Revelation Chapter 12
Verse 17 continued, “And the dragon was enraged with the woman and he went to make war with the rest of her offspring who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ, and he stood upon the sand of the sea”
A Genesis Parallel
“I will put enmity between thee [the serpent] and the woman, and between thy [the serpent’s] seed and her seed; IT shall bruise thy [the serpent’s] head, and thou [the serpent] shall bruise HIS [its, the woman seed’s] heel.” (Gen 3:15 KJV)
Since the antecedents for the pronouns it and his are the collective noun “her seed,” the more exact rendering of this text would be the collective singular “it” and “its”:
Viz. “[for the woman's seed] "it" shall bruise [crush] thy head [i.e., Satan, the head of the serpent seed class], and thou [both the head and the body members of the dragon seed] shall bruise its [the collective singular, showing plurality] heel [the last body members to enter the door to the marriage (Matt 25:10), even ‘the remnant of her seed’].”
Genesis 3:14, the preceding verse, clearly indicates that “the Lord God” is speaking to the serpent; thus the pronouns “thee,” “thy,” and “thou” in Genesis 3:15 clearly apply to the serpent, not to the woman.
Other translators who basically agree with much of the foregoing statement are as follows:
“… They shall strike at your head, and you shall strike at their heel”—James Moffatt.
“… They shall bruise thy head, and thou shall bruise their heel”—George Ricker Berry, the Masoretic, and Dr. J. H. Hertz.
“… They shall attack you in the head, and you shall attack them in the heel”—J.M. Powis Smith and Goodspeed.
“… It shall bruise thy head, and thou shall bruise its heel” (the preferred rendition)—E. W. Hengstenberg.
“And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and its seed; it shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise its heel.” (NKJV with corrections)
In other words, the expression “her seed” (that is, the woman’s seed) is almost invariably considered to indicate some future child or son to be born, or, as an alternate, to indicate the woman’s posterity in the sense of progeny or other children (viz. “the sons of the kingdom”, Matt 13:38). But that is not the intent any more than the expression “thy seed” (that is, the dragon’s seed) signifies the dragon is to bring forth either a child or other children (“tares… sons of the wicked one”, Matt 13:38).
The point is that the woman herself is the seed. The woman (Rev 12:17) is not an individual but a multitudinous seed, a seed class, a plurality of individuals. The same is true of the dragon. The scene portrays a confrontation between the woman seed and the dragon seed. In a somewhat similar vein, the true Church is likened to one body yet consists of many members.
The multitudinous aspect is the significance of the terms “the dragon and his angels” and “Michael and his angels”; viz., the dragon and Michael are not individuals, but each is an organized society of individuals (Rev 12:7, 9).
The Apostle Paul provides the clue as to what the mysterious “it” is in the clause “it shall bruise thy head.”
“And the God of peace shall bruise [Greek suntribo—tread, crush] Satan [the head of the dragon seed class] under your feet [the glorified Church body members, the completed woman seed class] shortly.” (Rom 16:20).
Like other prophecies of the Bible, Genesis 3:15 was recorded in reverse order as a time lock (Similar to the prophecy spoken of in Joel 2:28, 29). The Lord sometimes uses this strategy to hide certain truths until His due time for its disclosure. Not until other related truths become explicitly understood can the Lord’s people see that a particular Scripture was purposely hidden by an out-of-order sequence. Thus in Genesis 3:15 and Romans 16:20, Satan’s destruction does not take place until the end of the Millennial Age, for his binding and immobilization must occur first, earlier, in the Kingdom Age.
Throughout the New Testament Satan is represented as the father of an allegorical seed, with a direct or indirect referral back to the Garden of Eden. The Apostle John in his first epistle (1 John 5:19) states, “We know that . . . the whole world lies in wickedness [Greek en to ponero, in the Wicked One].” The term “seed” (Rev 12:17), when used in other books of the New Testament, pertains in some manner to children, offspring, and descendants. Verse 17 is the sole instance of its use in the Apocalypse. While, in a sense, the phrase “remnant of her seed” could be thought of as the spiritual progeny or posterity of the woman, yet the view previously expressed that the dragon and the woman each represent a seed class is still preferred. There are other cases where terms used elsewhere in Scripture take on a slightly altered meaning than when they appear in the Book of Revelation.
Thus we conclude our study of Revelation Chapter 12
Next Post.
