1.1 KiB
Revelation 12 General Notes
Structure and formatting
Some translations set poetry farther to the right than the rest of the text to show that it is poetry. The ULB does this with the poetry in verses 10-12.
Special concepts in this chapter
Serpent
The Book of Revelation uses imagery from the Old Testament. For example, John refers to Satan as the serpent. This image comes from the account of the Garden of Eden when Satan tempted Eve. (See: rc://en/ta/man/jit/figs-explicit)
Other possible translation difficulties in this chapter
"A great sign was seen in heaven"
By using the passive voice here, John does not say who saw this great sign in heaven. The translation may be difficult when the subject is unclear, if your language does not have a passive voice. Many English translations use the past tense here and say "A great sign appeared in heaven." (See: rc://en/ta/man/jit/figs-activepassive and rc://en/ta/man/jit/writing-apocalypticwriting)