1. The First Personage: A Woman Clothed With The Sun (12:1-2)
12:1-2. The first great personage to appear was
a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown of 12 stars on her head. She was called
a great and wondrous sign (
sēmeion mega, lit., "a great sign"; cf.
13:13). Undoubtedly the sign provoked wonder, as indicated in the kjv and niv, but the translation "a great sign" (nasb) is more accurate, since John did not use the Greek word for wonder (
teras). This was the first of a series of events called "signs" or "miracles" (
12:3;
13:13-14;
15:1;
16:14;
19:20). As signs they were symbols of something that God was about to reveal and usually contained an element of prophetic warning. Though this sign was seen in heaven, the events which followed obviously occurred on earth.
The woman symbolized Israel, as indicated by
Genesis 37:9-11, where the sun and the moon referred to Jacob and Rachel, Joseph's parents. The stars in the woman's crown clearly related to the 12 sons of Jacob and identified the woman as Israel fulfilling the Abrahamic Covenant. J.B. Smith cites
Isaiah 60:1-3,
20 as proof that the sun refers to Israel's future glory (
A Revelation of Jesus Christ, p. 182).
Many commentaries are so intent on attempting to identify Israel as the church that they ignore these plain indications that the woman is Israel. Robert H. Mounce, for instance, makes the woman "the messianic community, the ideal Israel... the church (
Rev. 12:17). The people of God are one throughout all redemptive history" (
The Book of Revelation, p. 236). While there is a unity of the people of God, this does not wipe out dispensational and racial distinctions.
The symbolism, while not referring specifically to Mary, the mother of Christ, points to Israel as the source of Jesus Christ. Thus it does not refer to the church. Wicked women are sometimes used to represent false religions, as in the case of Jezebel (
2:20), the apostate church of the end time as a prostitute (
17:1-7,
15,
18), and Israel as the unfaithful wife of Yahweh (
Hosea 2:2-13). The church by contrast is pictured as the virgin bride (
2 Cor. 11:2), the Lamb's wife (
Rev. 19:7).
The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures by Dallas Seminary Faculty.