Revelation 6:13

13 and the stars of heaven fell to the earth like a fig tree throws down its unripe figs [when] shaken by a great wind.

Revelation 6:13 Meaning and Commentary

Revelation 6:13

And the stars of heaven fell unto the earth
All the other inferior deities lost their esteem, worship, and honour; for the idol temples being now opened, the idols and statues were exposed to the common people, and were found to be stuffed with hay and straw, which brought them into great contempt F12. Moreover, as stars sometimes signify the ministers of the Gospel in the Christian church, ( Revelation 1:20 ) , and sometimes the priests in the Jewish church, ( Daniel 8:10 ) ; so they may here likewise include the idolatrous priests among the Heathens, who were discharged and removed by Constantine, and had their posts and profits taken away from them; yea, Maximinus, an Heathen emperor, or tyrant, being beaten by Licinius, who was then Constantine's colleague, killed many of the priests and prophets of his gods, which were formerly had in great admiration by him, as deceivers and betrayers of him, by whose oracles he was animated to the war F13. And in like manner Licinius put to death the priests and prophets of the new idol at Antioch F14.

Even as a fig tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of
a mighty wind;
which figs being young and green, and not fixed, fall off easily, and in great numbers, when a blustering wind beats upon them; and so the rabble of Pagan deities, and idolatrous priests, were easily, and in great numbers, removed through the power of Constantine, which carried all before it.


FOOTNOTES:

F12 Sozomen, l. 2. c. 5.
F13 Euseb. Eccl. Hist. l. 9. c. 10.
F14 Ib. c. 11.

Revelation 6:13 In-Context

11 And to each one of them a white robe was given, and it was said to them that they should rest yet a short time, until [the number of] their fellow slaves and their brothers who were about to be killed as they [had been] were completed also.
12 And I watched when he opened the sixth seal, and a great earthquake took place, and the sun became black like sackcloth made of hair, and the whole moon became like blood,
13 and the stars of heaven fell to the earth like a fig tree throws down its unripe figs [when] shaken by a great wind.
14 And the sky was split apart like a scroll that is rolled up, and every mountain and island were moved from their place.
15 And the kings of the earth, and the most important people, and the military leaders, and the rich, and the powerful, and every slave and free person hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains,

Footnotes 2

  • [a]. Or "of the sky"
  • [b]. *Here "[when]" is supplied as a component of the participle ("shaken") which is understood as temporal
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