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.
6. into the wilderness ] Did she descend to earth? she had appeared in heaven before. See on Rev 10:9.
where she hath a place ] Most of the historical interpretations that have been advanced for this part of the vision proceed on the assumption that the Woman is the Christian Church. As interpretations, they are excluded if we admit that she is the ancient Israel: though applications and illustrations drawn from one may be appropriate to the other. On the view taken here, the doctrine of this chapter is analogous to that of Romans 11, though the point of view is not quite the same. St Paul distinguishes a double fulfilment of God’s promises to Israel “the Election,” the believing minority, receive them now, and “all Israel shall be saved” at last. St John does not distinguish the two, but uses language that covers both. The Daughter of Zion is kept alive by God, both in the continued quasi-national life of the Jewish people, and in the number (be it large or small) of Christians of Jewish race; who are known to God, though for 1500 years at least they have, as a community, disappeared in the mass of their Gentile fellow-believers. It is hardly necessary to contradict the utterly unhistorical theory, that any now existing Christian nation can be identified with a portion of Israel. The theory is perhaps most absurd when applied to the English, whose ancestors are mentioned as a pagan tribe of north Germany, within 30 years, if not within three of the date of this vision. (Tac. Germ. 40.)
1260 days ] See on Rev 11:2-3. Here, as in the earlier of those verses, the time defined is that of the humiliation of Israel: perhaps we may say that in the second it is conceived as that of their temporary rejection.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
And the woman – The woman representing the church. See the notes at Rev 12:1.
Fled – That is, she fled in the manner, and at the time, stated in Rev 12:14. John here evidently anticipates, by a summary statement, what he relates more in detail in Rev 12:14-17. He had referred Rev 12:2-5 to what occurred to the child in its persecutions, and he here alludes, in general, to what befell the true church as compelled to flee into obscurity and safety. Having briefly referred to this, the writer Rev 12:7-13 gives an account of the efforts of Satan consequent on the removal of the child to heaven.
Into the wilderness – On the meaning of the word wilderness in the New Testament, see the notes on Mat 3:1. It means a desert place, a place where there are few or no inhabitants; a place, therefore, where one might be concealed and unknown – remote from the habitations and the observations of people. This would well represent the fact, that the true church became for a time obscure and unknown – as if it had fled away from the habitations of people, and had retired to the solitude and loneliness of a desert. Yet even there Rev 12:14, Rev 12:16 it would be mysteriously nourished, though seemingly driven out into wastes and solitudes, and having its abode among the rocks and sands of a desert.
Where she hath a place prepared of God – A place where she might be safe, and might be kept alive. The meaning is, that during that time the true church, though obscure and almost unknown, would be the object of the divine protection and care – a beautiful representation of the church during the corruptions of the papacy and the darkness of the middle ages.
That they should feed her – That they should nourish or sustain her – trephosin – to wit, as specified in Rev 12:14, Rev 12:16. Those who were to do this, represented by the word they, are not particularly mentioned, and the simple idea is that she would be nourished during that time. That is, stripped of the figure, the church during that time would find true friends, and would be kept alive. It is hardly necessary to say that this has, in fact, occurred in the darkest periods of the history of the church.
A thousand two hundred and threescore days – That is, regarding these as prophetic days, in which a day denotes a year, twelve hundred and sixty years. The same period evidently is referred to in Rev 12:14, in the words for a time, and times, and half a time. And the same period is undoubtedly referred to in Dan 7:25; And they shall be given into his hand until a time, and times, and the dividing of time. For a full consideration of the meaning of this language, and its application to the papacy, see the notes on Dan 7:25. The full investigation there made of the meaning and application of the language renders its consideration here unnecessary. I regard it here, as I do there, as referring to the proper continuance of the papal power, during which the true church would remain in comparative obscurity, as if driven into a desert. Compare the notes on Rev 11:2. The meaning here is, that during that period the true church would not become wholly extinct. It would have an existence upon the earth, but its final triumph would be reserved for the time when this great enemy should be finally overthrown. Compare the notes on Rev 12:14-17.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Rev 12:6
The woman fled into the wilderness.
The emblem of the church militant
And the woman, there is the frailty of her nature; fled, there is the uncertainty of her state; into the wilderness, there is the place of her retiredness; where she is nourished by God, there is the staff of her comfort; a thousand two hundred and three score days, there is the term of her obscurity, and the period of all her troubles.
1. First her origin.
2. Her fruitfulness. The honour of women is their childbearing. The Church a fruitful mother, the mother of all that live by faith.
3. Her tenderness. Such is the temper of the militant Church, in fear always, weeping continually for her children, never out of trouble in one place or other.
4. Her weakness or impotency. Howsoever she be always strong in the Lord, and the power of His might.
5. Her frailty. All those usual similitudes whereby the Scripture setteth the Church militant before our eyes, show her frailty and imbecility. She is a vine, a lily, a dove, a flock of sheep in the midst of ravening wolves. What tree so subject to take hurt as a vine, which is so weak that it needeth continual binding and supporting, so tender that if it be pricked deep it bleedeth to death? No flower so soft and without all defence or shelter as a lily; no fowl so harmless as the dove that hath no gall at all; no cattle so oft in danger as sheep and lambs in the midst of wolves. This picture might leave been taken of the Church as she fled from Pharaoh into the wilderness, or as she fled into Egypt from Herod, or as she fled into all parts of the earth in the time of the first persecutions from heathen emperors, in all which her trials she gained more than she lost. For as Justin Martyr rightly observed, persecution is that to the Church which pruning is to the vine, whereby it is made more fruitful. (D. Featly, D. D.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
NOTES ON CHAP. XII., BY J. E. C.
