Revelationchapter 12
17 verses · John, by tradition · AD 95 or 96 · Revelation
And the great dragon was hurled down—that ancient serpent called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him.
Introduction
John, by tradition, Revelation, Revelation Overview.
The apostle John wrote this book to churches that were slandered, pressed and in places put to death for their faith. This chapter draws back a curtain on the conflict behind their trouble. It is told in signs, and its first hearers knew the pictures from Genesis, from Joseph's dream and from Israel's flight through the wilderness. Listen for the names the enemy is given and for how much time he is said to have. Listen also for the song in heaven at the center of the chapter and what it says conquers him. Read it as the opening of the visions that run through chapter 14.
Context
- Who
- Believers who needed to know why the pressure on them was so personal
- What
- A vision in signs of a woman, her son and a great red dragon, a war in heaven, and the dragon's pursuit of the woman and her children on the earth.
- Where
- Written on the island of Patmos for the seven churches of Asia, with the vision set first in heaven and then on the earth and in the wilderness.
- When
- About AD 95 under the emperor Domitian, the date most often given, while others hold an earlier date under Nero, about AD 68.
- Why
- To show the church the enemy behind its persecution and to show that he is already defeated by the blood of the Lamb.
Historical context
A woman clothed with the sun, the moon under her feet, twelve stars on her head, in labor, and a great red dragon waiting to devour her child the moment it is born.
Show the rest of the historical context, 4 more paragraphs
Readers in Asia Minor had a story shaped like this one already. In the widely known Greek myth, a pregnant goddess is pursued by a great serpent, escapes to an island, and her son grows up to kill it. Cities in Asia told versions of it, and Roman propaganda liked to cast the emperor as the divine child who brings in a golden age. John's readers would have recognized the shape and heard it corrected: the true child is the one who was born, snatched up to God, and will rule the nations.
The dragon is identified in plain words, the old serpent, called the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world. He is thrown down and loses his place as accuser, and the response in heaven says how he was beaten: by the blood of the Lamb, by the word of their testimony, and because they loved not their lives unto the death.
Then, cast down, he goes after the woman, and when she is protected he goes to make war with "the remnant of her seed", those who keep God's commandments and hold the testimony of Jesus. That is the congregation reading the letter.
The chapter ends with the dragon standing on the sand of the sea, which is where the next chapter begins.
Significance
This is the chapter that explained the churches to themselves. The hostility they felt from neighbors, guilds, magistrates, and mobs was the tail end of a war that started long before them and had already been lost by the one waging it.
Show the rest of the significance, 1 more paragraph
The line about short time was the encouragement and the warning together: he has great wrath because he knows he has only a little time. The fury was evidence of the deadline, not of the dragon's strength.
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
A Woman Clothed With the Sun and a Dragon Waiting
Revelation 12:1-2
a woman clothed in the sun: The sun, moon and twelve stars echo Genesis 37:9, where the sun, moon and eleven stars stood for Jacob, Rachel and the sons of Israel. Her labor recalls Isaiah 66:7-8, where a nation is born in a day.
Revelation 12:1
“The woman who "appeared in heaven … clothed with the sun" and crowned with "twelve stars," having the moon for her footstool, and being with child, and travailing in birth, is certainly, according to the accurate interpretation, our mother, … a power by herself distinct from her children, whom the prophets, according to the aspect of their subjects, have called sometimes Jerusalem, sometimes a Bride, sometimes Mount Zion, and sometimes the Temple and Tabernacle of God.”
Methodius of Olympus · written before 311 · SYMPOSIUM 8.5-6patristic
1 more voice on this verseWhat preachers and commentators have said about this verse, in their own words.
Revelation 12:1
“Woman-like receptivity towards God constitutes faith. By it the individual becomes a child of God; the children collectively are viewed as "the woman." Humanity, in so far as it belongs to God, is the woman. Christ, the Son of the woman, is in Re 12:5 emphatically called "the MAN-child" (Greek, "huios arrheen," "male-child").”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
crying out in the pain: Micah 5:3 speaks of Israel in labor until the ruler from Bethlehem is born, which fits the site's reading of the woman as Israel. Hippolytus reads the cry as the church bearing the Word amid persecution. Adam Clarke hears the persecutions under the Roman emperors.
