book of Revelation 12:1–17 Catholic Bible study lesson 13

The Revelation of Jesus Christ:
The Faithful Witness

Lesson 13 A Great Sign Appeared in Heaven
the book of Revelation 12:1–17

Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition (RSVCE)*
New American Bible Revised Edition (NABRE)*
Catechism of the Catholic Church
Rosarium Virginis Mariae (Rosary of the Virgin Mary)
ex libris (in our library)
glossary for the book of Revelation
cross references in the book of Revelation
chapter-by-chapter review page
next lesson: Men Worshiped the Dragon

This material coordinates with Lesson 13 on pages 78–84 in The Revelation of Jesus Christ: The Faithful Witness.

“Great and wonderful are your deeds, O Lord God the Almighty! Just and true are your ways,
O King of the ages! Who shall not fear and glorify your name, O Lord? For you alone are holy.
All nations shall come and worship you, for your judgments have been revealed.”
—the book of Revelation 15:3–4

welcome to our in-depth study of the book of Revelation
We invite groups and individuals to check out the sample first lesson and video from this 23-lesson Turning to God’s Word Catholic Bible study. Our online pages link to the free lesson videos, a glossary, cross references in the biblical text, and a chapter-by-chapter review page—and they also include illustrations, maps, additional commentary, and prayers based on the primary Scripture in each lesson. The Revelation of Jesus Christ: The Faithful Witness has been granted an imprimatur. The study may be purchased from our website shop. If you have a Bible-related question or comment, click on the “ask us your question” or “what do you think” button on any study page.

open with prayer
It’s always wise to begin any Bible study with prayer, whether reading the Scriptures alone or meeting with others in a discussion study group. You can pray using your own words or use one of the opening prayers on our website. We especially like the following:

Lord Jesus, you promised to send your Holy Spirit
to teach us all things.
As we read and study your word today,
allow it to touch our hearts and change our lives. Amen.

let’s review—the book of Revelation 11:1–19
In Lesson 12 I Will Grant My Two Witnesses Power, the key points occur in connection with the Passion, death, and Resurrection of Jesus Christ—although Jesus never is mentioned by name. John is given a measuring rod and told to measure the Temple, the altar, and those who worship there. He’s told that the nations will trample over the holy city for 42 months. Two witnesses are given power to prophesy for 1,260 days. When they’ve finished, a beast will ascend from the bottomless pit and kill them. Their bodies will lie in the streets, and people on earth will rejoice at their death. After three and half days, they’ll be restored to life and go to heaven in a cloud. Then there will be a great earthquake and many will die; completing the second woe. Finally, the seventh trumpet sounds, announcing that the kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ. The elders in heaven worship God. God’s Temple in heaven is opened and the ark of the covenant is seen within it. Lightning, loud noises, peals of thunder, an earthquake, and heavy hail accompany the blowing of the seventh trumpet.

archetypes are our friends
The twelfth and thirteenth chapters in the book of Revelation are more than a little confusing. A refresher course in typology might be helpful when embarking on Lesson 13. Most of us are at least somewhat familiar with the idea of types in the Old Testament. These include the Blessed Virgin Mary as the new Eve, which would make Eve an Old Testament type of Mary. Jesus is the new Adam, making Adam an Old Testament type of Jesus. The manna in the wilderness is an Old Testament type of the sacrament of the Eucharist. Click on the image (far right) to enlarge Turning to God’s Word co-founder Tami Palladino’s illustration, which is on page 81 of The Revelation of Jesus Christ: The Faithful Witness. The map locating all seven of the early churches that receive dictated letters from Jesus is on page 82 and elsewhere in the study book; it and can be enlarged by clicking on it.

an updated version of the illustration
“A Fluid Approach to Time” on page 83 in The Revelation of Jesus Christ: The Faithful Witness offers suggestions about the confusing chronology in the twelfth chapter in the book of Revelation. The illustration on page 81 is helpful as well. If you have a very early edition of this study, the illustration now offers a more accurate representation of events in relation to the alpha (Creation, the beginning), the omega (Final Judgment), and the Chi Rho (Jesus Christ).

