Revelation 12:3

12:1-6 The church, under the emblem of a woman, the mother of believers, was seen by the apostle in vision, in heaven. She was clothed with the sun, justified, sanctified, and shining by union with Christ, the Sun of Righteousness. The moon was under her feet; she was superior to the reflected and feebler light of the revelation made by Moses. Having on her head a crown of twelve stars; the doctrine of the gospel, preached by the twelve apostles, is a crown of glory to all true believers. As in pain to bring forth a holy family; desirous that the conviction of sinners might end in their conversion. A dragon is a known emblem of Satan, and his chief agents, or those who govern for him on earth, at that time the pagan empire of Rome, the city built upon seven hills. As having ten horns, divided into ten kingdoms. Having seven crowns, representing seven forms of government. As drawing with his tail a third part of the stars in heaven, and casting them down to the earth; persecuting and seducing the ministers and teachers. As watchful to crush the Christian religion; but in spite of the opposition of enemies, the church brought forth a manly issue of true and faithful professors, in whom Christ was truly formed anew; even the mystery of Christ, that Son of God who should rule the nations, and in whose right his members partake the same glory. This blessed offspring was protected of God.

And there appeared another wonder in heaven; {4} and behold a great red dragon, having {5} seven heads and ten {6} horns, and seven crowns upon his heads. (4) That is the devil or Satan, see Re 12:9, mighty, angry and full of wrath. (5) By this to withstand those seven churches spoken of, that is, the catholic church, and that with kingly objects and tyrannical magnificence: signified by the crowns set on his heads, as if they belonged to him by the proper right, without controversy: as also he boasted to Christ; See Mt 4:9 Re 13:1. (6) More than the horns of the Lamb, or than the churches are: so well equipped does the tyrant brag himself to be, to do all manner of wickedness.

Red (πυῤῥὸς) See on Revelation 6:4. Dragon (δράκων) Satan. See Revelation 12:9. The word is found only in Revelation. In the Septuagint, of the serpent into which Moses' rod was changed. In Isaiah 27:1; Ezekiel 29:3, of the crocodile or leviathan of Job 41:1. In Jeremiah 51:34, of a dragon. Crowns (διαδήματα) The Kingly crown, not the chaplet (στέφανος). See on Revelation 2:10

And there appeared another wonder in heaven; there appeared to John, being yet in his vision, another amazing sight, which was a sign or type of something differing from what it appeared like. And behold a great red dragon: see Revelation 12:7,9,17 . Most judicious interpreters, by the great red dragon, understand the Roman emperors that first persecuted: the Christian church, of which Claudius was the first; yet some understand it of the devil, the old serpent; but the most and best interpreters understand it of the pagan emperors, by whom the devil did this work, called a great dragon, because of the vastness of that empire; a red dragon, for their cruelty against the Christians. Having seven heads; the Holy Ghost, Revelation 17:9 , hath expounded these seven heads, by seven mountains. The ten horns are thought to signify the ten provinces belonging to that empire, the governors of which ruled like ten kings. It is expounded by ten kings, Revelation 17:12 . Strabo tells us, that Augustus Caesar divided the whole empire into twenty provinces; ten of which, being more quiet, he gave to the people to govern, the other ten he reserved to his own government. The seven crowns are expounded by seven kings, Revelation 17:10 , of which we shall speak more when we come so far.

3 . dragon ] The word in classical Greek means simply “serpent,” though perhaps it was always specially applied to the larger or more formidable kinds. But in St John’s time the conception seems to have been familiar of a half-mythical kind of serpent, to which the name was appropriated: it had not gone so far as the mediæval type of “dragon,” with legs and wings, but the dragon was supposed to “stand” (see the next verse), hardly perhaps “on his rear,” as Milton imagines the Serpent of Eden to have done, before the curse of Genesis 3:14 , but erect from the middle upwards; see Verg. Æn. II. 206–8. Whether this dragon bore visibly on him the primæval curse or no, there is an undoubted reference to the story of the Fall in this picture of the woman, the man, and the serpent. In Psalm 74:13-14 (14, 15); Job 26:13 ; Isaiah 27:1 ; Isaiah 51:9 , we seem to find references to a “war in heaven,” either past or future, like that which follows here. seven heads ] Probably the vision avails itself of the imagery furnished by popular mythology: very likely Syria and Palestine had tales of seven-headed serpents, like the hydra of Lerna, or the cobras of modern Indian stories. and ten horns ] The only illustration of these is, that the beast of chaps. 13, 17 and of Daniel 7 has the like. But we must remember that the dragon is the archetype, not a copy, of the beast: and therefore the meaning here is probably more general: all unsanctified power is embodied in him (cf.

Revelation 12:3 . Πυῤῥὸς ) Others read πυρὸς ,[123] which the ancients formed from πῦρ , as though John should say, μέγαν πυρὸς δράκοντα . But πυρὸς is written for πυῤῥὸς , ch. Revelation 6:4 . See Apparat. pp. 805, 820. [Ed. ii., pp. 524, 544.] The colour represents the fiery spirit of the dragon.— κεφαλὰς ἑπτὰ , seven heads ) such as even history commemorates; and in this very city (Hamburgh) the skeleton of such a dragon with seven heads was formerly shown.—Joh. Diet. Winckler . Disquisition, p. 162. [123] A Vulg. read πυῤῥός . BC h Memph. πυρός .—E.

