What Does Revelation 12:13 Mean?
And when the dragon sees that he had been thrown down to the earth, he pursues the woman who brought forth the male child.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
And when the dragon saw that he was cast unto the earth, he persecuted the woman which brought forth the man child.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.
“pursues” in this verse is ediōxen. 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.
“had been thrown down to the earth” in this verse is eblēthē. 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 brought forth, you shall throw into the river; and every daughter, you shall keep alive.He sits in the ambush of the enclosures. In the hidden places he strikes down the clean-handed, and his eyes watch for the helpless.Then Herod, when he perceived that he had been mocked by the wise men, burned with rage, and sent forth and killed all the children who were in Bethlehem and in all its borders, from two years old and under, according to the time he had carefully learned from the wise men.THE THREAD
Remember the word that I said to you. A servant is not greater than his lord. If they pursued me, they will also pursue you. If they kept my word, 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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