Revelation 12:3

dragon The word in classical Greek means simply "serpent," though perhaps it was always specially applied to the larger or more formidable kinds. But in St John's time the conception seems to have been familiar of a half-mythical kind of serpent, to which the name was appropriated: it had not gone so far as the mediæval type of "dragon," with legs and wings, but the dragon was supposed to "stand" (see the next verse), hardly perhaps "on his rear," as Milton imagines the Serpent of Eden to have done, before the curse of Genesis 3:14, but erect from the middle upwards; see Verg. Æn.II. 206 8. Whether this dragon bore visibly on him the primæval curse or no, there is an undoubted reference to the story of the Fall in this picture of the woman, the man, and the serpent. In Psalms 74:13-14 (14, 15); Job 26:13; Isaiah 27:1; Isaiah 51:9, we seem to find references to a "war in heaven," either past or future, like that which follows here.

seven heads Probably the vision avails itself of the imagery furnished by popular mythology: very likely Syria and Palestine had tales of seven-headed serpents, like the hydra of Lerna, or the cobras of modern Indian stories.

and ten horns The only illustration of these is, that the beast of chaps. 13, 17 and of Daniel 7 has the like. But we must remember that the dragon is the archetype, not a copy, of the beast: and therefore the meaning here is probably more general: all unsanctified power is embodied in him (cf. St Luke 4:6), as all the power of holiness in the Lamb (chap. Revelation 5:6).