Revelation 12:2

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 Isa 1:8; Isa 47:1; compare Ezek. 16.

(2) But still the question arises, to what time this representation refers: whether to the church before the birth of the Saviour, or after? According to the former of these opinions, it is supposed to refer to the church as giving birth to the Saviour, and the “man child” that is born Rev 12:5 is supposed to refer to Christ, who “sprang from the church” - κατὰ σάρκα kata sarka - according to the flesh (Prof. Stuart, vol. 2, p. 252). The church, according to this view, is not simply regarded as Jewish, but, in a more general and theocratic sense, as “the people of God.” “From the Christian church, considered as Christian, he could not spring; for this took its rise only after the time of his public ministry. But from the bosom of the “people of God” the Saviour came. This church Judaical indeed (at the time of his birth) in respect to rites and forms, but to become Christian after he had exercised his ministry in the midst of it, might well be represented here by the woman which is described in Rev. 12.” (Prof. Stuart). But to this view there are some, as it seems to me, unanswerable objections. For:

(a) there seems to be a harshness and incongruity in representing the Saviour as the Son of the church, or representing the church as giving birth to him. Such imagery is not found elsewhere in the Bible, and is not in accordance with the language which is employed, where Christ is rather represented as the Husband of the church than the Son: “Prepared as a bride adorned for her husband,” Rev 21:2. “I will show thee the bride, the Lamb’s wife,” Rev 21:9; compare Isa 54:5; Isa 61:10; Isa 62:5.

(b) If this interpretation be adopted, then this must refer to the Jewish church, and thus the woman will personify the Jewish community before the birth of Christ. But this seems contrary to the whole design of the Apocalypse, which has reference to the Christian church, and not to the ancient dispensation.

(c) If this interpretation be adopted, then the statement about the dwelling in the wilderness for a period of 1260 days or years Rev 12:14 must be assigned to the Jewish community - a supposition every way improbable and untenable. In what sense could this be true? When did anything happen to the Jewish people that could, with any show of probability, be regarded as the fulfillment of this?

(d) It, may be added, that the statement about the “man child” Rev 12:5 is one that can with difficulty be reconciled to this supposition. In what sense was this true, that the “man child” was “caught up unto God, and to his throne?” The Saviour, indeed, ascended to heaven, but it was not, as here represented, that he might be protected from the danger of being destroyed; and when he did ascend, it was not as a helpless and unprotected babe, but as a man in the full maturity of his powers. The other opinion is, that the woman here refers to the Christian church, and that the object is to represent that church as about to be enlarged - represented by the condition of the woman, Rev 12:2. A beautiful woman appears, clothed with light - emblematic of the brightness and purity of the church; with the moon under her feet - the ancient and comparatively obscure dispensation now made subordinate and humble; with a glittering diadem of twelve stars on her head - the stars representing the usual well-known division of the people of God into twelve parts - as the stars in the American flag denote the original states of the Union; and in a condition Rev 12:2 which showed that the church was to be increased.

The time there referred to is at the early period of the history of the church, when, as it were, it first appears on the theater of things, and going forth in its beauty and majesty over the earth. John sees this church, as it was about to spread in the world, exposed to a mighty and formidable enemy - a hateful dragon - stationing itself to prevent its increase, and to accomplish its destruction. From that impending danger it is protected in a manner that would he well represented by the saving of the child of the woman, and bearing it up to heaven, to a place of safety - an act implying that, notwithstanding all dangers, the progress and enlargement of the church was ultimately certain. In the meantime, the woman herself flees into the wilderness - an act representing the obscure, and humble, and persecuted state of the church - until the great controversy is determined which is to have the ascendency - God or the Dragon. In favor of this interpretation, the following considerations may be suggested:

(a) It is the natural and obvious interpretation.

(b) If it be admitted that John meant to describe what occurred in the world at the time when the true church seemed to be about to extend itself over the earth, and when that prosperity was checked by the rise of the papal power, the symbol employed would be strikingly expressive and appropriate.

(c) It accords with the language elsewhere used in the Scriptures when referring to the increase of the church. “Before she travailed, she brought forth; before her pain came, she was delivered of a man child. Who hath heard such a thing? As soon as Zion travailed, she brought forth her children,” Isa 66:7-8. “Sing, O barren, thou that didst not bear; for more are the children of the desolate than the children of the married wife, saith the Lord,” Isa 54:1. “The children which thou shalt have, after thou shalt have lost the other, shall say again in thy ears, The place is too strait for me; give place to me that I may dwell,” Isa 49:20. The comparison of the church to a woman as the mother of children, is one that is very common in the Scriptures.

