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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 12:15, a river from the serpent's mouth
The flood the serpent spews after the woman uses the Psalms' picture of enemies as floodwater, and God's promise that the rivers will not sweep his people away.
Revelation 12:15, in every translation this tool compares.
People say they are drowning in work, and everyone knows no water is involved. In the Psalms enemies come like floods, and David calls Saul's pursuit torrents of destruction. Isaiah promises that when Israel passes through rivers they will not sweep her away. John's serpent pours water like a river from his mouth to carry the woman off. The sources read the flood as a figure for an attack, and God does not let it drown her.
Floodwater as a picture of enemies who try to overwhelm God's people. Isaiah 43:2 has rivers that will not sweep God's people away, which is the outcome in John.
In the Psalms the flood comes from enemies; in John it comes out of a serpent's mouth. Beale reads the mouth as a clue that the flood is words: lies and false teaching, as the serpent deceived Eve. No Old Testament text has a river poured from a mouth. The sources give the picture, not a single verse.
The serpent tries to sweep the woman away. Beale reads the flood as persecution and deceit, and points to the false teachers of chapters 2 and 3, Jezebel and the Nicolaitans. The ESV Study Bible also reads the river as lies, like the serpent's words to Eve.
Not a real flood in the desert. Beale rejects tying it to the Jordan flood Josephus describes in 68 and reads it as a figure.
Beale lists three senses of the overflowing flood in the Old Testament: an army sweeping a land (Daniel 11; Isaiah 8:7-8), divine judgment (Psalm 32:6), and enemies of God's people from whom God saves them (2 Samuel 22:5; Psalms 18:4, 16; 69:1-2; 124:4-5; 144:7; Isaiah 43:2). He says the third is clearly meant. He also cites Qumran hymns that call the wicked's attacks waves of Belial, and adds the Red Sea and Daniel 9:26. Keener cites Psalms 32:6 and 69:15 and Isaiah 43:2. The NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible cites Psalms 18 and 69 and Isaiah 43:2; the NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible cites Psalm 144:7-8. The grade is drawn here as possible: the picture is common to many texts.
Heiser reads Beale and McDonough's three senses of the flood and agrees the third is in view: persecution of God's people. He points to Psalm 18:4, where David calls Saul's pursuit torrents of Belial, and notes Belial later becomes a name for Satan.
Keener and the NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible add a Greek parallel: in one form of the Leto story the dragon stirs the waters and the earth raises an island to help her. Beale reads the flood mainly as deceit; Keener and the NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible as suffering and unjust opposition. MacArthur reads the flood as a great army sent against Israel, as Jeremiah pictures armies rising like a flood.
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- G. K. Beale, The Book of Revelation (New International Greek Testament Commentary), comment on 12:15
- Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, on Revelation 12:15
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, note on Revelation 12:15
- NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible, note on Revelation 12:15
- ESV Study Bible, note on Revelation 12:15
- Septuagint, Psalm 18:4 and Isaiah 43:2, Interlinear Greek-English Septuagint
- 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 12:16
