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- The woman clothed with the sun, and in travail, 1,2.
- 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.
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 Exodus
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."
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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 Revelation
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
Revelation
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." Daniel
12:3.
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Verse 2. And
she being with child cried, travailing in birth,
a striking figure of the great persecution which the Church
of Christ should suffer under the heathen Roman emperors, but
more especially of that long and most dreadful one under
Diocletian. The woman is represented as BEING with
child, to show that the time would speedily arrive when
God's patient forbearance with the heathen would be
terminated, and that a deliverer should arise in the
Christian world who would execute the Divine vengeance upon
paganism.
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Verse 3. There appeared another wonder-a great red
dragon
The dragon here is a symbol, not of
the Roman empire in general, but of the HEATHEN
Roman empire. This great pagan power must have, therefore,
been thus represented from the religion which it supported.
But what is a dragon? An entirely fabulous beast of antiquity,
consequently, in this respect, a most proper emblem of the
heathen worship, which consisted in paying adoration to
numerous imaginary beings, termed gods, goddesses, foundation
of the heathen religious system is mostly built upon fable;
and it is very difficult to trace many of their superstitions
to any authentic original; and even those which appear to
derive their origin from the sacred writings are so disguised
in fable as literally to bear no more resemblance to the truth
than the dragon of the ancients does to any animal with which
we are acquainted. But it may be asked why the Spirit of God
should represent the heathen Roman empire as a dragon,
rather than by anger other of the fabulous animals with which
the mythology of the ancient Romans abounded. The answer is as
follows; In the eighth chapter of the Prophet Daniel, God has
represented the kingdom of the Greeks by a he-goat, for
no other apparent reason than this, that it was the national
military standard of the Grecian monarchy; we may therefore
expect that the pagan Roman empire is called a DRAGON on a
similar account. In confirmation of this point it is very
remarkable that the dragon was the principal standard
of the Romans next to the eagle, in the second, third,
fourth, and fifth centuries of the Christian
era. Of this we have abundant evidence in the writings of both
heathens and Christians. Arrian is the earliest writer who has
mentioned that dragons were used as military standards among
the Romans. See his Tactics, c. 51. Hence Schwebelius supposes
that this standard was introduced after Trajan's conquest of
the Daci. See Vegetius de Re Militari a Schwebelio, p.
191, Argentorati, 1806; and Graevii Thesaur., Antiq.
Roman., tom. x., col. 1529. Vegetius, who flourished about
A.D. 386, says, lib. ii. c. 13: Primum signum totius
legionis est aquila, quam aquilifer portal. DRACONES
etiam per singulas cohortes a draconariis feruntur ad
praelium. "The first standard of the whole legion is the
eagle, which the aquilifer carries. DRAGONS are also borne to
battle by the Draconarii." As a legion consisted of ten
cohorts, there were therefore ten draconarii to
one aquilifer; hence, from the great number of
draconarii in an army, the word signarii or
signiferi, standard-bearers, came at last to mean the
carriers of the dragon standards only, the others retaining
the name of aquiliferi.-See Veget., lib. ii. c.
7, and his commentators. The heathen Roman empire is called
a RED dragon; and accordingly we find from the
testimony of ancient writers that the dragon standards of the
Romans were painted red. We read in Ammianus
Marcellinus, lib. xvi., c. 12, of PURPUREUM signum
draconis, "the purple standard of the dragon." See also
Claudianus in Rufinum, lib. ii., l. 177,178.
Pitiscus, in his Lexicon Antiq. Rom., and
Ducange, in his Glossarium Mediae et Infimae
Latinitatis, sub voc. Draco, have considered this
subject at great length, especially the latter writer, who has
made several quotations from Claudianus, Sidonius, Prudentius,
and others, in which not only the standard, but also the image
of the dragon itself, is stated to be of a red or
purple colour. Of what has been said above respecting
the dragon, this is then the sum: a huge fabulous beast
is shown to St. John, by which some GREAT PAGAN
power is symbolically represented; and the RED
dragon is selected from among the numerous imaginary
animals which the fancies of mankind have created to show that
this great pagan power is the heathen ROMAN empire.
