of many of God’s people which is almost inexplicable. God is not going to suffer the kingdom of grace to be overthrown by contradictions that men will discover in the kingdom of nature; He is King in both kingdoms, and Christ once said that even Beelzebub could not stand divided against himself.
II. Note a few of the forms of actual help which natural science of every sort has already furnished, thus exhibiting its real friendliness. We notice (1) its answer to what have been termed the unconscious prophecies of the Bible. (2) Science gives a constant rebuke to impertinent cavils which petulant objectors are in the habit of urging. (3) Science exemplifies its friendship for the Church in the illustration of difficult doctrines which it furnishes. (4) Science offers a reconciliation of the paradoxes of reason and faith in the Scriptures. (5) Science offers positive help in the interpretation of obscure passages in the word itself.
C. S. Robinson, Sermons on Neglected Texts, p. 35.
The Sermon Bible, ed. William Robertson Nicoll (1888–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. R. Dummelow 1909 · Public Domain On v1 The Woman and the Man-Child. The Dragon
The Woman and the Man-Child. The Dragon
The persecution which the Church had already suffered, and which was about to burst forth again, is the great fact which underlies the whole 'Revelation.' The sufferings of the Church and its members have been referred to again and again, particularly in Rev_11:1-13. In the 'seals' and the 'trumpets' the Church has been assured, in a broad and general manner, that God's judgments will fall upon the world of wickedness, and that the ungodly will bow before the power of the Lamb. In the remainder of the book (Revelation 12-22), the victory of Christ and His Church is foretold in more definite detail. The great enemies of Christ are brought forward, under the personifications of the Dragon (Revelation 12), the two Beasts (Revelation 13 f.), and the harlot City (Revelation 17). Then we are shown Christ's battle against them, and the complete overthrow both of them and of all evil (Revelation 18-20), after which the book ends with the glorious and everlasting blessedness of the New Jerusalem (Revelation 21 f.).
Read full note →
The first great enemy of Christ's Church, the cause of all the hostility against her, is Satan. Christ suffered his enmity, but passed through it triumphantly (Rev_12:1-6). Satan is already conquered in principle (Rev_12:7-9), though for a short time the Christian Church experiences his malignity (Rev_12:10-17).
1-6. The Church, of both the OT. and NT. covenants, is shown under the figure of a woman, clothed with heavenly glory (Rev_12:1) from whom the Messiah is about to come: cp. Isa_66:19; Mic_4:10. She is opposed by the devil (Rev_12:9), pictured as a dragon, red with the blood of the saints: cp. Rev_17:3. (Rev_12:3). His seven heads and ten horns (cp. Dan_7:7) represent the Roman emperors through whom he exercised his power. The seven crowned heads perhaps signify the seven emperors, from Augustus to Titus, who had really reigned. The ten horns may stand for the same emperors with the addition of Galba, Otho, and Vitellius: cp. Rev_13:1; Rev_17:10. (see chapter A. Scott, 'Century Bible: Revelation,' p. 53). The dragon waits to attack the Messiah (Rev_12:4), but when He is born (cp. Psa_2:8.), the dragon has no power over Him, and He is exalted to God's throne: cp. Php_2:9; (Rev_12:5). The Church escapes from the dragon, as the Church of Israel escaped from Pharaoh into the wilderness, to be kept during a time of trouble: see on Rev_11:2; (Rev_12:6). The reference here may be to seasons of rest which the Palestinian Church experienced during the troubles which ended in the destruction of Jerusalem (cp. Act_9:31), and to the escape of the Christians of Jerusalem to Pella before the siege: cp. Mat_24:16.
1, 3. Wonder] RV 'sign.'
