And the serpent cast out of his mouth water as a flood after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away of the flood.
15, 16. We have not means for interpreting this description in detail. All we can say certainly is, that it describes the providential foiling of Satanic attempts at the destruction of Israel. Perhaps the most plausible suggestion of a definite meaning of the “flood” [better translated river ] is that the Christians of Jerusalem, in their flight to “the mountains” (St Mat 24:16 &c.) of Pella, were delivered by a miracle or special providence from the dangers of the passage of Jordan: if they fled immediately before the siege was formed by Titus, this was just before the Passover, when the river was in flood (Jos 3:15). But of such an event we have no historical notice: and it is likely that the Christians fled when they had first “seen Jerusalem compassed with armies” (St Luk 21:20), in the unsuccessful assault of Cestius Gallus, three years before the fall of the city.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
And the serpent cast out of his mouth water as a flood – This is special and uncommon imagery, and it is not necessary to suppose that anything like this literally occurs in nature. Some serpents are indeed said to eject from their mouths poisonous bile when they are enraged, in order to annoy their pursuers; and some sea monsters, it is known, spout forth large quantities of water; but the representation here does not seem to be taken from either of those cases. It is the mere product of the imagination, but the sense is clear. The woman is represented as having wings, and as being able thus to escape from the serpent. But, as an expression of his wrath, and as if with the hope of destroying her in her flight by a deluge of water, he is represented as pouring a flood from his mouth, that he might, if possible, sweep her away. The figure here would well represent the continued malice of the papal body against the true church, in those dark ages when it was sunk in obscurity, and, as it were, driven out into the desert. That malice never slumbered, but was continually manifesting itself in some new form, as if it were the purpose of papal Rome to sweep it entirely away.
That he might cause her to be carried away of the flood – Might cause the church wholly to be destroyed. The truth taught is, that Satan leaves no effort untried to destroy the church.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
NOTES ON CHAP. XII., BY J. E. C.
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 Re 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, Re 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:-
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
And the serpent; the devil, the old serpent, mentioned Rev 12:9, being able no longer to execute his malice as a dragon, by the civil power of the heathen emperors, tearing Christians in pieces, but discerning the church secured by the special providence of God, went to work another way.
Cast out of his mouth water as a flood; corrupting the judgments of several persons, who, out of the abundance of error in their hearts, preached corrupt doctrine. Such were the followers of Arius, Nestorius, Eutyches, Pelagius, &c. The words of a mans mouth are as deep waters, Pro 18:4. The mouth of the wicked poureth out evil things, Pro 15:28.
That he might cause her to be carried away of the flood; on purpose to ruin the church: and, indeed, such were the ill effects of these heresies, that he who is but meanly versed in the history of the fifth age, will see reason to adore the providence of God, that the Roman emperors, upon the sight of them, did not again turn pagans, and add their force to the malice of these pretended Christians against the sincerer part of the church.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
15, 16. floodGreek,“river” (compare Exo 2:3;Mat 2:20; and especially Ex14:1-31). The flood, or river, is the stream of Germanictribes which, pouring on Rome, threatened to destroy Christianity.But the earth helped the woman, by swallowing up the flood.The earth, as contradistinguished from water, is the worldconsolidated and civilized. The German masses were brought under theinfluence of Roman civilization and Christianity [AUBERLEN].Perhaps it includes also, generally, the help given by earthly powers(those least likely, yet led by God’s overruling providence to givehelp) to the Church against persecutions and also heresies, by whichshe has been at various times assailed.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And the serpent cast out of his mouth water as a flood,…. Which cannot design any persecution before the fall of Paganism, either of the Jews, or of the Romans; nor indeed the Arian persecution, since the casting out of this flood is distinguished from the above persecution, and was after the church began to flee upon that persecution; though it is not unusual for wicked persecutors, and violent persecutions, to be expressed by waters, and they are called proud waters, Ps 124:1; and these may be said to be cast out of the mouth of the serpent, the devil, who was a persecutor and a murderer from the beginning, and by whom all persecutors and persecutions are instigated, moved, and carried on; but rather, as the words of a man’s mouth are as deep waters,
