Revelation 12:7

ὁ Μιχαήλ. A reads ὅ τε Μιχαήλ.

τοῦ πολεμῆσαι. Tisch[409] omits τοῦ with אB21; Text. Rec[410] has ἑπολέμησαν with the Latins who, except Primas[411] ut pugnarent, do not attempt to reproduce the irregularity of the text.

[409] Tischendorf: eighth edition; where the text aud notes differ the latter are cited.
[410] Rec. Textus Receptus as printed by Scrivener.
[411] Primasius, edited by Haussleiter.

7. ἐγένετο πόλεμος ἐν τῷ οὐρανῷ. This must refer to an event subsequent to the Incarnation—not therefore to the “Fall of the Angels” described in Paradise Lost. Milton may have been justified in using this description as illustrating or suggesting what he supposed to have happened then: but we must not identify the two.

ὁ Μιχαήλ. Daniel 10:13; Daniel 10:21; Daniel 12:1. The two latter passages seem to tell us that he is the special patron or guardian angel of the people of Israel: and it may be in that character that he is introduced here.

οἱ ἄγγελοι αὐτοῦ. He is called “the archangel” in Jude 1:9 : the angels are “his,” as well as “angels of the Lord,” just as either a general or a king can talk of “his soldiers.”

τοῦ πολεμῆσαι. Ewald tried to explain this as a Hebraism. The sense is “There was war in Heaven, so that Michael and his angels made war with the Dragon.” R. V[439] “going forth to war.” Did the text before the transposition suggested above ever run καὶ προῆλθεν δράκων … ὅ τε Μιχαὴλ καὶ οἱ ἄγγελοι αὐτοῦ τοῦ πολεμῆσαι μετὰ τοῦ δράκοντος?

[439] Revised Version.