a section of Revelation that mirrors the Gospel (01:13:12)
The twelfth chapter in the book of Revelation is both extremely important and very difficult to wrap our heads around. There’s a reason for that. While most of us may be getting a bit used to the idea that the book of Revelation doesn’t describe a narrative story of events occurring in chronological order, there’s another challenging aspect of prophecy that comes into play now. In the video, Turning to God’s Word author Matthew Phelps points out that Lesson 13 is loaded with archetypes, each representing multiple things. An example is Mary, Eve, the Church, the nation of Israel, and the ark of the covenant all being central critical aspects of one clear truth—the prophetic component of humanity’s relationship between God and humanity. Many people find this easiest to see with Eve and Mary. The latter version (Mary) is better because it shows more God and more grace. Mary the Mother of God is humanity perfected. It isn’t a new thing, it’s a new pass and an improvement, but the first pass is needed in order to get to the more complete version. Although this isn’t how human brains work, the idea that two or more things can be one (as in the Trinity) isn’t a foreign idea for God. Our challenge is to wrestle with two things: 1) the question of when the details of this vision are occurring, and 2) the question of who represents what. The who is what comes into its own now. We’ve dealt with Jesus being represented by a variety of images, but now we’re dealing with archetypes other than Jesus. The twelfth chapter in the book of Revelation starts with the woman clothed with the sun, and drops the reference to the ark of the covenant—but it turns out the woman is the same as the ark. How are the woman and the ark of the covenant similar? How do they represent the relationship between God and humanity?

The Scripture ranges for the videos that accompany this Catholic Bible study match the Scripture ranges for the sets of questions in The Revelation of Jesus Christ: The Faithful Witness. You can follow along with the video overview as Turning to God’s Word author Matthew Phelps discusses Lesson 13, “A Great Sign Appeared in Heaven,” on pages 78–74 in the study book.

read the Catechism—a crash course in advanced typology
Typology is important enough to Catholic understanding of the Scriptures that the Catechism of the Catholic Church devotes paragraphs 128 through 130 to the topic, and the following definition of typology also appears in Glossary at the back of the Catechism.

128 The Church, as early as apostolic times, and then constantly in her Tradition, has illuminated the unity of the divine plan in the two Testaments through typology, which discerns in God’s works of the Old Covenant prefigurations of what he accomplished in the fullness of time in the person of his incarnate Son.

129 Christians therefore read the Old Testament in the light of Christ crucified and risen. Such typological reading discloses the inexhaustible content of the Old Testament; but it must not make us forget that the Old Testament retains its own intrinsic value as Revelation reaffirmed by our Lord himself. Besides, the New Testament has to be read in the light of the Old. Early Christian catechesis made constant use of the Old Testament. As an old saying put it, the New Testament lies hidden in the Old and the Old Testament is unveiled in the New.

130 Typology indicates the dynamic movement toward the fulfillment of the divine plan when “God [will] be everything to everyone.” Nor do the calling of the patriarchs and the exodus from Egypt, for example, lose their own value in God’s plan, from the mere fact that they were intermediate stages.

TYPOLOGY The discernment of persons, events, or things in the Old Testament which prefigured, and thus served as a “type” (or prototype) of, the fulfillment of God’s plan in the person of Christ. The typology of the Old Testament which is made clear in the New Testament demonstrates the dynamic unity of the divine plan of salvation.

typology gets complicated in the book of Revelation
The twelfth chapter in the book of Revelation is extremely complicated, and the typology we’re accustomed to employing is insufficient to address what’s going on with the three major characters introduced by the author. These characters are 1) the woman clothed with the sun, 2) her child caught up to God, and 3) the great red dragon. To begin to understand what they represent we need to turn to archetypes, which allow for combining, containing, and summing up multiple images in order to express a broad reality.