Pr 18:4; and doctrines, good or bad, may be so called; that flood of errors and heresies, which were poured in between the times of Constantine and the rise of antichrist may be here intended; such as the Arian heresy, which denied the divinity of Christ; the Nestorian heresy, which divided his person; and the Eutychian heresy, which confounded the two natures in him; and the Macedonian heresy, which took away the deity of the Holy Ghost; and the Pelagian heresy, which destroyed the grace of God, and set up the power of man’s free will: and this flood of errors and heresies may be truly said to be cast out of the serpent’s mouth; since the old serpent, the devil, is the father of all lies, and errors: and the above heresies are the doctrines of devils, and damnable ones; and were designed by Satan to destroy the souls of men, and ruin the church: though since this flood followed upon the Arian persecution, and was after the church began to flee, being supported and secured by the two divisions of the empire, eastern and western, the wings of the Roman eagle, it seems best by this flood to understand the irruption of the barbarous nations, which quickly followed that division; the Goths, Huns, Vandals, Heruli, Alans, and Lombards, who were poured into the western empire, and overran, and at last destroyed it; so that this flood is contemporary with the first four trumpets; after which followed the swarms of locusts, the Saracens, which infested, teased, and tormented the “eastern” empire; and after them the Turks, the four angels bound at the great river Euphrates, were let loose, and like a mighty torrent overflowed, and utterly destroyed it; and all this was done at the instigation of Satan, he being filled with wrath, because the empire was become Christian, and his view was to destroy the church in it: for this flood was cast
after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away of the flood; along with the empire, and be no more; but his designs were frustrated, and he disappointed; so people, nations, and tongues, are compared to waters in Re 17:15; see Isa 8:7, which the Targum interprets of the armies of much people.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Water as a flood ( ). “Water as a river,” accusative case after (cast). The serpent could not follow the woman or stop her flight and so sought to drown her.
That he might cause her to be carried away by the stream ( ). Purpose clause with and the first aorist active subjunctive of . For this use of see 17:16. This compound verbal in the predicate accusative (, river, from , to bear) was not coined by John, but occurs in a papyrus of B.C. 110 and in several others after N.T. times. It means simply “carried away by the river.”
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
Cause her to be carried away of the flood [ ] . Lit., might make her one carried away by the stream : a river – born one. The word occurs only here in the New Testament.
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
1) “And the serpent cast out of his mouth,” (kai ebalen ho ophis ek tou stomatos autou) “and the serpent cast out of his mouth,” spewed forth, originating from his mouth, like a volcanic eruption of threatened destruction.
2) “Water as a flood after the woman,” (opisa tes gunaikos hudor as potamon) “behind the (fleeing) woman (Israel) water (a stream) like a river,” a flood of threat stirring horror, with threats of annihilation, like a flood with a view to the destruction of the hundred and forty four thousand (144,000) redeemed from natural Israel who were sealed against death, Rev 7:3-4; Rev 14:1-5.
3) “That he might cause her to be carried away of the flood,” (hina aute potampphoreton poiese) “in order that he might cause her to be washed away, drowned, by the river he might make,” an apparent symbol of total destruction seems to have been threatened to Israel (the 144,000) who were sealed against death, much like the Noahic flood God sent over all the earth or the drowning of the army of Pharaoh in the Red Sea, Gen 7:11-23; Exo 14:27-30.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
(15) And the serpent . . .Translate, And the serpent cast out of his mouth after the woman water as a river, that he might make her to be carried away by the river. The foe of the woman was described as a dragon for his cruelty and fiercenessas a serpent for his subtlety. The first attack on the woman is pictured as persecution by the dragon: from this she escapes by flight; but the subtlety of the enemy finds another device: the foe (now described as a serpent) pours forth water as a river to sweep away the woman. The emblem is nut uncommon in the Bible. Invasion is described as an overflowing flood (Jer. 46:7-8; Jer. 47:2; comp. Isa. 8:7-8) The same emblem is used in Psa. 74:2-6 to describe the uprising of a peoples ill-will. The floods, the rivers, the waves of the sea, are employed to express popular movements. The woman that cannot be destroyed by positive persecution may be swept away by a hostile public opinion. It is not the rulers alone who stand up against the Lord and His Church: an infuriated populace may be stirred up against them. The temper of the mob occasioned as much suffering and as many deaths in early Christian days as did the political authorities. Ill-regulated popular impulses, leading to violence and unwise action, whether nominally for Christianity or against it, have done enough of the devils work in the world.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
15. Water as a flood It cannot reasonably be denied that the antithetic terms water and earth are here figurative, as is the dragon. Water, as a figure, symbolizes the moving and unstable human populations; and earth, the steady and solid human state. The dragon, therefore, pouring from his mouth the water upon the woman, must signify paganism pouring a hostile horde upon the Christian communion; and the aid derived from the earth must designate the support of Christianity by the settled and civilized people. And so did pagan Europe pour her hosts of barbarians down upon Christianized Italy. And the Christianized earth so aided the Church as to secure her triumph over paganism.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Rev 12:15-16 . The dragon cannot reach the woman flying on eagle’s wings; and, therefore, casts a stream of water out of his mouth after her, in order to destroy her. But also by this danger the woman remains unharmed, because the earth absorbs the stream.