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 Re 12:14.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
And the woman fled into the wilderness: as the Israelites, when they fled from Pharaoh, went into the wilderness; and Joseph, watched upon by Herod, fled into Egypt; so the church did hide herself during the antichristian persecutions, every one shifting for themselves as well as they could.
Where she hath a place prepared of God; God provided for them in some more obscure places.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
6. woman fledMary’s flightwith Jesus into Egypt is a type of this.
where she hathSo Creads. But A and B add “there.”
a placethat portion ofthe heathen world which has received Christianity professedly,namely, mainly the fourth kingdom, having its seat in the modernBabylon, Rome, implying that all the heathen world would notbe Christianized in the present order of things.
prepared of Godliterally,”from God.” Not by human caprice or fear, but by thedetermined counsel and foreknowledge of God, the woman, theChurch, fled into the wilderness.
they should feed herGreek,“nourish her.” Indefinite for, “she should be fed.”The heathen world, the wilderness, could not nourish theChurch, but only afford her an outward shelter. Here, as in Da4:26, and elsewhere, the third person plural refers to theheavenly powers who minister from God nourishment to theChurch. As Israel had its time of first bridal love, on its firstgoing out of Egypt into the wilderness, so the Christian Church’swilderness-time of first love was the apostolic age,when it was separate from the Egypt of this world, having nocity here, but seeking one to come; having only a place in thewilderness prepared of God (Rev 12:6;Rev 12:14). The harlot takes theworld city as her own, even as Cain was the first builder of a city,whereas the believing patriarchs lived in tents. Then apostateIsrael was the harlot and the young Christian Church the woman; butsoon spiritual fornication crept in, and the Church in theseventeenth chapter is no longer the woman, but the harlot,the great Babylon, which, however, has in it hidden the truepeople of God (Re 18:4). Thedeeper the Church penetrated into heathendom, the more she herselfbecame heathenish. Instead of overcoming, she was overcome by theworld [AUBERLEN]. Thus,the woman is “the one inseparable Church of the Old andNew Testament” [HENGSTENBERG],the stock of the Christian Church being Israel (Christ and Hisapostles being Jews), on which the Gentile believers have beengrafted, and into which Israel, on her conversion, shall begrafted, as into her own olive tree. During the wholeChurch-historic period, or “times of the Gentiles,” wherein”Jerusalem is trodden down of the Gentiles,” there is nobelieving Jewish Church, and therefore, only the Christian Church canbe “the woman.” At the same time there is meant,secondarily, the preservation of the Jews during this Church-historicperiod, in order that Israel, who was once “the woman,” andof whom the man-child was born, may become so again at theclose of the Gentile times, and stand at the head of the twoelections, literal Israel, and spiritual Israel, the Church electedfrom Jews and Gentiles without distinction. Eze 20:35;Eze 20:36, “I will bring youinto the wilderness of the people (Hebrew, ‘peoples‘),and there will I plead with you . . . like as I pleaded with yourfathers in the wilderness of Egypt” (compare Notes, seeon Eze 20:35, 36): not a wildernessliterally and locally, but spiritually a state of discipline andtrial among the Gentile “peoples,” during thelong Gentile times, and one finally consummated in the last time ofunparalleled trouble under Antichrist, in which the sealed remnant(Re 7:1-8) who constitute”the woman,” are nevertheless preserved “from the faceof the serpent” (Re 12:14).
thousand two hundred andthreescore daysanticipatory of Re12:14, where the persecution which caused her to flee ismentioned in its place: Re13:11-18 gives the details of the persecution. It is mostunlikely that the transition should be made from the birth of Christto the last Antichrist, without notice of the long interveningChurch-historical period. Probably the 1260 days, or periods,representing this long interval, are RECAPITULATEDon a shorter scale analogically during the last Antichrist’s shortreign. They are equivalent to three and a half years, which, as halfof the divine number seven, symbolize the seeming victory ofthe world over the Church. As they include the whole Gentile timesof Jerusalem’s being trodden of the Gentiles, they must be muchlonger than 1260 years; for, above several centuries more than 1260years have elapsed since Jerusalem fell.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And the woman fled into the wilderness,…. Not as soon as she was delivered of her child, which is not reasonable to suppose, and would have been improper if not impracticable; nor indeed was this flight until after the war was over, mentioned in Re 12:13; nor until the dragon and his angels were conquered and cast out; nor until a fresh persecution was raised by the dragon against the woman, as appears from Re 12:14; where this account stands in its proper place, and is here only introduced by way of prolepsis, or anticipation, and that with this view, to show what care was taken of the woman, as well as of her son: and this does not design the flight of the Christians from Jerusalem to Pella, a little before the destruction of the former; nor the expulsion of the Jews or Christians from Rome, either by Claudius or by Nero; but the disappearance of the true church, and its obscure state and condition quickly after the above advance of it; for through the riches and honours which Constantine bestowed upon the Christians, they became vain, proud, ambitious, and careless; false doctrine and superstition obtained; the antichristian apostasy came on apace, and prevailed and increased, and so obscured the true church, that in process of time it became invisible, was in the cleft of the rock, and in the secret places of the stairs, or like persons in a wood or wilderness, not to be seen, as well as desolate and uncomfortable:
where she hath a place prepared of God; God has had, and will have a church in the worst of times; as he reserved a number in Elijah’s time, so he did in the times of the antichristian apostasy, who bowed not the knee to idolatry; this woman, the church, and her case, are the same with the 144,000 sealed ones in Re 7:1: whom God distinguished, hid, and preserved; for the wilderness is a place of retirement and safety, Eze 34:25, as well as of obscurity; and if any particular place is pointed at, I should think the valleys of Piedmont, which lie between France and Italy, are intended, where God has preserved, and continued a set of witnesses to the truth, in a succession, from the beginning of the apostasy to the present time, living in obscurity, and in safety, so far as not to be utterly destroyed:
that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred [and] threescore days: in allusion to the children of Israel in the wilderness, where they were fed with manna forty years; so the overcomers, or true Christians in the Pergamos church state, have hidden manna given them to eat, the food of the wilderness, with which church state the church in the wilderness must be considered as contemporary, as also with the Thyatirian and Sardian church states; for though, at the Reformation, which the Sardinian church state introduces, the church appeared again, and has been ever since coming up out of the wilderness, yet she is stall in it; where she is fed and nourished with the Gospel, and the ordinances of it, by the faithful ministers of the word, the two witnesses that prophesy in sackcloth; the time of whose prophesying: is exactly of the same date with the woman’s bring in the wilderness, and with the reign of antichrist, namely, forty two months, or 1260 days, that is so many years, Re 11:2.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Fled into the wilderness ( ). Second aorist active indicative of . Here, of course, not Mary, but “the ideal woman” (God’s people) of the preceding verses, who fled under persecution of the dragon. God’s people do not at once share the rapture of Christ, but the dragon is unable to destroy them completely. The phrases used here seem to be reminiscent of De 8:2ff. (wanderings of Israel in the wilderness), 1Ki 17:2f. and 19:3f. (Elijah’s flight), I Macc. 2:29 (flight of the Jews from Antiochus Epiphanes), Mt 2:13 (flight of Joseph and Mary to Egypt), Mr 13:14 (the flight of Christians at the destruction of Jerusalem).
Where (—). Hebrew redundancy (where–there) as in Rev 3:8; Rev 8:9; Rev 8:9; Rev 13:8; Rev 13:12; Rev 17:9; Rev 20:8.
Prepared (). Perfect passive predicate participle of , for which verb see Matt 20:23; Rev 8:6; Rev 9:7; Rev 9:15; Rev 16:12; Rev 19:7; Rev 21:2, and for its use with Joh 14:2f. and for the kind of fellowship meant by it (Ps 31:21; 2Cor 13:13; Col 3:3; 1John 1:3).
Of God ( ). “From (by) God,” marking the source as God (Rev 9:18; Jas 1:13). This anticipatory symbolism is repeated in 12:13f.
That there they may nourish her ( ). Purpose clause with and the present for continued action: active subjunctive according to A P though C reads , present active indicative, as is possible also in 13:17 and certainly so in 1Jo 5:20 (Robertson, Grammar, p. 984), a solecism in late vernacular Greek. The plural is indefinite “they” as in Rev 10:11; Rev 11:9. One MSS. has (is nourished). The stereotyped phrase occurs here, as in 11:2f., for the length of the dragon’s power, repeated in 12:14 in more general terms and again in 13:5.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
Of God [ ] . Lit., from God, the preposition marking the source from which the preparation came. For a similar use, see Jas 1:13, “tempted of God.”
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
1) “And the woman fled into the wilderness,” (aki he gune ephugen eis ten emeron) “And the woman fled into the desert (desolate place),” v. 14, thought or considered to be Petra, where the 144,000 of Israel who are sealed against death shall go into hiding into refuge for 42 months at the last half of the great tribulation or week of Jacob’s trouble, Dan 9:27; Heb 7:14.
2) “Where she hath a place,” (hopou echei ekei topon) where she holds there a place,” both prophesied and prepared of the Lord for her final refuge in the time of Jacob’s trouble, Isa 26:20; Dan 12:1.
3) “Prepared of God,” (hetoimasmenon apo tou theou) “having been (that has been) prepared from and of God; these appear to be the true people of God from Israel, for whom God has prepared a safe refuge in the storm-height of his indignation upon the wicked of the earth, Rev 12:14.
4) “That they should feed her there,” (hina ekei trephosin aute) “in order that out there they might nourish her,” the “they” who feed Israel in the pink-rock city of Petra are God’s angelic protecting and providing ministers, Heb 1:14; Dan 12:1; Isa 26:20.