The woman clothed with the sun is an archetype. It’s relatively easy to see and understand the ways that she resembles the Blessed Virgin Mary, but there are a number of important ways that she differs from Mary as well. We’re used to thinking about the life, death, and Resurrection of Jesus Christ as the end point of what the Scriptures have to say. For the author of the book of Revelation, however, Jesus is at the center of all time, and at the center of the apocalyptic vision described in the book of Revelation. You can learn more in Lesson 21 A Woman Clothed with the Sun in Scripture & the Rosary: New Testament Mysteries, Old Testament Parallels. Lessons on the Glorious Mysteries—Lesson 17 They Went to the Tomb when the Sun Had Risen through Lesson 21 A Woman Clothed with the Sun—only are accessible on the website during the liturgical season of Easter.

multiple meanings at three different points in time
It’s true that the woman clothed with the sun is the Blessed Virgin Mary who gives birth to Jesus. In John’s vision, she’s also the new Eve. Most of us can look backwards in history and understand Eve as a type of Mary. Where we start to run into difficulty is looking forward to understand Mary as a type of the Church, though that’s not incredibly confusing on it’s own. What throws us for a loop is seeing the woman clothed with the sun as an archetype representing all three—Eve at the beginning of Creation, the Blessed Virgin Mary at the Incarnation, and the Church at the end of time. And two other archetypal images remain to be dealt with in this lesson.

WHAT DO YOU THINK about the woman clothed with the sun?
The most obvious archetype in the book of Revelation is the woman clothed with the sun. This woman is understood to represent the Blessed Virgin Mary. The author of the book of Revelation also sees the woman clothed with the sun as a representation of Eve as well as a representation of the Church.

? In what ways are Mary and Eve alike? How do they differ?
? In what ways are Mary and the Church alike? How do they differ?
? In what ways are Eve and the Church alike? How do they differ?
? What things do all three—the Blessed Virgin Mary, Eve, and the Church—have in common?
? How does superimposing different points in time on the idea of the woman clothed with the sun affect this archetype?
? What important information is available when this archetype is considered from different temporal points of view?
? What are the different spatial points of view associated with the woman clothed with the sun?
? Consider why the author of the book of Revelation refers to the woman clothed with the sun as a “great” sign.

favor with God—you could look it up in our archives
The book of Revelation hinges on events in the twelfth chapter. To learn how this woman in the book of Revelation found “favor with God” and what makes her critical to Christianity, read Lost in Translation, an online column in which Turning to God’s Word author Matthew Phelps helps readers connect with ideas expressed in the original languages of the Scriptures. New Lost in Translation entries are posted on Mondays, and past entries are archived on our website. Contact us if you’d like to receive Lost in Translation by email every week.

literal interpretations of the book of Revelation
This question comes up periodically in Bible study. It’s hard to imagine how anyone could read the book of Revelation and come away with the idea that its images are intended to be understood literally. The problem usually arises because people want to believe that if something is true it also must be literal. The book of Revelation is part of the canon of Sacred Scripture and as such is absolutely and totally true. It’s not necessarily literal as well.

As a written record of an apocalyptic vision, the book of Revelation is by definition not a book that describes anyone’s everyday reality, not even the author’s. There’s serious reason to question how John received this vision. Did he dream the images? Did he imagine them? Did he see them unfold in front of him the way we watch television or a movie? Was he physically transported to heaven? What does he mean when he writes that he was “in the Spirit”? These are fair, valid questions, for which we probably aren’t going to receive definitive answers this side of eternity.

So we don’t understand the mechanics of John’s apocalyptic vision. What we do understand is that this vision contains religious truth considered important enough to merit inclusion in the Bible. The images in this book impart religious and spiritual truth essential to Christian understanding. The challenge when reading the book of Revelation is to access that truth without getting bogged down in non-essentials. What’s the biblical text telling us about God? What’s it telling us about how to live our lives as Christians? When we read in the book of Revelation 7:14 that the great multitude in heaven have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb, it would be foolish indeed to try to interpret those directions literally.

Washing our robes in the blood of the Lamb is an image that the author of the book of Revelation has used to tell us how we get into heaven. It’s up to us to think and pray about what it means in each of our own lives. What’s God saying to us? A literal interpretation of washing our robes in the blood of the Lamb is meaningless. Who’s going to attempt to dump gallons of lamb’s blood into a Maytag, then throw in a robe with the hope that it will come out a brilliant white with an all-expenses-paid ticket to heaven in the pocket? That’s ludicrous.