Having seven heads
As the dragon is an emblem of the heathen Roman power, its
heads must denote heathen forms of
government.-See Clarke on Revelation
17:10. where the heads of the beast are explained in a
similar way. These were exactly seven, and are
enumerated by Tacitus (Annal., lib. i., in principio)
in words to the following effect: "The city of Rome was
originally governed by kings. L. Brutus instituted
liberty and the consulate. The dictatorship was
only occasionally appointed; neither did the decemviral
power last above two years; and the consular power
of the military tribunes was not of long
continuance. Neither had Cinna nor Sylla a long domination:
the power of Pompey and Crassus was also soon absorbed in that
of Caesar; and the arms of Lepidus and Antony finally yielded
to those of Augustus." From this passage it is evident to
every person well acquainted with the Roman history, that the
seven forms of government in the heathen Roman world were, 1.
The regal power; 2. The consulate; 3. The dictatorship; 4. The
decemvirate; 5. The consular power of the military tribunes;
6. The triumvirate; and, 7. The imperial government.
It is singular that commentators in general, in their
citation of this passage, have taken no notice of the
triumvirate, a form of government evidently as distinct
from any of the others as kings are from
consuls, or consuls from emperors. For
the triumvirate consisted in the division of the Roman
republic into three parts, each governed by an officer
possessed with consular authority in his own province; and all
three united together in the regulation of the whole Roman
state. Consequently, it differed entirely from the imperial
power, which was the entire conversion of the Roman state
from a republic to a monarchy.
And ten horns
That these ten horns signify as many kingdoms is evident
from the seventh chapter of Daniel, where the angel, speaking
of the fourth beast, says, that "the ten horns out of this
kingdom are ten kings that shall arise;" and in this view of
the passage many commentators are agreed, who also admit that
the ten kingdoms are to be met with "amid the broken pieces of
the Roman empire." And it is evident that nothing less than
the dismemberment of the Roman empire, and its division into
ten independent kingdoms, can be intended by the angel's
interpretation just quoted. If, therefore, the ten horns of
Daniel's fourth beast point out as many kingdoms, for the very
same reason must the horns of the dragon have a similar
meaning. But the Roman empire was not divided into several
independent kingdoms till a considerable time after it became
Christian. In what sense then can it be said that the
different kingdoms into which the Roman empire was divided by
the barbarous nations are horns of the dragon? They were so
because it was the Roman monarchy, in its seventh DRACONIC
form of government, which was dismembered by the
barbarians. For though the Roman empire was not completely
dismembered till the fifth century, it is well known that the
depression of the heathen idolatry, and the advancement of
Christianity to the throne, elected not the least change in
the form of government: the Romans continued still to
be under subjection to the imperial power; and, consequently,
when the heathen barbarous nations divided the Roman empire
among themselves, they might very properly be denominated
horns of the dragon, as it was by means of their
incursions that the imperial power, FOUNDED by
the heathen Caesars, was abolished. Machiavel and Bishop Lloyd
enumerate the horns of the dragon thus: 1. The kingdom of the
Huns; 9. The kingdom of the Ostrogoths; 3 The kingdom of the
Visigoths; 4. The kingdom of the Franks; 5. The kingdom of the
Vandals; 6. The kingdom of the Sueves and Alans; 7. The
kingdom of the Burgundians; 8. The kingdom of the Heruli,
Rugii, Scyrri, and other tribes which composed the Italian
kingdom of Odoacer; 9. The kingdom of the Saxons; and 10. The
kingdom of the Lombards.
And seven crowns upon his
head.
In the seven Roman forms of
government already enumerated, heathenism has been the
crowning or dominant religion.
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Verse 4. And his tail drew the third
part of the stars of heaven
It is not
unusual in Scripture, as Dr. Mitchell observes, to call the
hindmost of an enemy the tail, as in Joshua
10:19: Ye shall cut off the hindmost of them, which
is literally in Hebrew, "Ye shall cut off their tail."
See also Deuteronomy
25:18. It is also observable that the word (οις ),
in this
verse, has been used by the Greeks in the same sense with the
Hebrew word already referred to. Thus Î. . . ¿Ï…, which we
would translate the rear of an army, is literally the
tail of an army. See the Thesaurus of Stephens, in loc.
The tail of the dragon is therefore the heathen Roman
power in its seventh or last form of government,
viz., the imperial power; and is not, as Dr.