5) “A thousand two hundred and threescore days,” (hemeras chilias diakosias heksekonta) “Twelve hundred and sixty days,” Rev 12:14, while those of unbelieving natural Israel, who held to formal worship only are tormented during the (1260) days, forty two months, three and a half years, or a time, times, and an half time, Rev 12:14-17; Rev 7:4; Dan 12:7; Dan 12:10-13. A variant of time of six weeks of days as related by Daniel seems to embrace time for cleansing of the temple or rebellion over the man of sin’s takeover.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
(6) And the woman fled . . .Translate, And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she hath there a place prepared from God, that there they may nourish her for a thousand two hundred and sixty days. The flight of the woman into the wilderness, and her fortunes there, are more fully described in Rev. 12:13. This verse simply tells us that the woman fled; we read afterwards that it was persecution which drove her into the wilderness. As long as the evil one can be called the prince of this world: as long, that is, as the world refuses to recognise her true Prince, and pays homage to worldliness, and baseness, and falseness in heart, mind, or life, so long must the Church, in so far as she is faithful to Him who is true, dwell as an exile in the wilderness. This feeling it wasnot any hostility to life as life, or to lifes dutieswhich led the Apostle to speak of Christians as strangers and pilgrims, and of the Church as another Israel, whom a greater than Moses or Joshua was conducting to a land of better promise (Heb. 4:8-9). The woman, the representative of the Church, has a place prepared by God for her in the wilderness; she is not altogether uncared for; she has a place prepared, and nourishment. God provides her with a tabernacle of safety (Psa. 90:1), and with the true Bread which came down from heaven (Exo. 16:15; Psa. 78:24-25; Joh. 6:49-50), and with the living water from the Rock (Joh. 4:14; Joh. 7:37-39; 1Co. 10:3-4). The time of the sojourn in the wilderness is twelve hundred and sixty days, a period corresponding in length to the forty-two months during which the witnesses prophesied; it is the period of the Churchs witness against predominant evil. Driven forth, her voice, though but as the voice of one crying in the wilderness, is lifted up on behalf of righteousness and truth.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
6. Fled into the wilderness Commentators think that this is said in anticipation of Rev 12:14; but the time-periods in both verses are not precisely identical. This verse tells what became of the woman while the firmamental fight lasts; Rev 12:14 tells what, after the dragon’s fall. The two flights seem to be somewhat different. In this she fearfully flees; in Rev 12:14 she is eagle-winged and flies. Note Rev 12:14.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘And the woman fled into the wilderness where she has a place prepared by God, that there they may nourish her for one thousand, two hundred and sixty days.’
This verse is put in as a quick note to explain the final effect for the woman of what happens to her son. It is amplified in more detail in Rev 12:13-17.
The fleeing into the wilderness is similar to the ‘flee into the mountains’ of Mat 24:16; Mar 13:14; Luk 21:21, advice from Jesus of what those in Judea should do when Jerusalem is surrounded by armies (Luk 21:20) and the desolating abomination is set up (the image of the Emperor of Rome on the standards of the legions). John speaks with an awareness that at that time the people of God did flee over the Jordan into the wilderness country (by this time the Jewish remnant of old is recognised as being found in the churches of Jerusalem, Judea and Galilee).
According to Eusebius the Jerusalem church fled to Pella beyond the Jordan, and many Jewish Christians in Judea and Galilee no doubt fled into the surrounding wilderness for safety under persecution from the local would be ‘Messiahs’ who sprang up and demanded a following, as well as seeking safety in the light of the Roman response to those Messiahs.
But John is concerned also with the symbolism of the wilderness, namely that it signified a time of testing and purifying (1Ki 19:4; 1Ki 19:15; Mar 1:12-13; Mat 4:1; Luk 4:1). The connection with Elijah is especially important as it explains the mention of the one thousand two hundred and sixty days, which is three and a half years, for the idea of three and a half years is closely linked with Elijah as a God-appointed period in which he sought a place of refuge from the wrath of Ahab and Jezebel in places prepared by God, commencing in the wilderness ( 1Ki 17:1 with Rev 18:1; Rev 17:3; Rev 17:9; compare Luk 4:25; Jas 5:17).
John has a habit of taking incidents in the life of Elijah and giving them new meaning Compare the seven thousand killed in the earthquake (Rev 11:13) in contrast with the seven thousand who had not bowed the knee to Baal (1Ki 19:18). The false fire that comes down from Heaven (Rev 13:13) representing an imitation Elijah. The fact that the two witnesses can prevent rain from Heaven (Rev 11:6). So he sees a similarity between Elijah fleeing into the wilderness from the wrath of the king, and being sustained there by God, and the fleeing into the wilderness of the people of God where they too will be sustained. They are the new remnant.
Three and a half years is symbolic of a period of testing and trial. We must not assume that every mention of three and a half years refers to the same period of time. The lack of rain under Elijah was recognised as lasting for three and a half years. Thus this period became a symbol of a period of trial and tribulation.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Rev 12:6. And the woman fled Bishop Newton, explaining this and the foregoing verses, observes, that 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, &c. St. Paul has made use of the same metaphor, and applied it to his preaching and propagating the gospel in the midst of persecution and tribulation, 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 that time (Rev 12:3.) there appeared a great red dragon, &c. This is a well known 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 has been since of the popes and cardinals. His seven heads (as the angel, ch. 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 testify 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, lib. 3: eleg. 11: ver. 57. 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 shewn before, is represented as the third part of the world. He stood before the woman who was ready to be delivered, to devour her child, &c. and the Roman emperors and magistrates kept a jealous 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, &c. Rev 12:5. As the word rendered child, properly signifies a son, it could not possibly signify any thing but a male; but the addition of the word man or male to it, might be intended to express the vigorous constitution of the child, and what may be called a masculine form, which may or may not be ascribed to the male sex. 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 the Christian magistrates, princes, and emperors: it was therefore promised before to Christians in general, ch. Rev 2:26-27. He that overcometh, &c. But it should seem that Constantine was here particularly intended, for whose life the dragon (or Galerius,) laid many snares; but he providentially escaped them all, and, notwithstanding all opposition, was caught up to 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, there is no power but of God, &c. Rom 13:1. 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 he also subdued the Scythians, Sarmatians, and other barbarous nations, who had never before been subject to the Roman empire. And Spanheim informs us, that there are still extant medals and coins of Constantine with these inscriptions, “The subduer of the barbarous nations;””The conqueror of all nations;””Every where a conqueror;” and the like. What is added in this verse, of the woman’s flying into the wilderness, &c. 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 afterwards, and enters more into the particulars in their proper place.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
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.
