Notes on the New Testament, Explanatory and Practical: Revelation

by Albert Barnes

CHAPTER XII.

A ND there appeared a great [373]wonder in heaven; a [374]woman clothed with the [375]sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars:

Ch. xii. 1. And there appeared a great wonder in heaven. In that heavenly world thus disclosed, in the very presence of God, he saw the impressive and remarkable symbol which he proceeds to describe. The word wonder—σημεῖον—properly means something extraordinary, or miraculous, and is commonly rendered sign. See Mat. xii. 38, 39; xvi. 1, 3, 4; xxiv. 3, 24, 30; xxvi. 48; Mar. viii. 11, 12; xiii. 4, 22; xvi. 17, 20;—in all which, and in numerous other places in the New Testament, it is rendered sign, and mostly in the sense of miracle. When used in the sense of a miracle, it refers to the fact that the miracle is a sign or token by which the divine power or purpose is made known. Sometimes the word is used to denote a sign of future things—a portent or presage of coming events; that is, some remarkable appearances which foreshadow the future. Thus in Mat. xvi. 3: “signs of the times;” that is, the miraculous events which foreshadow the coming of the Messiah in his kingdom. So also in Mat. xxiv. 3, 30; Mar. xiii. 4; Lu. xxi. 7, 11. This seems to be the meaning here, that the woman who appeared in this remarkable manner was a portent or token of what was to occur. ¶ A woman clothed with the sun. Bright, splendid, glorious, as if the sunbeams were her raiment. Comp. ch. i. 16; x. 1; see also Ca. vi. 10—a passage which, very possibly, was in the mind of the writer when he penned this description: “Who is she that looketh forth as the morning, fair as the moon, clear as the sun, and terrible as an army with banners?” ¶ And the moon under her feet. The moon seemed to be under her feet. She seemed as if she stood on the moon, its pale light contrasted with the burning splendour of the sun, heightening the beauty of the whole picture. The woman, beyond all question, represents the church. See Notes on [ver. 2]. Is the splendour of the sunlight designed to denote the brightness of the gospel? Is the moon designed to represent the comparatively feeble light of the Jewish dispensation? Is the fact that she stood upon the moon, or that it was under her feet, designed to denote the superiority of the gospel to the Jewish dispensation? Such a supposition gives much beauty to the symbol, and is not foreign to the nature of symbolic language. ¶ And upon her head a crown of twelve stars. A diadem in which there were placed twelve stars. That is, there were twelve sparkling gems in the crown which she wore. This would, of course, greatly increase the beauty of the vision; and there can be no doubt that the number twelve here is significant. If the woman here is designed to symbolize the church, then the number twelve has, in all probability, some allusion either to the twelve tribes of Israel—as being a number which one who was born and educated as a Jew would be likely to use (comp. Ja. i. 1), or to the twelve apostles—an allusion which, it may be supposed, an apostle would be morelikely to make. Comp. Mat. xix. 28; Re. xxi. 14.

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

2. And she being with child cried, travailing in birth, &c. That is, there would be something which would be properly represented by a woman in such circumstances.

