A Chiastic Reconfiguration Of Revelation 12

Kuruvilla Thomas
Bangalore
Published on 26 July 2025 *

Fig. 1

Introduction

This study treats Revelation 12 as a cryptochiasmus in order to arrive at a coherent reconfiguration of the text ( see definition of cryptochiasmus in [1] ). If you wish to skip the technicalities of a chiastic parse, you may read starting from Section 4 of the Discussion section, which has the reconfigured text.

With this reconfiguration, we show that this prophecy in Rev 12 is about 3 kinds of "women" and their "offspring" during 3 distinct Periods. Through signs in the heavens, this prophecy reveals several important dates: the date of the Creation of the World and that of Satan's fall; the day Christ is deemed worthy to rule over mankind (Rev. 5) and the date of the start of the Millennial Reign. As we see in our reconfiguration of Revelation 4-22 [6], this chapter at the heart of Revelation is an embedded cryptochiasmus that is key to interpreting the book.

Note:
We will use the term "Judahite" to refer to the Israelites - primarily those of the tribe of Judah and their descendants - that remained after the Assyrian exile of the Northern Tribes; we will try to avoid the term "Jew" to avoid the confusion it introduces.

Discussion

1. Presuppositions

We base our parse of this difficult prophecy on the assumption that it refers to 3 Periods:

1. The Sign of the Dragon Portends Satan's Fall, Eve's temptation (4034-4032BC). We get the 4034BC date from our parse of Daniel 12 [7].
2. From the Start of Christ's Ministry to the Escape of Judahite Christians during the First Jewish–Roman War (26AD-73AD).
3. The Sign of the Woman in Heaven Portends the Start of the Millennial Reign (2017AD-2030AD).

2. Parsing the chiasmus

We will use the NIV Bible for this parse.

Parsing this chiasmus involves dividing portions of the text into the three categories above. We will call the time of Satan's fall Period 1, the period of Christ's ministry and the First Jewish-Roman War Period 2 and the time of the Start of the Millennial Reign Period 3.

Parsing this chiasmus is complicated by the fact that the three Periods are regarding 3 different unnamed women and their 3 unnamed offspring. We take the position that the woman in Period 1 is Eve and her child is Mankind, the woman in Period 2 is the God-fearing Judahite community and her offspring is Christ, and the woman in Period 3 is the constellation Virgo and her child, the planet Jupiter, represents the Millennial Reign of Christ.

Categorizing Revelation 12

Vs 1-2 appear to belong to Period 3. We take this pregnant woman to be a sign in the heavens, in the form of an alignment of stars and planets, predicting the start of the Millennial Reign.

Vs 3-4a belong to Period 1. This "red dragon" sign in the heavens portends Satan's fall.

Vs 4b-6 belong to Period 2. The beginning of Christ's ministry and his ascension into heaven. The escape of the early Judahite Christians to the mountains.

Vs 7-9 belong to Period 1. Satan and his angels are defeated and cast down to earth.

Vs 10-12 belong to Period 3. A victorious announcement in heaven at the start of the Christ's reign over the earth. A prediction of tribulation at the start of the Millennial Reign.

Vs 13 belongs to Period 1. Satan's fall to the earth and Eve's temptation.

Vs 14-17 belongs to Period 2. The Judahite Christians are protected from the Roman Army during the First Jewish-Roman war.

Original text

We color-code the chiastic units of the original text (NIV) below for easy visual identification using: red for Period 1, blue for Period 2 and green for Period 3.

