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Rev_12:14. Already in the ἐδίωξε τὴν γυν . (Rev_12:13), lies the presupposition afforded by the preceding account (Rev_12:6), concerning the flight of the woman; but now as the subject is properly concerning the fate of the woman, that which in Rev_12:6 is touched upon only in the main point, and by anticipation, is expressly described. For Rev_12:14 does not speak of something entirely different from Rev_12:6,—as Ebrard thinks, who finds in Rev_12:6 the flight of the woman to heaven, i.e., the emblem of the dispersion of Israel on earth, but in Rev_12:14 the flight into the desert on earth, i.e., a miraculous deliverance of converted Israel on the actual earth; an interpretation which already fails, in that, in Rev_12:6, it takes heaven together with the wilderness misplaced therein by Ebrard figuratively, but in Rev_12:14, on the other hand, the earth (cf. Rev_12:13), in the proper sense, while the wilderness found in the same must again be understood figuratively, although it is manifest that all these local designations must, at all events, be understood in the same way,—but that Rev_12:14 gives the proper execution, and that, too, in the natural place of the connection, of that which was shortly before in Rev_12:6 removed not without reason,[3163] results from a comparison of the two verses. Precisely the same is the goal of the flight; the ΤΌΠΟς ΑὙΤῆς in the wilderness is the place prepared there for the woman on God’s part;[3164] the same in meaning are the schematic dates—for the determination of 3½ times, i.e., years (derived also, according to the expression,[3165] from the figurative passages, Dan_7:25; Dan_12:7), agrees with the 1,260 days (Rev_12:6);[3166] the same, also, as to what is meant with the brief ἜΦΥΓΕΝ ΕἸς Τ . ἜΡ ., Κ . Τ . Λ ., Rev_12:6, is the detailed description, Rev_12:14 : ΚΑῚ ἘΔΌΘΗΣΑΝ
ἽΝΑ ΠΈΤΗΤΑΙ ΕἸς Τ . ἜΡ ., Κ . Τ . Λ . The certainty of the flight arranged by God depends upon the fact, that to the woman two wings of a great eagle are given, in order that—for such is the intention of God in his deliverance, by causing wings to be given the woman—she might fly to the place prepared for her on God’s part in the wilderness. The idea itself has grown by the plastic art of the writer of the Apoc. from the figure given in Exo_19:4 :[3167] As God formerly bore his people, when they fled from the Egyptians, on eagles’ wings, so, for her sure escape, a pair of eagle’s wings is given the woman fleeing from the dragon. Yet it dare not be said that the art. ΤΟῦ Ἀ ., ΤΟῦ ΜΕΓ ., makes the eagle named here appear identical with that mentioned (Exo_19:4),[3168] for in that figurative passage a particular eagle is not designated. Ewald’s former opinion, also, that the art. in the Hebrew way[3169] designates superlatively a very great eagle, is not admissible, because the analogy—even though it corresponded better than is actually the case—would give only a purely superlative idea.[3170] Ebrard has developed from his view, that the art. designates the very eagle mentioned already in Rev_8:13, the thought that “the rescue of the woman would follow in the moment when the final extraordinary developments of the fifth and sixth trumpets are to begin;” or, as he also says, that the woman “shall be sustained by the strength of the eagle which is to bring judgment upon the godless world.” But even apart from the two interpretations, lying at the basis of the false presumption that the soaring of the woman away into the wilderness is, according to fact and time, to be entirely distinguished from the escape into the wilderness, neither the one nor the other interpretation is possible, because in this passage that eagle cannot be meant, which in Rev_8:13 appears for a very special end, and one entirely foreign to what is stated in this passage. What is said can be concerning no particular eagle; the art. is intended generically,[3171] as Rev_1:1.[3172] Two wings, like those of the great eagle, were given the woman, for rapid and sure escape. On this account, also, we are not to think of the eagle mentioned in Eze_17:3; Eze_17:7, where, in a parable, the kings of Babylon and Egypt are represented as eagles; the thought accordingly developed by Auberlen[3173] from this passage, that the secular power itself—more specifically, “the two parts of the Roman Empire in the East and West, especially since Constantine”—must afford the woman, i.e., the Christian Church, a secure place by means of Roman civil and legal order, is consequently with as little foundation in the phraseology of the text, as the point of vision in general, which this form of exposition assumes, corresponds with the intention and contents of the entire ch. 12
ἵνα πέτηται εἰς τὴν ἔρημον , κ . τ . λ . As the nature of the escape, viz., by flying on eagle’s wings, so is also the place of refuge described according to the model of the deliverance of Israel out of Egypt in the wilderness. To the privations incident to the abode in the wilderness, the ὅπου τρέφεται , κ . τ . λ ., does not refer;[3174] the only point made, is that the place prepared by God in the wilderness, for the fleeing woman, is a sure place of refuge against the persecution of the dragon, and that—as God formerly nourished his people in the wilderness—the woman would be nourished in this place of refuge, during the time determined on the part of God.
ἀπὸ προσώπου τοῦ ὄφεως . This determination is not to be combined with the remote πέτηται ,[3175] but with the immediately preceding ὅπου τρέφεται , κ . τ . λ .,[3176] and, therefore, to be explained like the Heb. îÄíÌÀðé , Jdg_9:21 :[3177] “out of the sight of the serpent,” i.e., far and concealed from it. No addition is to be made, at least as Hengstenb. does: “at its flight or in its fear;” the concise mode of statement presupposes the flight as already accomplished, and states how the escaped woman now tarries in security.
[3163] Beng., Ewald, De Wette, Hofm., Hengstenb., Auberlen.
[3164] The pres. τρἐφεται , whose definite relation Ewald, Hofm., etc., try to invalidate, is just as intelligible as the pres. ἔχει ; Rev_12:6. In the meaning of John, the woman is present in her place in the wilderness; there she remains concealed during the entire time of trouble for believers (cf. Rev_12:17), which continues for just three and one-half times.
[3165] Cf. Winer, p. 167.
[3166] Cf. also Rev_11:2-3.
[3167] Cf. also Deu_32:11; Psa_36:8.
[3168] Züll., Ew. ii.
[3169] Jdg_6:15; 1Sa_17:14.
[3170] “The absolutely great, i.e., the greatest.”
[3171] De Wette.
[3172] διὰ τοῦ ἀγγ . αὕτ .
[3173] Cf. Aret., Beng.
[3174] Against Hengstenb., etc., who, like Auberlen, wants to find it indicated that the “time of the Church’s desolation,” i.e., the “entire heathen-Christian, or Church-historical period,” is only a time of pilgrimage to the glory of the heavenly Canaan.
[3175] Vitr., Züll.
[3176] Beng., Ew., De Wette, Hengstenb.
[3177] LXX.: ἔφυγεν
καὶ ᾦκησεν ἐκεῖ ἀπὸ προσώπου Ἀβ .