This chapter may be seen as a link between the more historical part of Revelation (with 7 churches, 7 seals, and 7 trumpet calls) and the rest (chapters 12 to 22) which tends to focus on the end time. It reveals Satan as the ultimate enemy of Christ. See the literary structure below:
| Who is the woman? Text of ch. | Resurrection; Jude | The symbolic meaning of "day" | |||
| A crown of 12 stars | Eviction | Fallen church? Paul agrees | |||
| Moon under her feet | Who is the woman now? | Escape from the flood | |||
| Expectant mother | Talking animals | Help from the earth | |||
| Is the baby really Jesus? | Background check on Satan | The mad dragon, setting | |||
| Where are woman and dragon? | Fallen again? | The remnant survive | |||
| A look at the dragon | Falling down, down, down | What are the remnant doing? | |||
| Symbols to the real picture | Who calls us brothers? | The testimony of Jesus? | |||
| Stars swept down | Overcoming by their testimony | God tells His secrets | |||
| Ready to devour the child ! | They would rather die | True prophets in our time? | |||
| Rule with a rod of iron | Rejoicing; Devil comes down | Prophet, true or false? | |||
| The woman flees? Ch. structure | Who is being persecuted? | Remnant and patient saints | |||
| War in heaven | Escape from food poisoning | Chapters 12, 13, and 14, Table | |||
| Who is MIchael ? | The period of the "times" | Journey to Canaan, Table |
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Chapter 12, literary structure
A Woman with child – dragon casts
one third of stars to the earth
B Dragon waits
to devour the man child the woman brings forth
C Woman flees to the wilderness for three and a half prophetic years
D War in heaven
E Dragon cast out – deceives the world
F Now is come salvation, the kingdom of God, and the power of Christ
E Woe to the earth – the devil is come down
D (War on earth) dragon persecutes the woman that brings forth the
man
C Woman flies to the wilderness for three and a half seasons
B Serpent casts
water out of his mouth to destroy the woman
A Dragon wroth with the woman –
war on the remnant