Rev. David Holwick
Study Notes
November 14, 1991
Revelation 12
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I. The woman and the dragon. 12:1-6
A. Possible sources.
1) Ancient cultural parallels to story - even "Terminator" movies. [Jo]
2) Old Testament parallels - Joseph's vision.
3) Historical parallels - Emperor Domitian and his late son. [Jo]
4) Dead Sea Scrolls. [Jo]
5) Combination, but with a Christian perspective.
B. Identity of woman.
1) Virgin Mary.
a) But John refers to "the rest of her offspring." 12:17
b) Parallels with woman in Rev 17 show she has symbolic significance.
1> Center of story is her persecution by the dragon, or Satan.
c) Therefore she is probably not one individual.
1> Even recent Roman Catholic scholars agree with this. [Jo]
2) The Jewish people, the nation of Israel. [Walv]
a) In favor:
1> The woman gives birth to the Messiah. 12:5
2> The twelve stars would refer to the twelve tribes. Gen 37:9-11
A> The twelve signs of the zodiac were thought by Jews to represent the
twelve tribes, as shown in a synagogue mosaic in Beth Alpha.
b) Against:
1> The dragon's attack against the woman could not be an attack on the nation
as a whole, but only against the believing part of the people. [Jo]
3) The believing covenant-messianic community. [Jo]
a) In favor: The context indicates that the woman under attack represents a
continuous entity from the birth of Christ until at least John's day or
later.
b) The group includes the early messianic community, which merged into the
new community of Christ's disciples, the Church. [Jo]
II. Flight into the desert. 12:6
A. Symbolic or actual historic event?
1) Historic.
a) The early Church's escape to Pella in AD 66.
b) The future preservation of believing Jews in the Tribulation. [Walv]
2) Symbolic.
a) Symbolic of the hiddenness of the church in the world because of
persecution. [Swete(jo)]
b) Symbolic of church's pure condition. [Lilje(jo)]
c) Symbolic of the church's safety, discipline and testing. [Caird,Jo]
1> The whole chapter emphasizes symbolism.
2> "Desert" is used symbolically in 17:3.
3> There is parallelism with Exodus where the children of Israel fled from
Pharaoh.
B. The flight of the woman anticipates 12:13ff.
III. War in heaven. 12:7-12
A. The battle. 12:7
B. Ejection to earth. 12:8-9
C. Hymn of victory. 12:10-12
1) The avenger is cast down. 12:10 [Jo]
a) In the past, Satan's chief role was to accuse God's people of being
disobedient. God recognized the justice of these accusations.
b) But now the presence of the crucified Savior before God provides the
required satisfaction of God's justice with reference to our sins.
1 John 2:1-2; 4:10
c) Therefore Satan's accusations are no longer required and he is cast out.
2) The blood of Christ deals the actual death blow. 12:11
a) This suggests that the redeeming work of Christ is here depicted as a
cosmic battle, elsewhere as a loosing from sin (1:5), a washing of our
garments (7:14), and being purchased to God (5:9). [Jo]
b) The time of the battle and Satan's ejection from heaven must therefore be
connected with the birth, ministry, death, and resurrection of Jesus.
12:13; Luke 10:18; John 12:31 [Jo]
c) The blood of the martyrs does not signal the triumph of Satan, but their
identification with Jesus in his victory. This is a major theme of
John's. 11:11 [Jo]
1> In some mysterious sense the sufferings of the people of God are linked to
the sufferings of Jesus in his triumph over Satan and vil. John 12:31;
Rom 16:20; Col 1:24
2> Only a portion of the martyrs seem to be in view. (see 11:12 and 11:17)
IV. The woman's flight into the wilderness. 12:12-17
A. Although Satan is in effect defeated, the battle will grow fiercer for the
Church. 12:12
B. God will protect his people, just as the Jews during the Exodus were
rescued from Pharaoh by God's "eagles wings." see Exodus 19:4
C. The dragon spews a river of water. 12:15
1) Water symbolizes destruction by an enemy. Psalm 32:6; 69:1-2; 124:2-5
2) It can also symbolize calamity. Psalm 18:4
D. God's earth swallows the river. 12:16
1) In a similar way, the earth swallowed the dragon-inspired Egyptians of
Exodus. Exod 15:12
2) God continues to deliver his people.
V. The attack against "the rest of the offspring." 12:17
A. Identification: [Jo]
1) Gentile Christians in distinction from Jewish Christians.
2) Jewish Christians within the (unbelieving) Jewish nation. [Walv]
3) Individual Christians as opposed to God's people as a whole. [Caird, Jo,
Swete]
B. The close identification of the seed of the woman as first of all Jesus
and then also those who have become his followers agrees with other NT
teaching. Matt 25:40; Heb 2:11-12
1) Satan cannot prevail against the Church, but he can wage war on some if
its members.
2) The Church, then, is paradoxically both invulnerable (the woman) and
vulnerable (her children). Compare Luke 21:16-18
C. The dragon "makes war" against the offspring. 12:17
1) This same expression is used of the beast's attack on the two witnesses in
11:7 and on the saints in 13:7.
2) Are the three groups (two witnesses, saints, and woman's offspring) the
same but with different imagery? [Jo]
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