Revelation 12:3

Another sign (allo shmeion). "A second tableau following close upon the first and inseparable from it" (Swete). And behold (kai idou). As often ( Galatians 4:1 ; Galatians 6:2 Galatians 6:5 Galatians 6:8 , etc.). A great red dragon (drakwn mega purro). Homer uses this old word (probably from derkomai, to see clearly) for a great monster with three heads coiled like a serpent that ate poisonous herbs. The word occurs also in Hesiod, Pindar, Eschylus. The Babylonians feared a seven-headed hydra and Typhon was the Egyptian dragon who persecuted Osiris. One wonders if these and the Chinese dragons are not race memories of conflicts with the diplodocus and like monsters before their disappearance. Charles notes in the O.T. this monster as the chief enemy of God under such title as Rahab ( Isaiah 51:9 ; Job 26:12 ), Behemoth ( Job 40:15-24 ), Leviathan ( Isaiah 27:1 ), the Serpent ( Amos 9:2 ). In Psalms 74:13 we read of "the heads of the dragons." On purro (red) see Psalms 6:4 . Here ( Psalms 12:9 ) and in Psalms 20:2 the great dragon is identified with Satan. See Daniel 7:1 ff. for many of the items here, like the ten horns ( Daniel 7:7 ) and hurling the stars ( Daniel 8:10 ). The word occurs in the Apocalypse alone in the N.T. Seven diadems (epta diadhmata). Old word from diadew (to bind around), the blue band marked with white with which Persian kings used to bind on the tiara, so a royal crown in contrast with stepano (chaplet or wreath like the Latin corona as in Daniel 2:10 ), in N.T. only here, Daniel 13:1 ; Daniel 19:12 . If Christ as Conqueror has "many diadems," it is not strange that Satan should wear seven (ten in Daniel 13:1 ).