Rev 12:1-2 the virgin Mary?

[Sevivon1913]

Rev 12:1 And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars:
Rev 12:2 And she being with child cried, travailing in birth, and pained to be delivered.

Who is this woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet? Is this an allusion to Gen 3:25? What are the twelve stars? Mary has twelve stars around her head in the images I've seen, but this is presumably because of this prophecy.

Rev 12:5 And she brought forth a man child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron: and her child was caught up unto God, and to his throne.
Rev 12:6 And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she hath a place prepared of God, that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred and threescore days.

It goes on to talk about the arch angel Michael fighting a dragon. Is this some kind of poetic allusion to the flight to Egypt, and something to do with the nativity as a conquest against Satan? A description of what was happening in Heaven at the time J-sus was being born?

Thanks :tongue:

[TyRockwell]

Rev 12:1 And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars: [/color]
Rev 12:2 And she being with child cried, travailing in birth, and pained to be delivered.

Who is this woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet? Is this an allusion to Gen 3:25? What are the twelve stars? Mary has twelve stars around her head in the images I've seen, but this is presumably because of this prophecy.

The whole story of this chapter begins with the time of Jesus' birth and forward.

The woman was old covenant Israel, through whom the Word of God, Jesus, came. The twelve stars refer back to Joseph's dream, and that his father and mother were the sun and the moon, and that he and the eleven brothers were the twelve stars. That time represents the family, the beginning of the twelve tribes of Israel, Jacob's sons. Mary is not the woman. That is catholic wild guessing.

Rev 12:5 And she brought forth a man child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron: and her child was caught up unto God, and to his throne.
Rev 12:6 And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she hath a place prepared of God, that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred and threescore days.

It goes on to talk about the arch angel Michael fighting a dragon. Is this some kind of poetic allusion to the flight to Egypt, and something to do with the nativity as a conquest against Satan? A description of what was happening in Heaven at the time J-sus was being born?

Thanks :tongue:

Israel was God's means of getting Jesus and His word into the earth. It was Jesus who was caught up to God, and to his throne. This, depicted immediately after his birth, is for emphasis on believers' roles in progressing God's agenda on earth. When Jesus returns bodily, he will rule all nations with a rod of iron.

After Jesus' ascension, with all authority in heaven and on earth, having purchased redemption with his blood, Satan, identified as the dragon, in Rev. 12:9, no longer had a standing to accuse believers in Christ. Michael who fights for the church now, as contrasted from Dan.12:1, where he had protected old covenant Israel, threw Satan down to the ground. Then, Israel's flight into the desert, depicts the dispersion of unbelieving Jews. Notice that the earth helped the woman, not Michael. She fled to the desert, a place symolic of a lack of spiritual provision. Jesus' followers obeyed his advise and fled to the mountains instead.

Now Satan's main strategy is to persecute and fight believers in Jesus, "the rest of her (Israel's) offspring, who keep the commandments of God and have the testamony of Jesus."