(d) The future destiny of the child and of the woman agrees with this supposition. The child is caught up to heaven, Rev 12:5 - emblematic of the fact that God will protect the church, and not suffer its increase to be cut off and destroyed; and the woman is driven for 1260 years into the wilderness and nourished there, Rev 12:14 - emblematic of the long period of obscurity and persecution in the true church, and yet of the fact that it would be protected and nourished. The design of the whole, therefore, I apprehend, is to represent the peril of the church at the time when it was about to be greatly enlarged, or in a season of prosperity, from the rise of a formidable enemy that would stand ready to destroy it. I regard this, therefore, as referring to the time of the rise of the papacy, when, but for that formidable, corrupting, and destructive power, it might have been hoped that the church would have spread all over the world. In regard to the rise of that power, see all that I have to say, or can say, in the notes on Dan 7:24-28.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

12:2 The symbolic woman going through the agony of labor portrays Christ’s birth, reflecting the biblical theme of Israel’s trauma while waiting to be delivered (see Isa 26:16-18; Jer 4:31; Mic 4:9-10; John 16:21).

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

For this is that barren woman that brought not forth, of which Isa. 45:1, and Gal. 4:27, she cried out for good cause, and was tormented at that time, when in the judgment of all she seemed near unto death, and in means ready to give up the ghost by reason of her weakness and poverty.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

pained--Greek, "tormented" (basanizomene). DE BURGH explains this of the bringing in of the first-begotten into the world AGAIN, when Israel shall at last welcome Him, and when "the man-child shall rule all nations with the rod of iron." But there is a plain contrast between the painful travailing of the woman here, and Christ's second coming to the Jewish Church, the believing remnant of Israel, "Before she travailed she brought forth . . . a MAN-CHILD," that is, almost without travail-pangs, she receives (at His second advent), as if born to her, Messiah and a numerous seed.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

NOTES ON CHAP. XII., BY J. E. C.

Verse 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.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

(2) And she . . .—Better, And being with child, she crieth, travailing, and tormented to bring forth. All life dawns in anguish, according to the ancient fiat (Gen_3:16); but this is not all. There is an anguish of the Church which Christ laid upon her; it is the law of her life that she must bring forth Christ to the world; it is not simply that she must encounter pain, but that she cannot work deliverance without knowing suffering. Thus the Apostles felt: the love of Christ constrained them; woe it would be to them if they did not preach the Gospel; necessity was laid upon them; they spoke of themselves as travailing in birth over their children till Christ was formed in them. This, then, is the picture, the Church fulfilling her destiny even in pain. The work was to bring forth Christ to men, and never to be satisfied till Christ was formed in them, i.e., till the spirit of Christ, and the teaching of Christ, and the example of Christ were received, loved, and obeyed, and men transformed to the same image, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.

But there was to be opposition; the enemy is on the watch to destroy the likeness of Christ wherever it was seen.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

2. and she … pained to be delivered] There is probably a reminiscence of Gen_3:16, and perhaps of St Joh_16:21, as well as of Mic_4:10, to which the main reference is. Cf. also St Mat_24:8, St Mar_13:1.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

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 of Christ, and succeeding ministers of the word, throughout the times of the ten Roman emperors, and especially under Dioclesian; when the church was big, and laboured in great pain, and the time was drawing on apace that a Christian emperor should be brought forth, who should be a means of spreading the Gospel, and the kingdom of Christ, all over the empire; see Jer 30:6; so the Targumist frequently explains the pains of a woman in travail in the prophets by "tribulation"; see the Targum on Isa 13:8.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

2 And she being with child cried, travailing in birth, and pained to be delivered.

Ver. 2. And she being with child] And so soon smelt out by the bears of the world. Ursa praegnantem mulierem non solum uteri gravitate notam, sed eam etiam quae pridie conceperit, solam ex omni turba consectatur. (Bodin. Theatr. Nat.)

Cried travailing] Being hard beset with cruel persecutors, she longs to be delivered of a Christian emperor, that might put her out of her pain and misery.

She cried] viz. In her prayers to God and apologies to men.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

With child, &c., to signify that the Church, even in the time of persecutions, brought forth children to Christ. (Witham) --- It likewise signifies the difficulties which obstructed the first propagation of Christianity. (Pastorini)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

Being with child; not with Christ considered personally, who was long before brought forth by the virgin Mary, but with the truth, and gospel of Christ, or with Christ mystical.