Revelation 12 1 A great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars on her head. 2 She was pregnant and cried out in pain as she was about to give birth.
3 Then another sign appeared in heaven: an enormous red dragon with seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns on its heads. 4a Its tail swept a third of the stars out of the sky and flung them to the earth.
4b The dragon stood in front of the woman who was about to give birth, so that it might devour her child the moment he was born. 5 She gave birth to a son, a male child, who “will rule all the nations with an iron scepter.” And her child was snatched up to God and to his throne. 6 The woman fled into the wilderness to a place prepared for her by God, where she might be taken care of for 1,260 days.
7 Then war broke out in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back. 8 But he was not strong enough, and they lost their place in heaven. 9 The great dragon was hurled down—that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him.
10 Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say:
“Now have come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Messiah. For the accuser of our brothers and sisters, who accuses them before our God day and night, has been hurled down. 11 They triumphed over him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death." [a] 12 Therefore rejoice, you heavens and you who dwell in them! But woe to the earth and the sea, because the devil has gone down to you! He is filled with fury, because he knows that his time is short. [b]
13 When the dragon saw that he had been hurled to the earth, he pursued the woman who had given birth to the male child.
14 The woman was given the two wings of a great eagle, so that she might fly to the place prepared for her in the wilderness, where she would be taken care of for a time, times and half a time, out of the serpent’s reach. 15 Then from his mouth the serpent spewed water like a river, to overtake the woman and sweep her away with the torrent. 16 But the earth helped the woman by opening its mouth and swallowing the river that the dragon had spewed out of his mouth. 17 Then the dragon was enraged at the woman and went off to wage war against the rest of her offspring—those who keep God’s commands and hold fast their testimony about Jesus.

Retranslation notes for Revelation 12
[a] vs 11 Added closing quote. The announcement in heaven ends with this verse.
[b] vs 12 Removed closing quote.

3. Building the reconfigured text

From this parse, it appears that Revelation 12:1-12 forms a cryptochiasmus as below:

A1   1-2 Period 3. Sign of the woman clothed with the sun
  B1   3-4a Period 1. Sign of the dragon with seven heads
    X   4b-6 Period 2. Dragon in front of woman; woman flees to the wilderness
  B2   7-9 Period 1. Michael defeats the dragon
A2   10-12 Period 3. Announcement at the start of the Millennial Reign

We now reconstruct the passages in the right order based on the chiastic structure above and based on the ordering rules of a cryptochiasmus [1].

We lead with central pivot point 'X'. The corresponding subunits (for example; subunit A1 corresponds to A2) are placed contiguously to form units (for example, A1,A2 is a unit) so that we get a list of such units.

The sequence selected for rearrangement is:

X  [B1,B2]  [A1,A2]        (1)

(We choose the reverse order for our units so that we get another cryptochiasmus with the rest of the chapter (v 13-17). The rules of cryptochiasmi [1] allow this.)

We have the following sequence when we include verse 13-17:
X         - Period 2
[B1,B2] - Period 1
[A1,A2] - Period 3
v 13 - Period 1. The dragon chases the woman after falling to earth
v 14-17 - Period 2. The dragon attacks the woman who fled to the wilderness

We still have text for the Periods in a non-contiguous form. We can treat this as a multiply-applied cryptochiasmus as below.

M1   X Period 2
  N1   [B1,B2] Period 1
   XX   [A1,A2] Period 3
  N2   v 13 Period 1
M2   v 14-17 Period 2

The sequence selected for rearrangement is:
XX  [M1,M2]  [N1,N2]        (2)


Translating this sequence (2) into the subunits of the first chiasmus, we get:

[A1,A2]  [[X], [v 14-17]]   [[B1,B2], v 13]        (3)

Further translating (3) into verse numbers, we get:

[[1-2],[10-12]]  [[4b-6], [14-17]]   [[3-4a,7-9],13]        (4)

We arrive at the reconfigured passage in the next section by rearranging the verses so they are in sequence (4).

4. Revelation 12 Reconfigured

The Sign of the Woman in Heaven Portends the Start of the Millennial Reign (2017AD-2030AD) (vs 1-2, 10-12)


Christ's Ministry and the Escape of The Early Church (26AD-73AD) (Vs 4b-6, 14-17)


The Sign of the Dragon Portends Satan's Fall, Eve's temptation (4034-4032BC) (Vs 3-4a,7-9,13)

5. A Commentary on the Reconfigured Text

5.1 Period 3: The Sign of the Woman in Heaven Portends the Start of the Millennial Reign (2017AD-2030AD) (vs 1-2, 10-12)

This Period is structured as a single-unit chiasmus. Note that the event of the pivot takes place 12 1/2 years after the events of the Subunits.

