Book Of Revelation Chapter 12

Literary Organization Chapter 12 of the Book of Revelation falls into four subsections. The first section of the chapter takes place from verses 1 to 4a. The title that best summarizes this section is ‘The Woman and the Dragon’. The first section acts as the introductory portion of the text. It establishes the setting of the beginning of the chapter, which takes place in heaven. It introduces the main characters of the text, which include the woman, the child and the dragon, otherwise known as Satan The second subsection falls in verses 4b to 6 and is best titled as ‘The Birth of the Child and the Fight of the Woman’. The second section’s function is to establish the origins of the main conflict of the text. This main conflict begins as a
The child is commonly identified as Jesus as he is brought up by God after his birth to be seated at his throne (Rev 12:5). The woman is depicted as wearing a crown of twelve stars and is clothed in the sun with the moon on her feet. Scholars have disregarded the possibility that she could be identified as representing the church “because the Christian community can hardly be described as the mother of Christ” (Pakati 259). To provide an alternative reading, the early church is the means through which Jesus’ and his power is remembered and revered throughout history. Without the formation of the early church, it is possible that the early Christian movement would have died out; in this perspective, the Church ultimately gives Jesus life. Moreover, the dragon symbolizes Satan, the evil antagonist of the story. The Archangel Michael on the other hand functions to defeat Satan in the battle by throwing him down to
Specifically, the role of Michael as the heavenly warrior is found within both texts. In the Qumran War Scrolls, Michael is the central protagonist who defeats evil at the final phase of the war (Collins, 267). However, in Revelation 12 “he is relegated to the first phase” (Collins, 276). In addition, Rev 12 shares with the Life of Adam and Eve 12-17 the motif of the expulsion of Satan from heaven and his descent down to earth (Collins, 275). Furthermore, there are significant mythological similarities in terms of the description of the dragon between Rev 12 and Babylonian and Canaanite myths (Pattemore, 64). Specifically, the relevant Canaanite myths here concern “Lotan, Tannin, and Shalyat” (Benson,