Darby's great delusion

The woman clothed with the sun in the prophecy of Revelation 12:1 has been identified as a symbol of the Church by commentators and theologians throughout most of the Church's history. But in the 19th century, John Nelson Darby proposed a different interpretation; he said the woman in heaven represents the Jews.

The question of which is the correct interpretation of the heavenly woman has prompted a great debate in the Church. This and similar debates are pictured by the war in heaven, described by John in verses 7-9 of this same chapter.

A key to resolving this question is found in the book of Isaiah, where heaven is called God's throne. In Revelation 12, the saints are those in heaven, and all others are those who dwell in the earth.

Isaiah 66:1
Thus saith the LORD, The heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool: where is the house that ye build unto me? and where is the place of my rest?

Paul said that believers have been made to sit "in heavenly places," referring to our status as sons of God.

Ephesians 2:4-6
But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.

The woman's place in heaven depicts the status of those who belong to Christ. The sun represents the Gospel, and the righteousness of God that clothes the Church, but that would not apply to the unbelieving Jews, who reject the Gospel. Zionism, promoted by some of the followers of Darby, is not supported in this prophecy.

Comments about the woman's identity by commentators provided below include quotes from two works by Darby, and one from E.W. Bullinger, which identify the woman with the Jews. Each of the other twelve scholars cited identifies the woman with the Church. They mention several scriptures that support this identification. Darby stated his opinion, that "the woman is not the Church." He saw the Church as the Bride of Christ, which to him, excluded the Church as the Mother of Jesus. But Jesus himself identified his disciples as his mother, as well as his brethren:

Mark 3:33-35
And he answered them, saying, Who is my mother, or my brethren? And he looked round about on them which sat about him, and said, Behold my mother and my brethren! For whosoever shall do the will of God, the same is my brother, and my sister, and mother.

Darby stumbles at the woman's location in heaven in verse 1, and fleeing to the wilderness in verse 6. He says the woman could not be the Church because she flees to the wilderness in verse 6, and he says "The Church is only in heavenly places, but she is not known on earth." He cannot imagine the church fleeing to the wilderness, but in the time of John the Baptist, people went out to the wilderness, picturing their forsaking the corruption of the world, and sin. The seal of a Christian is to "depart from iniquity." [2 Timothy 2:19]

The New Testament shows that the Church included the prophets of the Old Testament, who together with the prophets were said to be its foundation. [Ephesians 2:20] Jesus said Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob will be in his kingdom, while unbelieving Jews would not. [Luke 13:28]

Commentators on Revelation 12:1

A plaine discovery of the whole revelation of S. John, by John Napier (1611). Proposition 22:

The woman clad with the sun [chap. 12] is the true Church of God. This is proved, first, by the Song of Solomon, where Solomon, bearing the figure of Christ, his beloved Woman and Spouse, throughout all that Canticle, beareth the figure of Christ's Church. Secondly spiritual Jerusalem, which is Christ's Church by diverse scriptures, is also called Christ's Spouse in the Revelation. Thirdly, bodily marriage, is by Saint Paul called a Symbol, and a Sacrament of the union of Christ, and the Woman espoused representeth the Church. Fourthly, in the whole Scriptures, idolatrie being called spirituall whoredome, necessarily the true worshipping of God is represented by perfect Spousage, and the true Church that worshippeth him, is his Spouse, and so the Church of God is figured by a Woman. Last of all, the whole tokens of this Woman, contained in the text so viuely and perfectly agree with Christes Church (as is declared in the principall treatise) that necessarily wee must conclude, this woman to meane the true Church of God.

Isaac Newton, Observations Upon the Prophecies of Daniel, and the Apocalypse of St. John:

In the Prophecy, the affairs of the Church begin to be considered at the opening of the fifth seal; and in the Interpretation, they begin at the same time with the vision of the Church in the form of a woman in heaven ... she is represented by a woman in the Temple of heaven, clothed with the sun of righteousness, and the moon of Jewish ceremonies under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars relating to the twelve Apostles and to the twelve tribes of Israel.

Matthew Henry's Bible Commentary:

We see how the church is represented in this vision. (1.) As a woman, the weaker part of the world, but the spouse of Christ, and the mother of the saints. (2.) As clothed with the sun, the imputed righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. Having put on Christ, who is the Sun of righteousness, she, by her relation to Christ, is invested with honourable rights and privileges, and shines in his rays.

The Geneva Study Bible:

(1) Until now it has been the general prophecy, ... the beginning of the Church is described in this chapter, and the progress of it in the chapter following. The beginning of the Christian Church we define as the first moment of the conception of Christ, until the time in which this church was weaned and taken away from the breast or milk of her mother: which is the time when the Church of the Jews with their city and temple was overthrown by the judgment of God. So we have in this chapter the story of 69 years and upwards.

John Gill's Exposition of the Bible:

... a woman: by whom is meant, not the virgin Mary, ... nor is the church of God, among the Jews of the former dispensation, designed; ... but the pure apostolic church is meant, or the church of Christ, as it was in the times of the apostles, and the first ages of Christianity...

Jamieson, Faussett, and Brown:

... woman clothed with the sun . . . moon under her feet--the Church, Israel first, and then the Gentile Church; clothed with Christ, "the Sun of righteousness." "Fair as the moon, clear as the sun." Clothed with the Sun, the Church is the bearer of divine supernatural light in the world.