Mitchell supposes, to be restricted to the last heathen
Roman emperors. The heathen imperial power is said to draw
the third part of the stars of heaven, by which has
generally been understood that the Roman empire subjected the
third part of the princes and potentates of the earth. But
that this is not a correct statement of the fact is evident
from the testimony of ancient history. The Roman empire was
always considered and called the empire of the world by
ancient writers. See Dionys. Halicar., Antiq. Rom. lib.
i., prope principium; Pitisci Lexicon Antiq. Roman.,
sub voc. imperium; Ovidii Fast., lib. ii. l. 683;
Vegetius de Re Militari, lib. i. c. 1., And it is even
so named in Scripture, for St. Luke, in the second chapter of
his gospel, informs us that there went out a decree
from Caesar Augustus that THE WHOLE WORLD should be
taxed, by which is evidently meant the Roman
empire. The whole mystery of this passage consists in the
misapprehension of its symbolical language. In order therefore
to understand it, the symbols here used must be examined. By
heaven is meant the most eminent or ruling
part of any nation. This is evident from the very nature
of the symbol, for "heaven is God's throne;" they
therefore who are advanced to the supreme authority in any
state are very properly said to be taken up into
heaven, because they are raised to this eminence by the
favour of the Lord, and are ministers of his to do
his pleasure. And the calamity which fell upon
Nebuchadnezzar was to instruct him in this important truth,
that the heavens do rule; that is, that all monarchs
possess their kingdoms by Divine appointment, and that no man
is raised to power by what is usually termed the chances of
war, but that "the Most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and
giveth it to whomsoever he will, and setteth up over it the
basest of men." The meaning of heaven being thus
ascertained, it cannot be difficult to comprehend the meaning
of earth, this being evidently its opposite, that is,
every thing in subjection to the heaven or ruling
part. Stars have already been shown to denote
ministers of religion; and this is more fully
evident from Revelation
1:16of this book, where the seven stars which the
Son of God holds in his right hand are explained to signify
the seven angels (or messengers) of the seven
Churches, by whom must be meant the seven
pastors or ministers of these Churches. The
resemblance of ministers to stars is very striking; for as the
stars give light upon the earth, so are ministers the lights
of the cause they advocate; and their position in
heaven, the symbol of domination, very fitly betokens
the spiritual authority of priests or ministers over their
flocks. Hence, as the woman, or Christian Church, has upon her
head a crown of twelve stars, which signifies that she
is under the guidance of the twelve apostles, who are
the twelve principal lights of the Christian world, so has the
dragon also his stars or ministers. The stars
therefore which the dragon draws with his tail must represent
the whole body of pagan priests, who were the stars or
lights of the heathen world. But in what sense can it
be said that the heathen Roman empire, which ruled over the
whole known world, only draws a third part of the stars
of heaven? The answer is: The religious world in the time of
St. John was divided into three grand branches, viz., the
Christian world, the Jewish world, and the heathen and pagan
world: consequently, as a dragon, a fabulous animal, is
an emblem of a civil power supporting a religion founded in
fable; it necessarily follows that the stars or
ministers of the Jews and Christians cannot be numbered
among those which he draws with his tail, as they were not the
advocates of his idolatry, but were ministers of a religion
founded by the God of heaven, and consequently formed no part
of the pagan world, though they were in subjection in secular
matters to the pagan Roman empire. The tail of the dragon
therefore draweth after him the whole heathen
world.
And did cast then to the
earth
That is, reduced all the pagan
priests under the Roman yoke. The words of the prophecy are
very remarkable. It is said the tail of the dragon
draweth, (for so σ. . .µÎ¹ should be translated,) but it is
added, and HATH CAST then upon the earth, to
show that at the time the Apocalypse was written the world was
divided into the three grand religious divisions already
referred to; but that the tail of the dragon, or the pagan
Roman power under its last form of government, had
brought the whole heathen world (which was a third part of the
religious world in the apostolic age) into subjection
previously to the communication of the Revelation to St. John.
It is the dragon's tail that draws the third part of
the stars of heaven, therefore it was during the dominion of
his last form of government that Christianity was
introduced into the world; for in the time of the six
preceding draconic forms of government, the world was divided
religiously into only two grand branches, Jews and Gentiles.
