And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars:
This episode (Revelation 12:1-17; Revelation 13:1-18; Revelation 14:1-20; Revelation 15:1-8) details the persecution of Israel and the elect by the beast, summarily noticed in Revelation 11:7-10, and the triumph of the faithful and torment of the unfaithful. So also Revelation 16:1-21; Revelation 17:1-18; Revelation 18:1-24; Revelation 19:1-21; Revelation 20:1-15 detail the judgment on the beast, etc., summarily noticed in Revelation 11:13; Revelation 11:18. The beast (Revelation 12:3, etc.) is shown to be the instrument in the hand of a greater power of darkness, Satan. The period of Revelation 11:1-19 is that also in which the events of Revelation 12:1-17; Revelation 13:1-18 take place, namely, 1,260 days (Revelation 12:6; Revelation 12:14; Revelation 13:5: cf. Revelation 11:2-3).
Wonder, х semeion (G4592)] - 'sign:' significant of momentous truths. In heaven - not merely the sky, but the heaven just mentioned, Revelation 11:19: cf. Revelation 12:7-9.
Woman clothed with the sun ... moon under her feet - Israel first, then the Gentile Church: clothed with Christ, 'the Sun of righteousness.' "Fair as the moon, clear as the sun" (Song of Solomon 6:10). Clothed with the Sun, the Church is bearer of divine light in the world. So the seven churches (i:e., the Church universal, the woman) are represented as light-bearing candlesticks, (Revelation 1:1-20.) The moon, though above the sea and earth, is connected with them, and is earthly: sea, earth, and moon represent the worldly element, in opposition to the kingdom of God-heaven, the sun. The moon cannot change darkness into day: she represents the world-religion in relation to the supernatural world. The Church has the moon under her feet; but the stars, heavenly lights, on her head. Satan directs his efforts against the stars, the angels of the churches, hereafter to shine forever (Revelation 1:20). Or, the twelve stars are Israel's twelve tribes (Auberlen).
The allusions to Israel accord with this (cf. Revelation 11:19). The ark, lost at the Babylonian captivity, and never since found, is seen in the 'temple of God opened in heaven,' signifying that God enters again into covenant with His ancient people. The woman cannot mean, literally, the virgin mother of Jesus; for she did not flee into the wilderness and stay there for 1,260 days, while the dragon persecuted the remnant of her seed (Revelation 12:13-17) (DeBurgh). The sun, moon, and twelve stars, symbolize Jacob, Leah, or Rachel, and the twelve patriarchs, i:e., THE JEWISH CHURCH: secondarily, THE CHURCH UNIVERSAL, of which Christ is ideally the Son, as 'seed of the woman;' having under her feet, in subordination, the ever-changing moon, with its borrowed light, the Jewish dispensation, now in a position of inferiority and become "worldly" (Hebrews 9:1), though supporting the woman (the moon symbolizes also the changeful things of this world): having on her head the crown of twelve stars, the twelve apostles, related closely to Israel's twelve tribes. The Church, in passing over into the Gentile world, is:
(1) persecuted;
(2) then seduced, as paganism reacts on her.
This is the key to the symbolic woman, beast, harlot, and false prophet. Woman and beast form the same contrast as the Son of man and the beasts in Daniel. As the Son of man comes from heaven, so the woman is seen in heaven (Revelation 12:1). The two beasts arise respectively out of the sea (cf. Daniel 7:3) and the earth (Revelation 13:1; Revelation 13:11): their origin is not of heaven, but of earth earthy. Daniel beholds the heavenly Bridegroom coming visibly to reign. John sees the woman, the Bride, whose calling is heavenly, in the world, before the Lord's coming again. The characteristic of woman, in contradistinction to man, is being subject; surrendering herself, as receptive. This is man's relation to God, to be subject to, and receive from, God. Autonomy reverses man's relation to God. Woman-like receptivity constitutes faith. By it the individual becomes a child of God: the children collectively (humanity, so far as it yields itself to God) are "the woman." Christ, the Son of the woman, is (Revelation 12:5) emphatically "the MAN-child" х huios (G5207) arreen (G730), 'male-child']. Though born of a woman, and so 'Son of man,' under the law, for man's sake, He is also, as male-child, the Son of God, so HUSBAND of the Church. All who have their life in themselves severed from Him, the source of life, standing in their own strength, sink to the level of senseless beasts. The woman designates the kingdom of God; the beast, the kingdom of the world. The woman, of whom Jesus was born, represents the Old Testament congregation; the woman's travail-pains (Revelation 12:2), Old Testament believers' longings for the promised Redeemer. Compare Isaiah 9:6. As new Jerusalem ('the woman,' or "wife," Revelation 21:2; Revelation 21:9-12), with its twelve gates, is the transfigured Church, so the woman with the twelve stars is the Church militant.