Revelation 12:1, 12:3, Signs in Heaven

Posted on Sunday, October 9, 2011 in Bible Commentary | 2 comments

A great and wondrous sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars on her head. … Then another sign appeared in heaven: an enormous red dragon with seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns on his heads.

//These two “signs in heaven” set the stage for the cosmic battle of Revelation chapter 12. John first introduces us to a “woman clothed with the sun.” She cries out in pain, about to give birth. But then a second sign appears, a fearsome looking dragon who “sweeps the stars out of the sky,” and then stands nearby, waiting for the birth, so that he can devour her child.

The child, we are to assume, is Jesus, and the fearsome dragon is Satan. Images of King Herod also spring to mind, as he lies in wait to kill the baby Jesus. The woman clothed with the sun is often compared to Mary, and though I personally doubt this is the intended association, I won’t go into that here.

But the dragon’s plan is foiled. As Jesus is born, he is snatched “up to God and to his throne,” who apparently lives above the stars.

These “signs in heaven” surely reflect astronomical observations, and can even pinpoint the time of year to September/October. For twenty days out of the year, the sun “clothes” Virgo, the woman, by appearing in her midsection. At the same time, Scorpio’s claws seem about to catch her. And as the sun appears in Virgo, of course, the stars of that constellation cannot be seen; they have been “swept from the sky.”