Ver. 6. And the woman fled ] viz. After the battle mentioned in the next verse was fought and finished. See Rev 12:13-14 .
Into the wilderness ] This notes her afflicted and desolate condition, forced now to live in poverty and exile.
Where she hath a place ] To wit, that temple that was so exactly measured, Rev 11:12 , called here a wilderness, as was that of Judea, Mat 3:1 , because but thinly inhabited. The elect are but a handful to a houseful of Atheists and Papists. Or else in allusion to the wilderness of Arabia, through which the Israelites fled from that dragon Pharaoh.
That they should feed her there ] Those two prophets, Rev 11:3 , were appointed to feed these hidden ones, Psa 83:3 , with the hidden manna, Rev 2:17 . Their time and hers agree.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Rev 12:6 . . . ., = of agent (so Act 2:22 ; Act 4:36 , etc., Ps. Sol. 15:6, and a contemporary inscription in Dittenberger’s Sylloge Inscr. 655 8 ) only here in Apocalypse. On the flight of the faithful to the wilderness, a stereotyped feature of the antichrist period, cf. A. C. 211 f. Apocalyptic visions, particularly in the form of edited sources or adapted traditions, were not concerned to preserve strict coherency in details or consistency in situation. Thus it is not clear whether the was conceived to exist in heaven, or whether heaven is the background rather than the scene of what transpires. What follows in 7 12 is the description (from the popular religious version of the source) of what John puts from a definitely Christian standpoint in Rev 3:21 , Rev 5:5 , where (as in Asc. Isa. Gk. ii. 9 11 the downfall of Satan is ascribed to Jesus himself.
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
Anticipatory, the flight being consequent on the war in heaven (Rev 12:14).
into. App-104.
wilderness. Compare Eze 20:33-38.
that. Greek. hina, as Rev 12:4.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Rev 12:6. ) The wilderness is the western part of the world, Europe, or its districts in particular on this side of the Danube; for on the other side of the Danube the countries were already before this more imbued with Christianity. , the wilderness, and , the west, are connected by derivation. D. Laurence Reinhard, in his chronological arrangement of the Apocalypse, p. 14, rightly thinks that this passage has reference to the state of the Church from the ninth century.- , 1260 days) The 1260 prophetic days are 657 ordinary years in full. And if you reckon these from A. 864 to 1521, you will certainly not be far from the truth. The woman obtained a firm place in the wilderness, in Europe, especially in Bohemia, and there, in particular, she was nourished; until more free and abundant nourishment was vouchsafed to her by means of the Reformation. The close of the 1260 days is the Reformation.[124] The close of the times, 1, 2, and , is the Millennium. Between the Reformation and the Millennium there is no more remarkable revolution, than the Reformation itself, the great importance of which is sufficiently perceived from this.
[124] By a somewhat different method of computation, in der Erkl. Offeneb. Ed. ii. p. 592, the commencement [terminus a quo] of the 1260 days (by which 677 ordinary years are there equally made up) is fixed not in the year 864, but 940, and the end [terminus ad quem] not in the year 152], that is, at the Reformation, but in the violent suppression of the Bohemian Church, which followed in the year 1617, so that the Reformation itself, ver. 14, finds its place in the middle of times 1, 2, , and speaking exactly in the middle of the binary number, which these times represent. That you may not think that a great leap is here made, Reader! I wish you to remember (aus der Einlcitung zur Erkl. Offenb. 52), that a prophetical day comprises half an ordinary year, with the addition of about 14 days. If you take 14 full days: 1260 days, by this measure will make 678 years, with an addition (which Erkl. Offenb. nearly represents at the passage quoted); but if, instead of 14 days, you take 8, the sum of 657 years will come forth (which the Gnomon proposes, which is almost equally distant from Erkl. Offenb. c. ix. 15). The method of computation therefore itself introduces a difference of only 21 years (in which matter I would rather give the preference to Erkl. Offenb., the 2d Edition of which is certainly more recent than the Gnomon, than to the Gnomon): but the places assigned to the beginning and the end respectively [termini a quo et ad quem], vary within a space of 96 years; but this difference makes no variance as far as concerns the chief point of the subject, which comprises most important revolutions, and those brought about gradually. (Respecting a latitude of this kind, comp. den Beschluss der Erkl. Offenb. ii. St. p. 1082, and the next, or die Vorrede zu meiner erklrenden Umschreibung, etc., p. ix.) To this you may refer the conclusion which presents itself in der Erkl. Offenb., Ed. ii., p. 591. Also wren die 677, Jahre zwischen A. 1524 und 1624 ausgeloffen. In dem Raum dieser 100 Jahre ist nichts bedenklicher, als die Reformation, und die mit deren Besttigung verknupfte betrbte Zerstrung der Bohmischen Bruder-Gemeine: und also ist bey soldier Revolution das Ziel der 677, Jahre order der 1260, prophetischen Tage zu suchen. Wir lassen einem jeden die Freyheit, das Jahr zn bestimmen: doch prfe man, was folgt. A. 1517, nahm diess grosse Werk seinen Anfang. Die Bbmische Brder-Gemeine, und die Reformation, stunden 100 Jahr nebeneinander, bis auf Jahr 1617.-Von A. 1617, kommt man mit 677 Jahren zwucke auf das Jahr 940.-und also geben die 1260, Tage den Periodum der bhmischen Kirche.-E. B.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
a thousand
Rev 11:2; Rev 11:3; Rev 13:5; Dan 9:27; Dan 7:14 (See Scofield “Dan 7:14”).
