page_title: Woman of the Apocalypse
section_title: Interpretation as the Church
hierarchical_section_title: Woman of the Apocalypse / Interpretation as the Church
caption_attribution_description: English: "Madonna with Child", high relief in colored terracotta (14th century); Depiction of "Revelation 12:1" "And now, in heaven, a great portent appeared; a woman that wore the sun for her mantle, with the moon under her feet, and a crown of twelve stars about her head";Interior of the Rotonda di San Lorenzo, Mantua, Italy
context_page_description: The Woman of the Apocalypse is a figure described in Chapter 12 of the Book of Revelation.
  The woman gives birth to a male child who is threatened by a dragon, identified as the Devil and Satan, who intends to devour the child as soon as he is born. When the child is taken to heaven, the woman flees into the wilderness leading to a "War in Heaven" in which the angels cast out the dragon. The dragon attacks the woman, who is given wings to escape and then attacks her again with a flood of water from his mouth, which is subsequently swallowed by the earth. Frustrated, the dragon initiates war on "the remnant of her seed", identified as the righteous followers of Christ.
  The Woman of the Apocalypse is widely identified as the Virgin Mary. This interpretation is held by some commentators of the ancient Church as well as in the medieval and modern Catholic Church. This view does not negate the alternative interpretation of the Woman representing the Church, as in modern Catholic dogma, Mary is herself considered both the Mother of God and the Mother of the Church.
context_section_description: One early witness to the interpretation of the woman as the church is Hippolytus of Rome who states said interpretation in On Christ and Antichrist.
  Commentators who adhere to Reformed Theology in their eschatology sometimes identify the woman as the Church, and the man-child she gives birth to are the saints. According to this interpretation, Revelation 12:17 describes the remnant of the seed of the woman as those who keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ. The offspring of the Woman, the Woman's seed, then refers to the saints. The man child "who shall rule the nations with a rod of iron" is a symbol of the faithful members of the Church. “The woman is an image of the church, persecuted by the dragon and subject to the distress and travail of the messianic age yet protected by God.”
  In Revelation 2:18-29, the Church in Thyatira is promised that the faithful shall rule the nations with a rod of iron. In Revelation 19:15 the same thing is stated of Jesus. In Galatians 4:26, Paul the Apostle refers to the "New Jerusalem" as "our mother", and in Revelation 21:2 and Ephesians 5:21-32 the New Jerusalem and the Church is portrayed as the Bride of Christ.
  The Seventh-day Adventist Church has traditionally identified itself as the end-time "remnant church" described in Revelation 12:17.
  The Catholic Church recognizes the 'woman' as part of the polyvalent symbolism that is found in the book in four referents: Israel, the Church, Eve, and Mary.
  The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints also interprets the woman to be the Church, and the man-child to be the political kingdom that will grow out of the Church prior to or during the Second Coming of Christ; this interpretation arises from Joseph Smith's translation of the twelfth chapter of Revelation. Some in the church interpret the woman to be a symbol of the earth. Baptisms of fire and water being poured upon the earth and the sun clothing the earth daily are just a couple examples of this reference.
caption: "Madonna with Child" as the woman in Revelation 12:1; Rotonda di San Lorenzo, Mantua, Italy, 14th century.
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