Revelation 12 is the twelfth chapter of the

Book of Revelation The Book of Revelation, also known as the Book of the Apocalypse or the Apocalypse of John, is the final book of the New Testament, and therefore the final book of the Bible#Christian Bible, Christian Bible. Written in Greek language, Greek, ...

or the Apocalypse of John in the

New Testament The New Testament (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus, as well as events relating to Christianity in the 1st century, first-century Christianit ...

of the

Christian A Christian () is a person who follows or adheres to Christianity, a Monotheism, monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus Christ. Christians form the largest religious community in the wo ...

Bible The Bible is a collection of religious texts that are central to Christianity and Judaism, and esteemed in other Abrahamic religions such as Islam. The Bible is an anthology (a compilation of texts of a variety of forms) originally writt ...

. The book is traditionally attributed to

John the Apostle John the Apostle (; ; ), also known as Saint John the Beloved and, in Eastern Orthodox Christianity, Saint John the Theologian, was one of the Twelve Apostles of Jesus according to the New Testament. Generally listed as the youngest apostle, he ...

, but the precise identity of the author remains a point of academic debate. This chapter contains the accounts about the woman, the dragon, and the child, followed by the war between

Michael Michael may refer to: People * Michael (given name), a given name * he He ..., a given name * Michael (surname), including a list of people with the surname Michael Given name * Michael (bishop elect)">Michael (surname)">he He ..., a given nam ...

and the dragon, then the appearance of the monster from the sea.

William Robertson Nicoll Sir William Robertson Nicoll (10 October 18514 May 1923) was a Scottish Free Church of Scotland (1843-1900), Free Church minister (religion), minister, journalist, editor in chief, editor, and man of letters. Biography Nicoll was born in Lums ...

, a Scottish

Free Church A free church is any Christian denomination that is intrinsically separate from government (as opposed to a state church). A free church neither defines government policy, nor accept church theology or policy definitions from the government. A f ...

minister, suggests that in this chapter the writer has created a Christianised version of a Jewish source which "described the birth of the

Messiah In Abrahamic religions, a messiah or messias (; , ; , ; ) is a saviour or liberator of a group of people. The concepts of '' mashiach'', messianism, and of a Messianic Age originated in Judaism, and in the Hebrew Bible, in which a ''mashiach ...

in terms borrowed from ... cosmological myths

uch as Uch (; ), frequently referred to as Uch Sharīf (; ; ''"Noble Uch"''), is a historic city in the Pakistan's Punjab, Pakistan, Punjab province. Uch may have been founded as Alexandria on the Indus, a town founded by Alexander the Great during I ...

that of the conflict between the sun-god and the dragon of darkness and the deep".

Text

The original text was written in

Koine Greek Koine Greek (, ), also variously known as Hellenistic Greek, common Attic, the Alexandrian dialect, Biblical Greek, Septuagint Greek or New Testament Greek, was the koiné language, common supra-regional form of Greek language, Greek spoken and ...

. This chapter is divided into 17 verses. The

Vulgate The Vulgate () is a late-4th-century Bible translations into Latin, Latin translation of the Bible. It is largely the work of Saint Jerome who, in 382, had been commissioned by Pope Damasus I to revise the Gospels used by the Diocese of ...

version has 18 verses.

Textual witnesses

Some early manuscripts containing the text of this chapter are among others: *

Papyrus 115 Papyrus 115, also known as ''P. Oxy. 4499'', is a fragmented manuscript of the New Testament written in Greek on papyrus. It is designated by the siglum in the Gregory-Aland numbering of New Testament manuscripts. It consists of 26 fragments of ...

(ca. AD 275; extant verses 1-5, 8-10, 12-17) * Papyrus 47 (3rd century) *

Codex Sinaiticus The Codex Sinaiticus (; Shelfmark: London, British Library, Add MS 43725), also called the Sinai Bible, is a fourth-century Christian manuscript of a Greek Bible, containing the majority of the Greek Old Testament, including the deuterocanonica ...

