Tool Alpha
Echoes of Revelation
Revelation never quotes the Old Testament outright, yet no New Testament book refers to it more. See both texts side by side, why they don’t match, and what John does with them.
Revelation 12:14, the two wings of the great eagle
The eagle's wings that carry the woman into the wilderness come from God's words at Sinai, where he says he carried Israel on eagles' wings.
Revelation 12:14, in every translation this tool compares.
A grandparent who says I carried you before you could walk is telling a story of care. At Sinai God reminds Israel that he bore them out of Egypt on eagles' wings, to himself. Deuteronomy 32 pictures God as an eagle spreading its wings over its young. John's woman is given the two wings of the great eagle to fly into the wilderness. She is carried to safety the way Israel was.
Wings and an eagle that carry God's people into the wilderness. The Greek of Exodus 19:4 has epi pterygon aeton, on eagles' wings; John has hai dyo pteryges tou aetou, the two wings of the eagle.
In Exodus God is the one who carries; in John the wings are given to the woman, and she flies. John has two wings of the great eagle. Beale thinks the articles in the Greek point to a well-known image. Isaiah 40:31 adds the promise that the people will rise on wings like eagles in the second exodus.
What God did for Israel after Egypt he does for the woman. Beale lists this in his introduction among the analogies John draws from Israel's story. Heiser stresses the Egypt link: the dragon is the old Egypt monster, and the woman escapes as Israel did.
Not a hint that the woman literally flies. The sources read the wings as God's protection, as in the Psalms, where God shelters people under his wings.
Beale says the image of God as an eagle guarding Israel in the desert combines Exodus 19:4, Deuteronomy 1:31-33 and 32:10-12. He adds Isaiah 40:31, the return from Babylon on wings like eagles, and the Psalms where David asks to hide under God's wings. He notes the Targums on Exodus 19:4 read the eagle as God bringing Israel near to worship him. Keener, the NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, the ESV Study Bible, the CSB Study Bible, the NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible and Wright all cite Exodus 19:4. Walton's commentary notes the bird may be a vulture rather than an eagle. The grade is drawn here: few words are shared, but wings, eagle and wilderness together point to Exodus 19:4.
Following Beale and McDonough, Heiser reads the eagle's wings as Exodus 19:4 joined with Deuteronomy 1 and 32. It is God guarding his people in the desert. He also uses it against reading chapter 12 as fulfilled in the year 70. No rescue like the exodus came to Jews or Christians then, he says, so the rescue must still lie ahead.
The NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible adds that the wings could recall the dove's wings of Psalm 55:6-7, flight to the wilderness, and Beale also cites that psalm. The other sources hold to Exodus 19:4. They differ on who is carried. Beale reads the church, carried as Israel was. MacArthur reads Israel under God's care, and takes the eagles to be the large vulture-like birds of the land.
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/revelation-12-7-17\/","n":"Revelation 12:7-17, war in heaven and the accuser thrown down","s":"Michael and his angels fight the dragon and throw him out of heaven, and a voice celebrates the fall of the accuser of the brothers, defeated by the Lamb's blood and the witnesses' testimony. On earth the dragon chases the woman, who is given eagle's wings, and when the earth swallows the river he spews after her, he turns to make war on her other children.","r":"Revelation 12:7-17"}
- G. K. Beale, The Book of Revelation (New International Greek Testament Commentary), comment on 12:14, and introduction, Analogical Uses
- Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, on Revelation 12:13-14
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, note on Revelation 12:14
- ESV Study Bible, note on Revelation 12:14
- CSB Study Bible, note on Revelation 12:13-14
- NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible, note on Revelation 12:14
- N. T. Wright, Revelation for Everyone, comment on Revelation 12:7-18
- John H. Walton, Victor H. Matthews and Mark W. Chavalas, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: Old Testament, on Exodus 19:4
- Septuagint, Exodus 19:4 and Deuteronomy 32:11, Interlinear Greek-English Septuagint
- SBL Greek New Testament (MorphGNT), Revelation 12:14
- Michael S. Heiser, Revelation 12: The Woman, the Child, and the Dragon, video lecture (Naked Bible Revelation series)
- John MacArthur, The MacArthur Study Bible (ESV), note on Revelation 12:14
