Apocalypse 12:2
And being with child, she cried travailing in birth, and was in pain to be delivered.
Open Apocalypse 12:2 in the Motif Searcher, word by word across all five texts →Show on the spiral →In the palace
The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- et in utero habens, clamabat parturiens, et cruciabatur ut pariat.
- Greek New Testament (SBLGNT)
- καὶ ἐν γαστρὶ ἔχουσα· καὶ κράζει ὠδίνουσα καὶ βασανιζομένη τεκεῖν.
Haydock's commentary
With child, &c., to signify that the Church, even in the time of persecutions, brought forth children to Christ. (Witham)
It likewise signifies the difficulties which obstructed the first propagation of Christianity. (Pastorini)
From Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary, 1859, in the transcription made by Todd Easton and kept online by John Paul Wohlschied at johnblood.gitlab.io/haydock.
The Fathers on this verse
St Methodius The Banquet of the Ten Virgins; or Concerning Chastity, Chapter IV
Chapter IV. Exhortation to the Cultivation of Virginity; A Passage from the Apocalypse is Proposed to Be Examined.
St Methodius The Banquet of the Ten Virgins; or Concerning Chastity, Chapter IV
John, in the course of the Apocalypse, says: “And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars: and she, being with child, cried, travailing in birth, and pained to be delivered. And there appeared another wonder in heaven; and behold a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads. And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth: and the dragon stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered, for to devour her child as soon as it was born. And she brought forth a man-child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron: and her child was caught up unto God, and to His throne. …