Revelation 12:2
“And those, "she, being with child, cries, travailing in birth, and pained to be delivered," mean that the Church will not cease to bear from her heart the Word that is persecuted by the unbelieving in the world.”
Hippolytus of Rome · written before 235 · Hippolytus Dogmatical and Historical Fragmentspatristic
1 more voice on this verse
Revelation 12:2
“And she being with child cried, travailing in birth, etc. - This, when taken in connection with the following verses, is a striking figure of the great persecution which the Church of Christ should suffer under the heathen Roman emperors, but more especially of that long and most dreadful one under Diocletian. The woman is represented as Being with child, to show that the time would speedily arrive when God’s patient forbearance with the heathen would be terminated, and that a deliverer should arise in the Christian world who would execute the Divine vengeance upon paganism.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Revelation 12:3-4
a huge red dragon: Verse 9 names the dragon as the devil and Satan. His heads and horns return on the beast of 13:1 and recall the fourth beast of Daniel 7. Standing ready to devour her child, he stages the enmity of Genesis 3:15, as Herod did in Matthew 2:16.
Revelation 12:3
"And there appeared another sign in heaven; and behold a red dragon, having seven heads." Now, that he says that this dragon was of a red colour-that is, of a purple colour-the result of his work gave him such a colour. For from the beginning (as the Lord says) he was a murderer; and he has oppressed the whole of the human race, not so much by the obligation of death, as, moreover, by the various forms of destruction and fatal mischiefs.
Victorinus of Pettau · written before 304 · Commentary on the Apocalypse of the Blessed Johnpatristic
1 more voice on this verse
Revelation 12:3
“And there appeared another wonder in heaven - Represented as in heaven. See the notes on Rev 12:1. 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 drakōn - occurs, in the New Testament, only in the book of Revelation, where it is uniformly rendered as here - “dragon:” Rev 12:3-4, Rev 12:7,Rev 12:9, Rev 12:13, Rev 12:16-17; Rev 13:2, Rev 13:4,Rev 13:11; Rev 16:13; Rev 20:2. In all these places there is reference to the same thing.”
swept a third of the stars: Daniel 8:10 gives the same act to the little horn, which threw some of the stars to the earth. Adam Clarke notes that Scripture can call the rear of an army its tail, as in Joshua 10:19. So the tail is the host that follows him down.
Revelation 12:4
“And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven - It is not unusual in Scripture, as Dr. Mitchell observes, to call the hindmost of an enemy the tail, as in Jos 10:19: Ye shall cut off the hindmost of them, which is literally in Hebrew, וזנבתם אותם “Ye shall cut off their tail.” See also Deu 25:18. It is also observable that the word ουρα, in this verse, has been used by the Greeks in the same sense with the Hebrew word זנב already referred to.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
rule all the nations: The words who will rule all the nations with an iron scepter come from Psalm 2:9 and are said of Christ again in 19:15. In one sentence the verse moves from his birth to his ascension: her child was caught up to God and to His throne.
Revelation 12:5
“Care was taken of this child: it was caught up to God, and to his throne; that is, taken into his special, powerful, and immediate protection. The Christian religion has been from its infancy the special care of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
1 more voice on this verse
Revelation 12:5
“If any one, for there is no difficulty in speaking distinctly, should be troubled and reply to what we have said: "But how, O virgins, can this explanation seem to you to be according to the mind of Scripture, when the Apocalypse plainly states that the church brings forth a male, while you teach that her labor-pains have their fulfillment in those who are baptized?" We will answer: … Long before the Apocalypse, the mystery of the Incarnation of the Word was fulfilled. John speaks concerning things present and things to come.”
Methodius of Olympus · written before 311 · SYMPOSIUM 8.7-8patristic
the woman fled into the wilderness: The 1,260 days match the ministry of the two witnesses in 11:3, one span running through the middle of the book. The wilderness where God had prepared a place for her recalls Israel fed by God after the exodus. Verse 14 returns to the same flight.