A1 vs 1-2 A Sign in Heaven predicts the Start of the Millennial Reign: The Sign (Sep 2017AD)
    X vs 10-11 A Victorious Announcement in Heaven at the Start of Christ's Reign over the Earth (2030AD)
A2 vs 12 A Sign in Heaven predicts the Start of the Millennial Reign: Joy in heaven, woe on earth (Sep 2017AD)


Subunit A1: A Sign in Heaven predicts the Start of the Millennial Reign: The Sign (Sep 2017AD) (vs 1-2)

1 A great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars on her head. 2 She was pregnant and cried out in pain as she was about to give birth.

The sign in the heavens of this passage (and also those in Rev 12:3-4 and Rev 15:1) is based on alignments of Solar System Objects, when viewed from the earth, as they pass across a relatively stationary backdrop of star constellations.

Fig. 2

We believe that this passage describes a celestial event that takes place over a period of around 9 Hebrew months (the term of a pregnancy) at the constellation Virgo (Virgo is the woman of this passage), portending the start of Christ's Millennial Reign in the fall of 2026AD. These verses primarily detail the end of this celestial event: the alignment of stars and planets that takes place on 23 Sep. 2017AD (see Fig 2). The combination of ALL the elements of this alignment is unique in history.

We list below the elements of this alignment and their significance :

• The constellation Virgo: The woman represents the Church, the community of faithful Christians that "gives birth to" the Millennial Reign (see Rev. 12:10-12) (women in prophecy often represent organizations - see Rev 17:1.)
• The sun is at Virgo's shoulder: The sun "clothes" Virgo with its light. The sun represents Jesus, the "light" to the Church (John 8:12).
• The moon is at Virgo's feet: We take the moon to represent Satan, who is eventually defeated by the faithful (see Rev. 12:10-12).
• Above Virgo is a crown of 12 "stars": The crown is made up of the nine brighter stars of the constellation Leo, along with the planets Mercury, Mars and Venus (planets are also known as wandering stars). The crown represents the New Israel and the 12 stars represent its 12 tribes (cf. Gen 37:9). Around the time of the start of the Millennial Reign, all of Israel will be Christian (Romans 11:26), and these newly Christian Israelites will be as a crown of victory (stephanos in Greek) for the Church.
• Virgo is about to "give birth to" Jupiter (vs 2): Jupiter, the "King Planet", represents the Millennial Reign, and Virgo, the Church, is the "mother" of Jupiter; this alignment represents the start of the Millennial Reign.

After a 'pregnancy' of around 9 months, the constellation Virgo is about to 'give birth to' Jupiter; that is, Jupiter is about to exit Virgo's 'womb' after looping in it in retrograde for the preceding approximately 9 Hebrew months - from around 23 Dec 2016 to 23 Sep. 2017 (275 days).

Notes regarding this celestial event:

• Jupiter is in Virgo's "womb" for longer than 10 months, but we choose circa 23 Dec 2016 as the "moment of conception", so that we get a "pregnancy" (as stated in vs 2) of 9+ Hebrew months. Jupiter's position on 23 Dec 2016 can be considered the location of Virgo's "egg".
• Jupiter appears to leave the "womb" for a bit (around May-June 2017), but we do not consider this "pregnancy" to be interrupted, for Jupiter remains within the outer boundaries (within the line joining Zaniah to Spica) of Virgo throughout the "pregnancy", and we are at liberty to consider the "womb" to be curved outwards to encompass this path.
• Jupiter's position on 23 Sept 2017 (see Fig. 2) lies within Virgo's outer boundaries, and we designate it as the location of Virgo's "birth canal".

