"She was pregnant and was crying out in birth pains and the agony of giving birth."
(Revelation 12:2)
The woman's birth-pangs refer to the persecution of the covenant community and the messianic line during Old Testament times and especially the intertestamental period leading up to Christ's birth.
The suggestion is that the woman is being tormented and suffering as she attempts to give birth, which fits with a picture of the faithful Jewish community being persecuted in the period leading up to the birth of Christ.
The ultimate source of John's vision here is the prophetic word given in (Genesis 3:14-16) that after Eve's pain in childbirth, her seed would bruise the head of the serpent. The woman, representing God's covenant people, gives birth to the One who will take back what was lost in the Garden.
(G.K. Beale)
No comments:
Post a Comment