Revelation 12:6
“She fled into the wilderness, a place prepared both for her safety and her sustenance. The church was in an obscure state, dispersed; and this proved her security, through the care of divine Providence. This her obscure and private state was for a limited time, not to continue always.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
2 more voices on this verse
Revelation 12:6
"But the woman fled into the wilderness, and there were given to her two great eagle's wings." The aid of the great eagle's wings-to wit, the gift of prophets-was given to that Catholic Church, whence in the last times a hundred and forty-four thousands of men should believe on the preaching of Elias; but, moreover, he here says that the rest of the people should be found alive on the coming of the Lord.
Victorinus of Pettau · written before 304 · Commentary on the Apocalypse of the Blessed Johnpatristic
Revelation 12:6
“Instead of overcoming, she was overcome by the world [AUBERLEN]. Thus, the woman is "the one inseparable Church of the Old and New Testament" [HENGSTENBERG], the stock of the Christian Church being Israel (Christ and His apostles being Jews), on which the Gentile believers have been grafted, and into which Israel, on her conversion, shall be grafted, as into her own olive tree.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
War in Heaven: Michael Casts the Dragon Down
Revelation 12:7-9
Michael and his angels fought against the dragon: The dragon is hurled down under four names: the great dragon, that ancient serpent, the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world. Michael, who leads the angels against him, is the prince who stands for Israel in the time of distress in Daniel 12:1.
Revelation 12:7
“But at Christ's coming as our Redeemer, he fell from heaven, especially when Christ suffered, rose again, and ascended to heaven. When Christ appeared before God as our Advocate, Satan, the accusing adversary, could no longer appear before God against us, but was cast out judicially (Ro 8:33, 34).”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
1 more voice on this verse
Revelation 12:7
“Michael indeed means "Who is like God." And whenever something of wondrous power is accomplished, Michael is said to be sent, so that from the act itself and the name it may be understood that no one can do what God is able to do.”
Gregory the Dialogist · written before 604 · Forty Gospel Homilies, Homily 34patristic
the dragon was not strong enough: John Wesley draws the plain inference that until this moment the dragon still had a place in heaven. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown trace four stages in his fall, the first leaving him access to heaven as accuser. Job 1 shows that access in use.
Revelation 12:8
“And he prevailed not - The dragon himself is principally mentioned; but his angels, likewise, are to be understood. Neither was this place found any more in heaven - So till now he had a place in heaven.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament (1755)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Revelation 12:8
“Not only did they not prevail, but not even their place was found any more in heaven. There are four gradations in the ever deeper downfall of Satan: (1) He is deprived of his heavenly excellency, though having still access to heaven as man's accuser, up to Christ's first coming.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
The ancient serpent ties this fall to Genesis 3, and the deceiver names the work he resumes through the second beast in 13:14. Albert Barnes hears Luke 10:18 here, Satan falling like lightning. He sets Jude 6 beside it.
Revelation 12:9
“And the great dragon was cast out - See the notes on Rev 12:3. That there may be an allusion in the language here to what actually occurred in some far distant period of the past, when Satan was ejected from heaven, there can be no reason to doubt. Our Saviour seems to refer to such an event in the language which he uses when he says Luk 10:18, “I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven”; and Jude, perhaps Rev 12:6, may refer to the same event.”
ConnectionsGenesis 3:15
The kingdom is announced because the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down. Satan holds the same office against Job in Job 1:9-11 and against Joshua the high priest in Zechariah 3:1. Verse 11 names the blood that answers him.
Revelation 12:10
“Rev 12:10 per Adam Clarke The accuser of our brethren - There is scarcely any thing more common in the rabbinical writings than Satan as the accuser of the Israelites. And the very same word κατηγορος, accuser, or, as it is in the Codex Alexandrinus, κατηγωρ, is used by them in Hebrew letters, קטיגור katigor; e. gr., Pirkey Eliezer, c.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
by the blood of the Lamb: The verse names three grounds of victory over the accuser: the blood of the Lamb, the word of their testimony, and a readiness to die. The words they did not love their lives so as to shy away from death describe that settled readiness.