As this portentous 9+ month celestial event comes to an end, its fulfilment begins. The 9 month and 5 day duration of the event represents the 9 year and 2 month period (where a Hebrew month represents a year) between the sign of Jupiter's "birth" in Sep. 23 2017 and its fulfilment - the start of Christ's Millennial Reign over Israel in November 2026AD (this November 2026AD date is from Rev 13:5 [5], see also Isaiah 61:2 [8]). The "pain" of the woman represents a time of tribulation preceding the Millennial Reign (see vs 12 below, Matt. 24:7-8) - these are the birth pangs of a new age.

Pivot X: A Victorious Announcement in Heaven at the Start of Christ's Reign over the Earth (2030AD) (vs 10-11)

10a Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say: “Now have come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Messiah.
10b For the accuser of our brothers and sisters, who accuses them before our God day and night, has been hurled down.
11 They triumphed over him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death."

This Pivot is regarding the spring of 2030AD, at the end of the reign of the Beast, around 3 1/2 years after the start of Christ's Millennial Reign over Israel. A victorious proclamation in heaven announces the start of Christ's Millennial Reign over the whole world after Satan's defeat. Christ's reign will be a time of salvation, power and rewards for the righteous of the world.

The reign of the Beast of Rev 13 (2026-2030AD) is a time of battle between God and Satan for men's souls, and the winner is the side that acquires a 2/3 majority of the souls of men; Satan is defeated in this battle (note that "hurled down" in vs 10 refers to this defeat of Satan, and not to his original fall from heaven in Period 1). During the Beast's reign, Satan continually makes accusations against the Saints, trying to claim their souls (Satan, in Hebrew, literally means "accuser" - see also Job 1:9-11 and Zech. 3:1). The righteous win this spiritual battle, because: they are redeemed through Christ's death; and they remain faithful to God and His Word, even unto death (Matt. 24:9-14). Those who die for their faith will be resurrected and reign with Christ (Rev 20:4-6).

Subunit A2: A Sign in Heaven predicts the Start of the Millennial Reign: Joy in heaven, woe on earth (Sep 2017AD) (vs 12)

This subunit continues from the corresponding Subunit A1 above.

12a Therefore rejoice, you heavens and you who dwell in them!

At the time of the sign, on 23 Sep 2017, there is a great celebration in heaven (see Rev 5:5-14), because Christ and his Messiah, the "Lion of the tribe of Judah", triumph, so that they can open the seals on the scroll (Rev 5:5) [5]. With this triumph in the spiritual realm, Christ is deemed worthy to rule forever (Rev 5:9) and the coming Messiah is figuratively anointed (Daniel 9:24,25 in [2]). So Christ takes control over the world on 23 Sep 2017 (Satan will continue rule the world for another 12 1/2 years, until the end of the reign of the Beast, but within the limits set by Christ). Christ will begin his Millennial reign over Israel in 2026AD, 9 years after this sign.

12b But woe to the earth and the sea, because the devil has gone down to you! He is filled with fury, because he knows that his time is short.

But at the start of Christ's reign over Israel in 2026AD, Satan is given one last chance to win souls during 3 1/2 years of intense worldwide tribulation and deception - the reign of the Beast (Rev. 13). Shortly before Christ's reign over Israel in November 2026AD, the first 5 seals are opened (Rev. 6:1-11), and at the start of Christ's reign, the tribulation and persecution of the Beast begins. So although this is a time of rejoicing in heaven, the people of world ("earth and sea" refers to the whole world) will see a time of great suffering before Christ's reign over the whole world begins.

Note: The Hebrew year of this start of Christ's reign - Tishri of 2017 to Tishri of 2018 - is most likely a 50th year of the Jubilee cycle. So the 50th year of the Jubilee cycle starts on the 17th and 67th year of each century, and the end of the world comes 950 years (19 Jubilee cycles) later in 2967AD.