Revelation 12:3 . πυρρός , Vergil’s serpents which attack Laokoon have blood-red crests, and Homer’s dragon has a blood-red back, but here the trait ( cf. above) is reproduced from the red colour of Typhon, the Egyptian dragon who persecuted Osiris (Plut. de Iside , 30–33). The seven heads are taken from the seven-headed hydra or mušmaḥḥu of Babylonian mythology. The devil’s deputy in Revelation 13:1 (= the composite mušruššu of Babylonia) has the same equipment of horns and heads, but the diadems adorn his horns. Here, to John’s mind at any rate ( cf. Revelation 12:9 ), the dragon is not equivalent to any contemporary pagan power like Pompey (Ps. Sol. 2:29) or the king of Babylon.

(3) And there appeared . . .—Better, And another sign was seen in the heaven; and behold a great red dragon. This, too, is a sign, and has a meaning. The dragon stands for some dread and hostile power. “The dragon is that fabulous monster of whom ancient poets told, as large in size, coiled like a snake, blood red in colour . . . insatiable in voracity, and ever athirst for human blood”—a fit emblem of him whom our Lord declared to be a murderer from the beginning; for the dragon is intended here to describe him who, in Revelation 12:9 , is also said to be that old serpent, called the Devil and Satan. The red colour is the colour of flame and blood, and the symbol of destruction and slaughter. The dragon is the emblem of the evil spirit, the devil, the perpetual antagonist of good, the persecutor of the Church in all ages (comp. Psalm 74:13 ): just as the dragon is sometimes employed to represent the Egyptian power, the ancient foe of Israel ( Isaiah 51:9 ; Ezekiel 29:3 ). Having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns (diadems) upon his heads.—This is the further description of the dragon. He is one, yet diverse; one, as an evil spirit; diverse, in the varieties of his power. The woman is hut one: but her foe is multiform; she has one trust to keep, one work to do, and can but fulfil it in her Master’s way: evil is bound by no law, regards no scruple, and exerts its power through any channel and by every means.

Is there not also an assumption of divine similitude here in the use of the number seven? It is at least the representation of the great and world-wide power which he exercises as the prince of this world, whose kingdom is in much a parody of the true kingdom. The whole description should be compared with the account given of the beast in Revelation 17:3; Revelation 17:7; Revelation 17:10; Revelation 17:12. There the seven heads are explained as seven kings, and the heads here are crowned; the ten horns are also explained as ten kings. The sevenfold kingship and the tenfold power of the world are thus described as belonging to the dragon. The picture here, as the picture of the wild beast in Revelation 17, represents, as concentrated into a single hostile form, all the varying forces and successive empires which have opposed or oppressed the people of God, and sought to destroy their efforts for good: for all evil has its root in a spirit at enmity with God. Hence the dragon appears armed with all the insignia of those sovereignties and powers which have been animated by this spirit.

3. appeared—"was seen." wonder—Greek, "semeion," "sign." red—So A and Vulgate read. But B, C, and Coptic read, "of fire." In either case, the color of the dragon implies his fiery rage as a murderer from the beginning. His representative, the beast, corresponds, having seven heads and ten horns (the number of horns on the fourth beast of Da 7:7; Re 13:1). But there, ten crowns are on the ten horns (for before the end, the fourth empire is divided into ten kingdoms); here, seven crowns (rather, "diadems," Greek, "diademata," not stephanoi, "wreaths") are upon his seven heads. In Da 7:4-7 the Antichristian powers up to Christ's second coming are represented by four beasts, which have among them seven heads, that is, the first, second, and fourth beasts having one head each, the third, four heads. His universal dominion as prince of this fallen world is implied by the seven diadems (contrast the "many diadems on Christ's head," Re 19:12, when coming to destroy him and his), the caricature of the seven Spirits of God. His worldly instruments of power are marked by the ten horns, ten being the number of the world. It marks his self-contradictions that he and the beast bear both the number seven (the divine number) and ten (the world number).

Verse 3. - And there appeared another wonder in heaven; and there was seen another sign in heaven (Revised Version). (See on ver. 1.) The appearance seen is not a representation of the devil as he actually is, but the sign - the dragon - is figurative and descriptive of the particular characteristics now about to be exhibited. In heaven - most likely merely in the space above , where he could be easily seen. Wordsworth, however, says, "Because the power here represented assails the Church, the kingdom of heaven." And behold a great red dragon. His identity is established by ver. 9, where he is called "the great dragon, the old serpent, the devil, Satan, the deceiver." Red ; no doubt to enhance his terrible appearance; suggestive of his murderous, destructive character. "Dragon" ( δράκων ,) in the New Testament occurs only in this book. In the Old Testament the word is of frequent occurrence. In the LXX. δράκων is used seventeen times to express the Hebrew tannin (a sea or land monster, especially a crocodile or serpent); five times it stands for leviathan ; twice it represents kephir (young lion); twice nachash (serpent); once attud (he-goat); and once pethen (python). Tannin (singular) is always rendered by δράκων except in Genesis 1:21 , where we find κῆτος ; but twice it is corrupted into tannim (viz. Ezekiel 29:3 ; Ezekiel 32:2 ).