Revelation 12:11
“And they overcame him - That is, he was foiled in his attempt thus to destroy the church. The reference here, undoubtedly, is primarily to the martyr age and to the martyr spirit; and the meaning is, that religion had not become extinct by these accusations, as Satan hoped it would be, but lived and triumphed. By their holy lives, by their faithful testimony, by their patient sufferings, they showed that all these accusations were false, and that the religion which they professed Was from God, and thus in fact gained a victory over their accuser.”
2 more voices on this verse
Revelation 12:11
“Had that blood not been shed, Satan's accusations would have been unanswerable; as it is, that blood meets every charge. SCHOTTGEN mentions the Rabbinical tradition that Satan accuses men all days of the year, except the day of atonement.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Revelation 12:11
“WHEREVER evil appears, it is to be fought with by the children of God in the name of Jesus and in the power of the Holy Spirit. When evil appeared in an angel, straightway there was war in Heaven. Evil in mortal men is to be strived against by all regenerate men. If sin comes to us in the form of an angel of light we must still war with it.”
with great fury the devil: Heaven rejoices, but woe falls on the earth, because the devil has come down with great fury, knowing he has only a short time. His fury is the fruit of his defeat in heaven, and the chapter turns here to his war on earth.
Revelation 12:12
“THE great battle in the heavenlies has been fought—our glorious Michael has forever overthrown the dragon and cast him down. In the highest regions the great principle of evil has received a total defeat through the life and death of our Lord Jesus. Atonement has been made for human sin and the great quarrel between God and man has come to a happy end. Everlasting righteousness has been brought in and the peace of God reigns in Heaven.”
2 more voices on this verse
Revelation 12:12
“The rage of Satan grows so much the greater as he is limited both in place and time; when he was confined to the wilderness, and had but a short time to reign there, he comes with the greater wrath.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Revelation 12:12
“The might - Whereby the enemy is cast out. The kingdom - Here the majesty of God is shown. And the power of his Christ - Which he will exert against the beast; and when he also is taken away, then will the kingdom be ascribed to Christ himself, chap. xix, 16; xx, 4.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament (1755)evangelical
Eagle's Wings, a Flood, and War on Her Offspring
he pursued the woman: Thrown to the earth and unable to reach the child, the dragon pursued the woman who had given birth to the male child. The verse resumes the flight of verse 6, so the war in heaven stands inside one scene of pursuit and escape.
Revelation 12:13
“This is thought to be meant of a flood of error and heresy, which was breathed by Arius, Nestorius, Pelagius, and many more, by which the church of God was in danger of being overwhelmed and carried away.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
given two wings of a great eagle: The two wings of a great eagle recall Exodus 19:4, where God carried Israel out of Egypt on eagles' wings. The span a time, and times, and half a time comes from Daniel 7:25 and 12:7 and equals the 1,260 days of verse 6.
Revelation 12:14
“And to the woman were given two wings of a great eagle - Του αετου του μεγαλου· Of The great eagle. The great eagle here mentioned is an emblem of the Roman empire in general, and therefore differs from the dragon, which is a symbol of the Heathen Roman empire in particular. The Roman power is called an eagle from its legionary standard, which was introduced among the Romans in the second year of the consulate of C. Marius; for before that time minotaurs, wolves, leopards, horses, boars, and eagles were used indifferently, according to the humor of the commander.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Revelation 12:15-16
spewed water like a river: Then from the mouth of the serpent spewed water like a river, but the earth helped the woman and opened its mouth to swallow it. Elsewhere in the book the earth suffers judgment; here it acts for her, as the Red Sea and the Jordan once did for Israel.
Revelation 12:15
"And the serpent cast out of his mouth after the woman water as a flood, that he might carry her away with the flood." He signifies by the water which the serpent cast out of his mouth, the people who at his command would persecute her.
