What Does Revelation 12:13 Mean in the King James?
And when the dragon saw that he was cast unto the earth, he persecuted the woman which brought forth the man child.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The dragon is thrown down, yet its next movement is pursuit: its fall redirects its violence toward the woman who gave birth.
THE MEANING
The verse holds defeat and danger together: the dragon has been thrown down, and still it pursues the woman. A threatening power’s fall does not yet place everyone it can reach beyond danger. The one who brought forth the child remains its target.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A hostile power being brought down does not mean everyone it can still reach is already safe.
THE ROOT
ἐδίωξεν
ediōxen
GROWS FROM
διώκω
diōkō
To pursue or chase; in a hostile setting, to pursue as persecution.
The Greek verb carries the image of pursuit inside the word translated “persecuted.” The dragon’s attack is not detached hostility: it is a chase that follows the woman because of what she has brought forth.
ALSO GROWS
diōgmos: Pursuit carried out as persecution.
διωγμός
This noun names the hostile pursuit that the verb shows happening to the woman.
diōktēs: A person who pursues or persecutes.
διώκτης
It makes visible the pursuer behind the persecution: here, the dragon.
ἐβλήθη
eblēthē
GROWS FROM
βάλλω
ballō
To throw or hurl.
The verb for being cast belongs to the same Greek word family used for throwing out and throwing down. The repeated image of the dragon being thrown down in this chapter is followed here by proof that its fall has not ended its agency.
ALSO GROWS
ekballō: To throw or drive out.
ἐκβάλλω
It carries the same throwing action outward, echoing the dragon’s expulsion.
kataballō: To cast down or lay low.
καταβάλλω
It makes the downward force in the verse’s image explicit.
ἔτεκεν
eteken
GROWS FROM
τεκ- / τοκ- (tek- / tok-)
To bear, give birth, or bring forth.
“brought forth” in this verse is eteken. The woman is identified by the life she has borne, keeping her act of birth at the center of the scene. This word family also forms words for a child and offspring, linking the one who gives birth with the life the dragon’s pursuit surrounds.
ALSO GROWS
teknon: A child or offspring.
τέκνον
It connects the act of giving birth to the life that makes the woman a target.
tokos: Birth or what is brought forth.
τόκος
It keeps the result of birth joined to the woman’s identity in this verse.
THE PATTERN
Hostile power directs violence toward vulnerable life it can reach.
And Pharaoh charged all his people, saying, Every son that is born ye shall cast into the river, and every daughter ye shall save alive.He sitteth in the lurking places of the villages: in the secret places doth he murder the innocent: his eyes are privily set against the poor.Then Herod, when he saw that he was mocked of the wise men, was exceeding wroth, and sent forth, and slew all the children that were in Bethlehem, and in all the coasts thereof, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had diligently enquired of the wise men.THE THREAD
Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also.Both verses use διώκω (diōkō), “pursue” or “persecute.” John names the same movement Revelation shows: hostility toward one can extend to those connected to them.
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