The woman, the child and the dragon: the cosmic conflict behind the church's suffering

Chapter 12 begins the second half of the book as many divide it, after the seventh trumpet and the opening of the heavenly temple in 11:19. Chapters 12 to 14 show the conflict behind the visible history: the dragon who stands behind the beast of chapter 13 and the harlot of chapter 17. For churches in Asia that were facing hostility from city, guild and empire, the chapter says who is the real enemy, what he has already lost and why he is angry.

The pictures draw on deep layers of tradition. The serpent of Genesis 3 and the promise of an offspring who would crush its head (Genesis 3:15) lie behind the whole scene. Leviathan, Rahab and the dragon of the sea appear in the Psalms and prophets as images of chaos and of the powers that oppose God (Psalm 74:13-14; Isaiah 27:1; 51:9). Daniel 7's beast with ten horns provides the seven heads and ten horns. In the wider ancient world, stories of a pregnant goddess pursued by a dragon were told. One example is the Greek myth of Leto, pursued by the serpent Python before she bore Apollo, which was known in Asia Minor. Some scholars, such as Adela Yarbro Collins, think John knew such combat myths and reshaped them. John uses the shape and breaks it: his woman is not a goddess, and his hero is not the emperor-god Apollo or the emperor who claimed his patronage.

The chapter is introduced by the word 'sign' (semeion), which tells the reader that the woman and the dragon are symbols and are not to be read as literal creatures. As in 1:20, it is better to ask what the symbol meant in its sources before asking whom it names. Three layers meet here: the Old Testament (the Eden serpent, Zion in labour, Psalm 2, Daniel's beast), the combat myths of the ancient world, and the first-century church's experience. The chapter also does not follow a chronological order from birth to the end. It sets the cosmic background against which chapters 13 to 19 are read, and it compresses Christ's life into birth and ascension.

The four approaches read the whole in different ways. Preterists, such as Kenneth Gentry, take the woman as the faithful of Israel, who bore the Messiah, and the persecution of the woman as the persecution of the early church by Jerusalem and Rome. Some preterists connect the flight into the wilderness with the flight of Christians from Jerusalem to Pella before AD 70, as Eusebius reports. Historicists, such as Edward Bishop Elliott, read the woman as the true church and the dragon as pagan Rome, and some take the heavenly war as the triumph of Christianity under Constantine. Idealists, such as William Hendriksen and G. K. Beale, read the chapter as the whole age: the woman as the people of God, the child as Christ, the fall of the dragon as the effect of his death and resurrection, and the 1,260 days as the age of the church's protection and suffering. Their strongest argument is that the text says the dragon has been thrown down because of 'the blood of the Lamb' (12:11), and that the earthly consequence is the persecution of the church now. Futurists divide. Dispensational interpreters, such as John Walvoord, take the woman as national Israel, the dragon's fall as an event in the middle of a future tribulation, and the wilderness as a refuge for a Jewish remnant. Historic premillennialists, such as George Eldon Ladd, take the woman as the people of God, the fall of the dragon as accomplished in the cross and ascension, and the persecution as continuing until a final climax.

The millennial views meet here at the question of Satan's defeat. Amillennialists, such as Anthony Hoekema, link the fall of the dragon in chapter 12 with the binding of Satan in 20:1-3, and read both as describing the same victory of Christ over Satan's power to deceive the nations. Premillennialists place the binding after Christ's return, and many hold that the heavenly war and the binding are distinct. Postmillennialists, such as B. B. Warfield, emphasise that Satan's power is steadily broken as the gospel advances. Our understanding is that verses 10 to 11 give the reason for the dragon's fall in terms of what Christ has already done, and that this makes the cross and resurrection the decisive victory, while other readings place some part of the fall at a later time.

Verses 1 to 6.

• The first sign is the woman 'clothed in the sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars'. The imagery is of radiant dignity. She is pregnant and in birth pain, a common prophetic image for Zion (Isaiah 26:17-18; 66:7-9; Micah 5:3) and for the waiting of God's people for the Messiah.
• The second sign is 'a huge red dragon with seven heads, ten horns, and seven royal crowns'. The colour is blood, the heads and horns are the beast's features from Daniel 7:7, and the diadems claim royal power. His tail sweeps a third of the stars to earth. The stars may be angels who followed him (compare Daniel 8:10) or a picture of the scale of his power, and the text does not say more. He stands before the woman to devour the child at its birth. The child is a son who 'will rule all the nations with an iron scepter' (Psalm 2:9) and is 'caught up to God and to His throne'. The birth is followed at once by the ascension. Christ's life, death and resurrection are passed over in silence, or are implied in the verb 'caught up'. The woman flees to the wilderness, where God has prepared a place for her for 1,260 days. The wilderness is the place of protection and testing in Exodus and Hosea 2:14 and in Elijah's flight (1 Kings 19). Many readers see the dragon's attempts on the child in Herod's slaughter (Matthew 2) and in the cross.

