New American Standard Bible 2020
Revelation 12:3
3Then 1another sign appeared in heaven: and behold, a great red 2dragon having 3seven heads and 4ten horns, and on his heads were 5seven crowns.
Revelation 12:3 in other versions
- King James Version (KJV)And there appeared another wonder in heaven; and behold a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads.
- New International Version (NIV)Then another sign appeared in heaven: an enormous red dragon with seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns on its heads.
- English Standard Version (ESV)And another sign appeared in heaven: behold, a great red dragon, with seven heads and ten horns, and on his heads seven diadems.
- New King James Version (NKJV)And another sign appeared in heaven: behold, a great, fiery red dragon having seven heads and ten horns, and seven diadems on his heads.
Context of Revelation 12:3
1A great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars; 2and she was pregnant and she cried out, being in labor and in pain to give birth. Then another sign appeared in heaven: and behold, a great red dragon having seven heads and ten horns, and on his heads were seven crowns. 4And his tail swept away a third of the stars of heaven and hurled them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth, so that when she gave birth he might devour her Child. 5And she gave birth to a Son, a male, who is going to rule all the nations with a rod of iron; and her Child was caught up to God and to His throne.
Read all of Revelation 12Revelation 12:3 word by word
Καὶ ὤφθη ἄλλο σημεῖον ἐν τῷ οὐρανῷ, καὶ ἰδοὺ δράκων μέγας πυρρὸς ἔχων κεφαλὰς ἑπτὰ καὶ κέρατα δέκα, καὶ ἐπὶ τὰς κεφαλὰς αὐτοῦ ἑπτὰ διαδήματα,Read the interlinear
- Thenκαίkai · andG2532
- anotherἄλλοςallos · anotherG243
- signσημεῖονsēmeion · signG4592
- appearedὁράωhoraō · to see: seeG3708
- in heavenοὐρανόςouranos · heavenG3772
- and beholdἰδούidou · look!G2400
- a greatμέγαςmegas · greatG3173
- dragonδράκωνdrakōn · dragonG1404
- havingἔχωechō · to have/beG2192
- sevenἑπτάhepta · sevenG2033
- headsκεφαλήkephalē · headG2776
- tenδέκαdeka · tenG1176
- hornsκέραςkeras · hornG2768
- crownsδιάδημαdiadēma · diademG1238
Cross-references for Revelation 12:3
- Revelation 12:1A great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars;
- Revelation 12:4And his tail swept away a third of the stars of heaven and hurled them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth, so that when she gave birth he might devour her Child.
- Revelation 13:2And the beast that I saw was like a leopard, and his feet were like those of a bear, and his mouth like the mouth of a lion. And the dragon gave him his power and his throne, and great authority.
- Revelation 16:13And I saw coming out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet, three unclean spirits like frogs;
- Revelation 17:3And he carried me away in the Spirit into a wilderness; and I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast, full of blasphemous names, having seven heads and ten horns.
- Revelation 20:2And he took hold of the dragon, the serpent of old, who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years;
- Isaiah 27:1On that day the Lord will punish Leviathan the fleeing serpent, With His fierce and great and mighty sword, Even Leviathan the twisted serpent; And He will kill the dragon who lives in the sea.
- Isaiah 51:9Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the Lord; Awake as in the days of old, the generations of long ago. Was it not You who cut Rahab in pieces, Who pierced the dragon?
- Revelation 13:1And the dragon stood on the sand of the seashore. Then I saw a beast coming up out of the sea, having ten horns and seven heads, and on his horns were ten crowns, and on his heads were blasphemous names.
- Revelation 17:9Here is the mind which has wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains upon which the woman sits,
- Isaiah 9:15The head is the elder and esteemed man, And the prophet who teaches falsehood is the tail.
- Daniel 2:42And just as the toes of the feet were partly of iron and partly of pottery, so some of the kingdom will be strong, and part of it will be fragile.
- Daniel 7:7After this I kept looking in the night visions, and behold, a fourth beast, dreadful and terrible, and extremely strong; and it had large iron teeth. It devoured and crushed, and trampled down the remainder with its feet; and it was different from all the beasts that were before it, and it had ten horns.
Commentaries on Revelation 12:3
- Adam Clarke Bible Commentary · v. 3There appeared another wonder - a great red dragon - The dragon here is a symbol, not of the Roman empire in general, but of the Heathen Roman empire. This great pagan power must have, therefore, been thus represented from the religion which it supported. But what is a dragon? An entirely fabulous beast of antiquity, consequently, in this respect, a most proper emblem of the heathen worship, which consisted in paying adoration to numerous imaginary…Read the comment
- Barnes’ Notes on the Bible · v. 3And there appeared another wonder in heaven - Represented as in heaven. See the notes on Revelation 12:1. That is, he saw this as occurring at the time when the church was thus about to increase. And behold a great red dragon - The word rendered “dragon” - ́ drakōn- occurs, in the New Testament, only in the book of Revelation, where it is uniformly rendered as here - “dragon:” Revelation 12:3-4, Revelation 12:7, Revelation 12:9, Revelation 12:13…Read the comment
- Tyndale Open Study Notes · v. 3-4The large red dragon symbolizes Satan (see Revelation 12:9). seven heads, ten horns: These numbers symbolize a mix of divine and created powers (see Revelation 17:7–14). The historic battle between evil and God's people occurs on a cosmic scale (see Genesis 3:1–7, 14–15; Job 1:9–12). Herod’s wish to kill Jesus showed Satan’s attempt to destroy her baby after birth (see Matthew 2:7–8, 16).Read the comment
- Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary · v. 33. appeared--"was seen." wonder--Greek, "semeion," "sign." red--So A and Vulgate read. But B, C, and Coptic read, "of fire." In either case, the color of the dragon implies his fiery rage as a murderer from the beginning. His representative, the beast, corresponds, having seven heads and ten horns (the number of horns on the fourth beast of Da 7:7; Re 13:1). But there, ten crowns are on the ten horns (for before the end, the fourth empire is divided into…Read the comment
Topics related to Revelation 12:3
In the dictionaries
Notes
Commentaries on Revelation 12
- Adam Clarke Bible Commentary
- Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
- Matthew Henry Concise Commentary
- Tyndale Open Study Notes
- Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary
- John Wesley’s Notes
- Illustrated New Testament
- Burkitt’s Expository Notes
- Darby Translation Notes
- Family Bible Notes
- Geneva Bible Translation Notes
- Kingcomments
- Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary
- Matthew Henry’s Modern English Commentary
- The People’s New Testament
- Robertson’s Word Pictures
- Scofield Reference Notes, 1917 Edition
- Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary
- EGW Writings
New American Standard Bible 2020 — © 1960–2020 The Lockman Foundation. All rights reserved.
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