River

I have written on the biblical theology of rivers in the past, arguing that, unlike the sea, rivers are water reconciled with land, water made useful to land. In terms of biblical politics, rivers are Gentiles reconciled to Israel, their glory flowing to Zion to adorn Yahweh’s house.

Rivers don’t always stay within their bounds, and when they overflow they are as deadly as the sea. That’s what happens to the Euphrates in Isaiah 8: Assyria, the people from beyond the river, overflow and fill the land of Israel until everyone is standing in water up to his neck. 

Revelation 12 draws on this image when it described the dragon’s “persecution” of the woman who has given birth to the child-king: He “throws” water “like a river” in an attempt to sweep her away in the flood (the Greek is the wonderful, extremely rare, potamophoretos).

Rivers can also become dangerous because they flow with bitter water. Instead of watering the garden like the river of Eden, or turning the wilderness to an oasis like the river from the rock, rivers can become poisonous. 

Revelation makes use of this imagery as well. Bitter wormwood-water kills many in Revelation 6:10-11. And that deadly river should also be linked to Revelation 12. The serpent attempts to sweep the woman away with the flow of water from his mouth, but, considering the source, that river must also be bitter and deadly. The serpent is not a spring welling up to eternal life.

The fact that the river flows from the serpent’s mouth points to another dimension of the vision. The serpent has been identified as accuser, slanderer, and deceiver, the archaic serpent of Eden. What comes from his mouth are deceitful words, here imagined as a flood of water that sweeps away and poisons. After the dragon fails in his direct assault on the child, in short, the dragon tries to corrupt the woman with a river of lies.