That the sense in which the third part is here taken is
the one intended in the prophecy is put beyond all
controversy, when it is considered that this very division is
made in the first and third verses, in which mention is made
of the woman clothed with the sun-the Christian
Church, the moon under her feet, or Jewish Church, and
the dragon, or heathen power. Thus the heathen
IMPERIAL government is doubly represented, first, by
one of the seven draconic heads, to show that it was
one of those seven heathen forms of government which have been
successively at the head of the Roman state; and
secondly, by the dragon's tail, because it was the
last of those seven. For a justification of this method
of interpretation, see on the angel's double explanation of
the heads of the beast, Revelation
17:9,10,16.
And the dragon stood before the woman, the father of
Constantine, abandoned the absurdities of paganism, and
treated the Christians with great respect. This alarmed the
pagan priests, whose interests were so closely connected with
the continuance of the ancient superstitions, and who
apprehended that to their great detriment the Christian
religion would become daily more universal and triumphant
throughout the empire. Under these anxious fears they moved
Diocletian to persecute the Christians. Hence began what is
termed the tenth and last general persecution, which
was the most severe of all, and continued nearly ten years;
(see Mosheim's Ecclesiastical History of the Third
Century;) and as it was the Divine pleasure that, at this
time, a great deliverer should be raised up in behalf of his
suffering people, the woman, or Christian Church, is
very appropriately represented as overtaken with the pangs of
labour, and ready to be delivered. Before the death of
Constantius, the heathen party, aware that Constantine would
follow the example of his father, who so much favoured the
Christians, beheld him with a watchful and malignant eye. Many
were the snares that, according to Eusebius, were laid for him
by Maximin and Galerius: he relates the frequent and dangerous
enterprises to which they urged him, with the design that he
might lose his life. When Galerius heard of the death of
Constantius, and that he had appointed Constantine his
successor, he was filled with the most ungovernable rage and
indignation, notwithstanding he did not dare to take any steps
contrary to the interest of Constantine. The dread of the
armies of the west, which were mostly composed of Christians,
was a sufficient check to all attempts of that kind. Thus the
dragon, or heathen power, stood before the woman, or Christian
Church, to devour her son, or deliverer, as soon as he was
born. See Dr. Mitchell's Exposition of the Revelation,
in loc.
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Verse 5. And her child was caught up
unto God, and to his throne.
In Yalcut Rubeni are these words: "Rachael, the
niece of Methusala, was pregnant, and ready to be delivered in
Egypt. They trod upon her, and the child came out of her
bowels, and lay under the bed; Michael descended, and took
him up to the throne of glory. On that same night
the first born of Egypt were destroyed."
Ver. 5. And she brought forth a
man child
The Christian Church, when her
full time came, obtained a deliverer, who, in the
course of the Divine providence, was destined:-
To rule all nations
The heathen Roman empire,
With a rod of iron
A strong figure to denote the very great
restraint that should be put upon paganism, so that it
should not be able longer to persecute the Christian Church.
The man child mentioned in this verse is the dynasty
of Christians emperors, beginning with Constantine's
public acknowledgment of his belief in the divinity of the
Christian religion, which happened in the latter part of A.D.
312, after the defeat of the Emperor Maxentius.
And her child was caught up unto
God, and to his throne.
A succession of
Christian emperors was raised up to the Church; for the Roman
throne, as Bishop Newton observes, is here called the throne
of God, because there is no power but of God: the
powers that be are ordained of God.
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Verse 6. And the woman fled into the
wilderness
The account of the woman's
flying into the wilderness immediately follows that of her
child being caught up to the throne of God, to denote the
great and rapid increase of heresies in the Christian
Church after the time that Christianity was made the religion
of the empire.
Where she hath a place prepared of
God
See Clarke on Revelation
12:14.
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Verse 7. There was war in
heaven
In the same treatise, fol. 87, 2, on
Exodus
14:7, Pharaoh took six hundred chariots, we have
these words: "There was war among those above and among
those below, vehammilchamah, hayethah chazakah
bashshamayim, and there was great war in heaven."
Of Michael the rabbins are full. See much in
Schoettgen, and see the note on Jude, Jude
1:9.
The dragon-and his
angels
The same as Rab. Sam. ben
David, in Chasad Shimuel, calls Samael
vechayilothaiv, "Samael and his troops;" fol. 28,2.