. This description of the great amount of water cast forth by the serpent serves to explain and illustrate the purpose: , “to sink her carried away by the waters of the river,” as Vitr. appropriately explains the word, [3178] not occurring elsewhere in biblical Greek, but otherwise regularly formed. Hesych. [3179] explains the Homeric [3180] by .
The help afforded the woman imperilled on the part of the earth is described in a way, Rev 12:16 , which is conformable with the nature of the danger, as well also with the nature of the earth; the earth opens its mouth, and drinks up the stream of water. The idea recalls not so much Gen 4:11 , [3181] as rather Num 16:30 ; Num 16:32 , [3182] since it is thought the mighty flood of water vanishes suddenly and inefficaciously in the widely gaping earth.
The question concerning the genesis of this entire description, Rev 12:15-16 , is essentially a preliminary question, if it be as to whether a prophecy actually to be fulfilled be found here. The allegorists make the matter too easy by comparing the water cast forth from the mouth of the serpent directly with the many waters, Rev 17:1 , on which the great harlot sits, and which are there (Rev 12:15 ) expressly explained as a figure of many nations, and who thus reach the opinion that in this passage also the stream of water signifies a stream of people which will roll against the Church, whether they be satisfied with this general sense, [3183] or more definite references be introduced. [3184]
By any allegorical interpretation whatever, we are of course prevented from making of the description in Rev 12:15 sqq. a prophecy actually to be fulfilled, because of the similar descriptions which precede in Rev 12:1-6 , Rev 12:7-12 , Rev 12:13-14 , not allowing such interpretation. The stream of water from the mouth of the serpent designates as little something actually occurring in the present or in the future of John as the two wings of the eagle which, in Rev 12:14 , were given the woman; but, as there the escape of the woman is represented with a plastic art, which is developed from the allusion to the O. T. testimony concerning God’s preservation of his people, so John here describes the danger which Satan, in his rage, prepares for the woman still fleeing, in such a way as to form living images from the symbolical mode of speech of the O. T. Entirely remote is any allusion to the passage of the Israelites through the Red Sea; [3185] but in passages like Psa 18:5-17 ; Psa 32:6 ; Psa 42:8 ; Psa 124:4 , where pressing dangers are illustrated under the figure of great floods of water, lies the origin of the peculiar conception of the Apoc. idea; even its concrete form has a certain analogy in Psa 18:5 , where what is said of “the cords of death” and “the floods of ungodliness” is in the same figurative sense as “the cords of hell,” and “the snares of death.” In such views we may recognize the foundation given the fantasy of the prophet, upon which his actual vision is ordinarily based. [3186]
[3178] Cf. the analogous .
[3179] Ed. Alberti, i. 461.
[3180] Il. , iv. 348.
[3181] Zll.
[3182] , . . .
.
[3183] Hengstenb., Ebrard. Cf. Beda: “The force of persecutions.” Andreas: [“the abundance of godless men, or wicked demons, or various trials”] coming out of the mouth of the serpent,” i.e., [“by its command”], as Vict. already indicates. C. a Lap.: “The army of Antichrist.” Stern: “The flood of godless nations and infernal spirits.”