5.2 Period 2: Christ's Ministry and the Escape of The Early Church (26AD-73AD) (Vs 4b-6, 14-17)

The Period is arranged in the form of a single-unit chiasmus:

A1 4b-5 Satan attacks the "woman's" progeny: Christ (27AD-30AD)
    X 6,14-15 Satan attacks the "woman": Righteous Judahites escape to the mountains (Mar 70AD - Sep 73AD)
A2 16-17 Satan attacks the "woman's" progeny: The Church (From Sep 73AD)


Subunit A1: Satan attacks the "woman's" progeny: Christ (27AD-30AD) (vs 4b-5)

4b The dragon stood in front of the woman who was about to give birth, so that it might devour her child the moment he was born. 5 She gave birth to a son, a male child, who “will rule all the nations with an iron scepter. And her child was snatched up to God and to his throne.”

The "woman" in this Period is the God-fearing Judahite community at the time of Christ, and the child is Jesus Christ. The dragon, or Satan, tried to tempt Jesus away from God and into worshipping Satan ("devour the child") at the very "birth" of Jesus' ministry (see Matthew 4:1-11).

After his ministry and death, Christ was resurrected and ascended to heaven ("snatched up to God"). He will rule the nations with a rod of iron through his Messiah (see also Psalm 2:9) during his Millennial Reign in Period 3.

Pivot X: Satan attacks the "woman": Righteous Judahites escape to the mountains (Mar 70AD - Sep 73AD) (6,14-15)

6 The woman fled into the wilderness to a place prepared for her by God, where she might be taken care of for 1,260 days.

As soon as the Romans arrived in Jerusalem at the midpoint of the First Jewish–Roman War (66–73 AD), in Mar 70AD, Christian Judahites ("woman"), followed Jesus' advice (see Luke 21:20-21) and escaped to Pella in the Transjordanian mountains in a journey that took around 10 days [4]. They were to be protected at Pella for 1,260 days (see appendix of [2] for details on the dates of this period).

14 The woman was given the two wings of a great eagle, so that she might fly to the place prepared for her in the wilderness, where she would be taken care of for a time, times and half a time, out of the serpent’s reach.

The Judahites had divine assistance and protection in their flight and at their refuge ( "...two wings of a great eagle..." - see similar image in Isaiah 40:30-31, Exodus 19:4). The 'woman' is protected from the Romans for 3 1/2 years ("time, times and half a time"), which is around 10 days more than the 1,260 days of vs 6 according to the Hebrew calendar of that particular period - presumably the 3 1/2 years includes the 10 day journey to the wilderness. For a more detailed analysis of these time periods, see the appendix of our paper of the "70 weeks of Daniel" [2].

The Romans can be thought of as Satan's representatives, because Satan, the "serpent", ruled the world through the Roman Empire at the time - see appendix in [10].

15 Then from his mouth the serpent spewed water like a river, to overtake the woman and sweep her away with the torrent.

The "river from the mouth of the serpent" is the large Roman army sent to destroy the Judahites (bodies of water represent a multitude of people, see also Daniel 9:26).

Subunit A2: Satan attacks the "woman's" progeny: The Church (From Sep 73AD) (vs 16-17)

16 But the earth helped the woman by opening its mouth and swallowing the river that the dragon had spewed out of his mouth. 17 Then the dragon was enraged at the woman and went off to wage war against the rest of her offspring—those who keep God’s commands and hold fast their testimony about Jesus.

In what sense does the earth swallow the river? In our paper on "The Seventy weeks of Daniel" [2], we discuss a covenant between God and Titus which permitted the Romans (controlled by Satan, the "dragon") to completely annihilate the Judahites for a 7-year period during the First Jewish-Roman war (Michael stood by - Dan 12:1). After this period, God reinstated Michael's protection of the Christian Judahites (the "earth opened its mouth to swallow the river", where the "earth" represents the spiritual world, as in Rev 13:11).

After this repulse, Satan (the "dragon") sets off to war with the other offspring (other than Jesus) of the Christian Judahite community - Christians in the rest of the world.

5.3 Period 1: The Sign of the Dragon Portends Satan's Fall, Eve's temptation (4034-4032BC) (Vs 3-4a,7-9,13)

This Period is structured as a single-unit chiasmus.

