sotto voce

The renewal of strength (as illustrated by various means in Isaiah) is for those who put hope in the Lord, a general principle; the 'woman' is escaping from the serpent; perhaps an example of the general principle, and one may suppose so. The Isaiah figure of speech refers to the hovering of eagles, that is supported on warm air currents. This is akin, says Isaiah, to the support that the faithful will receive, making their success relatively effortless. While the woman is said to actively fly, this can be said to be one of the limitations of analogy, and does not imply any 'heroic' action on the part of people.

Which is in flat contradiction of Plato, whose humanism was virtually complete. Like 'patriarchs' and others who advocate 'sacraments' and 'liturgy', as it happens.

The mistaking of mere coincidental figure for actual meaning here is simply mind-boggling.

(Note to any schoolchildren reading this: people don't actually grow wings. Do not take this sort of presentation as an example of how to do Bible study.)

So do Jews not believe in their Messiah? I suppose, as it's 6000 years since that messiah was foretold, perhaps they have given up hope. If so, they can abandon the whole of their Scripture to those who do believe in the biblical Messiah, because it is predicated on messianic hope, from page one to page last.

Cesc

It's unclear to me what you're saying, to be honest. A mere coincidental figure as the idea about wings in Platonism/rabbinical literature?

How do you get that out of what I wrote? I'm talking about source criticism on the tale of Rev 12. It's possible that several written sources have been coalesced, Jewish written sources that had nothing to do with Christianity. So that the child mentioned in the story, the Jewish messiah, only became Jesus Christ when the story was used by a Christian, i.e. the author/redactor of Revelation, and the woman became the Christian people or Mary or whatever.

stephan huller

Most people have sotto on ignore. Those who don't keep reading his posts in order to find a convenient caricature of a religious zealot. I rarely put people on ignore but his posts are so bizarre often times that I am leaning toward parking him there myself.

sotto voce

Really. Nobody even begins to understand Revelation unless they have a thorough understanding of the OT or Tanakh; as the author did.

sotto voce

Only those who feel out of their depth.

Sheshbazzar

What is a loony fruitcake religious cult without its measure of nuts.