THE GREAT RED DRAGON (Chapters 12:3-6) Trustworthy authorities cite the fact that the original word here rendered dragon appears in the New Testament only in Revelation. In the Septuagint (the Greek Old Testament) the same word is rendered serpent, in Exodus 7:9; and leviathan in Job 41:1; and dragon in Jeremiah 51:34. In Isaiah 27:1 the prophet referred to leviathan as “ that crooked serpent,” which apparently connects with the serpent of Gen 3:1 in Eden. In the Septuagint text serpent in Isaiah 27:1, is rendered dragon, and in both Hebrew and Greek texts it is made the symbol of Babylon, the power hostile to the people of God. In Ezekiel 29:3 dragon in the Septuagint was made the emblem of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, the bitter enemy of God’ s people Israel. In this chapter of Revelation the names Satan, Devil, Serpent and Dragon were used interchangeably, and evidently personified the persecuting powers hostile to the church; that is, Nero and his successors, in whom the persecutions and the persecutors were personified. (1) The dragon with multiple heads and horns--12:3-4. 1. And there appeared another wonder in heaven. This wonder was referred to as another sign. The other wonder, of verse 1, was the sign of the glory of the church in the symbolic ornaments of splendor with which the woman was adorned before the imperial world. In this reference, of verse 3, the sign was in the same heaven mentioned by Christ in Luke 10:18 : “ I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven.” It meant his dominion of diabolical influence. The church is called the “ kingdom of heaven” because it is the reign of heaven in the hearts of men, and which designates its divine realm. Jesus said to Pilate, “ Now is my kingdom not from hence.” The word “ hence” means here--his kingdom is here but not from here; it is from heaven. The word “ heaven” referred to its heavenly origin and character. The word “ now” referred to its immediate establishment in the world. But the heaven of Satan, from which he fell (Luke 10:18), meant the realm of his diabolical influence, and referred to the political authorities, governments and powers of the whole Roman world. It was the sign of an appalling persecution of unprecedented fury, beginning with the siege and destruction of Jerusalem, which was soon to burst upon the church; and the sign of this chapter was comparable to the signs of the twenty-fourth chapter of Matthew, thirteenth chapter of Mark, and twenty-first chapter of Luke, all of which contain the Lord’ s description of the events of the same period. 2. A great red dragon--12:3. The dragon referred to Satan, the antagonist of the church, personified in the active persecutor--Nero and his successors--as representative of all that was opposed to Christ and the church. The flame-coloured description of the red dragon was the type of the destruction of war and the bloodshed of martyrdom. As in chapter six the colors of the horses corresponded with the mission of the riders. The horses were symbols of war and the red horse signified bloodshed. So it was here--the red dragon signified the murderous character of these minions of Satan--the Roman and heathen persecuting powers. 3. Having seven heads and ten horns--12:3. As in chapter 5, verse 6, the seven eyes of the Lamb represented the perfection of wisdom, so the seven heads of this verse indicated the perfection or completeness of the universal rule and government of Rome, the seven-hilled city of the Caesars, to which the number seven in this reference may have been an allusion. But it was an evident symbol of the complete power of the ruling Roman emperor. The ten horns represented the unified universal power of the Roman emperor through the ten tributaries of the Roman government--all of which were in complete subjugation to the Caesars of Rome’ s seven hills on the throne of which at this time sat Nero Caesar, the ruling emperor. The ten horns, therefore, denoted the ten kingdoms over which the emperor ruled. 4. And seven crowns upon his heads--12:3. The seven diadems upon his heads show the regal glory of this dragon. It should be noted that the diadems were not the crown of stars which was upon the woman’ s head, indicating the divine glory of the church; but here they were crowns of diabolical power and assumed glory. It is not an exaggeration that the great antagonist of Christ and the church in that era of greatest crisis should appear in symbols of pomp and power.