And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars:

2. And she being with child cried, travailing in birth, and pained to be delivered.

3. And there appeared another wonder in heaven; and behold a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads.

4. And his tail drew the third part of the stars of Heaven, and did cast them to the earth: and the dragon stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered, for to devour her child as soon as it was born.

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.

6. And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she hath a place prepared of God, that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred and threescore days.

The three principal objects of this vision are the woman clothed with the sun, the man-child born of her, and a red dragon with seven heads and ten horns. These, being drawn from nature and human life, would point us both to the church and to the state for their fulfilment. The symbols, also, are living agents, and we should expect the objects they represent to be such.

This woman is an appropriate symbol of the church of God, which is composed of living, intelligent beings; and that it is the true and not an apostate one, is shown by the fact that upon her flight into the wilderness she had a place prepared of God where she was nourished for twelve hundred and sixty days. In a subsequent portion of the Apocalypse a vile harlot is taken as the representative of the church apostate. In this way a proper correspondence of character and quality is kept up. This woman appeared, not in the temple above, but in the firmament of heaven, where she was clothed with the sun, the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars. Thus the brightest luminaries of heaven were gathered around her. Arrayed in this splendid manner, she is easily distinguished from an apostate church, which would not be so highly favored with such attire in this exalted position. Doubtless the objects with which she is adorned have some special signification. The moon is a fit symbol of the old covenant, above which the church had just risen, only to be clothed in the superior brightness and glory of the new covenant. And as the moon shines only with a borrowed light, obtaining its illumination from the sun; so, also, the old covenant was only a shadow of the good things to come and now stands eclipsed in the brightness and transcendant glory of that new and better dispensation. According to the explanation given of the seven stars in the right hand of Jesus (Chap 1:19), we are authorized to regard stars as a symbol of Christian ministers, and the twelve that appear most prominently in the first history of the church are the twelve apostles of the Lamb.

The dragon, a beast from the natural world, would properly symbolize a tyrannical, persecuting government. This was a red dragon with seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads. In the following chapter we read that John saw a beast rising up out of the sea with the same number of heads and horns, but ten crowns on his horns. And the dragon gave him (the beast) “his power, and his seat, and great authority.” Verse 2. So far as the heads and horns are concerned, the only difference between the two is that the crowns a symbol of supreme authority and power have been transferred from the heads to the horns. In chapter 17 John saw the same beast again and there received the following explanation of the seven heads: “And there are seven kings: five are fallen, and one is, and the other is not yet come; and when he cometh he must continue a short space.” Verse 10. Concerning the horns he was told, “The ten horns which thou sawest are ten kings, which have received no kingdom as yet.” Verse 12. With this explanation before us it will be easy to identify the dragon of chapter 12 and the beast of chapters 13 and 17 as the Roman empire, the first under the Pagan and the second under the Papal form. The seven heads signify the seven distinct forms of supreme government that ruled successively in the empire. The five that had already fallen when John received the vision were the Regal power, the Consular, the Decemvirate, the Military Tribunes and the Triumvirate. “One is” the Imperial. The identification of its seventh and last head we shall leave until later. The ten horns, or kingdoms, which had not yet arisen when the Revelation was given, were the ten minor kingdoms that grew out of the Western Roman empire during its decline and fall. The historian Machiard, in giving an account of these nations, and without any reference to the Bible or its prophecies, reckons ten kingdoms, as follows:

1. The Ostrogoths in Maesia; 2. The Visigoths in Pannonia; 3. Sueves and Alans in Gascoigne and Spain; 4. Vandals in Africa; 5. Franks in France; 6. Burgundians in Burgundy; 7. Heruli and Turings in Italy; 8. Saxons and Anglis in Britain; 9. Huns in Hungary; 10. Lombards, at first on the Danube, and afterwards in Italy.

Other historians agree substantially with this. These kingdoms all arose within one hundred and seventy years. The dragon is described with the horns, although they were not now in existence and did not arise until nearly the time when the dragon became the beast; likewise, he is represented with seven heads, although he really possessed only one head at a time, and five had already fallen and one being yet to come. He is described with all the heads and horns he ever had or was to have.

The tail of this dragon “drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth.” Some people who have never learned the nature of symbolic language try to imagine such a literal creature as the one here described and picture in their minds what an awful thing it would be to see the third part of the stars falling to the earth. But real stars that are fixed or planetary never fall, and if they did, they would be as apt to fall in an opposite direction as toward the earth. Besides, if one should come tumbling down here, it would knock this world into oblivion. But with a knowledge of the proper use of symbols we can easily identify this dragon with the Roman empire under its Pagan form; and the casting down of the stars, which were doubtless used as symbols of ministers as in verse 1, signifies the warfare which this awful beast power waged against the church of God, in which her ministers were always a shining mark for the first persecution and suffered terribly for the cause they represented.

