Read the New Testament in 24 Weeks

The woman and the dragon

12 Then 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 expecting a child, and she cried out in pain, in the agony of giving birth. ³ Then another sign appeared in heaven: a great fiery-red dragon with seven heads and ten horns. On its heads were seven coronets, ⁴ and its tail swept a third of the stars out of heaven and threw them down to the earth. The dragon stood opposite the woman who was about to give birth, so that he could devour her child when it was born. ⁵ She gave birth to a male child, who is going to rule all the nations with a rod of iron. The child was snatched away to God and to his throne; ⁶ the woman, meanwhile, fled into the desert, where a place has been prepared for her by God, so that she could be looked after there for one thousand two hundred and sixty days.

The dragon is angry

⁷ Then war broke out in heaven, with Michael and his angels fighting against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fighting back. ⁸ But they could not win, and there was no longer any place for them in heaven. ⁹ So the great dragon was thrown down to the earth—the ancient serpent who is called the devil and the satan, who deceives the whole world. His angels were thrown down with him. ¹⁰ Then I heard a loud voice in heaven saying, “Now at last has come salvation and power: the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Messiah! The accuser of our family has been thrown down, the one who accuses them before God day and night. ¹¹ They conquered him by the blood of the lamb and by the word of their testimony, because they did not love their lives unto death. ¹² So rejoice, you heavens and all who live there! But woe to the earth and the sea, because the devil has come down to you in great anger, knowing that he only has a short time.”

¹³ When the dragon saw that he had been cast down to the earth, he set off in pursuit of the woman who had borne the baby boy. ¹⁴ The woman, however, was given a pair of wings from a great eagle, so that she could fly away from the presence of the serpent into the desert, to the place where she is looked after for a time, two times and half a time. ¹⁵ The serpent, for its part, spat out of its mouth a jet of water like a river after the woman, to carry her off with the force of the water. ¹⁶ But the earth helped the woman by opening its mouth and swallowing up the river which the dragon had spat out of his mouth. ¹⁷ Then the dragon was angry with the woman, and went off to wage war against the rest of her children, those who keep God’s commands and the testimony of Jesus. ¹⁸ And he stood on the sand beside the sea.

A first monster

13 Then I saw a monster coming up out of the sea. It had ten horns and seven heads. Each of the ten horns was wearing a coronet, and blasphemous names were written on the heads. ² The monster I saw was like a leopard, with bear’s feet and a lion’s mouth. And the dragon gave the monster its power and its throne and great authority. ³ One of the heads appeared to have been slaughtered and killed, but its fatal wound had been healed. The whole earth was awed and astonished by the monster, ⁴ and worshiped the dragon because it had given the monster its authority. They worshiped the monster too. “Who is like the monster?” they were saying. “Who can fight against it?” ⁵ And the monster was given a mouth that speaks great, blasphemous words, and was given authority for forty-two months. ⁶ It opened its mouth to utter blasphemies against God, to curse his name and his dwelling place—that is, those who dwell in heaven. ⁷ It was granted the right to make war against God’s holy people and to defeat them, and it was given authority over every tribe and people and language and nation. ⁸ So everyone who lived on earth worshiped it—everyone, that is, whose name has not been written from the foundation of the world in the book of life belonging to the slaughtered lamb.

⁹ If anyone has ears, let them hear!

¹⁰ If anyone is to be taken captive, into captivity they will go. If anyone is to be killed with the sword, with the sword they will be killed. This is a summons for God’s holy people to be patient and have faith.

A second monster

¹¹ Then I saw another monster coming up from the earth. It had two horns like those of a lamb, and it spoke like a dragon. ¹² It acts in the presence of the first monster and with its full authority, and it makes the earth and those who live on it worship the first monster, whose fatal wound had been healed. ¹³ It performs great signs, so that it even makes fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of people, ¹⁴ and it deceives the people who live on earth by the signs which it has been allowed to perform in front of the monster, instructing the earth’s inhabitants to make an image of the monster who had the sword-wound but was alive. ¹⁵ It was allowed to give breath to the monster’s image, so that the monster’s image could speak, and it could kill anyone who didn’t worship the monster’s image. ¹⁶ It makes everyone, small and great, rich and poor, free and slaves, receive a sign from it, marked on their right hands and on their foreheads, ¹⁷ so that nobody can buy or sell unless they have the mark of the name of the monster or the number of its name.

¹⁸ This calls for wisdom. Anyone with a good head on their shoulders should work out the monster’s number, because it’s the number of a human being. Its number is Six Hundred and Sixty-Six.