Apocalypse 12:5
And she brought forth a man child, who was to rule all nations with an iron rod: and her son was taken up to God, and to his throne.
Open Apocalypse 12:5 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 peperit filium masculum, qui recturus erat omnes gentes in virga ferrea : et raptus est filius ejus ad Deum, et ad thronum ejus,
- Greek New Testament (SBLGNT)
- καὶ ἔτεκεν υἱόν, ἄρσεν, ὃς μέλλει ποιμαίνειν πάντα τὰ ἔθνη ἐν ῥάβδῳ σιδηρᾷ· καὶ ἡρπάσθη τὸ τέκνον αὐτῆς πρὸς τὸν θεὸν καὶ πρὸς τὸν θρόνον αὐτοῦ.
Haydock's commentary
A man child; that is, a masculine race of Christians, willing to confess the name of the Lord, and to fight his battles; who, through the merits of Jesus Christ, should triumph over all the attempts of the world. (Calmet)
Her son (or children) was taken up to heaven, guarded by the special favour of God. They always overcome the devil, and all their adversaries, by reason of the blood of the Lamb, by the merits of Christ. And they loved not the life of the body, so as to preserve it, by incurring the death of the soul. (Witham)
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. …
St Victorinus of Pettau Commentary on the Apocalypse of the Blessed John, From the twelfth chapter
5. “And she brought forth a son, who begins to rule all nations with a rod of iron.”] The rod of iron is the sword of persecution.