Verses 7 to 12. 'War broke out in heaven' with Michael, the archangel and protector of Israel (Daniel 10:13, 21; 12:1; Jude 9), against the dragon. The dragon loses and 'no longer was any place found in heaven'. He is named: 'that ancient serpent called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world', the serpent of Genesis 3. A voice proclaims, 'Now have come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of His Christ.' The reason is that 'the accuser of our brothers' is thrown down. The accuser appears in Job 1 and 2 and Zechariah 3:1-2, and Paul asks who can bring a charge against God's chosen (Romans 8:33-34). Satan's accusations fail because of the cross (Colossians 2:14-15). Jesus spoke of seeing Satan fall like lightning from heaven (Luke 10:18) and of the ruler of this world being cast out (John 12:31). The victory song names how the saints conquered: 'by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony. And they did not love their lives so as to shy away from death.' They conquer as the Lamb did, by death. The final lines are a woe for earth and sea: the devil has come down 'knowing he has only a short time'. The defeated adversary is more dangerous on earth.

Verses 13 to 17. The dragon pursues the woman, and she is given 'two wings of a great eagle' to fly to the wilderness, language of Exodus 19:4 and Deuteronomy 32:11. He spews a flood from his mouth, and the earth swallows it, an echo of Numbers 16:30-32 and the rescue images of Psalm 124:4-5. Unable to harm the woman, he turns on 'the rest of her children, who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus'. These children are the church, which shows that the woman is the people of God, of whom the church is part. The dragon stands on the shore of the sea, where the beast will rise in chapter 13.

All the main readings agree on what this chapter teaches. Behind the opposition the church meets stands a personal adversary, the serpent of Genesis 3, who is the accuser and deceiver. He is defeated, and the defeat is tied to the work of the Messiah and the Lamb's blood. The Messiah is protected and exalted to God's throne. The church conquers by trusting the blood of the Lamb, by testimony, and by readiness to die. And the dragon, though defeated, is angry and active, so that the church still suffers. The song of verse 10 says that the salvation, the power, the kingdom and the authority have 'now' come. Preterists, historicists, idealists and futurists, with all the millennial schools, accept this core.

The chapter makes a distinct contribution to the biblical account of the last things by showing that the age of the church is a time of real victory and real conflict together. The Bible's early promise that the woman's offspring would crush the serpent's head (Genesis 3:15) is fulfilled in the Messiah, as the New Testament says (Romans 16:20; Hebrews 2:14). Jesus spoke of the ruler of this world being cast out (John 12:31), and the apostles taught that the powers were disarmed at the cross (Colossians 2:15). Yet Peter warns that the devil still prowls like a roaring lion (1 Peter 5:8). The 'short time' of verse 12 holds both statements at once. This is the heart of the 'already and not yet': Satan has lost his place as accuser in heaven and has not yet lost his ability to harm on earth.

What is debated is the identity of the woman, the timing of the dragon's fall and the nature of the wilderness period. The woman is Israel, the church, or both, and in Catholic and Orthodox tradition also Mary as the one who bore the Messiah. The fall is placed at the cross and ascension, in a primeval fall, or in a future event. These differences are real, but a reading that keeps the text's own causal link, the blood of the Lamb and the word of testimony, will hold the main teaching whichever map it adopts.

The male child is Christ, identified by Psalm 2:9, the royal promise of ruling with an iron scepter, which Revelation applies to Christ in 19:15 and to the overcomers in 2:27. The birth and ascension stand for the whole sweep of his work. The text moves from birth to being 'caught up to God and to His throne' as the Gospels and Acts record his ascension to the right hand of God (Acts 2:33; Ephesians 1:20-22; Hebrews 1:3). The dragon's attempts to devour him were real. Matthew 2 tells of Herod's attack, and the passion narratives show Satan entering Judas (Luke 22:3; John 13:27). The fact that the child was not destroyed but is on the throne is the answer.

The victory of Christ is the ground of the heavenly song. 'The authority of His Christ' has come because the dragon has been thrown down. The New Testament places Satan's defeat in the cross: Colossians 2:15 says that Christ disarmed the powers and authorities and triumphed over them by the cross, and Hebrews 2:14 states that through death Christ destroyed the one who holds the power of death. The accuser has no case against those for whom the Lamb has died. The church's victory is derived. They conquer 'by the blood of the Lamb', the ground of their acquittal, and they follow him in testimony and death. This is the same pattern as the two witnesses (11:7-12) and the Lamb himself (5:5-6). In Revelation, to conquer is to be faithful as Christ was faithful.