The man-child is the next object that claims our attention. Some have supposed that it represented Jesus Christ in his first advent to the world. But this could not be; for Christ is never represented as being the offspring of the church, but, on the other hand, is declared to be its originator. Some, also, have supposed that it represented the church bringing forth Christ to the world in a spiritual sense. This, however, would be in direct conflict with the known laws of symbolic language. A visible, living, intelligent agent, such as this man-child evidently was, could not be the symbol of an invisible spiritual presence. Besides, it has been clearly shown that Christ always appears in his own person, unrepresented by another, from the fact that he can not be symbolized. It is clear that this child can not signify a single definite personage; for after he is caught up to God, there is still a remnant of the woman’s seed left upon earth. See verse 17.

What, then, does the man-child signify? It symbolizes the mighty host of new converts or children that the early church by her earnest travail brought forth. The seeming incongruity that the church, or mother, and her children are alike only serves to establish the point in question when rightly understood. A child is of the same substance as its mother and is designed to perpetuate the race. So, also, the new-born babes in the church are just the same spiritually as those who are older, and are intended to perpetuate the church of God on earth. But this explanation of itself is not sufficient to entirely satisfy an inquiring mind, and the question is sure to be asked, Why was it necessary that the church of God in this dispensation should be represented by two individuals a woman and her son? I also will ask a question Why, on the other hand, was it necessary that the great apostasy of this dispensation should be represented by the double-figure of a woman and her daughters? The answer to the latter question would readily be given to symbolize two distinct phases of apostasy. So, also, it was necessary that a double-symbol, such as a woman and her son, should be chosen to set forth two phases of the church brought to view in this chapter. If but a single symbol were used, how could the church be thereby represented as continuing on earth and fleeing into the wilderness and at the same time be represented as “overcome,” persecuted to the death, and “caught up unto God and to his throne”? This double-phase of the church the experience of the saints on earth and the reign of the martyrs in Paradise will be made very clear to the reader hereafter. But it would be impossible to set forth these two phases under one symbol, and therefore two are chosen.

There is also direct Scripture testimony on this point. “Before she travailed, she brought forth; before her pain came, she was delivered of a man-child. Who hath heard such a thing? who hath seen such things? Shall the earth be made to bring forth in one day? or shall a nation be born at once? For as soon as Zion travailed, she brought forth her children.” Isa 66:7, 8. According to Heb 12:22, 23, this Zion, or Sion, referred to is the New Testament church, and the man-child that she is said to bring forth is interpreted by Isaiah as “a nation born at once.” Such language perfectly describes the rapid increase in the Christian church on Pentecost and shortly afterward, when thousands were added in one day. According to the apostle Paul, the host of Jews and Gentiles reconciled unto God through Jesus Christ constituted “one new man” in Christ. Eph 2:15. See also Gal 3:28. R.V. This man-child was to rule all nations with a rod of iron. For an explanation of this rule see remarks on chapter 2:26, 27. The twelve hundred and sixty days will be referred to later.

7. And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels,

8. And prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven.

9. And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.

10. And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night.

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.

12. Therefore rejoice, ye heavens, and ye that dwell in them. Woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea! for the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time.

13. And when the dragon saw that he was cast unto the earth, he persecuted the woman which brought forth the man child.

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.

15. And the serpent cast out of his mouth water as a flood after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away of the flood.

16. And the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed up the flood which the dragon east out of his mouth.

17. And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.

In this vision we have a series of events covering exactly the same period of time as that of the preceeding one; namely, a history of the church up to and including her flight into the wilderness, and of the same opposing dragon. In this description, however, the events are more perfectly detailed.

