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Revelation 12:3

in Revelation 12

Then another sign appeared in heaven: a huge red dragon with seven heads, ten horns, and seven royal crowns on his heads.

BSB

The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾

ASV

And there was seen another sign in heaven: and behold, a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his heads seven diadems.

KJV

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

This verse in Revelation 12

Commentary

11 notes on this verse
"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.

This site's exposition

a huge red dragon

on Revelation 12:3-4

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.

The record, by era

The Church Fathers2 voices

A commentator

Oecumenius

Commentary on Revelation · Written before 550.

proposed

Having completed in part the contemplation concerning the common Lady, the holy ever-virgin and Mother of God Mary, he presents to us another, saying: As in the beginning of the vision considered authoritative, it is said that the vision, wishing to narrate more fully the …

A commentator

Ticonius

COMMENTARY ON THE APOCALYPSE 12:3 · Written before 390.

proposed

[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 …

The Medieval Church3 voices

A commentator

Andreas of Caesarea

COMMENTARY ON THE APOCALYPSE 12:3 · Written before 614.

proposed

Here we think that "heaven" signifies the air, and that the "red dragon" is that creature that was deceived and mocked by the angels of God, as it is written in Job. He is "red" either because of his murderous and bloodthirsty character or because …

A commentator

Alcuin of York

COMMENTARY ON REVELATION · Written before 804.

proposed

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 …

A commentator

Bede

Commentary on Revelation · Written before 735.

proposed

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.
4 more voices on this verse

The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice

And there appeared another wonder in heaven,....

The Nineteenth Century3 voices

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.

A commentator

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown

1802–1910

Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)

proposed

His representative, the beast, corresponds, having seven heads and ten horns (the number of horns on the fourth beast of Da 7:7; 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.

quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — unbalanced-parens

A commentator

Adam Clarke

1762–1832

Commentary on the Bible · Written before 1832.

proposed

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 their origin from the sacred writings are so disguised in fable as literally to bear no more resemblance to the truth than the dragon of the ancients does to any animal with which we are acquainted. But it may be asked why the Spirit of God should represent the heathen Roman empire as a dragon, rather than by anger other of the fabulous animals with which the mythology of the ancient Romans abounded. The answer is as follows; In the eighth chapter of the Prophet Daniel, God has represented the kingdom of the Greeks by a he-goat, for no other apparent reason than this, that it was the national military standard of the Grecian monarchy; we may therefore expect that the pagan Roman empire is called a Dragon on a similar account. In confirmation of this point it is very remarkable that the dragon was the principal standard of the Romans next to the eagle, in the second, third, fourth, and fifth centuries of the Christian era. Of this we have abundant evidence in the writings of both heathens and Christians. Arrian is the earliest writer who has mentioned that dragons were used as military standards among the Romans. See his Tactics, c. 51. […]

The words behind it

25 Greek words

Every Greek word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.

A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.

The walk

8 stops

Each card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.

  • Through

    Revelation 12:9

    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.

    it leads to

    • Luke 10:18

      So He told them, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven.

    • John 12:31

      Now judgment is upon this world; now the prince of this world will be cast out.

    • Revelation 20:10

      And the devil who had deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur, into which the beast and the false prophet had already been thrown. There they will be tormented day…

    • 1 John 5:19

      We know that we are of God, and that the whole world is under the power of the evil one.

    • Isaiah 14:12

      How you have fallen from heaven, O day star, son of the dawn! You have been cut down to the ground, O destroyer of nations.

  • Through

    Revelation 17:12

    The ten horns you saw are ten kings who have not yet received a kingdom, but will receive one hour of authority as kings, along with the beast.

    it leads to

    • Revelation 13:1

      Then I saw a beast with ten horns and seven heads rising out of the sea. There were ten royal crowns on its horns and blasphemous names on its heads.

      Reached by 2 separate paths from here.

  • Through

    Daniel 7:24

    And the ten horns are ten kings who will rise from this kingdom. After them another king, different from the earlier ones, will rise and subdue three kings.

    it leads to

    • Daniel 7:20

      I also wanted to know about the ten horns on its head and the other horn that came up, before which three of them fell—the horn whose appearance was more imposing than the others,…

      Reached by 2 separate paths from here.

  • Through

    Revelation 17:16

    And the ten horns and the beast that you saw will hate the prostitute. They will leave her desolate and naked, and will eat her flesh and burn her with fire.

    it leads to

    • Revelation 18:8

      Therefore her plagues will come in one day—death and grief and famine—and she will be consumed by fire, for mighty is the Lord God who judges her.”

Where this verse is studied

About Revelation

The Adoration of the Mystic Lamb, Jan and Hubert van Eyck, about 1430 to 1432. Public domain.
The Adoration of the Mystic Lamb, Jan and Hubert van Eyck, about 1430 to 1432. Public domain.
This page draws on 11 works. Open the list of works

This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Alcuin of York, COMMENTARY ON REVELATION; Andreas of Caesarea, COMMENTARY ON THE APOCALYPSE 12:3; Bede, Commentary on Revelation; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the New Testament (1746-1748); Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible; Oecumenius, Commentary on Revelation; Ticonius, COMMENTARY ON THE APOCALYPSE 12:3 and Victorinus of Pettau, Commentary on the Apocalypse of the Blessed John.