The book of Revelation creates more confusion than any other book in the New Testament. Even the title is often mistaken (it’s Revelation, singular not Revelations, plural). This blog has previously studied the cryptic chapter 11, which tells the strange story of the two witnesses, who symbolize the church’s suffering witness to the world.
Chapter 12 opens with what the author, John the Seer, describes as “a great sign” in heaven: “A woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars on her head. She was pregnant and cried out in pain as she was about to give birth.”
Many Catholic Christians insist that this woman corresponds to Mary, the mother of Jesus. Based on this passage, it’s not uncommon for Catholics to praise Mary as “the Queen of Heaven.” A number of Catholic Churches bear that title.
John certainly intends for us to understand the woman’s son as Jesus the Messiah. He is the “son, a male child, who “will rule all the nations with an iron scepter.”” This is a direct quote from Psalm 2, one of John’s favorite scriptures. This Psalm describes the wicked & rebellious nations conspiring & plotting against God and his anointed king. (v2) But they cannot thwart the divine purposes. God’s chosen king will be enthroned on Zion (Jerusalem). (v6) God declares to his Messiah: “You are my son, today I have become your father. Ask me, and I will make the nations your inheritance, the ends of the earth your possession. You will break them with a rod of iron; you will dash them to pieces like pottery.” (v7-9)
Christians are well-accustomed to thinking about Jesus as the son of God in the Nicaean sense that Jesus is the second person of the Trinity, sharing the divine nature of God the Father. Far fewer recognize that the son of God was first and foremost a title for the Messiah, based on passages like Psalm 2 and 2 Samuel 7. The Messiah would be the mighty king of Israel who would establish God’s eternal kingdom of righteousness, justice & peace over all the earth. Like someone shattering fragile pottery, the Messiah would destroy the evil forces ranged in opposition against him. His iron scepter or rod symbolize the strength & certainty of his coming reign.
So if the male child really is Jesus, then does that mean that the woman is Mary? Well, yes and no. We must always remind ourselves that the book of Revelation is apocalyptic literature, a genre wholly foreign to the modern mind. This kind of writing is full of rich symbolism. The clue to the woman’s identity is the crown on her head bearing twelve stars. In the book of Revelation, the number twelve is highly significant.
The nation of Israel was famously composed of twelve tribes. Each tribe traced its ancestry to one of the twelve sons of the patriarch Jacob (later renamed Israel). It was certainly no accident that Jesus chose precisely 12 apostles. By doing so, Jesus was making an obvious claim that his followers were to be regarded as the renewed Israel. It should not surprise us then that John the Seer frequently uses the number 12 (and multiples of 12 such as 144) to symbolize the people of God.
The woman, therefore, represents all God’s faithful people. This group stretches back in time to the very beginning of creation. It includes Abel, whom Jesus regarded as the first righteous martyr. (Matthew 23:35) She is Enoch, who the scriptures describe as a man who “walked faithfully with God.” (Genesis 5:22) Similarly, Noah was “a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked faithfully with God.” (Genesis 6:9) The Patriarchs and Matriarchs Abraham & Sarah, Isaac & Rebekah, Jacob, Rachel & Leah are a vital part of this group, since they received God’s promise that he would restore blessing to his creation through their “seed.” And woman stands for anyone among ancient Israel who remained faithful to God & looked forward to the coming of the Messiah.
But even then, the meaning of the woman is not exhausted. For the covenant people of Israel have now been redefined by the death & resurrection of the Messiah. The woman represents anyone, of any ethnicity, who has given their full allegiance to King Jesus. This especially pertained to the 1st century Christian churches to whom John was writing. At the time, they were only a tiny minority living among the great cities of the Roman province of Asia (Modern Western Turkey). But the woman also represents every genuine Christian, from the 1st century to the 21st and beyond. She stands for the estimated 2.5 billion Christians around the world today – although how many are truly faithful is known only to God.
So, the woman certainly includes Mary the mother of Jesus. But her full meaning far exceeds one individual. Mary doesn’t hold some unique position as the “Queen of Heaven.” But she does share the same royal status as all of Jesus’ people.
The woman wears a crown because God intends to share his reign over the redeemed creation with his people. This vital theme can be traced throughout the book of Revelation. Even as John greets his readers, he praises Jesus as the one who “loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood, and has made us to be a kingdom and priests to serve his God and Father…” (Revelation 1:5-6)
Jesus promises his faithful & obedient people in Thyatira that he will give them “authority over the nations – that person “will rule them with an iron scepter and will dash them to pieces like pottery” – just as I have received authority from my Father.” (Revelation 2:26-27) Here we find another reference to Psalm 2, with the added element that the Messiah will share his royal authority with his loyal people.
Jesus pledges that the church in Laodicea, if they are victorious, will be given “the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I was victorious and sat down with my Father on his throne.” (Revelation 3:21)
John envisions the heavenly court as they praise the Lamb who purchased people for God, and “made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God, and they will reign on the earth.” (Revelation 5:10)
All this culminates in John’s breathtaking vision of the New Jerusalem: “The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will serve him…And they will reign for ever and ever.” (Revelation 22:3,5)
But the woman is not the only sign in heaven in Revelation 12. There’s also “an enormous red dragon.” (v3) John makes no attempt to disguise the identity of the dragon. He’s the “ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray.” (v9) We’re told that the dragon “stood in front of the woman who was about to give birth, so that it might devour her child the moment he was born.” (v4)
This description should conjure up memories of the harrowing events recorded in Matthew’s gospel. Sometime after the birth of Jesus, Magi from the east arrived in Jerusalem inquiring about the birth of “king of the Jews.” This news greatly troubled King Herod the Great, who already claimed that title and did not look kindly upon potential rivals. Having consulted the chief priests and teachers of the law, Herod learned that the Messiah was to be born in Bethlehem. Herod ordered the Magi to carefully search for the child and report back to him, disingenuously claiming that he too sought to worship the newborn king. When Herod discovered that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he flew into a towering rage. “He gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under…”
This bloody affair has come to be known as “the massacre of the innocents.” Some skeptics claim that Matthew fabricated the story for dramatic purposes. They argue that Matthew patterned the nativity of Jesus after that of the great prophet Moses, who narrowly escaped death at the behest of Pharaoh, the Egyptian king. Skeptics note that the Jewish historian Josephus makes no mention of the massacre, despite offering a rather detailed account of Herod’s reign.
Despite these objections, there are excellent reasons to believe that Matthew’s account is solidly rooted in history. Bethlehem was a small hamlet with perhaps 1500 residents. There would have been only about a dozen boy babies under 2 years old. This relatively small tragedy could have easily gone unnoticed or unmentioned by Josephus, whose history focuses much more on the rich & powerful. Moreover, this atrocity is thoroughly consistent with what Josephus does tell us about Herod’s proclivity for cruelty and violence.
We’ve now introduced the main characters of Revelation 12, the woman, representing God’s faithful people and Satan, the great red dragon. How will the conflict between these antagonists play out?
