Ezechiele 23:37
To many Protestant and Evangelical Italians, the Bibles translated by Giovanni Diodati are an important part of their history. Diodati’s first Italian Bible edition was printed in 1607, and his second in 1641. He died in 1649. Throughout the 1800s two editions of Diodati’s text were printed by the British Foreign Bible Society. This is the more recent 1894 edition, translated by Claudiana.
Apocalypse Revealed # 542
542. And the dragon stood before the woman who was ready to give birth, to devour her Child as soon as it was born. This symbolically means that those people meant by the dragon endeavor to snuff out the doctrine of the New Church at its first appearance.
For the people who are meant by the dragon, see no. 537 above. That the woman symbolizes the New Church, no. 533. That to give birth means, symbolically, to accept doctrinal goods and truths from the Word, no. 535. That the Child that she bore symbolizes the doctrine of the New Church - this will be seen in the exposition following next. To devour means, symbolically, to snuff out because the Child symbolizes doctrine, and when a child is said to be devoured, the doctrine is said to be extinguished.
We say that this occurs at the doctrine's first appearance because we are told that the dragon stood before the woman to devour her Child as soon as it was born.
