Revelation 12:6

6. woman fled--Mary's flight with Jesus into Egypt is a type of this. where she hath--So C reads. But A and B add "there." a place--that portion of the heathen world which has received Christianity professedly, namely, mainly the fourth kingdom, having its seat in the modern Babylon, Rome, implying that all the heathen world would not be Christianized in the present order of things. prepared of God--literally, "from God." Not by human caprice or fear, but by the determined counsel and foreknowledge of God, the woman, the Church, fled into the wilderness. they should feed her--Greek, "nourish her." Indefinite for, "she should be fed." The heathen world, the wilderness, could not nourish the Church, but only afford her an outward shelter. Here, as in Da 4:26, and elsewhere, the third person plural refers to the heavenly powers who minister from God nourishment to the Church. As Israel had its time of first bridal love, on its first going out of Egypt into the wilderness, so the Christian Church's wilderness-time of first love was the apostolic age, when it was separate from the Egypt of this world, having no city here, but seeking one to come; having only a place in the wilderness prepared of God (Re 12:6, 14). The harlot takes the world city as her own, even as Cain was the first builder of a city, whereas the believing patriarchs lived in tents. Then apostate Israel was the harlot and the young Christian Church the woman; but soon spiritual fornication crept in, and the Church in the seventeenth chapter is no longer the woman, but the harlot, the great Babylon, which, however, has in it hidden the true people of God (Re 18:4). The deeper the Church penetrated into heathendom, the more she herself became heathenish. Instead of overcoming, she was overcome by the world [Auberlen]. Thus, the woman is "the one inseparable Church of the Old and New Testament" [Hengstenberg], the stock of the Christian Church being Israel (Christ and His apostles being Jews), on which the Gentile believers have been grafted, and into which Israel, on her conversion, shall be grafted, as into her own olive tree. During the whole Church-historic period, or "times of the Gentiles," wherein "Jerusalem is trodden down of the Gentiles," there is no believing Jewish Church, and therefore, only the Christian Church can be "the woman." At the same time there is meant, secondarily, the preservation of the Jews during this Church-historic period, in order that Israel, who was once "the woman," and of whom the man-child was born, may become so again at the close of the Gentile times, and stand at the head of the two elections, literal Israel, and spiritual Israel, the Church elected from Jews and Gentiles without distinction. Eze 20:35, 36, "I will bring you into the wilderness of the people (Hebrew, 'peoples'), and there will I plead with you ... like as I pleaded with your fathers in the wilderness of Egypt" (compare Notes, see on Eze 20:35, 36): not a wilderness literally and locally, but spiritually a state of discipline and trial among the Gentile "peoples," during the long Gentile times, and one finally consummated in the last time of unparalleled trouble under Antichrist, in which the sealed remnant (Re 7:1-8) who constitute "the woman," are nevertheless preserved "from the face of the serpent" (Re 12:14). thousand two hundred and threescore days--anticipatory of Re 12:14, where the persecution which caused her to flee is mentioned in its place: Re 13:11-18 gives the details of the persecution. It is most unlikely that the transition should be made from the birth of Christ to the last Antichrist, without notice of the long intervening Church-historical period. Probably the 1260 days, or periods, representing this long interval, are RECAPITULATED on a shorter scale analogically during the last Antichrist's short reign. They are equivalent to three and a half years, which, as half of the divine number seven, symbolize the seeming victory of the world over the Church. As they include the whole Gentile times of Jerusalem's being trodden of the Gentiles, they must be much longer than 1260 years; for, above several centuries more than 1260 years have elapsed since Jerusalem fell.

Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown, 1871 · public domain

Verse 6. And the woman. The woman representing the church. Rev 12:1.

Fled. That is, she fled in the manner, and at the time, stated in Rev 12:14. John here evidently anticipates, by a summary statement, what he relates more in detail in Rev 12:14-17. He had referred (Rev 12:2-5) to what occurred to the child in its persecutions, and he here alludes, in general, to what befell the true church as compelled to flee into obscurity and safety. Having briefly referred to this, the writer (Rev 12:7-13) gives an account of the efforts of Satan consequent on the removal of the child to heaven.

Into the wilderness. On the meaning of the word wilderness in the New Testament, Mt 3:1. It means a desert place, a place where there are few or no inhabitants; a place, therefore, where one might be concealed and unknown--remote from the habitations and the observation of men. This would well represent the fact that the true church became for a time obscure and unknown--as if it had fled away from the habitations of men, and had retired to the solitude and loneliness of a desert. Yet even there (Rev 12:14,16) it would be mysteriously nourished, though seemingly driven out into wastes and solitudes, and having its abode among the rocks and sands of a desert.

Where she hath a place prepared of God. A place where she might be safe, and might be kept alive. The meaning is, that during that time, the true church, though obscure and almost unknown, would be the object of the Divine protection and care--a beautiful representation of the church during the corruptions of the Papacy and the darkness of the middle ages.

That they should feed her. That they should nourish or sustain her--τρεφωσιν--to wit, as specified in Rev 12:14,16. Those who were to do this, represented by the word "they," are not particularly mentioned, and the simple idea is that she would be nourished during that time. That is, stripped of the figure, the church during that time would find true friends, and would be kept alive. It is hardly necessary to say that this has, in fact, occurred in the darkest periods of the history of the church.

A thousand two hundred and threescore days. That is, regarding these as prophetic days, in which a day denotes a year, twelve hundred and sixty years. The same period evidently is referred to in Rev 12:14, in the words "for a time, and times, and half a time." And the same period is undoubtedly referred to in Dan 7:25: "And they shall be given into his hand until a time, and times, and the dividing of time." For a full consideration of the meaning of this language, and its application to the Papacy, Dan 7:25. The full investigation there made of the meaning and application of the language renders its consideration here unnecessary. I regard it here, as I do there, as referring to the proper continuance of the Papal power, during which the true church would remain in comparative obscurity, as if driven into a desert. Compare Barnes on "Re 11:2". The meaning here is, that during that period the true church would not become wholly extinct. It would have an existence upon the earth, but its final triumph would be reserved for the time when this great enemy should be finally overthrown. Compare Barnes on "Re 12:14-17".

(c) "feed her there" Rev 11:3

Albert Barnes, 1834 · public domain

Verse 6 And the woman fled into the wilderness - The account of the woman's flying into the wilderness immediately follows that of her child being caught up to the throne of God, to denote the great and rapid increase of heresies in the Christian Church after the time that Christianity was made the religion of the empire. Where she hath a place prepared of God - See on Rev 12:14 (note).

Adam Clarke, 1831 · public domain