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Rev 12:14. Αἱ δύο πτέρυγες) The Hebrew dual כְגָפַיִם does not always involve the number two: but it is used even in the description of four or six wings, Ezekiel 1 and Isaiah 6. Whence in the Septuagint כְגָפַיִם is never expressed by δύο πτέρυγες. Therefore in this passage it is said not without great significance, αἱ δύο πτέρυγες, those two wings. The great eagle itself is the Roman empire: the two wings, the power over the east and the west.-εἰς τὸν τόπον αὐτῆς, into her place) This place[130] comprises very large regions, Poland, Russia, Hungary, Transilvania, etc., by the addition of which to the church, A. 965, and thenceforward, the Christian power reached, in a continuous tract, from the Eastern to the Western Empire.-καιρὸν καὶ καιροὺς και ἥμισυ καιροῦ) So Dan 7:25, εὥς καιροῦ καὶ καιρῶν καὶ ἥμισυ καιροῦ; ch. Rev 12:7, εἰς καιρὸν και καιροὺς και ἥμισυ καιροῦ. In each passage the subject is the calamity of the holy people. The plural, καιροὺς, denotes two times. The plural number is to be taken most strictly. In this manner of speaking, after years, the space of two years is signified, l. 17, § 3. Digest, de manum. test. Being indefinitely commanded to be free after years, he shall be free after the space of two years: and that interpretation both the favour of liberty demands, and the words admit. Thus עשר ten, עשרים two decades, that is, twenty. According to the rule of the ancient Hebrew doctors, usually employed in expounding the Sacred Writings, the plural number is to be understood of two, if there is no reason to the contrary. Guil. Surenhusius de Alleg. V. T. in N. T., p. 589. And in this passage, indeed, the taking, in a strict sense, is admissible even on this account, because there is an interval between the one and the half. In an indefinite sense several καιροὶ are a χρόνος. Mæris the Atticist, ὥρα ἔτους, ἀττικῶς· καιρὸς ἔτους, ἑλληνικῶς. Ammonius and Thomas Magister, καιρὸς μέρος χρόνου, οἷον μεμετρημένων ἡμερῶν σύστημα· χρόνος δε, πολλῶν καιρῶν περιοχὴ καὶ σύλληψις.[131] In the Apocalyptic sense ΚΑΙΡῸς a time has a definite length, as is plain from the distribution of this very period into a time, and times, and the half of a time. This period begins before the number of the beast, and extends beyond it: nor however does the whole of it far exceed it. It has 777 7/9 years. By such a method, even a Chronus has a definite length, and comprises five καιροὺς or times: although Leop. Frid. Gans Nobilis de Putlitz determines that καιρὸν has eighty years, and a Chronus 240 years, and thus he takes three καιροὺς for Chronus. Through a time, and times, and the half of a time, the Church is nourished, being removed from the serpent, and assailed by the river, i.e. the attack of the Turks, and not however overwhelmed: therefore those times are terminated by the captivity of the serpent, and are conveniently divided by the parts “joints” of the Turkish history. The beginning of the captivity, as is shown in its place, will be in A. 1836. Therefore the time is 2222/9 years, from A. 1058 to 1280; and in the middle of the eleventh century, a new kingdom arose among the Turks, and shortly afterwards inundated the eastern part of the Christian world; but, at the close of that century, the city of Jerusalem was taken from them, which not long after they took again. The times are 4444/9 years, from A. 1280 to 1725. In that interval they greatly desolated the Church, having taken Constantinople, having long had possession of Buda, and having more than once besieged Vienna. The half a time consists of 1111/9 years, from A. 1725 to 1836. Before the end of this half a time, and indeed considerably before, the earth swallows up the last attacks of the river.-ἀπὸ προσώπου) construed with ΤΡΈΦΕΤΑΙ. Comp. מפני ἈΠῸ ΠΡΟΣΏΠΟΥ, 2Ki 16:18, and Jud. 9:21, where the Hebrew accent plainly renders it a parallel expression: and Nehemiah 4 :(9)3.
[130] In der Erkl. Offeneb. Ed. II., p. 642, the place of the wilderness, in the singular, Germany, is much more definitely distinguished from the wilderness which comprises these countries. (Comp. p. 639), so that the eastern wing might especially subserve her flight into the wilderness, the western (wing) her flight into the place.-E. B.
[131] Χρόνος and ἀιών are indefinite time. Ὥρα, definite term, generally short; Καιρός, the opportune time. Αἰών, the indefinite flow of time without the notion of an end: Χρόνος, time in its actuality, by which we perceive the succession of things; it is a sort of aggregate of times. Καιρός, a specific time, and, “as opportunity” is fleeting, that time, of short duration: in Rev 12:14, a year, not literally but applied to the time of a year. See Tittm. Syn.-E.