A1 vs 3-4a A Sign in the Sky predicts Satan's fall from heaven: The Sign (4034BC)
    X vs 7-9a Satan and his Angels are defeated in a War in Heaven (between 4034 and 4032BC)
A2 vs 9b,13 A Sign in the Sky predicts Satan's fall from heaven: The fulfilment, the Fall of Man (4032BC)


Subunit A1: A Sign in the Sky predicts Satan's fall from heaven: The Sign (4034BC) (vs 3-4a)

3 Then another sign appeared in heaven: an enormous red dragon with seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns on its heads. 4a Its tail swept a third of the stars out of the sky and flung them to the earth.

Fig. 3

The apostle John is transported back in time, and he is shown this celestial event in the ancient skies that portends Satan's fall with a third of the angels. The seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns of this sign in the heaven represents the structure of Satan's kingdom of angels before his fall, and red seems to be the colour of Satan (cf. Rev 17:3). The 7 "heads" seem to be 7 divisions of Satan's kingdom of angels and the 7 crowns represent the position of leadership of those divisions. But because Satan has 10 horns or 10 "leader/king" angels, they must share power in some way.

This structure is reflected in the heads and horns of the Beast kingdom mentioned in Dan. 7:19-25, Rev. 13 and Rev. 17:7. The 7 heads also correspond to the 7 "historical kings" of Rev 17:10 (the "kings" are the angels in charge of empires); they were sent to the Abyss and re-emerge to form the Beast (Rev. 17:8) [5].

We believe the enormous dragon of this sign in heaven is the constellation Hydra (see fig. 3), the largest of the modern constellations; Hydra is also identified with the Lernaean Hydra, the gigantic many-headed water-snake monster of Greek mythology. We take the dragon's 7 crowns to be formed by 7 constellations (those that are bright enough to be on Ptolemy's list) near Hydra's head (as in the crown of the woman in vs 1); we choose as "crown" constellations: Crater, Corvus, Virgo, Leo, Cancer, Gemini and Canis Minor. This group of 8 constellations, which we will call the Red Dragon Family, covers a significant portion of the sky and encompasses a third of the zodiac signs. We take the 7 heads of the dragon to be formed by some of the stars in the constellation Hydra. Of the dragon's 10 horns, 7 are formed by lines from the 7 heads to one of the stars in the 7 crowns; the remaining 3 are lines to stars in Hydra itself. In fig. 3 above, we reimagine the art depicting Hydra and the other constellations in this constellation family to form the 7 heads, 10 horns, and 7 crowns.

Since these portentous signs in the heaven themselves tend to occur on significant dates, we believe this sign that predicts Satan's fall occurs around the time of the creation of the world in 4034BC (this date is from our parse of Daniel 12 [7]). In searching for this sign, we notice 6 solar system objects in transit through the Red Dragon Family in July of 4034BC, namely: the Sun, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn (for this sign, we ignore the moon; it may not have been created yet - Gen 1:16). From 23 July to 11 September of 4034BC (50 days or 1 2/3 months), four of these objects - Venus, Mars, Mercury and the Sun - leave this constellation family at Virgo; Jupiter goes to the very tip of the "tail" of the constellation family at Virgo around Jan 1 4033BC before looping in retrograde, and Saturn remains almost stationary alongside Hydra; these last 2 (out of 6) objects represent the third of the stars that are "flung to the earth" by the dragon's tail.

We believe that the end date of this sign on September 11 4034BC coincides with the end of the 6 days of creation; as in the case of the two other signs in the heavens (Rev 12:1, Rev 15:1), the 1 2/3 month length of this sign represents the time to its fulfilment in 1 2/3 years (with a month representing a year). So Adam and Eve enjoyed a 1 2/3 year or 20 month period of innocence between their creation and the time of Satan's fall in 4032BC, after which Satan tempted them into eating from the tree of "knowledge of good and evil" (Gen. 2:17, Gen. 3). As seen in our analysis of Isaiah 7-9 [9], all infants similarly experience a period of innocence for the first 20 months, a period of not knowing they must "reject the wrong and choose the right" (see Isaiah 7:15).