Ver. 7. And there was war in
heaven
As heaven means here the
throne of the Roman empire, the war in heaven
consequently alludes to the breaking out of civil commotions
among the governors of this empire.
Michael and his angels fought
against the dragon
Michael was the man
child which the woman brought forth, as is evident from the
context, and therefore signifies, as has been shown already,
the dynasty of Christian Roman emperors. This dynasty is
represented by Michael, because he is "the great prince which
standeth for the children of God's people." Daniel
12:1.
And the dragon fought and his
angels
Or ministers.
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Verse 8. And prevailed
not
Against the cause of Christianity.
Neither was their place found any
more in heaven.
The advocates of the
heathen idolatry were prevented from having any farther share
in the government of the empire. The wonderful success of
Constantine over all his enemies, and his final triumph over
Licinius, correspond exactly to the symbolical language in
this verse.
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Verse 9. That old
serpent
The rabbins speak much of this
being, sometimes under the notion of yetser hara,
the evil principle, and sometimes Samael.
He was cast out into the earth,
and his angels were cast out with him.
This is very like a saying in the book Bahir, in
Sohar Gen., fol. 27, col. 107: "And God cast
out Samael and his troops from the place of their
holiness."
Ver. 9. And the great dragon was cast out,
Devil and Satan mentioned in this verse, Pareus,
Faber, and many other commentators, understand literally the
great spiritual enemy of mankind. But this view of the passage
cannot be correct, from the circumstance that it is the
dragon which is thus called. Now, if by the
dragon be meant the devil, then use are
necessarily led to this conclusion, that the great apostate
spirit is a monster, having seven heads and ten horns; and
also that he has a tail, with which he drags after him
the third part of the stars of heaven. The appellations,
old serpent, devil, and Satan, must, therefore,
be understood figuratively. The heathen power is called
that old serpent which deceived the whole world, from
its subtlety against the Christians, and its causing the whole
Roman world, as far as it was in its power, to embrace the
absurdities of paganism. It is called the devil, from
its continual false accusations and slanders against the true
worshippers of God, for the devil is a liar from the
beginning; and it is also called Satan, which is a
Hebrew word signifying an adversary, from its frequent
persecutions of the Christian Church. The dragon and his
angels are said to be cast out, which is more than was
said in the preceding verse. There mention is made of his
being found no longer in heaven, or on the throne of
the Roman empire, here he is entirely cast out from all
offices of trust in the empire; his religion is first only
tolerated, and then totally abolished, by the imperial power.
This great event was not the work of a reign; it took up many
years, for it had to contend with the deep-rooted prejudices
of the heathen, who to the very last endeavoured to uphold
their declining superstition. Paganism received several mortal
strokes in the time of Constantine and his sons Constans and
Constantius. It was farther reduced by the great zeal of
Jovian, Valentinian, and Valens; and was finally suppressed by
the edicts of Gratian, Theodosius I., and his successors. It
was not till A.D. 388 that Rome itself, the residence of the
emperor, was generally reformed from the absurdities of
paganism; but the total suppression of paganism soon followed
the conversion of the metropolitan city, and about A.D. 395
the dragon may be considered, in an eminent sense, to have
been cast into the earth, that is, into a state of
utter subjection to the ruling dynasty of Christian emperors.
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Verse 10. The accuser of our
brethren
There is scarcely any thing more
common in the rabbinical writings than Satan as the
accuser of the Israelites. And the very same word
(οις),
, accuser, or, as it is in the Codex
Alexandrinus, (οις),
, is used by them in Hebrew letters,
katigor; e. gr., Pirkey Eliezer, c. 46, speaking
of the day of expiation; "And the holy blessed God hears their
testimony from their accuser, min hakkatigor;
and expiates the altar, the priests, and the whole multitude,
from the greatest to the least."
In Shemoth Rabba, sec. 31, fol. 129,2, are these
words; "If a man observes the precepts, and is a son of the
law, and lives a holy life, then Satan stands and accuses
him."
"Every day, except the day of expiation Satan is
the accuser of men."-Vayikra Rabba, sec. 21,
fol. 164.
"The holy blessed God said to the seventy princes of the
world, Have ye seen him who always accuses my
children?"-Yalcut Chadash, fol. 101,3.