(330-360) *

Codex Alexandrinus The Codex Alexandrinus (London, British Library, Royal MS 1. D. V-VIII) is a manuscript of the Greek Bible,The Greek Bible in this context refers to the Bible used by Greek-speaking Christians who lived in Egypt and elsewhere during the early ...

(400-440) *

Codex Ephraemi Rescriptus The Codex Ephraemi Rescriptus (Paris, National Library of France, Greek 9) is a manuscript of the Greek Bible, written on parchment. It is designated by the siglum C or 04 in the Biblical manuscript#Gregory-Aland, Gregory-Aland numbering of New ...

(ca. 450; complete)

Old Testament references

* Revelation 12:5:

Psalm The Book of Psalms ( , ; ; ; ; , in Islam also called Zabur, ), also known as the Psalter, is the first book of the third section of the Tanakh (Hebrew Bible) called ('Writings'), and a book of the Old Testament. The book is an anthology of H ...

New Testament references

* Revelation 12:5:

Revelation Revelation, or divine revelation, is the disclosing of some form of Religious views on truth, truth or Knowledge#Religion, knowledge through communication with a deity (god) or other supernatural entity or entities in the view of religion and t ...

; 19:15.

The Woman, the Dragon and the Child (12:1–6)

Verse 1

:''Now a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a garland of twelve stars.'' The

King James Version The King James Version (KJV), also the King James Bible (KJB) and the Authorized Version (AV), is an Early Modern English Bible translations, Early Modern English translation of the Christianity, Christian Bible for the Church of England, wh ...

refers to "a great wonder" and the

Revised Standard Version The Revised Standard Version (RSV) is an English translation of the Bible published in 1952 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA. This translation is a revision of the American St ...

refers to "a great portent". The Greek word used is , rendered ''sign'' in many other passages in the New Testament. Barnes, Albert
Barnes' Notes
on Revelation 12, accessed 8 November 2018

Anglican Anglicanism, also known as Episcopalianism in some countries, is a Western Christianity, Western Christian tradition which developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the ...

biblical commentator

William Boyd Carpenter William Boyd Carpenter (26 March 1841 – 26 October 1918) was an English cleric in the Church of England who became Bishop of Ripon (modern diocese), Bishop of Ripon and Honorary Chaplain to the Queen, Royal Chaplain to Victoria of the Unite ...

writes that "the word ''sign'' is preferable to ''wonder'', both in this verse and in Revelation 12:3. It is the same word which is rendered ''sign'' in . It is a sign which is seen: not a mere wonder, but something which has a meaning; it is not 'a surprise ending with itself', but a signal to arrest attention, and possessing significance; there is 'an idea concealed behind it'."

Verse 3

:'' And another sign appeared in heaven: behold, a great, fiery red dragon having seven heads and ten horns, and seven diadems on his heads.'' The word rendered "dragon" - , ' - occurs 9 times (and 4 more in derivative forms) in the New Testament, only in the

, where it is uniformly rendered as here: "dragon". The word for

diadem A diadem is a Crown (headgear), crown, specifically an ornamental headband worn by monarchs and others as a badge of Monarch, royalty. Overview The word derives from the Ancient Greek, Greek διάδημα ''diádēma'', "band" or "fillet", fro ...

(Greek: διάδημα) occurs only three times in the New Testament, always in the Book of Revelation.

Verse 5

:'' And she brought forth a man child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron: and her child was caught up unto God, and to his throne.'' *"A man child": from Greek: , '' '', literally: "a son, a male". The term "man child" in (

KJV The King James Version (KJV), also the King James Bible (KJB) and the Authorized Version (AV), is an Early Modern English translation of the Christian Bible for the Church of England, which was commissioned in 1604 and published in 1611, by ...