3. Crowns] RV 'diadems,' i.e. kingly crowns.
4. Tail, etc.] i.e. he was huge and mighty: cp. Dan_8:10.
6. Feed] RV 'nourish.'
7-9. The Christians for whom St. John wrote were beginning to experience persecution: cp. Rev_2:3, Rev_2:10; Rev_2:13; Rev_3:4, note, 10. Yet their victory is assured. This is symbolically expressed under the figure of a war in heaven between good and evil angels (Rev_12:7) in which Satan and his host are conquered and cast down from heaven (Rev_12:8.). The figure is derived from Jewish apocalyptic ideas, but the meaning for Christians is that in the Death and Resurrection and Ascension of Christ, Satan was already essentially conquered: cp. Joh_12:31.; Joh_16:33.
7. Michael] one of the four archangels: cp. Dan_10:13; Dan_12:1; Jdg_1:9.
9. Out] RV 'down.'
Serpent] cp. Gen_3:1. Satan] i.e. 'adversary' (Heb.), or 'devil' (diabolos, Gk.): cp. Job_1:6; Psa_109:6; Zec_3:1. Deceiveth] cp. Joh_8:44.
10-12. Satan being already potentially conquered, heaven celebrates in anticipation the victory which the persecuted saints will win because Christ died for them and gives them strength to die.
10. Accused] cp. 1Ti_3:6.
11. By] RV 'because of' (twice). Word of, etc.] i.e. the word of Christ to which they testify.
13-17. The devil is not able to hurt a section of the Church, perhaps the Palestinian Church at Pella is meant, for God protects her. God's protection is described in terms of the deliverance of the exodus, when Israel was borne by God on eagles' wings, cp. Exo_19:4; (Rev_12:14), and escaped from Pharaoh into the wilderness, passing safely through the Red Sea ('water as a river,' Rev_12:15.). This being so, Satan turns against the Church in Gentile lands (Rev_12:17).
In this chapter St. John used figures which were frequently employed in Jewish apocalypses. These may have been derived originally from the ancient myth of the fight between the sun and darkness. Whatever was their original meaning, here they are symbolical of Christian truth: cp. note, Revelation 6, on St. John's use of the prophecy in Matthew 24.
15. Flood.. flood] RV 'river.. stream.'
16. Flood] RV 'river.'
17. Was] RV 'waxed.' Seed] cp. Gal_4:26. Have] RV 'hold.'
J. R. Dummelow, A Commentary on the Holy Bible (Macmillan, 1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain On vv6, 7, 9, 10 a thousand
a thousand
Rev 11:2; Rev 11:3; Rev 13:5; Dan 9:27; Dan 7:14 (See Scofield "Dan 7:14").
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On vv1, 7, 13 The Battle of Michael with the Dragon.
The Battle of Michael with the Dragon.
The woman clothed with the sun:
Read full note →
v. 1. And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars;
v. 2. and she, being with child, cried, travailing in birth, and pained to be delivered.
v. 3. And there appeared another wonder in heaven; and, behold, a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads.
v. 4. And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven and did cast them to the earth; and the dragon stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered for to devour her child as soon as it was born.
v. 5. And she brought forth a man-child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron; and her child was caught up unto God and to His throne.
v. 6. And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she hath a place prepared of God, that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred and threescore days.
In spite of the awe which this picture and the entire vision arouses in our hearts, it contains a message of great comfort and cheer: And a great sign was seen in heaven, a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon beneath her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars; and being pregnant, she cried in the pains of birth and was in torment to give birth. This woman symbolizes the Daughter of Zion, the holy Christian Church, the communion of saints, Isa 54:5-6. She is clothed with the sun; for to her the Sun of Righteousness has appeared, thus giving to her the brightness of the true day in Christ Jesus. The moon, the queen of night, is under her feet, for she has overcome all change and conquered all darkness. She has a crown of twelve stars, for the doctrine of the apostles and prophets is her greatest ornament, her precious jewels. It is the function of the Church always, till the end of time, to bring forth spiritual children, Isa 54:1-17; Pa. 45:17; Gal 4:26-27; Psa 110:3. These children are indeed brought forth with travail; to bring them to faith and to keep them in faith is a work which God alone can perform through the Gospel, and the operations of His Spirit conflict with all the natural desires of man.