[3184] Calov.: “The Arian heretics.” Vitr.: “The Saracens, who (Rev 12:16 ) were defeated by Charles Martel.” Coccejus: “The armies of Maxentius and Licinius, which were defeated by Constantine the Great, and, indeed (Rev 12:16 : ), with the forces of the lands in which (Rev 12:14 ) the Church had already found a refuge, viz., Gaul and Spain.” Bengel: “The Turks from the year 1058 on.” Wetst.: “The armies of Cestius and Vespasian.” Hammond: “Recent persecutions after the Neronian (Rev 12:3 ) on the part of the Romans, who, however (Rev 12:16 ), were withdrawn from the Christians by the Jewish war.” Ew. ii.: “The flight of the mother congregation from Jerusalem to Pella.” Cf. Euseb., H. E. , iii. 5. In connection with this, Rev 12:15 is referred to some great danger on the Jordan, possibly an attack by a faction of desperate Jews. Ew. interprets the delivering earth, but not more definitely. Auberlen: “The migration of nations, whose flood, however, is not destructive to the Church, because the earth, i.e., the cultured Roman world, received those wild Germanic masses within itself, subdued their hostility, mellowed them, and won them to Christianity.” But even granting that the allegorical mode of exposition is justified, and that in Rev 12:15-16 definite events of secular history are foretold, is it possible that the writer of the Apoc. could have conceived of the thought that the masses of nations which Satan casts forth against the Church are “won to Christianity”? This glaring contradiction is not removed by the fact that Christianity is to come into consideration “chiefly, not on its heavenly, but on its earthly side, as a force of civilization” (Auberlen, p. 297). And with respect to actual history dare it be said that the Germanic nations were cast forth like a stream of water out of the jaws of Satan, and were swallowed up by the earth? Does it agree with this, that from this Satanic stream of water the German Reformation emerged? It is a supposition more worthy of being entertained, when Aub., p. 300, recurs to the Turks.
[3185] Against Ew., De Wette, etc.
[3186] Cf. Introduction, p. 47 sq.
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
15 And the serpent cast out of his mouth water as a flood after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away of the flood.
Ver. 15. Cast out of his, mouth water ] Those barbarous nations, Goths, Huns, Vandals, Lombards, others, stirred up by the devil to overrun the empire, and afflict the Church. Or else it may mean those pestilent and poisonous heresies, Arianism, and the rest, wherewith the Church was infested, according to that of Solomon, “The mouth of the wicked belcheth out evil things,”Pro 15:2Pro 15:2 .
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Rev 12:15 . Another mythological metaphor for persecution or persecutors, like “torrents of Belial” (Psa 18:4 ). As the primaeval dragon was frequently a sea-monster, from Timat onwards, his connexion with water ( cf. on Rev 8:10 ) was a natural development in ancient ( cf. Pausan. ver 43 f.) and even Semitic ( e.g. , Psa 74:4 ; Ezekiel 29, 32.) literature. The serpent in the river was, for Zoroastrians, a creation of the evil spirit (Vend. i. 3).
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
out of. App-104.
flood = river.
carried . . . flood. Greek. potamophoretos. Only here.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
cast: Rev 17:15, Psa 18:4, Psa 65:7, Psa 93:3, Psa 93:4, Isa 8:7, Isa 28:2, Isa 59:19
Reciprocal: 2Sa 22:5 – the floods Psa 32:6 – in the floods Psa 69:1 – the waters Psa 69:15 – waterflood Psa 124:4 – the waters Psa 144:7 – deliver me Isa 28:18 – when Jer 46:7 – as a flood Jer 47:2 – waters Dan 11:22 – with Mat 2:7 – General Rev 12:9 – that Rev 13:2 – dragon Rev 13:8 – whose Rev 20:2 – the dragon
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Rev 12:15. Sometimes when specific temptations do not make the desired “dent” in the character of a Christian, he may be finally overcome by an avalanche of afflictions. The devil (in the form of a serpent) tried this last method on the church. It was symbolized by having the devil cast a flood of water out of his mouth, hoping to engulf the woman in it there being no way to escape due to its volume. The Roman Empire used both methods in opposing the Lord’s people. Sometimes an outstanding instance would be used such as burning a man at the stake or nailing some disciple to a cross. Then again the government would let loose a wholesale sweep of persecutions.
Comments by Foy E. Wallace
Verse 15.