B. W. Johnson's Bible Commentary:

A woman clothed with the sun. A woman is used as a symbol many times in the Scriptures. "Say you to the daughter of Zion, Behold, thy salvation cometh." (Isa. 62:11.) Here the reference is to the Church. Again Paul (Gal. 4:31) says, "Ye are not the children of the bond woman, but of the free woman." All are agreed that here the free woman represents the Church. Again (Rev. 21:2), John sees the New Jerusalem descending adorned as a bride to meet her husband. The bride, the Lamb's wife, here and in the ninth verse, indeed in every place spoken of, is the Church.

John Wesley's Notes on the Bible:

A woman - The emblem of the church of Christ, as she is originally of Israel, though built and enlarged on all sides by the addition of heathen converts; and as she will hereafter appear, when all her "natural branches are again "grafted in." She is at present on earth; and yet, with regard to her union with Christ, may be said to be in heaven, Eph. ii, 6.

Clarke's Commentary by Adam Clarke:

That the woman here represents the true Church of Christ most commentators are agreed. In other parts of the Apocalypse, the pure Church of Christ is evidently portrayed by a woman. In chap. xix. 7, a great multitude are represented as saying, "Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him; for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his WIFE hath made herself ready." In chap. xxi. 9, an angel talks with St. John, saying, "Come hither, I will show thee the BRIDE, the Lamb's wife." That the Christian Church is meant will appear also from her being clothed with the sun, a striking emblem of Jesus Christ, the Sun of righteousness, the light and glory of the Church; for the countenance of the Son of God is as the sun shineth in his strength.

A critical and exegetical commentary on the Revelation of St. John by Robert Henry Charles, (p. 315):

... this woman represents the true Israel or the community of believers. This community embraces Jewish and Gentile Christians ... But since the woman is represented as the mother of the Messiah, the community which she symbolizes must embrace the true O.T. Israel. ... J. Weiss (p. 137) takes the woman to symbolize the heavenly Jerusalem, which St. Paul calls "our mother" (Gal. iv. 26), and which thus forms a contrast to the woman that symbolizes Babylon or Rome in chap. xvii.

A commentary on the Revelation of John by George Eldon Ladd, (p. 167):

The central feature of this heavenly woman is that she is the mother of the Messiah (vs. 2). Some commentators think she represents Mary, the mother of the Lord; others Israel, the people who gave birth to Messiah. It is true that Isaiah 66:7 pictures Zion as being in travail to give birth to the new redeemed Israel (See Isa. 26:17; Mic. 4:10); but this heavenly woman is mother both of Messiah and of the actual church on earth (her "offspring," vs. 17). Therefore, it is easier to understand the woman in a somewhat broader sense as the ideal Zion, the heavenly representative of the people of God (Isa. 54:1; 66:7-9). Paul gives a clue to the meaning of the heavenly woman when he speaks of the Jerusalem which is above, who is the mother of the people of God on earth (Gal. 4:26).

New Testament Commentaries by James B. Coffman:

The woman, of course, is a symbol of the "whole family of God" (Ephesians 3:15; 3:15 ), including especially the true Israel of both the Old Testament and the New Testament. It includes Christians, because later in the chapter, they are indicated as children of the woman; and it includes the Old Testament Israel, because through them the Messiah was born. ... The figure of God's people as a woman is extensive throughout the Bible, and no Christian of John's day could have had the slightest doubt of who is meant by this glorious woman. Only a very few writers have ever erred on this. Some have made her out to be Eve; and as might have been expected, Roman Catholic scholars have identified her with the Virgin Mary. This latter interpretation, however, is refuted by the fact that the New Testament nowhere refers to Christians as the children of Mary.

Commentary on Revelation by Ethelbert W. Bullinger (p. 393):

The "sign" of the travailing woman, and her being in pain to be delivered, signifies the expectant attitude of Israel--de jure, if not de facto. The promised seed was meant to be the one great hope of the nation; to which everything pointed and of which everything testified. ... (p. 397): It is clear, so far, that the woman in the "sign" of Israel, viewed as representing the nation as a whole. Israel is thus personified, with the marks which characterize the nation in its constitution and in its hope.

John Darby's Synopsis of the Bible:

The first symbolical person, subject of the prophecy and result of all God's ways in it, is a woman clothed with the sun, having a crown of twelve stars, and the moon under her feet. It is Israel, or Jerusalem as its centre as in the purpose of God (compare Is 9:6 and Ps 87:6). She is clothed with supreme authority, invested with the glory of perfect administration in man, and all the original reflected glory of this under the old covenant, under her feet.

Notes on the Apocalypse by John Nelson Darby:

Verses 1--6 place before us the actors in this scene, viz., a woman with child of Him who is the object of all the counsels of God, and the vessel of His power on earth, while herself weak (she is, according to his counsels, clothed with supreme glory); ... The woman is not the Church. ... The woman, ... who was clothed with the sun, remains on the earth, and is in the desert. As soon as we are obliged to seek the woman on earth, it can be none else but the Jews. The Church is only in heavenly places, but she is not known on earth. Jerusalem is the centre where God recognizes his people.