The Dragon Pursues the Woman

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“When the dragon saw that it had been thrown down to the earth, it pursued the woman who had given birth to the male child. But the woman was given the two wings of the great eagle, so that she could fly to her place in the desert, where, far from the serpent, she was taken care of for a year, two years, and a half-year.”Revelation 12:13–14

The war in heaven is over. The dragon has been thrown down, and it knows its time is short (Revelation 12:12). So it does what a defeated enemy does. It turns on the one it hates most: the woman who gave birth to the Child who beat it.

The NABRE links this verse to the first promise of the Bible, where God puts enmity between the serpent and the woman, and between their offspring (Genesis 3:15). What God foretold in the garden is happening here. The serpent and the woman are still at war. But listen to how the story goes. The dragon pursues, and God protects. The dragon strikes, and God is quicker. Three times in five verses, the enemy moves and fails.

The wings of the great eagle

The woman is not given a sword. She is given wings. The NABRE note says the great eagle is a symbol of the power and swiftness of divine help, and it points us back to the Old Testament. At Sinai the Lord reminded Israel, “I bore you up on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself” (Exodus 19:4). Moses sang of God caring for his people like an eagle over its young: “So he spread his wings, took them, bore them upon his pinions” (Deuteronomy 32:11). And Isaiah promised, “They that hope in the LORD will renew their strength, they will soar on eagles’ wings” (Isaiah 40:31).

St. Hippolytus, a priest of Rome in the early third century, saw the cross in those wings. The Church, he wrote, is “possessed of no other defense than the two wings of the great eagle, that is to say, the faith of Jesus Christ.” And he explained why: Christ, “in stretching forth His holy hands on the holy tree, unfolded two wings, the right and the left” (On Christ and Antichrist 61). I find that very beautiful. The arms of the crucified Lord are the wings that carry his Church to safety.

And the time? “A year, two years, and a half-year” is the time of Daniel (Daniel 7:25; 12:7), the same three and a half years as the 1,260 days of verse 6. Half of seven is a broken number. It means a time of trial that is real but limited, and through all of it the woman “was taken care of.” God sets the length, not the dragon. I have also asked whether these numbers might be meant literally; that reading is set out, as a test only and with no date, on The Timing.

The river and the earth

“The serpent, however, spewed a torrent of water out of his mouth after the woman to sweep her away with the current. But the earth helped the woman and opened its mouth and swallowed the flood that the dragon spewed out of its mouth.”Revelation 12:15–16

When the dragon cannot catch her, it tries to drown her. The NABRE note says the serpent is shown here as the sea monster, the ancient image of chaos that God alone can master (compare Isaiah 27:1; Psalm 74:13–14). Notice that the water comes out of its mouth. The dragon's weapon is its mouth: lies, accusations and a flood of words meant to sweep God's people away. We have already met it as “the accuser” (Revelation 12:10).

And then something wonderful happens. The earth helps the woman. Creation itself takes her side. The ground opens and swallows the flood, the way the sea opened for Israel and closed over Pharaoh. The world God made is not the dragon's ally. Even when the flood seems overwhelming, it is not the last word. It is swallowed.

The rest of her offspring

“Then the dragon became angry with the woman and went off to wage war against the rest of her offspring, those who keep God’s commandments and bear witness to Jesus.”Revelation 12:17

This is the verse that brings the whole chapter home to us. The woman has a Son, the male child caught up to God. But she also has other children. Who are they? Those who keep God's commandments and bear witness to Jesus. That is us.

At the cross Jesus said to his mother, “Woman, behold, your son,” and to the disciple, “Behold, your mother” (John 19:26–27). From that hour Mary has been the mother of every disciple. The Catechism puts it simply: “Jesus is Mary’s only son, but her spiritual motherhood extends to all men whom indeed he came to save” (CCC 501). Pope Francis, reflecting on that same scene at the cross, applies this very verse to her: the Mary who brought Jesus into the world also accompanies “the rest of her offspring” (Evangelii Gaudium 285, citing Revelation 12:17).

The Catechism reads the chapter the same way when it explains the last petition of the Our Father. Of Mary it says, “‘He pursued the woman’ but had no hold on her: the new Eve, ‘full of grace’ of the Holy Spirit, is preserved from sin and the corruption of death.” Then it quotes our verse, and concludes: “Therefore the Spirit and the Church pray: ‘Come, Lord Jesus’” (CCC 2853).

So we should be honest. The NABRE note on 12:17 says that although the Church is protected by God's special providence, the individual Christian is to expect persecution and suffering. The dragon could not touch the woman, and so it goes after her children. Being a child of Mary does not mean being spared every trial. It means never facing one without a mother.

Never alone in the desert

Look at what these verses promise. The Church is pursued, but she is carried. She is in the desert, but she is fed. The flood comes, but the earth swallows it. And when the dragon turns on her children, their Mother has not forgotten a single one of them.

What do we do in the meantime? The verse tells us: we keep God's commandments, and we bear witness to Jesus. Go to Mass. Go to confession. Pray the Rosary. Tell the truth when lies flood in. Love your neighbor, even the one who hates you. That is what the children of the woman look like.

The chapter ends with the dragon standing on the sand of the sea (Revelation 12:18), waiting. In the next verse a beast rises out of the water (Revelation 13:1). The dragon will try again, by another means. That is the trial my Stand Firm pages are written for. But we go into Revelation 13 knowing how Revelation 12 ends: the dragon pursues, and God protects. Under the care of our Mother, we are never left alone in the desert.

Sources

• Revelation 12 (NABRE), with notes (notes on 12:1–6, 12:14, 12:15 and 12:17, and cross-reference to Genesis 3:15)
• NABRE: Exodus 19; Deuteronomy 32; Isaiah 40; John 19; Daniel 7:25; 12:7
• Catechism of the Catholic Church 501
• Catechism of the Catholic Church 2853
• Pope Francis, Evangelii Gaudium (2013), 285
• St. Hippolytus, On Christ and Antichrist 61

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