8. And the serpent cast out of his mouth water as a flood after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away of the flood–Rev 12:15. The water as a flood from the mouth of the serpent was the symbol of an overwhelming tide of persecution, combining all of the Satanic forces of destruction at the command of the serpent. The psalmist David used the same imagery in Psa 18:4; Psa 18:16 : “The floods of ungodly men made me afraid . . . he drew me out of many waters.” In a poem of salvation Isaiah, the prophet, exclaimed: “When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard against him.” (Isa 59:19) The prophet Jeremiah foretold the destruction of Philistia with the same symbolic description as David and Isaiah: “Behold waters rise out of the north, and shall be an overflowing flood, and shall overflow the land and all that is therein: then the men shall cry and all the inhabitants of the land shall howl.” (Jer 47:2)
The most significant Old Testament use of the flood symbol is Daniel’s parallel prophecy on the destruction of Jerusalem, generally referred to as “the seventy weeks of Daniel.” (Dan 9:27) The mathematical computations bring the fulfillment of this prophecy from “the going forth” of the commandment to rebuild and restore the temple to the final destruction of Jerusalem–the whole period from the proclamation of Cyrus to the end of the Jewish commonwealth– in the words of Daniel “the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined.” (Dan 9:26) The dual phrases “the end thereof shall be with a flood” and “unto the end of the war desolations are determined” referred to the flood of persecution and the end of the war terminating in the fall of Jerusalem and end of the Jewish state. Thus the prophecy of Daniel is identified and merged with the apocalypse of John on the siege with its overwhelming flood of persecution.
Such is the evident application of Rev 12:15 –“And the serpent cast out of his mouth as a flood after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away of the flood.” The woman escaped this flood of the horrible onslaught of this war of the Romans against Jerusalem, declared by Nero, ordered by Vespasian and executed by Cestius Gallius and his general, Titus. These related events blend naturally and historically with the apocalypse, and they are not anachronistic.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Rev 12:15-16. The imagery employed in these verses is difficult. It is in all probability taken from the passage of Israel across the Red Sea and the river Jordan into the Promised Land. This reference is the more probable when we remember the language of David in Psalms 18, when at Rev 12:4 he first declares that the floods of ungodly men (emissaries of Satan, persecutors) made him afraid, and then at Rev 12:15-17 compares his deliverance to the passage of Israel through the Red Sea. With this may be mixed the thought of the history of Korah and his companions, when men who had envied Moses and risen against him in a formidable insurrection were destroyed by the earths opening her mouth (Num 16:32). The symbol is of Gods protecting care of His people. In the day of their trial He will provide for them a way of escape.
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
Two things are here observable: a new danger, Rev 12:15 a renewed succour, Rev 12:16.
Observe, 1. A new danger; this is set forth, 1. By the author of it, the serpent; the former attempt against the church was managed by the wrathful dragon, this is contrived by the subtle serpent: open cruelty is more dreadful, but subtle policy is more dangerous: the cunning devil is a more dangerous: the cunning devil is a more mischievous enemy to the church of Christ than the raging devil; subtle Julian did the church more mischief than bloody Nero or Dioclesian.
Learn hence, That what mischief Satan cannot effect by open curelty, he will attempt against the church by subtle policy; when he fails as a dragon, he will try what he can do as a serpent.
2. Observe the matter as well as the author of this danger: The serpent cast out of his mouth water as a flood, that is, a flood of errors, heresies, false doctrines, and corrupt opinions, cast out of the mouth of the corrupting seducers, endangering the very essence and being of the church of Christ, particularly the Arian heresy, which prodigiously overspread the world in its time. Heresy may fitly be compared to a flood; it is a corrupting and defiling flood, it is a swelling and increasing flood, it is a drowning and overwhelming flood.
Learn hence, That the serpent’s flood of errors and false doctrines, is the worst and chiefest of the church’s dangers. The serpent cast out a flood to carry away the woman.
Observe, 3. The church’s seasonable relief and succour: The earth helped the woman by opening her mouth, and swallowing up the flood, which the dragon cast out of his mouth; by the earth some understand earthly ones, wicked men, who are said to help the woman, not intentionally, but eventually, by their greedy swallowing down those errors which come out of the dragon’s mouth, hearkening to his lies, and believing his errors for truth’s; others by the earth understand the kings and rulers of the earth understand the kings and rulers of the earth, helping the woman, by calling synods and councils to stem the tide, to dam this flood, and to condemn these errors and heresies, which by their overflowing endangered the church’s ruin: the devil raised four abominable errors presently after the church had obtained peace, and there was a great concurrence of magistrates and ministers in confuting, censuring, and condemning the same, in and by their councils and synods.