In glaring contrast with this picture is that of the dragon: And there was seen another sign in heaven; and, behold, a huge red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and on his heads seven diadems, and his tail dragged the third part of the stars of heaven, and threw them to the earth; and the dragon stood before the woman that was about to give birth, that, when she had born, he might devour the child. The dragon, as often in Scriptures, represents Satan, the old evil serpent, Eze 29:3; Isa 27:1; Isa 51:9, here with particular reference to the work which he does through his chief tool and instrument, the Church of Anti-Christ. There he shows all his craft and power, and his seven heads and ten horns, kings and rulers and heretical teachers in the Church, stand him in good stead, aid him in his design to destroy Christ and all His Christians utterly. For with every new believer Christ is born, Gal 4:19, and therefore the devil intends to devour, to annihilate, Christ in His Church by turning the Christians away from Him, by corrupting the Church.
The dragon’s fierceness is now indicated: And she gave birth to a man-child, who was intended to rule all the nations with an iron rod; and her child was caught up to God and to His throne; and the woman fled into the wilderness, where a place has been prepared for her by God, that they should nourish her there twelve hundred and sixty days. The believers, born in Christ and with Christ, through the Word, through Baptism, would indeed be in great danger from Satan and his henchmen, were it not for the fact that, with Christ and in Christ, their souls are even now safe at the throne of God, in the hands of the Lord. The devil may indeed destroy our body and take our life, but he cannot rob us of our eternal salvation. The desert, or wilderness, into which the Church was obliged to flee is practically identical with this whole earth; for it has happened time and again that the confessors of Christ were forced to conceal themselves in the most secret and unlikely places in order that the enemies of the Gospel might not find them. But in spite of all such tribulation, which was especially great during the rule of Anti-Christ, the Church was nourished. Even as the Lord reserved for Himself, at the time of Elijah, seven thousand that had not bowed their knees to Baal, so He protects His Church, the poor small crew, in the midst of the most trying vicissitudes of temptation and persecution. That is glorious comfort for all Christians.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv1, 3, 5, 7, 10, 11, 13, 15 General Information:
General Information:
John begins to describe a woman who appears in his vision.
Read full note →
A great sign was seen in heaven
This can be stated in active form. AT: "A great sign appeared in heaven" or "I, John, saw a great sign in heaven" (See: Active or Passive)
a woman clothed with the sun, and with the moon under her feet
This can be stated in active form. AT: "A woman who was wearing the sun and had the moon under her feet" (See: Active or Passive)
a crown of twelve stars
This was apparently a likeness of a wreath made of laurel leaves or olive branches, but with twelve stars included in it.
twelve stars
"12 stars" (See: Numbers)
translationWords
sign
heaven
crown
labor pains
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 10, 13, 14, 15, 17 12:1–14:20 The people of God, portrayed as a woman…
12:1–14:20 The people of God, portrayed as a woman who brings forth the Messiah, are under attack by the devil even though he has already been defeated (12:1-17). With his two minions, the beast and the false prophet, Satan attempts to continue controlling the world (13:1-18) before the final confrontation with the Lord (14:1-20).
12:1-17 Satan (pictured as a dragon) plots to challenge God’s purposes but is thwarted. Having failed in direct confrontation with God and Christ, he attempts to attack God’s people. Three brief scenes present an overview of the story (12:1-6), followed by elaborations of the war in heaven (12:7-9) and the war on earth (12:13-17).
Read full note →
12:1 The number twelve suggests that the woman represents God’s people (cp. 12:15-17; see Jer 2:32; 2 Cor 11:2; Eph 5:32), from whom came the Messiah. This woman is marked by God’s glory in contrast with the prostitute (see Rev 17:1-6), who is destined for destruction.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.