"The devil stands always as an accuser before the
King of Israel."-Sohar Levit., fol. 43, col. 171. See
much more in Schoettgen.
Ver. 10. And I heard a loud voice, saying,-Now is come
salvation,
heathen idolatry, and is very expressive of the great joy
of the Christians upon this most stupendous event. The loud
voice of triumph is said to be heard in heaven, to show
that the Christian religion was now exalted to the
heaven or throne of the Roman. empire. "It is
very remarkable," as Bishop Newton observes, "that Constantine
himself, and the Christians of his time, describe his
conquests under the image of a dragon, as if they had
understood that this prophecy had received its accomplishment
in him. Constantine himself, in his epistle to Eusebius and
other bishops concerning the re-edifying and repairing of the
churches, saith that 'liberty being now restored, and that the
dragon being removed from the administration of public
affairs, by the providence of the great God and by my
ministry, I esteem the great power of God to have been made
manifest to all.' Moreover, a picture of Constantine was set
up over the palace gate, with the cross over his head, and
under his feet the great enemy of mankind, who persecuted the
Church by means of impious tyrants, in the form of a
dragon, transfixed with a dart through the midst of his
body, and falling headlong into the depth of the sea." See
Eusebius de Vita Constantini, lib. ii. c. 46; and lib.
iii. c. 3, and Socratis Hist. Eccles., lib. i. c. 9.
Constantine added to the other Roman ensigns the
labarum, or standard of the cross, and constituted it
the principal standard of the Christian Roman empire. To this
labarum Prudentius refers, when speaking of the
Christian soldiers, in his first hymn Ï€Î. . . . ,
Caesaris vexilla linquunt, eligunt SIGNUM CRUCIS, Proque
ventosis Draconum, quae gerebant, palliis, Proferunt INSIGNE
LIGNUM, quod Draconem subdidit.
"They leave the ensigns of Caesar; they choose the standard
of the cross; and instead of the dragon flags which they
carried, moved about with the wind, they bring forward the
illustrious wood that subdued the dragon."
When the apostle saw the woman in heaven, well might
he call it, in the spirit of prophecy, a great wonder.
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Verse 11. And they overcame him by
the blood of the Lamb
Here is given the
reason why the followers of Christ prevailed at this time
against all their adversaries. It was because they fought
against the dragon in the armour of God. They overcame him
by the blood of the Lamb-by proclaiming salvation
to sinners through Christ crucified, and by their continual
intercession at the throne of grace for the conversion of the
heathen world.
And by the word of their
testimony
By constantly testifying against
the errors and follies of mankind.
And they loved not their lives
unto the death.
They regarded not their
present temporal estate, but even gladly delivered up their
lives to the fury of their persecutors, and thus sealed the
truth of what they spake with their blood.
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Verse 12. Therefore rejoice, ye
heavens, and ye that dwell in them.
Let the Christians, who are now partakers of the present
temporal prosperity, and advanced to places of trust in the
empire, praise and magnify the Lord who has thus so signally
interfered in their behalf. But it is added:-
Wo to the inhabiters of the earth,
and of the sea! for the devil is come down unto
you
By the inhabiters of the earth
are meant the people in subjection to the Roman empire; and by
the sea, those parts of the Roman dominions appear to
be intended that were reduced to a state of anarchy by the
incursions of the barbarous nations. It is not without
precedent to liken great hosts of nations combined together to
the sea. See Ezekiel
26:3. Here then is a wo denounced against the whole Roman
world which will be excited by the devil, the father of lies,
the heathen party being thus denominated from the method they
pursued in their endeavours to destroy the religion of Jesus.
See Clarke on Revelation
12:15.
Having great wrath, because he
knoweth that he hath but a short time.
The Christian religion, the pagan party see with great
regret, is rapidly gaining ground everywhere; and, if not
timely checked, must soon brave all opposition.
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Verse 13. And when the dragon saw
that he was cast unto the earth
When
the heathen party saw that they were no longer supported by
the civil power:-
He persecuted the woman which
brought forth the man child.
The heathens
persecuted the Christian Church in the behalf of which Divine
Providence had raised up a dynasty of Christian Roman
emperors.