The question now is, what is referred to by this woman? And here it need hardly be said that there has been, as in regard to almost every other part of the book of Revelation, a great variety of interpretations. It would be endless to undertake to examine them, and would not be profitable if it could be done; and it is better, therefore, and more in accordance with the design of these Notes, to state briefly what seems to me to be the true interpretation. (1) The woman is evidently designed to symbolize the church; and in this there is a pretty general agreement among interpreters. The image, which is a beautiful one, was very familiar to the Jewish prophets. See Notes on Is. i. 8; xlvii. 1; comp. Eze. xvi. (2) But still the question arises, to what time this representation refers: whether to the church before the birth of the Saviour, or after? According to the former of these opinions, it is supposed to refer to the church as giving birth to the Saviour, and the “man child” that is born (ver. 5) is supposed to refer to Christ, who “sprang from the church”—κατὰ σάρκα—according to the flesh (Professor Stuart, vol. ii. p. 252). The church, according to this view, is not simply regarded as Jewish, but, in a more general and theocratic sense, as the people of God. “From the Christian church, considered as Christian, he could not spring; for this took its rise only after the time of his public ministry. But from the bosom of the people of God the Saviour came. This church, Judaical indeed (at the time of his birth) in respect to rites and forms, but to become Christian after he had exercised his ministry in the midst of it, might well be represented here by the woman which is described in ch. xii.” (Professor Stuart). But to this view there are some, as it seems to me, unanswerable objections. For, (a) there seems to be a harshness and incongruity in representing the Saviour as the Son of the church, or representing the church as giving birth to him. Such imagery is not found elsewhere in the Bible, and is not in accordance with the language which is employed, where Christ is rather represented as the Husband of the church than the Son: “Prepared as a bride adorned for her husband,” Re. xxi. 2. “I will show thee the bride, the Lamb’s wife,” Re. xxi. 9; comp. Is. liv. 5; lxi. 10; lxii. 5. (b) If this interpretation be adopted, then this must refer to the Jewish church, and thus the woman will personify the Jewish community before the birth of Christ. But this seems contrary to the whole design of the Apocalypse, which has reference to the Christian church, and not to the ancient dispensation. (c) If this interpretation be adopted, then the statement about the dwelling in the wilderness for a period of 1260 days or years (ver. 14) must be assigned to the Jewish community—a supposition every way improbable and untenable. In what sense could this be true? When did anything happen to the Jewish people that could, with any show of probability, be regarded as the fulfilment of this? (d) It may be added, that the statement about the “man child” (ver. 5) is one that can with difficulty be reconciled to this supposition. In what sense was this true, that the “man child” was “caught up unto God, and to his throne?” The Saviour, indeed, ascended to heaven, but it was not, as here represented, that he might be protected from the danger of being destroyed; and when he did ascend, it was not as a helpless and unprotected babe, but as a man in the full maturity of his powers. The other opinion is, that the woman here refers to the Christian church, and that the object is to represent that church as about to be enlarged—represented by the condition of the woman, ver. 2. A beautiful woman appears, clothed with light—emblematic of the brightness and purity of the church; with the moon under her feet—the ancient and comparatively obscure dispensation now made subordinate and humble; with a glittering diadem of twelve stars on her head—the stars representing the usual well-known division of the people of God into twelve parts—as the stars in the American flag denote the original states of the Union; and in a condition (ver. 2) which showed that the church was to be increased. The time there referred to is at theearly period of the history of the church, when, as it were, it first appears on the theatre of things, and going forth in its beauty and majesty over the earth. John sees this church, as it was about to spread in the world, exposed to a mighty and formidable enemy—a hateful dragon—stationing itself to prevent its increase, and to accomplish its destruction. From that impending danger it is protected in a manner that would be well represented by the saving of the child of the woman, and bearing it up to heaven, to a place of safety—an act implying that, notwithstanding all dangers, the progress and enlargement of the church was ultimately certain. In the meantime, the woman herself flees into the wilderness—an act representing the obscure, and humble, and persecuted state of the church—till the great controversy is determined which is to have the ascendency—God or the Dragon. In favour of this interpretation, the following considerations may be suggested:—(a) It is the natural and obvious interpretation. (b) If it be admitted that John meant to describe what occurred in the world at the time when the true church seemed to be about to extend itself over the earth, and when that prosperity was checked by the rise of the Papal power, the symbol employed would be strikingly expressive and appropriate. (c) It accords with the language elsewhere used in the Scriptures when referring to the increase of the church. “Before she travailed, she brought forth; before her pain came, she was delivered of a man child. Who hath heard such a thing? As soon as Zion travailed, she brought forth her children,” Is. lxvi. 7, 8. “Sing, O barren, thou that didst not bear; for more are the children of the desolate than the children of the married wife, saith the Lord,” Is. liv. 1. “The children which thou shalt have, after thou shalt have lost the other, shall say again in thy ears, The place is too strait for me; give place to me that I may dwell,” Is. xlix. 20. The comparison of the church to a woman as the mother of children, is one that is very common in the Scriptures. (d) The future destiny of the child and of the woman agrees with this supposition. The child is caught up to heaven, ver. 5—emblematic of the fact that God will protect the church, and not suffer its increase to be cut off and destroyed; and the woman is driven for 1260 years into the wilderness and nourished there, ver. 14—emblematic of the long period of obscurity and persecution in the true church, and yet of the fact that it would be protected and nourished. The design of the whole, therefore, I apprehend, is to represent the peril of the church at the time when it was about to be greatly enlarged, or in a season of prosperity, from the rise of a formidable enemy that would stand ready to destroy it. I regard this, therefore, as referring to the time of the rise of the Papacy, when, but for that formidable, corrupting, and destructive power, it might have been hoped that the church would have spread all over the world. In regard to the rise of that power, see all that I have to say, or can say, in the Notes on Da. vii. 24–28.

3 And there appeared another wonder[376] in heaven; and behold a [377]great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads.