Victorinus of Pettau · written before 304 · Commentary on the Apocalypse of the Blessed Johnpatristic
1 more voice on this verse
Revelation 12:15
“And the serpent cast out of his mouth water as a flood - This is special and uncommon imagery, and it is not necessary to suppose that anything like this literally occurs in nature. Some serpents are indeed said to eject from their mouths poisonous bile when they are enraged, in order to annoy their pursuers; and some sea monsters, it is known, spout forth large quantities of water; but the representation here does not seem to be taken from either of those cases. It is the mere product of the imagination, but the sense is clear.”
the earth helped the woman: The earth opened its mouth once before, to swallow Korah and his company in Numbers 16:32. There it judged rebels, and here it shelters the woman. Victorinus reads the swallowed river as vengeance for her troubles, while Adam Clarke follows Bishop Newton into the barbarian invasions of the Roman empire.
Revelation 12:16
"And the earth helped the woman, and opened her mouth, and swallowed up the flood which the dragon cast out of his mouth." That the earth opened her month and swallowed up the waters, sets forth the vengeance for the present troubles.
Victorinus of Pettau · written before 304 · Commentary on the Apocalypse of the Blessed Johnpatristic
1 more voice on this verse
Revelation 12:16
“The earth helped the woman - “Nothing, and indeed,” as Bishop Newton excellently observes, “was more likely to produce the ruin and utter subversion of the Christian Church than the irruptions of so many barbarous nations into the Roman empire.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
the rest of her children: The dragon turns from the woman to the rest of her children, who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus. Revelation 14:12 describes the saints in nearly the same words, and the next chapter shows the two beasts who wage this war.
Revelation 12:17
“And the dragon was wroth with the woman - This wrath had been vented by his persecuting her Rev 12:13; by his pursuing her; and by his pouring out the flood of water to sweep her away Rev 12:15; and the same wrath was now vented against her children. As he could not reach and destroy the woman herself, he turned his indignation against all who were allied to her.”
How this psalm is built
The form: A new series of visions that shows the inner conflict of the church and the rise of antichrist, as Barnes classes it.
The patterns in this chapter
| Device | What it does | Where to see it |
|---|---|---|
| Two signs in heaven | Verse 1 opens on a great sign in heaven and verse 3 on another sign in heaven, the woman and then the dragon who stands against her. Albert Barnes reads the second sign as seen at the same moment as the first, when the woman was about to bring forth. Victorinus reads the dragon's red as the colour his work gave him, since he was a murderer from the beginning.Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869), on Revelation 12:3. | Revelation 12:1, Revelation 12:3 |
| The war told, then sung | Verses 7 to 9 tell the war in heaven, and verses 10 to 12 give a loud voice in heaven that explains it. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown hold that Satan was cast out judicially when Christ appeared before God as our Advocate. The song names what the account of the battle leaves unsaid, the blood of the Lamb as the ground of the victory.Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, on Revelation 12:7. | Revelation 12:7, Revelation 12:10, Revelation 12:11 |
| The flight told twice | Verses 6 and 14 both send the woman to her place in the wilderness for the same span, first as 1,260 days and then as a time, times and half a time. The war in heaven stands between the two. Victorinus reads them as one flight, joining the eagle's wings of verse 14 to the flight of verse 6.Victorinus of Pettau, Commentary on the Apocalypse of the Blessed John, on Revelation 12:6. | Revelation 12:6, Revelation 12:14 |
| The names of the enemy | Verse 9 gathers the enemy's names in one line: the great dragon, the ancient serpent, the devil, Satan and the deceiver of the whole world. Albert Barnes notes that the word dragon occurs in the New Testament only in Revelation and names the same being every time. Verse 10 adds a sixth name, the accuser of our brothers.Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869), on Revelation 12:3. | Revelation 12:3, Revelation 12:9, Revelation 12:10 |
Where the imagery comes from
12 more paragraphs on the patterns
The site's exposition note on 12:1 to 2 takes the sun, moon and twelve stars from Joseph's dream in Genesis 37:9, and the note on 12:3 to 4 reads the dragon against the woman's child as the war of Genesis 3:15. The note on 12:5 hears Psalm 2:9 in the iron scepter, and the note on 12:14 hears Exodus 19:4 in the eagle's wings. Gregory the Dialogist reads the name Michael as Who is like God (Forty Gospel Homilies, Homily 34). Adam Clarke reads the great eagle as the Roman empire, named from its standard (Commentary on the Bible, on Revelation 12:14).
