"And a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars... And another sign appeared in heaven: behold, a great red dragon, with seven heads and ten horns, and on his heads seven diadems... war arose in heaven... And the great dragon was thrown down... and his angels were thrown down with him. And when the dragon saw that he had been thrown down to the earth, he pursued the woman who had given birth to the male child. But the woman was given the two wings of the great eagle so that she might fly from the serpent into the wilderness, to the place where she is to be nourished for a time, and times, and half a time. The serpent poured water like a river out of his mouth after the woman, to sweep her away with a flood. But the earth came to the help of the woman, and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed the river that the dragon had poured from his mouth..."
The book of Revelation is a set of prophetic visions which draw relentlessly on Old Testament imagery. Chapter 12 in particular focuses on the cosmic battle between good and evil as represented by the Woman, her Child, and the Dragon. The child is Jesus Christ. The woman represents the people of God. The Dragon is specifically named as "the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world."
The first panel depicts "Michael and his angels fighting against the dragon" and his army of demons. The dragon has seven crowned heads (see the tiny crowns?) and ten horns (one head has three extra horns), alluding to menacing images from the seventh chapter of the Book of Daniel which represent the successive kingdoms of Babylon, Persia, Greece, and Rome.
The middle panel shows Satan and his allies kicked out of heaven, representing Jesus' triumph over evil in his death and resurrection. This was intended to assure the persecuted Church of their ultimate success.
In the final panel, however, the Dragon chases the Woman (the Church, with twelve stars around her head representing the 12 tribes of Israel or the 12 Apostles) around the wilderness for "time, times, and half a time."
This figure of "3.5" (years, also sometimes 42 months or 1260 days) recalls the 3.5 years that the prophet Elijah was chased into the wilderness by evil King Ahab, and also the 42 years that the Israelites wandered the Arabian desert in the days of Moses. It symbolizes that though Satan has been defeated, he is not dead yet and still spews lies (the "water like a river out of his mouth") to attack the Woman.