Because this dragon was called the Devil and Satan, many have been led into the idea that it signified the Prince of darkness himself. But surely we could not suppose that Beelzebub has any such appearance as this dragon. The foregoing explanation concerning his heads and horns shows conclusively that the Pagan Roman empire is meant, and not Beelzebub. Why, then, was it called the Devil and Satan? Among the Hebrews the term Satan was frequently used in a very liberal sense and applied to different objects, signifying merely an adversary or opposer. According to Young’s Analytical Concordance the Hebrew word for Satan is translated adversary in a number of texts, a few of which I will refer to. Num 22:22: “And the angel of the Lord stood in the way for an adversary [Satan, Heb] against him.” Here an angel of the Lord is called a Satan to Balaam. In 1 Sam 29:4 David is called an adversary (Heb Satan) to the Philistines. In 2 Sam 19:22 certain opposers are said to be adversaries (Satans, Heb) unto David; while in 1 Kings 11:25 a certain man was said to be an adversary (Satan) to Israel all the days of Solomon. A number of other instances could be given if necessary. In the New Testament, also, the term Satan is sometimes used to signify merely an opposer. “But he turned, and said unto Peter, Get thee behind me, Satan.” Mat 16:23. In 1 Cor 10:20 Paul declares “that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils.” Paganism stood as the great opposer of Christianity, hence was a Satan (adversary) unto it; while the apostle denominated its religious rites as devil-worship. I do not question the fact that the spirit of Beelzebub was manifested in the thing; but the dragon itself was the empire, as is proved by the heads and the horns. However, the Devil and the agency through which he works are often used interchangeably. Satan and the serpent in Eden stand in the same relation as do Satan, or Beelzebub, and Paganism in the New Testament; hence to bind Paganism was to bind the Devil and Satan in one important sense.

The dragon would be a beast from the natural world (if such a creature actually existed) and as such could represent nothing more than a civil empire; but in the vision under consideration he is represented as accompanied by angels actuated by his spirit and defending his cause. By this combination of symbols is set forth the politico-religious system of the empire a religion that denied the doctrine of the one exclusive God and the divinity of Jesus Christ. It was the religion of infidelity. It was the dragon as a false religious system that Christianity attacked, and not the State itself. The following quotation from Butler’s Ecclesiastical History will show the relation of Christians to the empire:

“The Romans were accustomed to tolerate all new religions if they took their place by the side of those already existing, and if they did not cast reproach upon them.... But Christianity, by its very nature exclusive in its claims ... was offensive to the Romans and to the State. A religion which cast contempt upon the religions and rites sanctioned by the laws, and endeavored to draw men away from them, seemed to express thereby contempt and hostility for the State itself. Hence Christianity was branded as a malignant superstition, and Christians spoken of as the enemies of the human race.... From the letter of Pliny to Trajan, it was evidently recorded as an religio illicita, and the mere fact of being a Christian was counted of itself a crime.... The exclusiveness of Christianity seemed also to place its disciples in a position of direct disloyalty to the emperors and the State. ’The emperor was ex-officio Pontifex Maximus; the gods were national. Cicero declares as a principle of legislation, that no one should be allowed to worship foreign gods, unless they were recognized by public statute. Maecenas thus counselled Augustas: Honor the gods according to the customs of your ancestors, and compel others to worship them. Hate and punish those who bring in strange gods.’ As the Roman empire was founded on the absolutism of the State, and made nothing of personal rights, Christianity, which first taught and acknowledged them, would be peculiarly offensive to the State. Moreover, the conscientious refusal of Christians to pay divine honor to the emperor and his statutes, and to take part in idolatrous ceremonies at public festivals ... and their constant assembling themselves together, brought them under the suspicion and obloquy of the emperors and the people.”

The dragon was stationed in the same heaven where the woman appeared. This signifies his exalted position in the world. While the dragon was in the height of his power and glory, Michael (Jesus Christ Jude 9; 1 Thes 4:16; John 5:28) and his followers appeared on the scene, and a fierce battle for supremacy ensued, resulting in the final victory of the hosts of Michael. That it was against the dragon as a religious system that the Christians fought is proved by the kind of weapons they employed. “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.” Christianity never sought to overturn the civil empire, but did with all the power of truth oppose the huge system of error sustained by it and gained such decisive victories that the cry was heard, “Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ; for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night.” The Devil himself suffered a severe defeat when his favorite agents, the dragon and his followers, were cast down from their lofty position and Christianity was exalted instead. Says Butler: “The final victory of Christianity over heathenism and Judaism, and the mightiest empire of the ancient world, a victory gained without physical force, by the moral power of faith and perseverance, of faith and love, is one of the sublimest spectacles of history, and one of the strongest evidences of the divinity and indestructible life of our holy religion.” .

But the fact that many Christians lost their lives in this conflict (verse 11), insomuch that the man-child is represented as being caught up unto God (verse 5), shows that the dragon employed also the arm of civil power in his opposition to the growing truth. The rapid increase of Christianity, despite the violent opposition and persecution of the Pagan party, can be no better represented than by a quotation from the notable Apology of Tertullian, who wrote during the persecution by Septimus Severus, about the end of the second century.

