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Revelation

About this book
Chapter 12

1 Then a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, and with the moon under her feet, and on her head was a crown of twelve stars.⁠ 2 She was pregnant and was screaming in labor pains, struggling to give birth. 3 Then another sign appeared in heaven: a huge red dragon that had seven heads and ten horns, and on its heads were seven diadem crowns.⁠ 4 Now the dragon’s tail swept away a third of the stars in heaven and hurled them to the earth.⁠ Then the dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth, so that he might devour her child as soon as it was born. 5 So the woman gave birth to a son, a male child, who is going to rule over all the nations with an iron rod.⁠ Her child was suddenly caught up to God and to his throne, 6 and she fled into the wilderness where a place had been prepared for her by God, so she could be taken care of for 1,260 days.⁠ 7 Then war broke out in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back.⁠ 8 But the dragon was not strong enough to prevail, so there was no longer any place left in heaven for him and his angels. 9 So that huge dragon—the ancient serpent, the one called the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world—was thrown down to the earth, and his angels along with him. 10 Then I heard a loud voice in heaven saying, “The salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God, and the ruling authority of his Christ, have now come, because the accuser of our brothers and sisters, the one who accuses them day and night before our God, has been thrown down. 11 But they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives so much that they were afraid to die.⁠ 12 Therefore you heavens rejoice, and all who reside in them! But woe to the earth and the sea because the devil has come down to you! He is filled with terrible anger, for he knows that he only has a little time!” 13 Now when the dragon realized that he had been thrown down to the earth, he pursued the woman who had given birth to the male child. 14 But the woman was given the two wings of a giant eagle so that she could fly out into the wilderness, to the place God prepared for her, where she is taken care of—away from the presence of the serpent—for a time, times, and half a time.⁠ 15 Then the serpent spouted water like a river out of his mouth after the woman in an attempt to sweep her away by a flood, 16 but the earth came to her rescue; the ground opened up and swallowed the river that the dragon had spewed from his mouth. 17 So the dragon became enraged at the woman and went away to make war on the rest of her children, those who keep God’s commandments and hold to the testimony about Jesus. (12:18) And the dragon stood on the sand of the seashore.

Texts in conversation

Compare Daniel 8:10 and Revelation 12:4

Hebrew Bible · New Testament

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Summary

Daniel describes an apocalyptic vision in which a rising political power reaches to heaven and pulls stars to the ground, language echoed in Revelation which portrays a dragon sweeping a third of the stars down with its tail.

Passages

Daniel 8:10

Hebrew Bible
8 The male goat acted even more arrogantly. But no sooner had the large horn become strong than it was broken, and there arose four conspicuous horns in its place, extending toward the four winds of the sky. 9 From one of them came a small horn, but it grew to be very great toward the south and the east and toward the beautiful land. 10 It grew so great it reached the army of heaven, and it brought about the fall of some of the army and some of the stars to the ground, where it trampled them. 11 It also acted arrogantly against the Prince of the army, from whom the daily sacrifice was removed and whose sanctuary was thrown down. 12 The army was given over, along with the daily sacrifice, in the course of his sinful rebellion. It hurled truth to the ground and enjoyed success.
200–101 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Daniel

Revelation 12:4

New Testament
2 She was pregnant and was screaming in labor pains, struggling to give birth. 3 Then another sign appeared in heaven: a huge red dragon that had seven heads and ten horns, and on its heads were seven diadem crowns. 4 Now the dragon’s tail swept away a third of the stars in heaven and hurled them to the earth. Then the dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth, so that he might devour her child as soon as it was born. 5 So the woman gave birth to a son, a male child, who is going to rule over all the nations with an iron rod. Her child was suddenly caught up to God and to his throne, 6 and she fled into the wilderness where a place had been prepared for her by God, so she could be taken care of for 1,260 days.
92–96 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in Revelation

References

"... Daniel 8:10–13 has often been compared to Isaiah 14:12–15, though only a few readers appear to claim literary dependence, and these few do not offer detailed defense. That the text alludes to anything at all is suggested first by the relative suddenness with which an expansion toward the “beautiful land” (i.e., Jerusalem) becomes equated with an assault on the host of heaven (Daniel 8:9, 10). This suddenness, combined with the paraphrasis of “beautiful land,” produces a slight “opacity” relative to the larger context. This disjuncture is reinforced by the appearance in Daniel 8:9 of the “little horn,” a figure already associated with narrative climax in Daniel 7:8. Isaiah 14 itself probably alludes to a myth about the figure “Helel ben Shachar” and its fall from heaven. It is true that 1 Enoch 46:7, 2 Maccabees 9:10, and Revelation 12:4 also share the motif of the assault on heaven. Each of these, though, may itself be open to the influence either of Isaiah 14 or of Daniel 8. An example of this “lucifer pattern,” in which a divine being attempts unsuccessfully to assume the throne of the high god and then suffers humiliation, may also be found in the Ugaritic Baal cycle ..."
G. Brooke Lester, Daniel Evokes Isaiah: Allusive Characterization of Foreign Rule in the Hebrew–Aramaic Book of Daniel, LHBOTS 606 (London: T&T Clark, 2015), 80–82.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

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Daniel 8:10 and Revelation 12:4

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