3. And there appeared another wonder in heaven. Represented as in heaven. See Notes on [ver. 1]. That is, he saw this as occurring at the time when the church was thus about to increase. ¶ And behold a great red dragon. The word rendered dragon—δράκων—occurs, in the New Testament, only in the book of Revelation, where it is uniformly rendered as here—dragon: ch. xii. 3, 4, 7, 9, 13, 16, 17; xiii. 2, 4, 11; xvi. 13; xx. 2. In all these places there is reference to the same thing. The word properly means a large serpent; and the allusion in the word commonly is to some serpent, perhaps such as the anaconda, that resides in a desert or wilderness. See a full account of the ideas that prevailed in ancient times respecting the dragon, in Bochart, Hieroz. lib. iii. cap. xiv., vol. ii. pp. 428–440. There was much that was fabulous respecting this monster, and many notions were attached to the dragon which did not exist in reality, and which were ascribed to it by the imagination at a time when natural history was little understood. The characteristics ascribed to the dragon, according to Bochart, are, that it was distinguished (a) for its vast size; (b) that it had something like a beard or dew-lap; (c) that it had three rows of teeth; (d) that its colour was black,red, yellow, or ashy; (e) that it had a wide mouth; (f) that in its breathing it not only drew in the air, but also birds that were flying over it; and (g) that its hiss was terrible. Occasionally, also, feet and wings were attributed to the dragon, and sometimes a lofty crest. The dragon, according to Bochart, was supposed to inhabit waste places and solitudes (comp. Notes on Is. xiii. 22), and it became, therefore, an object of great terror. It is probable that the original of this was a huge serpent, and that all the other circumstances were added by the imagination. The prevailing ideas in regard to it, however, should be borne in mind, in order to see the force and propriety of the use of the word by John. Two special characteristics are stated by John in the general description of the dragon: one is, its red colour; the other, that it was great. In regard to the former, as above mentioned, the dragon was supposed to be black, red, yellow, or ashy. See the authorities referred to in Bochart, ut sup., pp. 435, 436. There was doubtless a reason why the one seen by John should be represented as red. As to the other characteristic—great—the idea is that it was a huge monster, and this would properly refer to some mighty, terrible power which would be properly symbolized by such a monster. ¶ Having seven heads. It was not unusual to attribute many heads to monsters, especially to fabulous monsters, and these greatly increased the terror of the animal. “Thus Cerberus usually has three heads assigned to him; but Hesiod (Theog. 312) assigns him fifty, and Horace (Ode II. 13, 34) one hundred. So the Hydra of the Lake Lerna, killed by Hercules, had fifty heads (Virg. Æn. vi. 576); and in Kiddushim, fol. 29, 2, Rabbi Achse is said to have seen a demon like a dragon with seven heads” (Professor Stuart, in loco). The seven heads would somehow denote power, or seats of power. Such a number of heads increase the terribleness, and, as it were, the vitality of the monster. What is here represented would be as terrible and formidable as such a monster; or such a monster would appropriately represent what was designed to be symbolized here. The number seven may be used here “as a perfect number,” or merely to heighten the terror of the image; but it is more natural to suppose that there would be something in what is here represented which would lay the foundation for the use of this number. There would be something either in the origin of the power; or in the union of various powers now combined in the one represented by the dragon; or in the seat of the power, which this would properly symbolize. Comp. Notes on Da. vii. 6. ¶ And ten horns. Emblems of power, denoting that, in some respects, there were ten powers combined in this one. See Notes on Da. vii. 7, 8, 20, 24. There can be little doubt that John had those passages of Daniel in his eye, and perhaps as little that the reference is to the same thing. The meaning is, that, in some respects, there would be a tenfold origin or division of the power represented by the dragon. ¶ And seven crowns upon his heads. Gr., diadems. See Notes on [ch. ix. 7]. There is a reference here to some kingly power, and doubtless John had some kingdom or sovereignty in his eye that would be properly symbolized in this manner. The method in which these heads and horns were arranged on the dragon is not stated, and is not material. All that is necessary in the explanation is, that there was something in the power referred to that would be properly represented by the seven heads, and something by the ten horns.

In the application of this, it will be necessary to inquire what was properly symbolized by these representations, and to refer again to these particulars with this view.

(a) The dragon. This is explained in ver. 9 of this chapter: “And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world.” So again, ch. xx. 2, “And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil.” Comp. Bochart, Hieroz. ii. pp. 439, 440. There can be no doubt, therefore, that the reference here is to Satan, considered as the enemy of God, and the enemy of the peace of man, and especially as giving origin and form to some mighty power that would threaten the existence of the church.