How can there be a celestial sign before the 6 days of creation of Genesis 1? We consider Genesis 1:1 - "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth" - to be an introductory summary of Genesis 1 (similar language is used in the concluding summary in Gen 2:1), and we take Genesis 1:2 to indicate that the earth (and other stars and planets) existed in some form before the 6 days of creation - note that the work of the 6 days is preceded by the phrase, "And God said". Though the stars and planets of this sign were not visible at the time (light had not yet been created, the stars were not a source of light), they were presented to the apostle John as being red in some sense.

Notes:

• As far as we can tell, for all these three signs in the heavens (Rev 12:1, 12:3, 15:1), the celestial events that we have selected best fit the description of the sign and the events they portend, though similar events may occur on other dates.
• Please do not treat these signs in the stars from the Bible as a licence to engage in astrology.

Pivot X: Satan and his Angels are defeated in a War in Heaven (between 4034 and 4032BC) (vs 7-9a)

7 Then war broke out in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back. 8 But he was not strong enough, and they lost their place in heaven. 9a The great dragon was hurled down—that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray.

Michael and the righteous angels of God fought Satan and his rebellious angels. What constitutes this battle in heaven? Apparently, this was a war for the 'souls' of the angels; Satan and his angels were defeated ("hurled down" indicates defeat) and lost their heavenly powers, since Satan had won over only a third of them (vs. 3) ( Note that this 1/3 fraction appears in other wars for souls - for ex. Rev. 12:4, 9:15...). After this defeat, Satan made plans to lead the humans on earth astray in a battle for human souls, in an effort to win back his place in heaven (see Isaiah 14:13-14).

Subunit A2: A Sign in the Sky predicts Satan's fall from heaven: The fulfilment, the Fall of Man (4032BC) (vs 9b,13)

9b He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him. 13 When the dragon saw that he had been hurled to the earth, he pursued the woman who had given birth to the male child.

The events predicted by the sign of the red dragon in Subunit A1 [vs 3-4a] come to pass when Satan and a third of the angels are thrown down to earth after their defeat - they become "fallen angels" or demons.

The woman in this Period is Eve and her offspring is mankind. After Satan is thrown down to earth, he goes after Eve to lead her astray, resulting in the Fall of Man (Genesis 3). With this, Satan begins his campaign to win human souls.

Conclusion

With this chiastic reconstruction of the text, we have shown that the passage is about 3 distinct Periods, and while most chiastically structured passages have 3 Periods, this chapter takes the triplet theme much further:

• 3 women: Only one woman is a literal woman - Eve. The other two are a stellar constellation (Virgo), and the community of God-fearing Judahites that became the early church.
• 3 offspring: Of the three offspring, Christ is the only literal human being. The other two are the "Millennial Reign" and Mankind.
• 3 wars of Satan: the war with Michael in heaven; the attempt to kill Judahite Christians (around 70AD) and other Christians worldwide; a war for the souls of men, that began in Period 1 and will continue to the Last Days.

References

[1] A Definition of Cryptochiasmus
[2] A Chiastic Reconfiguration Of "The 70 Weeks Of Daniel"
[3] First Jewish–Roman War (66–73 CE) by Wikipedia
[4] Flight to Pella by Wikipedia
[5] A Chiastic Reconfiguration Of Revelation 4-22 Part 2
[6] A Chiastic Reconfiguration Of Revelation 4-22 Part 1
[7] A Chiastic Reconfiguration Of Daniel 10-12. Part 2: Daniel 11-12
[8] A Chiastic Reconfiguration Of Isaiah 59-63
[9] A Chiastic Reconfiguration Of Isaiah 7-9
[10] A Chiastic Reconfiguration Of Daniel 8





* First version published on 1 March 2019.