Verse 17 continued, “And the dragon was enraged with the woman and he went to make war with the rest of her offspring who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ, and he stood upon the sand of the sea”
A Genesis Parallel
“I will put enmity between thee [the serpent] and the woman, and between thy [the serpent’s] seed and her seed; IT shall bruise thy [the serpent’s] head, and thou [the serpent] shall bruise HIS [its, the woman seed’s] heel.” (Gen 3:15 KJV)
Since the antecedents for the pronouns it and his are the collective noun “her seed,” the more exact rendering of this text would be the collective singular “it” and “its”:
Viz. “[for the woman's seed] "it" shall bruise [crush] thy head [i.e., Satan, the head of the serpent seed class], and thou [both the head and the body members of the dragon seed] shall bruise its [the collective singular, showing plurality] heel [the last body members to enter the door to the marriage (Matt 25:10), even ‘the remnant of her seed’].”
Genesis 3:14, the preceding verse, clearly indicates that “the Lord God” is speaking to the serpent; thus the pronouns “thee,” “thy,” and “thou” in Genesis 3:15 clearly apply to the serpent, not to the woman.
Other translators who basically agree with much of the foregoing statement are as follows:
“… They shall strike at your head, and you shall strike at their heel”—James Moffatt.
“… They shall bruise thy head, and thou shall bruise their heel”—George Ricker Berry, the Masoretic, and Dr. J. H. Hertz.
“… They shall attack you in the head, and you shall attack them in the heel”—J.M. Powis Smith and Goodspeed.
“… It shall bruise thy head, and thou shall bruise its heel” (the preferred rendition)—E. W. Hengstenberg.
“And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and its seed; it shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise its heel.” (NKJV with corrections)
In other words, the expression “her seed” (that is, the woman’s seed) is almost invariably considered to indicate some future child or son to be born, or, as an alternate, to indicate the woman’s posterity in the sense of progeny or other children (viz. “the sons of the kingdom”, Matt 13:38). But that is not the intent any more than the expression “thy seed” (that is, the dragon’s seed) signifies the dragon is to bring forth either a child or other children (“tares… sons of the wicked one”, Matt 13:38).
The point is that the woman herself is the seed. The woman (Rev 12:17) is not an individual but a multitudinous seed, a seed class, a plurality of individuals. The same is true of the dragon. The scene portrays a confrontation between the woman seed and the dragon seed. In a somewhat similar vein, the true Church is likened to one body yet consists of many members.
The multitudinous aspect is the significance of the terms “the dragon and his angels” and “Michael and his angels”; viz., the dragon and Michael are not individuals, but each is an organized society of individuals (Rev 12:7, 9).
The Apostle Paul provides the clue as to what the mysterious “it” is in the clause “it shall bruise thy head.”
“And the God of peace shall bruise [Greek suntribo—tread, crush] Satan [the head of the dragon seed class] under your feet [the glorified Church body members, the completed woman seed class] shortly.” (Rom 16:20).
Like other prophecies of the Bible, Genesis 3:15 was recorded in reverse order as a time lock (Similar to the prophecy spoken of in Joel 2:28, 29). The Lord sometimes uses this strategy to hide certain truths until His due time for its disclosure. Not until other related truths become explicitly understood can the Lord’s people see that a particular Scripture was purposely hidden by an out-of-order sequence. Thus in Genesis 3:15 and Romans 16:20, Satan’s destruction does not take place until the end of the Millennial Age, for his binding and immobilization must occur first, earlier, in the Kingdom Age.
Throughout the New Testament Satan is represented as the father of an allegorical seed, with a direct or indirect referral back to the Garden of Eden. The Apostle John in his first epistle (1 John 5:19) states, “We know that . . . the whole world lies in wickedness [Greek en to ponero, in the Wicked One].” The term “seed” (Rev 12:17), when used in other books of the New Testament, pertains in some manner to children, offspring, and descendants. Verse 17 is the sole instance of its use in the Apocalypse. While, in a sense, the phrase “remnant of her seed” could be thought of as the spiritual progeny or posterity of the woman, yet the view previously expressed that the dragon and the woman each represent a seed class is still preferred. There are other cases where terms used elsewhere in Scripture take on a slightly altered meaning than when they appear in the Book of Revelation.
Thus we conclude our study of Revelation Chapter 12
Next Post.
