Revelation 12:2 (WEB)
She was with child. She cried out in pain, laboring to give birth.
As quoted in the map (KJV)
Revelation 12:2 (KJV)
And she being with child cried, travailing in birth, and pained to be delivered.
Key words
- ὠδίνουσαōdinousa · Greek
- 'travailing in birth' — the word for labour pains, used of Zion in Isaiah 26:17 LXX and of the 'birth pangs' in Mark 13:8.
- βασανιζομένη τεκεῖνbasanizomenē tekein · Greek
- 'pained to be delivered' — literally 'tormented to give birth.'
Why it matters
The Woman cries out in the pains of labour. Pitre asks where Mary's birth pangs are, given the Fathers' belief that Bethlehem was painless, and answers: at the cross. Her travail is the 'birth pangs of the Messiah,' the sorrow of Calvary from which the children of God are born, as Jesus foretold in John 16:21.