: "A man child is born") is translated from the Hebrew term: , where in the Greek it is , or simply as in the

Septuagint The Septuagint ( ), sometimes referred to as the Greek Old Testament or The Translation of the Seventy (), and abbreviated as LXX, is the earliest extant Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible from the original Biblical Hebrew. The full Greek ...

rendering of this passage. Bengel, Johann
''Bengel's Gnomon of the New Testament''. Revelation 12.
Accessed on 24 April 2019. *"Rule" from Greek: , ', meaning "tend as a shepherd" (cf. ).Jamieson, Robert; Fausset, Andrew Robert; Brown, David. '' Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown's Commentary On the Whole Bible''
"Revelation 12"
. 1871. It was prophesied in , that Christ should ''break'' the nations with ''a rod of iron''. Poole, Matthew, ''A Commentary on the Holy Bible''
"Revelation 12"
.

Michael and the Dragon (12:7–12)

Verse 7

:'' And war broke out in heaven: Michael and his angels fought with the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought.'' Michael (''Mikha'el'' in David H. Stern's

translation of the Bible The Christian Bible has been translated into many languages from the biblical languages of Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek. the whole Bible has been translated into 756 languages, the New Testament has been translated into an additional 1,726 lan ...

into English) appears in the

Book of Daniel The Book of Daniel is a 2nd-century BC biblical apocalypse with a 6th-century BC setting. It is ostensibly a narrative detailing the experiences and Prophecy, prophetic visions of Daniel, a Jewish Babylonian captivity, exile in Babylon ...

as "the special patron or guardian angel of the people of Israel". Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Revelation 12
, accessed 28 April 2019

Verse 8

:''and they were not strong enough, and there was no longer a place found for them in heaven.''

Verse 9

:''And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent called the Devil, and

Satan Satan, also known as the Devil, is a devilish entity in Abrahamic religions who seduces humans into sin (or falsehood). In Judaism, Satan is seen as an agent subservient to God, typically regarded as a metaphor for the '' yetzer hara'', or ' ...

, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.'' *"Old serpent": This is the only place in canonical Scripture where without doubt it is revealed that the 'Tempter in Eden' () was 'the Devil' (cf. for a non-canonical Scripture allusion).

Verse 11

: ''And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony, and they loved not their lives unto the death.'' *"Overcame him by the blood of the Lamb" or "conquered him on account of the blood of the Lamb", implying that the power of the accuser or the devil was removed when 'the Lamb of God' had taken away the sin of the world (), and when the redeemed people have the boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of

Jesus Jesus (AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ, Jesus of Nazareth, and many Names and titles of Jesus in the New Testament, other names and titles, was a 1st-century Jewish preacher and religious leader. He is the Jesus in Chris ...

(). Boyd Carpenter, W.
Revelation 12
, in Ellicott, C. J. (Ed.) 1905), ''Ellicott's Bible Commentary for English Readers'', London: Cassell and Company, Limited, 905-1906Online version: (OCoLC) 929526708 accessed 28 April 2019

The Dragon and the Woman (12:13–17)

Verse 14

:'' And to the woman were given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness, into her place, where she is nourished for a time, and times, and half a time, from the face of the serpent.'' *"Two wings of a great eagle": Bauckham sees the "eagle's wings" (; ; ) and the "wilderness" in this verse as "exodus motifs".

Verse 16

:'' And the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed up the flood which the dragon cast out of his mouth.'' KJV *"The earth opened her mouth and swallowed up": these words can be linked to the narrative of the earth opening her mouth and swallowing up Korah, Dathan, and Abiram in .

Notes

References

Bibliography

External links

* King James Bible - Wikisource
English Translation with Parallel Latin Vulgate

''Online Bible'' at GospelHall.org
(ESV, KJV, Darby, American Standard Version, Bible in Basic English)
Multiple bible versions at ''Bible Gateway''
(NKJV, NIV, NRSV, etc.) {{Book of Revelation 12 Nativity of Jesus in the New Testament War in Heaven