Expositor's Bible Commentary Commentary Revelation 12:6

"And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she hath a place prepared of God, that there they may nourish her a thousand two hundred and threescore days." — Revelation 12:6 (ASV)

What is this flight into the desert? Is it a symbolic or an actual historic event? Among those who take it literally, some have understood the reference as the escape of the early Jerusalem Christians to Pella in A. D. 66 to escape the Roman destruction of Jerusalem. Pella continued to be an important Christian center even after many returned to Jerusalem in 135. Others refer the event to the future, when a portion of the Jewish people will be preserved through the Tribulation period to await Christ’s return. Most commentators, however, understand the desert to mean the place of safety, discipline, and testing. This view is preferable because of the highly symbolic nature of the whole chapter, the symbolic use of “desert” in 17:3, and the parallelism to the Exodus where the children of Israel fled from Pharaoh. All are agreed that the reference here to the flight of the woman is anticipatory of vv.13ff. The intervening verses show why the dragon is persecuting the woman (vv.7–12). For a discussion of the 1,260 days, see comments on 11:2.