“Rulers of the Roman Empire,” he begins, “you surely can not forbid the Truth to reach you by the secret pathway of a noiseless book. She knows that she is but a sojourner on the earth, and as a stranger finds enemies; and more, her origin, her dwelling-place, her hope, her rewards, her honors, are above. One thing, meanwhile, she anxiously desires of earthly rulers not to be condemned unknown. What harm can it do to give her a hearing?... The outcry is that the State is filled with Christians; that they are in the fields, in the citadels, in the islands. The lament is, as for some calamity, that both sexes, every age and condition, even high rank, are passing over to the Christian faith.

“The outcry is a confession and an argument for our cause; for we are a people of yesterday, and yet we have filled every place belonging to you cities, islands, castles, towns, assemblies, your very camp, your tribes, companies, palace, senate, forum. We leave to you your temples alone. We can count your armies: our numbers in a single province will be greater. We have it in our power, without arms and without rebellion, to fight against you with the weapon of a simple divorce. We can leave you to wage your wars alone. If such a multitude should withdraw into some remote corner of the world you would doubtless tremble at your own solitude, and ask, ‘Of whom are we the governors?’

“It is a human right that every man should worship according to his own convictions ... a forced religion is no religion at all.... Men say that the Christians are the cause of every public disaster. If the Tiber rises as high as the city walls, if the Nile does not rise over the fields, if the heavens give no rain, if there be an earthquake, if a famine or pestilence, straightway they cry, Away with the Christians to the lion.... But go zealously on, ye good governors, you will stand higher with the people if you kill us, torture us, condemn us, grind us to the dust; your injustice is the proof that we are innocent. God permits us to suffer. Your cruelty avails you nothing.... The oftener you mow us down the more in number we grow; the blood of Christians is seed. What you call our obstinacy is an instructor. For who that sees it does not inquire for what we suffer? Who that inquires does not embrace our doctrines? Who that embraces them is not ready to give his blood for the fulness of God’s grace?”

Another writer has said: “The church in this period appears poor in earthly possessions and honors, but rich in heavenly grace, in world-conquering faith and love and hope; unpopular, even outlawed, hated and persecuted, yet far more vigorous and expansive than the philosophies of Greece, or the empire of Rome; composed chiefly of persons of the lower social ranks, yet attracting the noblest and deepest minds of the age, and bearing in her bosom the hope of the world; conquering by apparent defeat and growing on the blood of her martyrs; great in deeds, greater in sufferings, greatest in death for the honor of Christ and the benefit of generations to come.”

This triumph of early Christianity over Paganism was a theme worthy of the song. “Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ.” Even before the death of the apostles, according to the younger Pliny, the temples of the gods in Asia Minor were almost forsaken. No wonder, then, that even the inhabitants of heaven were called upon to rejoice at so great a victory attained by the followers of the Lamb. But the same voice also says, “Woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea! for the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time.” This represents the violence of the Pagan party upon its defeat, being exasperated to the exercise of greater opposition and cruelty wherever the means and the power were still in their hands. Cast down from his exalted position in the heavens the religious sphere his ecclesiastical prestige lost, he had no place to abide but in the earth the political kingdom whence he took up arms, and “woe to the inhabitants of the earth.” But “the days of Paganism in the empire were numbered.” The Devil knew that he had but a short time, therefore he came down in great wrath. This is in accordance with the facts of history. Paganism did not die an easy death, but struggled hard and long.

When cast from his high position, however, the dragon “persecuted the woman which brought forth the man-child.” The true idea expressed in the original is that he pursued the woman, and this signification is indicated by what follows “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.” The time as a definite period signifies one year; hence a time, times, and half a time would be three and one-half years, or twelve hundred and sixty days, as before explained. There is an apparent incongruity or contradiction of statement in reference to the symbols here; but it is a contradiction that when rightly understood throws light upon the whole subject. It will be noticed that the woman and Michael with his angels symbolize the same object the people of God. Under the latter figure they were triumphant and the dragon was defeated. Yet after he was cast down, he turned upon the woman and pursued her, and thus, the church appeared to be the defeated party. According to this, then, the Pagan party is represented as prevailing soon after he met defeat and the church apparently defeated soon after her period of triumph. Here again we have two separate symbols of the same object in order to represent two of its different phases.