Cried; desiring to bring many children to the kingdom of Christ; or to bring forth Christ in the souls of others: of this burden and labour she desired

to be delivered. The phrase is judged to signify both the primitive church’s desire to propagate the gospel, and also her many sufferings for that endeavour.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

2. Cried—Even in her celestial exaltation the woman is writhing in womanly agony. Type of how divine a thing is human maternity! Science may find in it but an animal process of “evolution;” but as the incarnation showed what divinity there is in humanity, so the maternity of the incarnate shows what a divine type is stamped upon human birth.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

And she being with child cried, travailing in birth, and pained to be delivered. The present, "crieth," krazei , is found in a, A, P, Coptic, Andreas in a et bav., etc.; the imperfect, ekrazen , is read in C, Vulgate, 7, 8, 31, etc., Andreas in c et p, Primasius; the aorist, ekrazen , in B, twelve cursives. (cf. the words of our Lord in Joh_16:21, Joh_16:22) A similar image occurs in Isa_26:17 Isa_66:7, 8 Mic_4:10. The trouble which afflicted the Jewish Church, and the longing of the patriarchs for the advent of the Saviour, are here depicted. So also St. Paul, encouraging the Romans to bear patiently their sufferings, says, "The whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now". (Rom_8:22)

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

And being with child she crieth, travailing in birth - The very pain, without any outward opposition, would constrain a woman in travail to cry out. These cries, throes, and pains to be delivered, were the painful longings, the sighs, and prayers of the saints for the coming of the kingdom of God. The woman groaned and travailed in spirit, that Christ might appear, as the Shepherd and King of all nations.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

The church, typified by a woman, was described in the former verse by her rare perfections, in this verse by her weak and perilous condition; she cries like a woman in travail or delivery, to God in her prayers, to men in her apologies. The plain sense is this, "That the Christian church was possessed with an earnest desire to propagate the Christian religion throughout the world, and she earnestly cried to God to assist her therein, and strove with utmost endeavours to accompolish this her design; and was truly solicitous to see the success of her labours in the lives of her members." Many and sore have been the sick and breeding fits which the church has conflicted with by means of heretics and persecutors, which sometimes gave occasion to fear that she would certainly miscarry; but at last God sent her ease from heaven by the birth of a child, which caused the woman to forget all her sorrows; and the prayer of faith was then in the greatest activity, when the woman was found to be in the greatest extremity.

William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

2. She being with child cried. Again we must let the Scripture explain its own meaning. “As soon as Zion travailed, she brought forth her children.” (Isa. 66:8.) The travail of Zion causeth an increase. See also Isa. 54:1 and 49:20, where the same figure is used. The state of the woman therefore implies a Church in sorrow, a suffering Church, but out of whose suffering there cometh an increase of the saints. It is a period when the saints are multiplied in the midst of persecution.

B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.

2. ἔχουσα. Lach[397] Tisch[398] W. H[399] (text) and Weiss add καὶ with אC Primas[400] and early vg[401]

[397] Lachmann’s larger edition.

[398] Tischendorf: eighth edition; where the text aud notes differ the latter are cited.

[399] H. Westcott aud Hort.

[400] Primasius, edited by Haussleiter.

[401] Vulgate.

κράζει. A adds καί.

2. καὶ ἐν γαστρὶ ἔχουσα. The construction if we follow most editors must be ὤφθη … γυνὴ περιβεβλημένη … καὶ ἐν γαστρὶ ἔχουσα καὶ κράζει. There is an exact parallel to the interrupted construction in the apocryphal book of Zephaniah (Clem. Strom. Rev 12:11 fin.), καὶ ἀνέλαβέν με πνεῦμα, καὶ ἀνήνεγκέν με εἰς οὐρανὸν πέμπτον καὶ ἑθεώρουν ἀγγέλους καλουμἐνους κυρίους· καὶ τὸ διάδημα αὐτῶν ἐπικείμενον ἐν πνεύματι ἁγίῳ, καὶ ἦν ἐκάστου αὐτῶν ὁ θρόνος ἑπταπλασίων φωτὸς ἡλίου ἀνατέλλοντος, οἰκοῦντας ἐν ναοῖς σωτηρίας καὶ ὑμνοῦντας θεὸν ἄρρητον ὕψιστον.

ὠδίνουσα καὶ βασανιζομένη τεκεῖν. There is probably a reminiscence of Gen 3:16, and perhaps of St Joh 16:21. The main reference is to Mic 4:10: cf. also St Mat 24:8; St Mar 13:8.

Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge University Press, 1896; 21 vols, various authors incl. Carr, Maclear, Plummer, Farrar, Lumby, Moule, M. R. James, Simcox) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Travailing in birth [ωδινουσα] . See on sorrows, Mr 13:9, and pains, Act 2:24.

In pain [βασανιζομενη] . Lit., being tormented. See on ch. Rev 11:10, and references. For the imagery compare Isa 66:7, 8; Joh 16:21.

Marvin R. Vincent, Word Studies in the New Testament (1887–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.