What Does Revelation 12:15 Mean?
And the serpent throws from his mouth water like a river after the woman, so that he might cause her to be swept away by the river.
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 the serpent cast out of his mouth water as a flood after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away of the flood.THE KEY
The flood is sent to swallow the woman, but the same verb hidden in “carried away” turns around and swallows the flood.
THE MEANING
When a force comes at you like a flood, this verse names its intention: to overwhelm and consume you. Its aim is exposed as an aim, not stated as a completed result; the next verse turns the image around as the earth swallows the flood.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A threat’s intention is not proof that it can finish what it begins.
THE ROOT
καταποθῇ
katapothē
GROWS FROM
πιν
pin
Drink; with κατά in καταπίνω, drink down or swallow.
“carried away” in this verse is katapothē. The passive καταποθῇ carries the image of being swallowed down. That image returns in the next verse when the earth swallows the flood, so the threat’s own verb becomes the shape of its reversal.
ALSO GROWS
pínō: To drink.
πίνω
This is the verb at the root of καταπίνω, the compound image of swallowing down.
póma: A drink or beverage.
πόμα
This noun carries the same drink-root into what is taken in, echoing the flood’s attempt to consume the woman.
potós: Drinkable; fit to be drunk.
ποτός
This related form preserves the sense of something taken in, the consuming image beneath “carried away.”
THE PATTERN
In scripture, the force that threatens to swallow can itself be swallowed up.
You stretched out your right hand; the earth swallowed them.He will swallow up death forever, and the Lord GOD will wipe tears from all faces, and he will remove the taunt of his people from all the earth, for the LORD has spoken.But when this decaying thing has clothed itself in what does not decay, and this dying thing in what does not die, then the written word will come to pass, Death has been swallowed into victory.THE THREAD
And the earth comes running to the woman's aid, and opens her mouth, and drinks down the river which the dragon throws from his mouth.The Greek uses the same swallow-down verb here that stands behind “carried away” in verse 15. The flood meant to consume the woman is itself swallowed by the earth.
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