Fuente: Scofield Reference Bible Notes
the woman: Rev 12:4, Rev 12:14
that: 1Ki 17:3-6, 1Ki 17:9-16, 1Ki 19:4-8, Mat 4:11
a thousand: Rev 11:2, Rev 11:3
Reciprocal: Psa 107:4 – wandered Son 3:6 – this Son 8:5 – from the Dan 7:25 – a time Dan 12:7 – that it Dan 12:11 – a thousand Hos 2:14 – and bring Mat 2:13 – Arise Rev 13:5 – and power Rev 17:3 – into
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Rev 12:6. This wilderness was the period of the Dark Ages where the length of it is given in words and which is the same 1260 that the other computations give. All through that period the true church was alive but was in comparative obscurity because of the oppressive domination of the institution of Rome with its union of church and state But her child–the spirit of self-determination–was alive and tenderly watched over by an infinite Guardian, and was destined some day to “make his mark in the world” upon the return of his mother from the wilderness.
Comments by Foy E. Wallace
Verse 6.
(3) The woman’s flight into the wilderness–Rev 12:6.
1. And the woman fled into the wilderness. The context of these visions surrounded the events prior to and including the siege and destruction of Jerusalem, and the scattering of the church in Judea by onslaught of persecution. Jesus foretold such a flight in his description of the destruction of Jerusalem in the twenty-fourth chapter of Matthew. This cannot be considered an application too light or limited or unimportant for this vision. The portent was tremendous. It was of extremely ominous and terrible proportions. In the Lord’s warnings and in his own forebodings he exhorted them to pray that the flight might not come at a time when hindrances to the flight could not be overcome, and the difficulties of escape would be insurmountable i.e. to the woman with child, who could be greatly handicapped in flight; in the winter when the cold weather would add to suffering and misery; on the sabbath day, when due to the Jewish observance of the sabbath the exits of the city would be closed, its gates locked, barring an expeditious flight, and they would find themselves entrapped. (See GOD’S PROPHETIC WORD, p. 336-337) The period of escape from Jerusalem after the city was alerted would be so short that the Lord warned the one on the housetop not to come down to enter his house for even clothing or food; and the laborer in the field not to return to his house for such purpose, for the same reason.
Describing the horrors of the siege Jesus called it “the tribulation of those days” and quoted the prophecy of Dan 12:11 on “the abomination of desolation” (Mat 24:15) as being fulfilled in the destruction of Jerusalem. During the siege one million one hundred thousand people perished.
All the houses and underground chambers were filled with perishing bodies; famishing people ate the putrified flesh of human corpses; mothers ate the flesh of their own babies. Outside the besieged city the expatriated race of Jews throughout the empire were slaughtered. In his chronicles on the destruction of Jerusalem Josephus, the eye-witness historian, verifies the declaration of our Lord in Mat 24:21 : “For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be.” Since the Lord Himself declares that no event of the future could exceed the tribulation, there can be no reason to search for events in later history, or to engage in speculation on events of future history to fulfill the identical symbolic descriptions of Revelation. The signs and symbols of Revelation were but the extensions of the twenty- fourth chapter of Matthew, spoken by the Lord Himself in Matthew’s record and extended by his servant John in the visions of Revelation.
In this verse, Rev 12:6, John stated that “the woman (the church) fled into the wilderness.” This was precisely what Jesus commanded his disciples to do. When the signs which he had set forth should appear Christians in Jerusalem and Judea were to make hasty their flight. In Mat 24:33 Jesus said to them: “When ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors.” In the parallel record of Luk 21:20, He said, “When ye shall see Jerusalem compassed with armies, then know that the desolation thereof is nigh”–and they did know it. In Mat 24:16 the Lord said, “Then let them which be in Judea flee into the mountains.” In Luk 21:21, the parallel adds, “And let them which are in the midst of it (Jerusalem) depart out”–and they did, they departed and fled.
As generally known, Josephus was an eyewitness to the siege of Jerusalem and the events preceding it. In Wars, Book III, Section 3, page 3, he relates that after the armies of Cestius Gallius, Roman general, had besieged Jerusalem, they withdrew–and in this interval the disciples fled, according to the Lord’s admonition. The historian Josephus was an unbeliever and admitted his inability to account for the cessation, but declared it was nevertheless a fact. All who believe the statements of the Lord in Matthew twentyfour, Mark thirteen and Luke twenty-one, know and understand the why-it was the Lord’s doing.