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Verse 14. And to the woman were
give(οις),
Of THE great eagle. The great
eagle here mentioned is an emblem of the Roman empire in
general, and therefore differs from the dragon, which
is a symbol of the HEATHEN ROMAN empire in
particular. The Roman power is called an eagle from its
legionary standard, which was introduced among the Romans in
the second year of the consulate of C. Marius; for before that
time minotaurs, wolves, leopards, horses, boars, and eagles
were used indifferently, according to the humour of the
commander. The Roman eagles were figures in relievo of silver
or gold, borne on the tops of pikes, the wings being
displayed, and frequently a thunderbolt in their talons. Under
the eagle, on the pike, were piled bucklers, and sometimes
crowns. The two wings of the great eagle refer to the two
grand independent divisions of the Roman empire, which
took place January 17, A.D. 395, and were given to the woman,
Christianity being the established religion of both empires.
That she might fly into the wilderness, into her
place, apparent repetition here of what is said in Revelation
12:6has induced Bishop Newton to consider the former
passage as introduced by way of prolepsis or
anticipation; for, says he, the woman did not fly into
the wilderness till several years after the conversion of
Constantine. But that there is no such prolepsis as the bishop
imagines is evident from the ecclesiastical history of the
fourth century; for the woman, or true Church, began to
flee into the wilderness a considerable time before the
division of the great Roman empire into two independent
monarchies. The word translated fled is not to be taken
in that peculiar sense as if the woman, in the commencement of
her flight, had been furnished with wings, for the
original word is εÏ. . . The meaning therefore of verses 6 and
14, Revelation
12:6,14when taken in connection with their respective
contexts, is, that the woman began to make rapid strides
towards the desert almost immediately after her elevation to
the heaven or throne of the Roman empire, and
in the course of her flight was furnished with
the wings of the great eagle ιÎ. . . , that she
might FLY, into that place prepared of God, where
she should be fed a thousand two hundred and threescore days.
It is said here that the period for which the woman should be
nourished in the wilderness would be a time, times, and a
half; consequently this period is the same with the
twelve hundred and sixty days of Revelation
12:6. But in no other sense can they be considered the
same than by understanding a time to signify a year;
times, two years; and half a time, half a year;
i.e., three years and a half. And as each prophetic
year contains three hundred and sixty days, so three
years and a half will contain precisely twelve hundred and
sixty days. The Apocalypse being highly symbolical, it is
reasonable to expect that its periods of time will also be
represented symbolically, that the prophecy may be homogeneous
in all its parts. The Holy Spirit, when speaking of
years symbolically, has invariably represented them by
days, commanding, e. gr., the Prophet Ezekiel to lie
upon his left side three hundred and ninety days, that
it might be a sign or symbol of the house of
Israel bearing their iniquity as many years; and forty
days upon his right side, to represent to the house of
Judah in a symbolical manner, that they should bear their
iniquity forty years, The one thousand two hundred and
threescore days, therefore, that the woman is fed in the
wilderness, must be understood symbolically, and
consequently denote as many natural years. The wilderness into
which the woman flies is the Greek and Latin worlds, for she
is conveyed into her place by means of the two wings of the
great eagle. We must not understand the phrase flying into
her place of her removing from one part of the habitable
world into another, but of her speedy declension from a state
of great prosperity to a forlorn and desolate condition. The
woman is nourished for one thousand two hundred and threescore
years from the face of the serpent, The empires in the
east and west were destined, in the course of the Divine
providence, to support the Christian religion, at least
nominally while the rest of the world should remain in pagan
idolatry or under the influence of this dragon, here called
the serpent, because he deceiveth the whole world. The
words of the prophecy are very remarkable, The Christian
Church is said to be supported by the eastern and western
empires, two mighty denominations; and at the
same time situated in the wilderness, strongly denoting
that, though many professed Christianity, there were
but very few who "kept the commandments of God, and had
the testimony of Jesus Christ."
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Verse 15. And the serpent cast out
of his mouth water as a flood
The water
here evidently means great multitudes of nations and
peoples; for in Revelation
17:15, the interpreting angel says, The waters which
thou sawest-are peoples, and multitudes, and nations,
and tongues. This water, then, which the dragon cast out
of his mouth, must be an inundation of heathen barbarous
nations upon the Roman empire; and the purpose which the
dragon has in view by this inundation is, that he might cause
the woman, or Christian Church:-
To be carried away of the
flood.