Jesus encourages his followers to think
Equally ludicrous would be to dismiss an instruction because we don’t understand it in a literal sense. God wants us to use our heads. Here’s what Jesus says when asked which commandment comes first of all: “The first is, ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one; and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.'” (This is from the Gospel According to Mark 12:29-30, although the Gospels According to Matthew and Luke also record versions of this teaching by Jesus). Many people are familiar with the idea that Jesus here is quoting the Shema from the book of Deuteronomy 6:4-5, but Jesus adds a new category to the Old Testament version. He specifically includes that we’re to love God with all our minds. Thinking isn’t optional for Christians.

the popes inspire us—Mary & the Church
Some people find the image of Mary as the Church presented in this section of the book of Revelation a bit complicated to follow. “Mary & the Church” on page 82 of The Revelation of Jesus Christ: The Faithful Witness contains teaching by Pope St. John Paul II. He builds on Mary’s role as the Mother of Jesus to explain the Church’s role as a spiritual mother to Christians. His thoughts may help people struggling to understand this complex but crucial image of the Church.

let’s pay attention to chiastic structure
The twelfth chapter in the book of Revelation can be seen as the midpoint of the book, which follows chiastic structure. You can learn more about this literary device in “Chiasm” on page 80 of The Revelation of Jesus Christ: The Faithful Witness. The idea of chiastic structure helps to shed light on the way all of time and space are converging in Jesus Christ. It’s reflected in the revised illustration that appears with this lesson. To enlarge the image (right), click on it.

Q&A—this part of the study inspires questions & comments
It comes as no big surprise that participants in this Bible study have many questions and comments about this section of the book of Revelation. One underlying concern seems to be whether there’s a pattern to the collapse of time and space. Pay attention moving forward to see ways in which time and space continue to be collapsing and expanding. See if there’s a pattern that suggests what the author may have had in mind when writing that could shed some light on what’s happening.

Q: In Question 1, what’s the meaning of the moon under the woman’s feet?

A: [Here’s the question for the benefit of those who don’t have access to the study book. Question 1—Read the book of Revelation 12:1–2. One title for the Blessed Virgin Mary is “Ark of the New Covenant.” List similarities between the woman who appears as a great sign in heaven and the ark of the covenant that appeared in heaven in the book of Revelation 11:19. Who else has been described so far in the book of Revelation in terms related to the sun? If necessary, refer to the book of Revelation 1:16. What might it mean that the woman who appears as a great sign is clothed with the sun? What is the relationship of the sun to the moon? What might be symbolized by the woman having the moon under her feet? What might the woman’s crown of 12 stars indicate? If necessary, refer to the book of Genesis 35:23–26.]

This question about the moon is a what-do-you-think question, so a variety of answers are acceptable. One place to start is to think about the sun as an image of the Son, which suggests examining the relationship between the sun and the moon. It’s interesting that the woman isn’t herself compared directly to the moon. Instead, she has the moon under her feet. So what’s indicated when we place something under our feet? If Jesus is the sun and the woman (for the sake of simplicity let’s agree to call her Mary) is clothed with the sun, then she’s “put on” Christ much the way Paul urges all Christians to put on Christ, except of course Mary does a superior job of this.

Ordinarily, the moon reflects the light of the sun. Mary, however, illuminates our world from heaven in a much greater way than physical illumination. At Creation, the sun and the moon are created to rule the sky, giving us the gift of time, so any interpretation of the woman’s outfit (she’s clothed with the sun and wearing a crown of 12 stars as well as standing with the moon under her feet) probably should take temporal considerations into account. As we’re seeing in the book of Revelation, however, time is an artificial construct, the necessity of which is passing away with the final union of heaven and earth. Without any past or future, we have to wonder what the eternal now will look like—and whether a moon will even be necessary. That’s something to watch for moving forward. At any rate, the woman (Mary) has control over the reflected light of the sun. There are many other ways of interpreting that passage and staying on the right side of Church teaching and still remaining faithful to where the author of the book of Revelation seems to be going. The trick is to make sure all of the interpretations fit without distorting Catholic theology or veering away from common sense.

Q&A—what about the birth of Jesus?
Question 2 refers to the Blessed Virgin not experiencing labor pains, and to the biblical basis underpinning this Church tradition. In addition to the book of Genesis 3:16, which describes pain in childbirth as a result of original sin, a commentary about the Book of Isaiah 66:7–8a suggests that Mary’s freedom from birth pangs fulfills the prophet’s words about painless childbirth: “Before she was in labor she gave birth; before her pain came upon her she was delivered of a son. Who has heard such a thing? Who has seen such things?”

