Revelation 12:2

And she being with child cried, travailing in birth, and pained to be delivered. PAINED - `tormented' [ basanizomenee (G928)]. DeBurgh explains this, the bringing in of the first-begotten into the world AGAIN, when Israel shall at last welcome Him, and 'the man-child shall rule all nations with the rod of iron.' But there is a contrast between the painful travailing of the woman and Christ's second coming to the Jewish Church. Isaiah 66:7, "Before she travailed, she brought forth ... a MAN-CHILD" - i:e., without travail-pangs, she receives (at His second advent), as born to her, Messiah and a numerous seed....

1-6 The church, under the emblem of a woman, the mother of believers, was seen by the apostle in vision, in heaven. She was clothed with the sun, justified, sanctified, and shining by union with Christ, the Sun of Righteousness. The moon was under her feet; she was superior to the reflected and feebler light of the revelation made by Moses. Having on her head a crown of twelve stars; the doctrine of the gospel, preached by the twelve apostles, is a crown of glory to all true believers. As in pain to bring forth a holy family; desirous that the conviction of sinners might end in their conversion. A dragon is a known emblem of Satan, and his chief agents, or those who govern for him on earth, at that time the pagan empire of Rome, the city built upon seven hills. As having ten horns, divided into ten kingdoms. Having seven crowns, representing seven forms of government. As drawing with hi...

NOTES ON CHAP. XII., BY J. E. C. Verse Revelation 12:2. _AND SHE BEING WITH CHILD CRIED, TRAVAILING IN BIRTH_, c.] This, when taken in connection with the following verses, is 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....

AND SHE BEING WITH CHILD CRIED, TRAVAILING IN BIRTH ... - That is, there would be something which would be properly represented by a woman in such circumstances. The question now is, what is referred to by this woman? And here it need hardly be said that there has been, as in regard to almost every other part of the Book of Revelation, a great variety of interpretations. It would be endless to undertake to examine them, and would not be profitable if it could be done; and it is better, therefore, and more in accordance with the design of these notes, to state briefly what seems to me to be the true interpretation: (1) The woman is evidently designed to symbolize the church; and in this there is a pretty general agreement among interpreters. The image, which is a beautiful one, was very familiar to the Jewish prophets. See the notes on...

EXPOSITION This chapter commences another series of revelations. Again St. John returns to the beginning, and traces the spiritual history of the Church and the Christian in their warfare with Satan. But the visions which now follow are somewhat different in character from those already related, inasmuch as the conflict is now described rather as between the powers of heaven and hell than between the individual Christian and his oppressors. As with the other visions, so here, the recital seems calculated to support the suffering Christian in his trials, since the overthrow of the powers of darkness is foretold; and the whole series culminates in an account of the final abasement of the devil, and the exaltation of the Church and the bliss of heaven. The following analysis will help to make clear the relation of the several parts of the vision. I. THE ORIGIN OF THE...

AND SHE BEING BIG WITH CHILD,.... Which may be expressive of the fruitfulness of the church in bearing and bringing forth many souls to Christ, and which were very numerous in this period of time, when it was said of Zion that this and that man was born in her; and particularly of her pregnancy with the kingdom of Christ, to be brought forth, and set up in the Roman empire, under the influence of a Roman emperor: and this being her case, she CRIED, TRAVAILING IN BIRTH, AND PAINED TO BE DELIVERED; which are metaphors taken from a woman in travail; and may either denote the earnest cries and fervent prayers of the members of the church, and the laborious and painful ministrations of the preachers of the Gospel for the conversion of souls, and especially for the setting up of the kingdom of Christ in the empire of Rome; or else the sore and grievous persecutions which attended the apostles...

Revelation 12:1. _And there appeared a great wonder in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars:_ This is that woman of whom the promise runs, «The seed of the woman shall bruise the serpent's head.» John saw this in a vision in the heavenly places; he saw the Church of God, enthroned, made glorious, clothed with the sun, having the brightness of divine light about her, with all that is variable, changeable as «the moon under her feet, and upon her head the crown «that her Lord had given, her « twelve patriarchs, twelve prophets, twelve apostles, a complete number of glorious lights kindled from heaven. Revelation 12:2. _And she being with child cried, travailing in birth, and pained to be delivered._

REVELATION 12. THE VISION OF THE WOMAN, THE CHILD, AND THE DRAGON. This chapter has always presented difficulties to the student of Revelation. Two questions present themselves: (_a)_ What is the connexion of this chapter with the previous part of the book? (_b_) What interpretation did the writer intend his readers to put upon the vision? The first question has been answered in many ways. Some scholars regard this passage as a fresh interlude, and think that it is unconnected with the main movement of the drama. It is often explained as a fragment of a Jewish Apocalypse which the writer determined to utilise, though he failed altogether to weave it into the thread of the argument. The most probable explanation is as follows. The theme of the second part of the Apocalypse is the struggle against Antichrist, and this chapter forms the introduction. Antichrist is first introduced almost in...

The book of Revelation divides itself into two parts. There are two series of visions, one giving the fate of the world and ending with chapter 11:18; the other beginning with the next verse and extending to the close of the book. The first series has brought us to the fall of the great city of sin, the triumph of Christ, and the general Judgment; the second begins with the infancy of the Church and traces its career and struggles until the New Jerusalem is revealed from heaven. While the object of the second series is to outline the history of the true Church, at the same time it necessarily reveals the history and fate of. false Church,. great apostasy, which shall be the mightiest enemy of the truth. It is unfortunate that the last verse of the eleventh chapter has not been attached to the next chapter where it properly belongs, as it is the beginning of… A NEW VISION. The reader wil...

THE WOMAN AND THE BEAST (Revelation 12:1-17) It is necessary to read this chapter as a whole before we examine it in detail. A great sign appeared in the sky--a woman clothed with the sun, and with the moon beneath her feet, and with a crown of twelve stars on her head; and she was with child, and she cried aloud in her labour and in her agony to bear the child. And another sign appeared in heaven--lo! a great flame-coloured dragon, with seven heads and ten horns, and with seven royal diadems upon its heads. Its tail swept a third part of the stars from the sky and cast them on to the earth. The dragon stood in front of the woman who was about to bear the child so that it might devour the child as soon as she bore him. She bore a man child who is destined to rule the nations with a rod of iron; and her child was snatched away to God, even to his throne....