1. The heresy of Arius, who denied the divinity of Christ, this was condemned by the council of Nice, called by Constantine.
2. The heresy of Macedonius, who denied the personality of the Holy Ghost, condemned by a council at Constantinople, called by Theodosius the First.
3. The heresy of Nestorius, who asserted that Christ had two persons, as well as two natures, condemned by a council at Ephesus, called by Theodosius the Second.
4. The heresy of Eutyches, who confounded Christ’s natures, making him to have but one nature, as well as to be but one person; this was condemned by the council of Chalcedon: thus the earth helped the woman; these four councils tended very much to the maintaining of the truth, and preserving the church from that flood of error and heresy which the dragon cast out of his mouth.
Observe lastly, The dragon’s rage, Rev 12:17. He was wroth with the woman, and made war with the remnant of her seed, that is, he was greatly enraged because the woman was extraordinarily helped, and his designs wonderfully disappointed: and when he saw he could not ruin the whole church, he resolves to attack some particular members of it, even such as keep the commandments of God, and had the testimony of Christ; that is, those who kept close to the scriptures, which contain the doctrine of faith, and testify that Christ is the only Saviour of the world.
Now from the dragon’s making war with the remnant of the woman’s seed, we learn how insatiable the blood-thirstiness of Satan and his instruments is, who when they had killed the witnesses before, and many others, yet can they not rest until they have killed this little remnant, and made themselves drunk with the blood of the saints; and never let Protestants expect any other or any better usage at the hands of Romanists, with whom this is a certain principle, that heretics in a nation are to be extirpated, root and branch, where it may safely be done; that is, when they are not too numerous, and the loss of one of our lives may not cost two of their own.
If any say that Papists are now become better natured, by being under the restraint of our laws, I wish them that they may never be tempted out of their humanity by advantages of power; and as Almighty God has once more delivered the neck of this nation from the pinchings of the Anti-christian yoke, may our sins never provoke him more to deliver us into the hands of those men, whose tender mercies are cruel. Amen.
Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament
Satan now tries to overthrow the faithful with a flood of evil. Since it comes out of his mouth, it may be this describes lies he uses to defeat the righteous. (Compare Gen 3:1-5 ; Joh 8:44 ) The earth opening its mouth to swallow the flood describes God’s providential care for those who are his. The third battle is lost.
Fuente: Gary Hampton Commentary on Selected Books
12:15 {20} And the serpent cast out of his mouth water as a flood after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away of the flood.
(20) That is, he inflamed the Romans and the nations that in persecuting the Jewish people with cruel arms, they might at the same time invade the Church of Christ, now departed from Jerusalem and out of Judea. For it is a normal thing in scripture, that the raging tumults of the nations should be compared to waters.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
Perhaps Satan will use literal water to try to drown this group of Israelites. [Note: Düsterdieck, pp. 353-54; Bullinger, p. 416; Smith, A Revelation . . ., pp. 190-91.] If they take refuge in a place such as Petra this might seem to be a possibility. Another possibility is that he will pursue them with soldiers as a river (cf. Jer 46:7-8; Jer 47:2-3). [Note: Govett, 2:62-64.] A flood is also a biblical metaphor for overwhelming evil, persecution (Psa 18:4; Psa 124:2-4; Isa 43:2). Probably this is a picturesque way of describing Satan’s attempt to destroy the Jews who will have congregated in Palestine following the Antichrist’s covenant with them. He may seek to do it with deceptive false teaching, since the water comes out of his mouth. [Note: Beale, p. 673.] Both water and fire (cf. Rev 9:17; Rev 11:5) proceeding from the mouth picture punishment in Scripture.
Note the many parallels between Israel’s exodus from Egypt and her past preservation in the wilderness, including rescue from water (the Red Sea; cf. Rev 12:15), and this future flight. The similarities have led some commentators to conclude that the 42 months refer to Israel’s 42 camping stations (Numbers 33) and that what John described was in the past. Yet it seems clear that John was describing a future exodus.