As we said before, the devil carries on a hatred against the church that is without bounds and with all means. For the more he is defeated and is expelled, the more sharply does he try to multiply his deceptions.
When the devil wrestled with Christ after his baptism, he was overcome. Then arming himself against the holy apostles, he was again shamed when he saw that they found life through death, while as a snake he had been condemned to crawl upon the ground and to eat dirt, that is, earthly thoughts. He then began to persecute the church, for it has borne and continues to bear the masculine people of God which is not womanly because of desire.
And when the dragon saw that he was cast down to the earth, etc. The devil, attacking the Church with inextricable cunning, persecutes all the more intensely the more he is cast down.
The present account is a repetition of what has already been said. He does not say that after the serpent saw that he had been thrown down to the earth, he immediately pursued the woman, but since the serpent saw the troubles in which he was immersed, and that he had fallen out of the angelic rank, he became exceedingly bitter against human beings, and pursued the woman who had borne the savior of humankind, in order to destroy her. He pursued the woman, since he knew that the one who was born of her was too powerful to be captured. He was moved with envy against human beings because of their salvation by the Lord. He could not bear such a great reversal, by which he himself had been thrown out of heaven, and human beings by their virtue had gone up from earth to heaven.
He says, But the two wings of the great eagle were given to the woman, that she might fly into the desert, to her own place, where she is to be sheltered for a time, and times, and half a time, from the presence of the snake. He says that the woman was not handed over to Satan, but fled into the desert. This is Egypt, as was said earlier.
So it was that the prophet sought “wings like those of a dove,” to “fly away and be at rest in the desert.” But more powerful wings of the great eagle were given to the all-holy Virgin. He means by the wings of the eagle the intervention of the divine angel, who exhorted Joseph to take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. By this intervention it was as though they reached Egypt on the wings of an eagle. So the serpent, failing in this plot, which he had arranged through Herod, devises another plot against the Virgin, the destruction of her son, and so accordingly he goes on to describe the Lord’s cross and death.
He says, The serpent poured water like a river out of his mouth after the woman, to sweep her away with the flood: the divine Scripture means allegorically by the river temptation or trial, saying somewhere through Jonah, “You cast me into the depths of the heart of the sea, and the rivers surrounded me,” and again in the words of the Lord, “the rain fell, and the rivers rose up, and the winds came, but they did not throw down the house which had been founded upon the rock.” Therefore, he calls her trial over the passion of the Lord a river, so that through this, he says, he might drown the Virgin. And truly, by what happened to the Lord and the intensity of her sorrow, the serpent had the power to fulfill his purpose. What does Simeon say to her? “And a sword will pierce your own soul, too, so that the thoughts of many hearts may be laid bare.”
But, he says, the earth came to the help of the woman, and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed the river which the serpent had poured from his mouth onto the woman. That the earth swallowed the river indicates that the earth had accepted the trial, that is, the killing of the Lord. But the earth’s help did not consist in this, but in restoring the Lord again; for he came to life again after three days, trampling upon death, since it was impossible for him to be held by it, since he was “the author of life,” according to blessed Peter. To construe it in this way, one must read a full stop after the earth came to the help of the woman. Then, as though in answer to the question, “in what manner did it help?” it swallowed up the river, that is, it received in itself the Lord after the plot against him, and again restored him, and this is how it gave its help.
Since, therefore, the serpent also failed to achieve his second plan, what more is there for him to do? He pursued those called sons and brothers of the Lord—that is, the faithful—for these, he says, are the offspring of the woman; for the faithful are the sons and brothers of the Lord according to Scripture: “I will proclaim your name to my brothers,” and again, “Here am I, and the children God has given me.” So then they also belong to his mother’s family; and the Devil made war on them, pursuing them and plotting against them, putting them to death through the tyrants and rulers of the earth, since they were testifying that the Virgin-born was God.
[AD 560] Primasius of Hadrumetum on Revelation 12:13