What Does Revelation 12:1 Mean?
And a great sign was perceived in heaven; a woman wrapped in the sun, with the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
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:THE KEY
Heaven is not scenery around the woman; it becomes her clothing, her footing, and her crown.
THE MEANING
You meet a sign in which the heavens take bodily form: a woman wears the sun, stands with the moon beneath her feet, and bears twelve stars as a crown. The image makes the sky intimate and embodied, while leaving the woman’s identity open.
THE ROOT
σημεῖον
sēmeion
GROWS FROM
σημ-
sēm-
sign, mark, or indication
The word rendered “wonder” is sēmeion, a sign that points beyond itself. Its word family carries the sense of making something known through a sign, so this vision arrives as a message-bearing image.
ALSO GROWS
sēma: mark, sign, or token
σῆμα
This related noun makes the sign’s marked, recognizable character visible in the root family.
sēmainō: to signify, indicate, or make known
σημαίνω
This verb shows how a sign communicates; the woman and the celestial bodies form an image that can be read.
sēmeioō: to mark or take note of
σημειόω
This verb keeps the sense of a sign that distinguishes something for attention, matching the vision’s presentation as a great sign.
THE PATTERN
Celestial bodies function as a language of signs, gathering cosmic order into an image a person can behold.
And he dreamed yet another dream, and told it to his brothers, and said, Behold, I have dreamed another dream, and behold, the sun and the moon and the eleven stars bowed down to me.He wraps himself in light as with a garment, stretching out the heavens like a curtain.And there will be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars, and upon the earth a squeezing of nations, with no way through, the sea roaring and the waves heaving.THE THREAD
And there will be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars, and upon the earth a squeezing of nations, with no way through, the sea roaring and the waves heaving.Revelation calls its vision a sēmeion, a sign; Luke uses the same Greek word family for signs in the sun, moon, and stars. In both passages the sky is legible, and here its celestial sign takes the shape of a woman.
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