Another later historian, Eusebius, whose history bears date of 324 A. D., states in Book III, Section 3, page 3, that the church in Jerusalem, by divine revelation, fled to the mountain country of Pella, beyond the Jordan, which according to Josephus was largely a desert, mountain region. The Lord of the descriptions and signs of Matthew’s record of the destruction of Jerusalem is the Lord of the portrayals and symbols of Revelation. There is no difference in the command for all the Christians in Jerusalem and Judea to flee to the desert region of Pella, in the record of Matthew and Luke, and the statement in Rev 12:6, that she fled into the wilderness.
2. To a place prepared of God. The disciples’ flight was to a place where Jesus had directed them: “Let them which be in Judea flee into the mountains.” But Revelation states that the woman fled to “a place prepared of God.” The place where Jesus commanded is the place that God prepared. The descriptions are parallel.
Furthermore, Jesus said in Mat 24:34 : “This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled.” All of the signs of Mat 24:1-51 are above verse 34. Jesus said they were all fulfilled in the generation of people who heard his words. (For further discussion on the destruction of Jerusalem, see GOD’S PROPHETIC WORD, pp. 246-260.) It is so with the symbols of Revelation. Jesus said to the disciples in Luk 21:31-32 : when “ye see” and “know ye”; and “I say unto you.” His emphasis was on the fulfillment of the signs in events of their own lives. The parallel in Revelation is verse 3 of chapter 1: “Blessed is he that readeth (the one who read it to the churches); and they that hear (heed) the words; and they that keep (remember and observe); for the time is at hand.” If the time of these things was so remote as to be yet future, there was no point in this exhortation for them, and no application to them. As the signs of Mat 24:1-51 were fulfilled in that generation of living people, so the symbols of Revelation were fulfilled in the experiences of the existing churches.
3. That they should feed her there a thousand two hundred and threescore days. Here is an instance of a literal period of time, a specific date, introduced into a figurative and symbolic context. There is another identical example of a specific date connected with the context of prophetic language. In the seventh chapter of Isaiah it was prophesied that the ten tribes would cease. Ephraim was forming an alliance against Judah. The prophet said it would not stand, that Ephraim would be broken, cease to be a separate people, and become extinct as a nation. In fulfillment of it they went into captivity and never came out one people again.
Now, read the prophecy of specific time period and historical dates from Isa 7:1-25, verses 5 to 8:
“Because Syria, Ephraim, and the son of Remaliah, have taken evil counsel against thee, saying, Let us go up against Judah, and vex it, and let us make a breach therein for us, and set a king in the midst of it, even the son of Tabeal: Thus saith the Lord God, It shall not stand, neither shall it come to pass. For the head of Syria is Damascus, and the head of Damascus is Rezin; and within threescore and five years shall Ephraim be broken, that it be not a people.”
The prophet stated that “in threescore and five years (sixty-five years) shall Ephraim be broken that it be not a people.” The date of this prophecy is 733 B. C., according to such authorities as Wordsworth, Adam Clarke and Pulpit Commentary. The event prophesied was fulfilled in 669 B. C.–exactly sixty-five years later. The date of Ephraim’s decease was linked with the prophecy that the invasion of Judah by Samaria would fail. That invasion did fail. The prophet said Ephraim would cease to be a people. Ephraim did cease to be a people. It all occurred within the “threescore and five years,” between 733 B.C. and 669 B.C.–the specific time period and date. (For further discussion of Isa 7:5-8 see GOD’S PROPHETIC WORD, p. 409.)
The context yields the same exact computation of a thousand two hundred and threescore days of the woman’s flight into the wilderness. It was the same period of “the forty and two months” of the preceding chapter eleven– the same mathematical time period in which Jerusalem, “the holy city” was trodden “under foot forty and two months.” In the record of Luk 21:24, this period of the treading under foot of Jerusalem was limited by the phrase “until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled.” It was the same period as the “forty and two months” of Rev 11:3, and the thousand two hundred and threescore days of chapter 12:6. The specific mathematical period designated, historically verified, follows this order:
Emperor Nero delivered the mandate for the siege of Jerusalem to Vespasian, his imperial officer, in the month of February A. D. 67 when the war against Judea was declared. This was the beginning of the period which ended in August A. D. 70, when the city of Jerusalem was razed, ravished and destroyed; the temple was desecrated and demolished, bringing an end to Judaism and the Jewish state.