Where it sits in the book
Albert Barnes reads 11:19 and chapter 12 as the start of a new series of visions on the inner life of the church and the rise of antichrist (Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on Revelation 11:19). Bede says the book here goes back to the birth of the Lord and tells the same things more broadly (Commentary on Revelation, on Revelation 11:18). The chapter ends with the dragon on the shore of the sea, and John Gill notes that several old versions read that the dragon stood there, which leads into the beast from the sea at 13:1 (Exposition of the New Testament, on Revelation 13:1).
The debated concept: who the woman is
The site's exposition note on 12:1 to 2 reads the woman as Israel, the nation through whom the Messiah was born, from Joseph's dream and from Isaiah 66:7 to 8. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown, following Hengstenberg, read her as the one church of both Testaments, whose stock is Israel (Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, on Revelation 12:6). Methodius holds she is our mother the church, whom the prophets called Jerusalem, a Bride and Mount Zion (Symposium 8.5-6). Hippolytus reads her as the church bearing the Word the world persecutes (Hippolytus Dogmatical and Historical Fragments, on Revelation 12:2).
The objection to the church reading is verse 5, since Christ was born of Israel before the church was gathered. Methodius answers it himself: the Incarnation was fulfilled long before the Apocalypse, John speaks of things present and to come, and the church brings forth Christ in the baptized (Symposium 8.7-8). The objection to the Israel reading is verse 17, where her children hold to the testimony of Jesus. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown answer that Israel on her conversion is grafted back into her own olive tree (on Revelation 12:6). The site's note also names a narrower reading of the woman as Mary.
The debated concept: when the dragon is thrown down
Jamieson, Fausset and Brown place the casting down at Christ's first coming, above all at His passion, resurrection and ascension (on Revelation 12:7, citing Romans 8:33 to 34). The same work traces four stages in his fall, the first leaving him access to heaven as accuser until Christ came (on Revelation 12:8). Albert Barnes allows an allusion to a fall long past and cites Luke 10:18 (Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on Revelation 12:9). The site's exposition note on 12:14 sets the woman's flight in the second half of Daniel's last week, and the flight follows the casting down in verse 13.
Where the rest of the New Testament touches it
Albert Barnes hears Luke 10:18 in verse 9, Satan falling like lightning from heaven (on Revelation 12:9). Jamieson, Fausset and Brown join the casting out to Romans 8:33 to 34, where no charge stands against those Christ intercedes for (on Revelation 12:7). The site's exposition note on 12:5 sets the child caught up to God beside 1 Thessalonians 4:17, and the note on 12:3 to 4 sets the dragon waiting at the birth beside Herod in Matthew 2:16. Charles Spurgeon preached verse 11 as the church's conquering weapon (The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Sermon No. 2043).
The numbers
The 1,260 days of verse 6 and the time, times and half a time of verse 14 are one span, as the site's exposition notes on 12:6 and 12:14 hold, and they match the 42 months of 11:2 and 13:5. Victorinus ties the woman's flight to the 144,000 who believe at the preaching of Elijah in the last times (Commentary on the Apocalypse of the Blessed John, on Revelation 12:6). Jamieson, Fausset and Brown record a rabbinic tradition that Satan accuses men every day of the year except the Day of Atonement (on Revelation 12:11).
Keep studying
Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the New Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The form and classifications
Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869), on Revelation 11:19; Bede, Commentary on Revelation, on Revelation 11:18 and Methodius of Olympus, SYMPOSIUM 8.7-8, on Revelation 12:5.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes; Hippolytus of Rome, Hippolytus Dogmatical and Historical Fragments; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the New Testament; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Victorinus of Pettau, Commentary on the Apocalypse of the Blessed John.