And there appeared another wonder in heaven
Or "sign"; which represents the woman, or the church's adversary,
Satan; not that he was in heaven, in the third heaven, the place
of glory and happiness, for out of that he had been cast long
ago; but in his great power and authority here on, earth,
particularly in the Roman empire, where the church was labouring
to bring forth her man child:
and behold a great red dragon;
the devil, as it is explained in ( Revelation
12:9 ) ; though not he in person, but the Heathen Roman
empire, or the Heathen Roman emperors, acted, influenced,
directed, and presided over by him; so Pharaoh king of Egypt, and
other cruel and persecuting monarchs and states, are called
dragons in Scripture, ( Isaiah 27:1 ) (
51:9 ) (
Ezekiel
29:3 ) ; all which places the Targum interprets of
(aklm) , "a king", and
particularly of Pharaoh king of Egypt; who is like to a great and
mighty dragon: and the Roman Pagan empire, as under the influence
of Satan, the god of this world, is fitly compared to a "dragon",
for its policy and cunning in circumventing and ensnaring the
professors of Christianity; and for its cruelty and inhumanity in
persecuting of them; and for its poison of idolatry, will
worship, and superstition: and it may be called a "great" one,
for its strength and power, which lay in its immense treasure and
riches, in numbers of men, in powerful armies, in strong cities,
castles and for its large extent and jurisdiction; and a "red"
one, because of the blood of the saints shed in it, by which it
became of this colour; suitable to the character and bloody
practices of the old serpent the devil, by whom it was
influenced, who was a murderer from the beginning; and agreeably
to one of the names by which the Jews F24
frequently call the Roman empire Edom, the name Esau had from the
red pottage he sold his birthright for, and who himself was born
red, ( Genesis
25:29 Genesis
25:30 ) ; it seems there were red dragons; Homer F25 says
of the dragon, that it is red upon its back:
having seven heads, and ten horns, and seven crowns upon
his heads;
the "seven heads" of the Roman empire either design the seven
mountains, or hills, on which Rome, the metropolis of the empire,
was built, as the seven heads of the beast on which the woman
drunk with the blood of the saints sat, are explained in (
Revelation 17:9 ) ; or
rather the seven forms of government which successively should
obtain in the empire, as kings, consuls, decemvirs, dictators,
tribunes, emperors, and popes; hence these heads are said to have
"seven crowns" upon them, as expressive of the imperial power and
dignity which were in them, and exercised by them: Mr. Daubuz
thinks seven capital cities in the Roman empire are meant, as
Rome, Carthage, Aege, Antiochia, Augustodunum, Alexandria, and
Constantinople; and nothing is more common than to call chief
cities the heads of the countries they belong unto, as Damascus
the head of Syria, and Samaria the head of Ephraim, ( Isaiah 7:8 Isaiah 7:9 ) . Pliny
F26 calls Babylon the head of Chaldea;
and Cornelius Nepos says F1 of Thebes, that it was the head of
all Greece; and Syracuse is by Florus F2 called
the head of Sicily, as Rome is in Livy F3, and
other writers, the head of the world: and by the "ten horns" are
meant either the ten kingdoms which should hereafter arise out of
the Roman empire, and whose kings should give their kingdoms to
the beast; or the ten Roman emperors, the persecutors of the
Christians; or rather the ten provinces, or jurisdictions, which
the empire was divided into while Pagan: Brightman out of Strabo
has shown, that in the times of Augustus Caesar the Roman empire
was distributed into two parts, the one was more immediately
under the care of the emperor, and the other was governed by
deputies; and each were divided into ten provinces; that which
the emperor held consisted of Africa, France, Britain, Germany,
Dacia with Mysia and Thracia, Cappadocia, Armenia, Syria,
Palestine with Judea and Egypt, in all ten; and that part which
was governed by deputies were the outermost Spain, and the isles
by it, the innermost Spain Sardinia with Corsica, Sicily,
Illyricum with Epirus, Macedonia, Achaia, Crete with Cyreniaca,
Cyprus, Bithynia with Propontis; so that the Roman Pagan empire,
as under the dominion of Satan, is manifestly designed by the
dragon thus described. The Jews F4 speak of ten horns which the
Israelites had, which when they sinned were taken from them, as
it is written, ( Lamentations
2:3 ) , and were given to the nations of the world, according
to ( Daniel
7:20 ) ; "and of the ten horns that were in his head",
&c.