This is explained satisfactorily by noticing carefully the facts. The woman, who is always the true church composed of holy people, was at first identical with the visible church, or the great body of Christians, and in this condition was successful in spreading the pure gospel and casting down the powers of iniquity symbolized by the dragon. But the dragon politically, as symbolized by his being a beast from the natural world, with heads and horns, remained in power for some time, his religious prestige only being lost. Christianity did not attempt to cast down the dragon in the sense of destroying the civil empire. As is well known, a great spiritual declension followed the period of the church’s greatest triumph, which decline drove the woman, or the true church, into the wilderness; hence to all appearances the church became a defeated party. About this same time, the dying cause of Paganism revived for a season in terrible severity in the latter part of the third century; hence to all appearances the dragon was triumphant. This supreme effort of Paganism’s to regain its former position will be better understood in connection with what follows regarding the flood which he cast out of his mouth. But that the dragon was not permanently triumphant is shown by the fact that he afterwards resigned his power and position unto the beast. Chap 13:2.

As to the meaning of the “two wings of a great eagle” given the woman to aid her in her flight, I am not able to say positively. Some apply them to “the grace and providence of God which watched over the church”; others to the “spiritual gifts of faith, love,” etc., which, like supporting wings, bore the church above her enemies. But I can not see how the wings of a great eagle can properly symbolize such things. They are not drawn from the right source. Perhaps nothing more is intended by the wings than to denote the fact of her successful flight. That this idea is the correct one seems quite clear when we consider the fact that the remarkable deliverance of the Israelites from Egyptian bondage is set forth under the same figure, that of eagles’ wings. “Ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bare you on eagles’ wings, and brought you unto myself.” Ex 19:4. With the wings of such a powerful bird she was able to escape, so that the dragon could not overtake her.

“And the serpent cast out of his mouth water as a flood after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away of the flood. 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.” Here is a peculiar combination of symbols from different departments the serpent, a flood of water, the woman, and the earth. The last two as allies is a very unusual circumstance. Some refer the flood of waters to heresies that arose in, or was connected with, the hierarchy about this time; but in that case how could it be said that it was the serpent that cast it out? Others apply it to errors that the Pagan party introduced baptized with the name of Christianity, when they professed to become converts at a later period. It is certainly an appropriate figure of speech to say a flood of error or of false doctrine; but whether a flood of water is a proper symbol of the same is another question. I do not think it is. Water, being an object of nature, would point us to something political. False doctrines are usually symbolized by something different from objects in nature.

There is considerable difficulty in verifying the symbol, but I will submit what up to the present has seemed to me as the most satisfactory explanation. It appears from the description that this was about the last great public effort the dragon made to overwhelm the church and that he was exasperated to this supreme effort by the humiliating defeat he had suffered. The means he employed was water, an object of nature; hence we are to look for some great political event by which the dragon made his master-effort to destroy the woman shortly after her flight into the wilderness. In A.D 284 Diocletian, a Pagan, succeeded to the imperial throne. Before the close of his reign (305), the Christians suffered the most terrible persecution ever received at the hands of Pagan Rome. It continued ten years A.D 302-312. It was the design of this emperor to completely extirpate the very name of Christianity, and his unfortunate victims were slain by the thousands throughout the empire. “But the master-piece of [his] heathen policy was the order to seek and burn all copies of the Word of God. Hitherto the enemy had been lopping off the branches of the tree whose leaves were for the healing of the nations; now the blow was made at the root. It had once been the policy of Antiochus Epiphanes, when he madly sought to destroy the Jewish Scriptures. It was both wise and wicked. It had but one defect, it could not be carried into complete execution. The sacred treasure was in too many hands, and too many of its guardians were brave and prudent, to make extermination possible. An African bishop said, Here is my body, take it, burn it; but I will not deliver up the Word of God. A deacon said, Never, sir, never! Had I children I would sooner deliver them to you than the divine word. He and his wife were burnt together.

But “the earth helped the woman” another unlooked-for political event. Worn out with the cares of State, boasting that the very name of Christ was abolished, and dying with a loathsome disease, the tyrant abdicated his throne. A number of individuals claimed imperial honors; but Constantine, the ruler of Gaul, Spain, and Britain, fought his way against contending rivals and finally entered Rome, the capital, in triumph. Enthroned as emperor of the West, he immediately issued an edict of toleration favorable to the Christians (A.D 313) and soon became a professed Christian himself and by law made Christianity the established religion of the empire. In 324, having crushed all rivals, he became sole emperor of the Roman world, and with a view of promoting Christianity convened what is known as the First General Council of the Church, at Nicaea in Asia Minor, A.D 325. The prestige of Paganism as a religious power had been overthrown long before by the followers of Christ, but now its political importance received a death-blow, only a few expiring struggles appearing subsequently before the final downfall of Western Rome. Thus, the earth helped the woman and swallowed up the flood of persecution which the dragon cast out.

“And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus.” Finding that he could not destroy or exterminate the church of God, he determined to make war upon its individual members.