Entirely swept away from the face of
the earth. Dr. Mosheim, in the commencement of his second
chapter upon the fifth century, observes "that the Goths, the
Heruli, the Franks, the Huns, and the Vandals, with other
fierce and warlike nations, for the most part strangers to
Christianity, had invaded the Roman empire, and rent it
asunder in the most deplorable manner. Amidst these calamities
the Christians were grievous, nay, we may venture to say the
principal, sufferers. It is true these savage nations were
much more intent upon the acquisition of wealth and dominion
than upon the propagation or support of the pagan
superstitions, nor did their cruelty and opposition to the
Christians arise from any religious principle, or from an
enthusiastic desire to ruin the cause of Christianity; it was
merely by the INSTIGATION of the pagans who remained yet
in the empire, that they were excited to treat with
such severity and violence the followers of Christ." Thus the
wo which was denounced, Revelation
12:12, against the inhabiters of the earth and of the
sea, came upon the whole Roman world; for, in consequence
of the excitement and malicious misrepresentations of the
pagans of the empire, "a transmigration of a great swarm of
nations" came upon the Romans, and ceased not their ravages
till they had desolated the eastern empire, even as far as the
gates of Byzantium, and finally possessed themselves of the
western empire. "If," says Dr. Robertson, in the introduction
to his History of Charles V., vol. i., pp. 11,12, edit. Lond.
1809, "a man was called to fix upon the period in the history
of the world, during which the condition of the human race was
most calamitous and afflicted, he would, without hesitation,
name that which elapsed from the death of Theodosius the Great
to the establishment of the Lombards in Italy, a period of
one hundred and seventy-six years. The
contemporary authors who beheld that scene of desolation,
labour and are at a loss for expressions to describe the
horror of it. The scourge of God, the destroyer of
nations, are the dreadful epithets by which they
distinguish the most noted of the barbarous leaders; and they
compare the ruin which they had brought on the world to the
havoc occasioned by earthquakes, conflagrations, or deluges,
the most formidable and fatal calamities which the imagination
of man can conceive." But the subtle design which the serpent
or dragon had in view, when he vomited out of his mouth a
flood of waters, was most providentially frustrated; for:-
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Verse 16. The earth helped the
woman
"Nothing, and indeed," as Bishop
Newton excellently observes, "was more likely to produce the
ruin and utter subversion of the Christian Church than the
irruptions of so many barbarous nations into the Roman empire.
But the event proved contrary to human appearance and
expectation: the earth swallowed up the flood;
the barbarians were rather swallowed up by the Romans, than
the Romans by the barbarians; the heathen conquerors, instead
of imposing their own, submitted to the religion of the
conquered Christians; and they not only embraced the religion,
but affected even the laws, the manners, the customs, the
language, and the very name, of Romans, so that the victors
were in a manner absorbed and lost among the vanquished." See
his Dissertations on the Prophecies, in loc.
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Verse 17. And the dragon was wroth
with the woman
The heathen party, foiled in
their subtle attempt to destroy Christianity, were greatly
enraged, and endeavoured to excite the hatred of the multitude
against the religion of Jesus. "They alleged that before the
coming of Christ the world was blessed with peace and
prosperity; but that since the progress of their religion
everywhere, the gods, filled with indignation to see their
worship neglected and their altars abandoned, had visited the
earth with those plagues and desolations which increased every
day." See Mosheim's Ecclesiastical History, cent. V., part 1,
and other works on this subject.
Went to make war with the remnant
of her seed
The dragon (οις),
, departed,
i.e., into the wilderness, whither the woman had fled; and in
another form commenced a new species of persecution, directed
only against the remnant of her seed, who
keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of
Jesus Christ. See on verse 13 of the following
chapter for an illustration of this remarkable passage. "Re
13:13"
      
CLARKE'S COMMENTARY - REVELATION 12
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Copyright Statement
The Adam Clarke Commentary is a derivative
of an electronic edition prepared by GodRules.net.
Bibliography
Information
Clarke, Adam.
"Commentary on Revelation 12". "The Adam Clarke
Commentary".
<http://www.studylight.org/com/acc/view.cgi?book=re&chapter=012>.
1832.
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