Revelation 12

John doesn’t identify the woman. Scholars have offered many guesses, including: Mary the mother of Jesus, the church, the constellation Virgo (“virgin” in Greek), and the persecuted Jewish people. The description of sun, moon, and stars might suggest a link to Joseph’s dream (Genesis 37:1-9) in which he seemed to see his family as sun and moon (Dad and Mom) and 11 stars (his 11 brothers). They all bowed before him, apparently the twelfth star and the star of the family. That dream irritated even his dad. To shut him up, his brothers kidnapped him and sold him to slave traders who took him to Egypt.

Many scholars say the 12 stars represent the zodiac, which shows up in synagogue mosaics from Roman times.

John later identifies the dragon as Satan (Revelation 12:9). John seems to be wrapping this symbolic story into a legend that would have sounded familiar to many people at the time, some scholars say. One myth is a story about Hera, the wife of Zeus, sending Python to hunt down the goddess her husband got pregnant (Leto) and to stop her from having her twins, Artemis and Apollo. Why John seemed to build his imagery around myths like this one and others is unknown. Some speculate he was trying to widen his audience by helping people outside the faith see their legendary stories woven into the factual story of Jesus’s birth.

Sounds like seven rulers, many scholars say.

“Horns” symbolized military strength, the power to win wars. The “Lamb” of Revelation 5:6 has only seven horns, hinting that the dragon is muscling up and planning to pack a punch.

Possibly a reference to a conquering ruler mentioned in Daniel 8:10 who grew so strong that he caused “some of the stars to fall to the earth.” But some say that since “stars” can represent angels, this story reflects the fall of Satan and his evil angels as told in a traditional Jewish story (not in most Bibles) called Watchers. These Watchers are angels who keep an eye on humans but who fall in lust with human women (1 Enoch 6—11). Too close of an eye.

Possibly a reference to a song about God’s invitation, “Sit at My right hand” (Psalm 110:1, New American Standard Bible).

Literally, 1,260 days. This isn’t necessarily 1,260 days. Instead, it may simply represent any stretch of time appointed by God, a bit like “40 days” can mean something like a few weeks or months. John expresses this stretch of time with a couple of other phrases too: “forty-two months” (Revelation 13:5, New American Standard Bible) and “a time and times and half a time” (Revelation 12:14, New American Standard Bible). Surprisingly, this may have been about how long Joseph, Mary, and Jesus hid from King Herod, who wanted to kill Baby Jesus. A conjunction of Jupiter, Saturn, and the constellation Pisces may have been the star of Bethlehem, some speculate. See the map in Matthew 2 and the footnote about the star.

Michael, a leader among angels, is the only angel whose name shows up in Revelation. He’s that important. Sorry, Gabriel. The prophet Daniel said Michael was the angel assigned to the Jewish nation (Daniel 12:1); many Jews seemed to teach that God assigned one angel to each country or territory. Jude called Michael an “archangel” (Jude 1:9, New American Standard Bible), a title built on two Greek words that mean “chief angel.” Jude says that Michael and Satan had a previous run-in, when Satan wanted to take the body of Moses (Jude 1:9). Michael essentially told Satan to take a long walk off a short cloud. Daniel says that the angel Gabriel fought a battle for 21 days before Michael arrived as backup (Daniel 10:13). Early Jewish and Christian writers didn’t portray Michael as simply a top angel in heaven. Michael was the go-to angel for taking on Satan and his demon followers.

This is the only place in the Bible that identifies the snake in the Garden of Eden as Satan (Genesis 3:1-7). In Genesis, it’s just a talking snake: “Of all the animals the LORD God made, the snake was the sneakiest” (Genesis 3:1).

Job seems to portray Satan as a spirit being who prosecutes people in God’s court. Satan, which is a Hebrew word meaning “accuser,” kept trying to find a spiritual flaw in Job. He convinced God to put Job to the test. Job loses his children, his livestock, and his health (Job 1—2). But he hangs on to his faith.

The run-for-your-life scene brings to mind the story of Joseph taking Mary and Baby Jesus to Egypt to escape the snake of the day: King Herod the Not So Great (Matthew 2:13-23). A vicious king, he ordered some of his sons executed because he considered them threats to his rule. Matthew’s Gospel says Herod did the same in Bethlehem, killing boys under the age of two in an effort to kill Jesus. Some sages told Herod a new star announced the birth of a new king.

The apparent code beneath the words is a call to trust in God and keep following the advice of Jesus all the way to martyrdom if necessary. By the time many scholars say John wrote Revelation, in the AD 90s, martyrdom was necessary. Emperor Domitian (ruled AD 81 to 96) heavily persecuted Christians.