This exact computation is attested, as mentioned previously, in the authoritative works of Jewish Testimonies, Volume VIII, by Lardner, and Wars of Jews, Volume VII, by Josephus. No further evidence is necessary. As in Isaiah’s prophecy, the end of the twelve tribes was a specific mathematical period of sixty five years-so the time period covering the flight of the woman into the wilderness was chronological–the forty-two months or twelve hundred and sixty days in which Jerusalem was besieged. There is no need to look farther away for the fulfillment of these apocalypses. Every effort to bring them down through medieval history and “the dark ages” has been anachronistic and impossible. But assigning Revelation to the same period as all the other epistles of the New Testament, all of which were written before the impending trial and tribulation and distress, lends coherency and harmony to its apocalyptic delineations.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Rev 12:6. And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she hath a place prepared of God, that they may nourish her there a thousand, two hundred, and threescore days. The fortunes of the womans child having been described, we are now informed of her own. The flight of Elijah into the wilderness, perhaps even the temptation of our Lord there, is present to the writers mind; and the words are applicable to the condition of the Church during her whole pilgrimage state in the present world. Thus closes the first scene of the chapter, and we have now to ask as to its meaning. It appears to us that the key to this is to be found in the opening verses of the Gospel of St. John (Joh 1:1-5), the parallelism of which to the present passage it is impossible to mistake. We have the same contrasts as those there presented,light, darkness, light shining in the darkness, the darkness trying to prevail against the light, but not overcoming it (see note on Joh 1:5). Here also, as there, nothing is said of the origin of the darkness. We read only that it exists. If these observations be correct we can now understand the scene. It is not interrupted at Rev 12:7, in order that the war in heaven may be described, and again resumed at Rev 12:13. There is a marked difference between the two scenes contained in Rev 12:1-6 and Rev 12:13-17, and the difference consists in this, that the first is ideal, the second actual. Strictly speaking, the woman in Rev 12:1-6 is neither the Jewish nor the Christian Church. She is light from Him who is light, and with whom there is no darkness at all, light which had been always shining before it was partially embodied either in the Church of the old or the new covenant. Her actual conflict with the darkness has not begun. We behold her in her own glorious existence, and it is enough to dwell upon the potencies that are in her as a light of man. In like manner the dragon is not yet to be identified with the devil or Satan. That identification does not take place till we reach Rev 12:9. The former differs from the latter as the abstract and ideal power of evil differs from evil in the concrete. As the woman is ideal light, light before it appears in the Church upon earth, so the dragon is ideal darkness, the power of sin before it begins its deadly warfare against the children of God. Thus also we learn what is intended by the son who is born to the woman. He is not the Son actually incarnate but the ideally incarnate Son, the true light, which lighteth every man, coming into the world (Joh 1:9). More difficulty may be felt in answering the question, whether, along with the Son Himself, we are to see in this son, of mans sex, the true members of Christs Body. Ideally, it would seem that we are to do so. All commentators allow that in the sons being caught up unto God and unto His throne there is a reference to the ascension and glorification of our Lord. But, if so, it appears to be impossible to separate between the risen, ascended, and glorified Lord and those who are in Him thus risen, ascended, and glorified. In a note on Joh 16:21 we have called attention to the use of the word man instead of child in that verse, as showing that we are there invited to behold the new birth of regenerated humanity, that new life in a risen Saviour with which the Church springs into being. The thought thus presented in the words of Jesus meets us again in this vision of the Seer. Christs true people as well as Himself are made to sit down with Him in His throne, even as He sat down with His Father in His throne (Rev 3:21). They not less than their Lord tend as a shepherd the nations with a sceptre of iron, even as He received of His Father (chap. Rev 2:26-27). We cannot separate Him from them or them from Him. Everything then in these verses is anticipatory or ideal. The forces are on the field. We see light and darkness, their natural antagonism to each other, the fierce enmity of the darkness against the light, the apparent success but real defeat of the darkness, the apparent quenching but real triumph of the light Gods eternal plan is before us. We have a pattern like that showed to Moses in the mount (comp. chap. Rev 4:11).
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
Since Jesus is now ascended, the woman must here symbolize the church, who would be God’s faithful at that time. When fleshly Israel was delivered from Egypt, she went to the wilderness to worship, receive the law and take a God-guided journey to the promised land. Spiritual Israel worships God today, follows his law and journeys toward heaven. They were fed with manna and protected from their enemies by the Lord, just as we receive Divine care and protection. ( Mat 6:24-34 ; Rom 8:28-39 ) We should also note that some of them fell, which should serve to warn us. ( 1Co 10:1-13 ) The text says “they” will care for the woman, thus indicating God and Christ together. (verse 5; Mat 28:18-20 ) Her time period in the wilderness is the same as the testimony of the two witnesses. ( Rev 11:3 ) If we were correct in saying they were the Word and the church, this could stand for the whole Christian age since Christ’s word will not pass away. ( Mat 24:35 ) However, here it more particularly applies to the short or broken period of time God will allow the church to be trampled. ( Rev 11:2-3 )
Fuente: Gary Hampton Commentary on Selected Books
12:6 {12} And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she hath a place prepared of God, that {13} they should feed her there a thousand two hundred [and] threescore days.
(12) The Church of Christ which was of the Jews, after his ascension into heaven, hid itself in the world as in a wilderness, trusting only in the defence of God, as Luke witnesses in Acts.
(13) Namely the apostles and servants of God ordained to feed with the word of life, the Church collected both of the Jews and Gentiles unless any man will take the word “alerent” impersonally after the use of the Hebrews, instead of “aleretur” but I like the first better. For he has respect to those two prophets, of whom Rev 11:3 speaks. As for the meaning of the 1290 days, see the same verse Geneva (7) “Rev 11:3”.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
Since Satan cannot destroy Jesus Christ he turns his attention to Israel. John saw Israel as having fled into the wilderness where God protected her for 1,260 days (three and a half years), the second half of the tribulation period (Rev 12:14; Rev 11:2-3; cf. Mat 24:16; Mar 13:14). Many non-dispensational interpreters take the 1,260 days as describing the entire inter-advent period. [Note: E.g., Beale, p. 646.] Throughout Scripture a wilderness often represents a place of desolation, safety, discipline, and testing. The passive "be nourished" suggests that others, perhaps Gentiles but definitely God and angels (cf. Dan 12:1), will care for the Jews at this time. [Note: Alford, 4:669; Robertson, 6:391.] Swete believed the event immediately in view was the escape of the church of Jerusalem to Pella (cf. Mar 13:14). [Note: Swete, p. 152.] But we believe this reference is to an event still future.