a fabulous kind of serpent (perhaps as supposed to fasc… · noun — nominative singular masculine
having
ἔχωνechōn
G2192
to hold (used in very various applications · verb — present active participle, nominative singular masculine
seven
ἑπτὰhepta
G2033
seven · adjective — numeral, indeclinable
heads
κεφαλὰςkephalas
G2776
the head (as the part most readily taken hold of) · noun — accusative plural feminine
and
καὶkai
G2532
and · conjunction
ten
δέκα,deka
G1176
ten · adjective — numeral, indeclinable
horns
κέραταkerata
G2768
a horn (literally or figuratively) · noun — accusative plural neuter
and
καὶkai
G2532
and · conjunction
seven
ἑπτὰhepta
G2033
seven · adjective — numeral, indeclinable
crowns
διαδήματα,diadēmata
G1238
a "diadem" (as bound about the head) · noun — accusative plural neuter
upon
ἐπὶepi
G1909
properly · preposition
his
αὐτοῦautou
G846
the reflexive pronoun self · personal pronoun — genitive singular masculine
heads
κεφαλὰςkephalas
G2776
the head (as the part most readily taken hold of) · noun — accusative plural feminine
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Revelation 17:12 And the ten horns which thou sawest are ten kings, which have received no kingdom as yet; but receive power as kings one hour with the beast…
Daniel 7:24 And the ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings that shall arise: and another shall rise after them; and he shall be diverse from the fi…
Revelation 12:9 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…
Daniel 7:20 And of the ten horns that were in his head, and of the other which came up, and before whom three fell; even of that horn that had eyes, and…
Revelation 17:16 And the ten horns which thou sawest upon the beast, these shall hate the whore, and shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her fle…
Revelation 12:1 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…
Revelation 12:4 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 rea…
Revelation 17:3-4 So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, ha…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Revelation 12:1-11
Here we see that early prophecy eminently fulfilled in which God said he would put enmity between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent, Gen 3:15. You will observe,
I. The attempts of Satan and his agents to prevent the increase of the church, by devouring her offspring as soon as it was born; of this we have a very lively description in the most proper images.
1. We see how the church is represented in this vision. (1.) As a woman, the weaker part of the world, but the spouse of Christ, and the mother of the saints. (2.) As clothed with the sun, the imputed righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. Having put on Christ, who is the Sun of righteousness, she, by her relation to Chri…
appeared--"was seen."
wonder--Greek, "semeion," "sign."
red--So A and Vulgate read. But B, C, and Coptic read, "of fire." In either case, the color of the dragon implies his fiery rage as a murderer from the beginning. His representative, the beast, corresponds, having seven heads and ten horns (the number of horns on the fourth beast of Dan 7:7; Rev 13:1). But there, ten crowns are on the ten horns (for before the end, the fourth empire is divided into ten kingdoms); here, seven crowns (rather, "diadems," Greek, "diademata," not stephanoi, "wreaths") are upon his seven heads. In Dan 7:4-7 the Antichristian powers up to Christ's second coming are represented by four beasts, which have am…
There appeared another wonder - a great red dragon - The dragon here is a symbol, not of the Roman empire in general, but of the Heathen Roman empire. This great pagan power must have, therefore, been thus represented from the religion which it supported. But what is a dragon? An entirely fabulous beast of antiquity, consequently, in this respect, a most proper emblem of the heathen worship, which consisted in paying adoration to numerous imaginary beings, termed gods, goddesses, etc. The very foundation of the heathen religious system is mostly built upon fable; and it is very difficult to trace many of their superstitions to any authentic original; and even those which appear to derive the…
The Church Fathers
And behold, a great red dragon, etc. The devil, bloody in cruelty, is armed against the Church with the power of an earthly kingdom. In the seven heads, he speaks of all his kings, and in the ten horns, all his kingdoms.
[The red dragon] is the devil. He says that there was "another portent" to indicate the hostile opposition of the devil. It was he who inflamed Herod with the fire of envy so that he would feign to adore the Christ even while seeking with all his power to kill Christ whom he knew was to be born king of the Jews.… The "seven heads" are kings, and the horns are kingdoms.… For in the seven heads and seven diadems he signifies the rule of all kings, while in the ten horns we have the number of the ten persecutors who will fan the fires of persecution against the whole church in the last times.
And there was seen another sign in heaven: and behold a great red dragon, having seven heads, and ten horns: and on his heads seven diadems. The Devil is called a dragon because of his evilness, great because of the manifoldness of his snares, and red because of his murders. He is seen in heaven, that is in the Church, not because he possesses it, but because he opposes it. By his heads and horns is indicated his entire kingdom, as if seven heads were coming against the seven churches, seven wicked spirits against the sevenfold Spirit of God, and ten horns against the ten commandments of the law — but we shall speak about all this more at length in the following.
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Adultery — Conjugal infidelity. An adulterer was a man who had illicit intercourse with a married or a betrothed woman, and such a woman was an adulteress. Intercourse between a married man and an unmarried…
Colour — The subject of colours holds an important place in the Scriptures. White occurs as the translation of various Hebrew words. It is applied to milk (Gen. 49:12), manna (Ex. 16:31), snow (Isa. 1:18),…
Crown — (1.) Denotes the plate of gold in the front of the high priest’s mitre (Ex. 29:6; 39:30). The same Hebrew word so rendered (ne’zer) denotes the diadem worn by Saul in battle (2 Sam. 1:10), and also…
Diadem — The tiara of a king (Ezek. 21:26; Isa. 28:5; 62:3); the turban (Job 29:14). In the New Testament a careful distinction is drawn between the diadem as a badge of royalty (Rev. 12:3; 13:1; 19:12) and…
Dragon — (1.) Heb. tannim, plural of tan. The name of some unknown creature inhabiting desert places and ruins (Job 30:29; Ps. 44:19; Isa. 13:22; 34:13; 43:20; Jer. 10:22; Micah 1:8; Mal. 1:3); probably, as…
Astronomy · SI — SI
Colors · .Conquest — .Conquest
Crown · SYMBOLI — SYMBOLI
Dragon, The · Often of a red colour — Often of a red colour
Horn · SYMBOLI — SYMBOLI
Satan · Great red dragon — Great red dragon
Titles And Names Of The Devil · Great red dragon — Great red dragon
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
And there appeared another wonder in heaven,.... Or "sign"; which represents the woman, or the church's adversary, Satan; not that he was in heaven, in the third heaven, the place of glory and happiness, for out of that he had been cast long ago; but in his great power and authority here on, earth, particularly in the Roman empire, where the church was labouring to bring forth her man child:
and behold a great red dragon; the devil, as it is explained in Revelation 12:9; though not he in person, but the Heathen Roman empire, or the Heathen Roman emperors, acted, influenced, directed, and presided over by him; so Pharaoh king of Egypt, and other cruel and persecuting monarchs and states, ar…
The large red dragon represents Satan (see 12:9). • seven heads and ten horns: The numbers represent a mixture of divine and created powers (see 17:7-14). • The historic battle between evil and the people of God is staged in cosmic dimensions (see Gen 3:1-7, 14-15; Job 1:9-12). • Herod’s desire to kill Jesus embodied Satan’s attempt to devour her baby after it was born (see Matt 2:7-8, 16).
