The word translated fled is not to be taken in that peculiar sense as if the woman, in the commencement of her flight, had been furnished with wings, for the original word is εφυγεν. But that there is no such prolepsis as the bishop imagines is evident from the ecclesiastical history of the fourth century for the woman, or true Church, began to flee into the wilderness a considerable time before the division of the great Roman empire into two independent monarchies.

That she might fly into the wilderness, into her place, c.] The apparent repetition here of what is said in Revelation 12:6 has induced Bishop Newton to consider the former passage as introduced by way of prolepsis or anticipation for, says he, the woman did not fly into the wilderness till several years after the conversion of Constantine.

395, and were given to the woman, Christianity being the established religion of both empires. The two wings of the great eagle refer to the two grand independent divisions of the Roman empire, which took place January 17, A.D. Under the eagle, on the pike, were piled bucklers, and sometimes crowns. The Roman eagles were figures in relievo of silver or gold, borne on the tops of pikes, the wings being displayed, and frequently a thunderbolt in their talons. Marius for before that time minotaurs, wolves, leopards, horses, boars, and eagles were used indifferently, according to the humour of the commander.

The Roman power is called an eagle from its legionary standard, which was introduced among the Romans in the second year of the consulate of C. The great eagle here mentioned is an emblem of the Roman empire in general, and therefore differs from the dragon, which is a symbol of the HEATHEN ROMAN empire in particular. And to the woman were given two wings of a great eagle - Του αετου του μεγαλου· Of THE great eagle.

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