And a great sign was seen in the heaven a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars;
A woman appears in the sky, dressed in sunlight, standing on the moon, wearing a crown of twelve stars. The whole vision turns on who she is, and her clothing is the answer.
John calls this a sign, not a wonder. And the place where it appears is not where the woman stands.
"A great sign appeared in heaven," not "wonder," as the older King James translation has it. A "wonder" is a surprise. A "sign" has a meaning, and points to a definite subject or object (Rev. 15:1). The word great is used six times in the chapter, and the chapter is one of great subjects. The first of them in order, though not in greatness, is a woman. The Man-Child is the chief subject of the chapter. The woman is not actually in heaven, but on earth. Only the sign is there. Why is it in "heaven," when her greatness and her sorrow are on earth? So that God's thoughts and purposes about her might be known in His dwelling-place, "heaven." It is history read and known in heaven, in the light of God's presence.
Writers here rule out two popular answers and name a nation instead.
The woman is seen here wearing all the symbols of authority. She is neither the Church nor Mary, but Israel, seen from the standpoint of God's purposes. The proper calling of the nation is to govern and lead the peoples of the earth.
Another writer identifies her from the child she gives birth to.
Who the woman is should be quite plain. The child she gives birth to is the One who is to rule all nations with a rod of iron. That is certainly Christ. And the mother of Christ is not the virgin Mary, as what follows makes clear. Still less is she the Church, of which Christ is in no sense born. She is Israel, and of Israel the apostle says, "from their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ" (Rom. 9:5).
One writer takes each part of her clothing as a period of her history: her coming glory, her past, and her tribes made whole.
"Clothed with the sun" points to God's purpose for her in the Millennium, when she is clothed with the glory of "The Sun of Righteousness," the blessed Christ of God (Mal. 4:2). The moon under her feet stands for Israel as she has been through all her past history. That history is the night, set against the day of the coming kingdom. Her proper character was to reflect the sun, as the moon does, however poorly she has done it. The crown of twelve stars on her head stands for the twelve tribes, all intact in the day to come.
Another writer reads the same three lights as authority at every level. He also sets this woman beside the other symbolic women in Revelation.
There are four representative women in Revelation, and each one stands for a body of people or a system… The lights of heaven — sun, moon and stars — are gathered here in all their glory. Together they present a complete system of government. All authority centres in the woman: supreme authority like the sun, derived and lower authority like the moon, lesser lights and rulers like the stars. She has royal dignity too, as the crown on her head shows. But why twelve stars? The reference is clearly to Joseph's dream (Gen. 37:9), which pictures the future glory of Israel, of the twelve tribes.
Commentators differ over the twelve stars. Most take them as the twelve tribes. One writer offers another possibility.
She wears a crown of stars, which speaks of full administrative power. The twelve may refer to the twelve apostles, who in the coming day will judge the twelve tribes of Israel.
The order of the visions matters.
The sign in heaven shows that the place of honour and the glory in government that will be hers come from God Himself. See the contrast in chapter 13. The two beasts that will claim world-wide rule, before God sets Israel in the place meant for her, come up out of the sand of the sea and out of the earth. Before they appear, God shows His purpose for Israel.
- Sign — a picture with meaning, not a marvel to stare at.
- Seen in heaven — the woman herself stands on earth. Heaven is where God makes His thoughts about her known.
- She is Israel — the Child she bears will rule the nations. She is not Mary, and not the Church.
- Clothed in glory — the sun is Christ's coming glory. The moon is her older, borrowed light, now under her feet. The twelve stars are her tribes, complete.
- Purpose before the powers — God shows His plan for Israel first. Only then do the beasts of the next chapter grab at world rule.
and being with child she cried, [being] in travail, and in pain to bring forth.
The chapter opens with a sign in heaven: a woman crowned with stars, and now that same woman crying out in labour. The picture raises two questions at once. Who is she? And why does a scene of glory turn straight into a scene of pain?
One writer marks the change of role and names both the woman and the child:
The woman has been before us as a queen; now we see her as a mother. Her glory and majesty belong to the first role, her suffering and pain to the second. Who is the woman? And who is the child? The woman is ISRAEL. The child is CHRIST. Most commentators apply the vision of the woman to the Church. Now both Israel and the Church stand closely related to Christ — Israel as the mother, the Church as the wife. Once you see that verse five applies to Christ, and in fact must refer to Him personally and to no one else, all argument is over.
Another writer settles it by asking where Christ came from:
This, I have no doubt, is the Jewish people, nothing else. Christ is not born of the church. Seen as reigning and glorious in the world, He was born of the Jews: "from their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ." The idea of Christ being born of the church makes no sense at all.
One reading takes the crying and pain as the nation's own history in the centuries before Christ came:
The woman in labour with child brings to mind the sufferings the nation went through before Christ was born. All had failed — people, priests, and kings. Israel had gone into captivity through every kind of humiliation, suffering and sorrow. A remnant had been restored, only to sink into dead formality. When at last the time had come for the birth of Christ, only a sorrowing few were left in the middle of a conquered and downtrodden nation, looking for redemption in Jerusalem. In the middle of all these humiliations the cry at last goes out, "To us a child is born."
Commentators differ here. Others find it hard to match this anguish with what happened when Christ was born, and answer from the prophets:
It may be hard to square the mother's anguish, applied to Israel, with what actually happened when Christ was born... The solution is contained in Isaiah 66: "Before she was in labour she gave birth; before her pain came upon her she delivered a son" (v. 7). The labour and pain refer to Israel's coming hour of trial, the Great Tribulation. But before that great event the Messiah, the Man-Child, is born. Micah confirms this: after speaking of the birth of the Messiah (Micah 5:2), he adds that God will give them up "until the time when she who is in labour has given birth" (Micah 5:3). The woman's labour is at least two thousand years after the birth of the Messiah, and refers to her sorrow in the coming Tribulation... Why then is the woman's labour put side by side with the birth of the Messiah?... It shows the deep interest the Messiah takes in His people... The nation is about to pass into its awful sorrow, and the point of going back to the birth of Christ is to connect Him with them in it.
A third approach reads the birth as a picture. The pain and the delivery show God's plan for Israel coming to term, not a date on the calendar:
This shows that the birth of the man child is not a literal reference to Christ's birth into the world. We are to take it in connection with the carrying out of God's purposes concerning Israel. Christ was born (Micah 5:2). Then comes His rejection. Then comes the calling of the church, which measures, as it were, His rejection on earth and His exaltation in heaven. But the prophecy here passes by everything to do with the church. It takes up Christ's birth as a figure, tying it to the unfolding of God's purposes, which is itself pictured as a birth.
On any reading, the pain in this verse is not the end of the story:
The day for God to carry out His purpose in joy and triumph has not yet come. Isaiah announces that day to Israel in his last chapter: before Zion is in labour she is to give birth, and before her pain comes she is to give birth to a son. There is weakness and suffering yet, but all is secured, and the end pledged on high.
- Mother — the woman is Israel, not the church. Christ came from Israel according to the flesh; the idea that the church gave Him birth makes no sense.
- Pain — the crown of verse 1 and the crying here belong to one woman. She is queen in her glory and mother in her suffering.
- Timing — commentators differ. Some read the labour as the nation's long humiliation before Christ's birth. Others place it in her coming hour of trial, since Isaiah 66:7 says she gave birth before the pain came.
- Purpose — taken as a figure, the birth pictures God's plan for Israel reaching its term. The prophecy passes the calling of the church by in silence.
- Pledge — the weakness and suffering are real and still going on, yet the end is already secured and pledged in heaven.