Fathers

Revelation 12

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A great sign was seen in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars. She was with child. She cried out in pain, laboring to give birth. Another sign was seen in heaven. Behold, a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and on his heads seven crowns. His tail drew one third of the stars of the sky, and threw them to the earth. The dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth, so that when she gave birth he might devour her child. She gave birth to a son, a male child, who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron. Her child was caught up to God, and to his throne. The woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God, that there they may nourish her one thousand two hundred sixty days. There was war in the sky. Michael and his angels made war on the dragon. The dragon and his angels made war. They didn’t prevail. No place was found for them any more in heaven. The great dragon was thrown down, the old serpent, he who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world. He was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him. I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, “Now the salvation, the power, and the Kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Christ has come; for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, who accuses them before our God day and night. They overcame him because of the Lamb’s blood, and because of the word of their testimony. They didn’t love their life, even to death. Therefore rejoice, heavens, and you who dwell in them. Woe to the earth and to the sea, because the devil has gone down to you, having great wrath, knowing that he has but a short time.” When the dragon saw that he was thrown down to the earth, he persecuted the woman who gave birth to the male child. Two wings of the great eagle were given to the woman, that she might fly into the wilderness to her place, so that she might be nourished for a time, and times, and half a time, from the face of the serpent. The serpent spewed water out of his mouth after the woman like a river, that he might cause her to be carried away by the stream. The earth helped the woman, and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed up the river which the dragon spewed out of his mouth. The dragon grew angry with the woman, and went away to make war with the rest of her offspring, who keep God’s commandments and hold Jesus’ testimony.

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What the Fathers say

Revelation 12:13

Eastern Fathers

Oecumenius

The present passage is a repetition of what has been said before; for it does not mean that immediately after the Dragon saw that he had been cast down to the earth, he pursued the woman, but rather that when the Dragon saw himself existing in such evils, and that he had fallen from angelic dignity, he became exceedingly bitter against humanity, and pursued the woman who had borne the Savior of mankind, in order to destroy her. …

Commentary on Revelation ↗

Dionysius bar Salibi

He pursued the woman who had given birth to the male; and she was given two wings of that great eagle, to fly into the desert: to be nourished there a time and times and half a time, away from the serpent's face—The time etc. are those thousand two hundred and sixty days or half week, when the pseudo-Christ will seize and persecute the Church, who will flee from place to place and hide herself in the mountains and in the desert. …

Commentary On The Apocalypse 12:13-14 ↗

Western Saints

Bede

And when the dragon saw that he was cast down to the earth, etc. The devil, attacking the Church with inextricable cunning, persecutes all the more intensely the more he is cast down.

Commentary on Revelation ↗

Hippolytus of Rome

"And the dragon," he says, "saw and persecuted the woman which brought forth the man-child. And to the woman were given two wings of the great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness, where she is nourished for a time, and times, and half a time, from the face of the serpent." That refers to the one thousand two hundred and threescore days (the half of the week) during which the tyrant is to reign and persecute the Church, which flees from city to city, and seeks conceal-meat in the wilderness among the mountains, possessed of …

Hippolytus Dogmatical and Historical Fragments ↗