Q: Where are the woman and the dragon when she’s giving birth? Yes, they start in heaven, but then the male child is “taken up,” which would imply that they’re on earth. Our leaders’ discussion group went back and forth with many “but if …” comments in regard to this lesson.

A: [Here’s the question for the benefit of those who don’t have access to the study book. Question 2—Read the book of Revelation 12:3–5. The woman’s pregnancy calls to mind the birth of Jesus. Where was Jesus born? One discrepancy between the birth of Jesus and the birth of the child in the book of Revelation is that the woman clothed with the sun cries out in anguish, while Church tradition holds that the Blessed Virgin did not experience labor pains. What is the biblical basis underpinning this Church tradition? If necessary, refer to the book of Genesis 3:16. What might account for differences between the birth described in the book of Revelation and the birth of Jesus?]

With this question, we’re encountering serious spatial inconsistencies in the book of Revelation, and they’re paired with serious temporal inconsistencies. Things are complicated because the author is using one image as an archetype for three different related things, so the “when” becomes as important as the “where.” “Why” the author is doing this gives us one key about how to consider what’s happening.

If we place the birth of Jesus at the center of time and space, then that gives us a reference point for the rest of the events in the book of Revelation (and indeed in all of history from the beginning of time until the end). John’s vision is occurring in heaven, so everything he’s describing is outside of time. For that matter, everything is occurring in the same space as well as at the same time. It’s very challenging if not almost impossible for men and women to think like this. How can there be no time and no space?

What’s heaven like without those critical constructs that we humans rely upon for everything we do? What becomes of the beginning (past) and end (future) if there’s no more time? The book of Revelation describes John’s vision of that. Everything in time and space converges. What happened at the beginning of time and what will happen at the end are happening all at once in the eternal now. It’s how Jesus can be alpha and omega. It all comes together in him. It’s also, interestingly enough, how the sacrifice of the Mass works. We participate in the eternal now. It’s always just one Mass. The same Mass. At one time. In one place. That doesn’t negate that we currently still are operating on earth within the constructs of time and space.

It almost hurts the human brain to think like this, and this section of the book of Revelation is particularly challenging. Try accepting that the woman represents Eve at the beginning, the Blessed Virgin Mary at the birth of Christ, and the Church at the end of time. Keep praying for understanding, and give the author of the book of Revelation the benefit of the doubt. Just because some of Scripture is hard to understand doesn’t mean it’s wrong or not worth thinking about.

This way of thinking about the book of Revelation may become more apparent as we move forward in the study and begin to encounter descriptions of heavenly “weeks” that fall on the omega (future) side of the equation. So far we’ve dealt only with the alpha (past) side. The special challenge of this chapter is that it’s the mid-point. Like the Mass, it’s about Jesus as the source and summit of everything.

comment—a reader shares an idea about Jesus’ “hidden” birth
This is a comment rather than a question. For Question 5, one of our leaders came up with an interesting reflection, and we wondered what you thought. Perhaps God “hid” Jesus from Satan by putting Jesus on earth with Mary and Joseph as his parents. In essence Mary was hidden, too, as a spouse. They were common people. Satan couldn’t find them and didn’t locate Jesus until Jesus began his public ministry. So, members of the holy family were in a type of witness-protection program.

We think that this is a fascinating idea, especially in connection with the way that legal terms are used in the book of Revelation. Thank you for sharing.

Q&A—a clarification in the study book
An observant reader has pointed out that Question 7 asks: “According to the voice [from heaven], what three things have come? Why just three?

Q: Our discussion group got the salvation, the power and the kingdom of our God, but then there also was ‘and the authority of his Christ.’ Why was the last not included?”

A: [Here’s the revised question, which will appear in subsequent printings. Question 7—Read the book of Revelation 12:10. According to the voice, what things now have come to heaven? What had Satan been doing that until now has prevented salvation from taking place? Since John is now hearing the voice, it is clear that he is not the one who has been accusing his brethren day and night before God. Consider whom the author of the book of Revelation might have in mind as the one constantly accusing humanity.]

This highlights a grammar/punctuation issue. English translations frequently use the word “and” instead of commas to separate items in series. This can lead to confusion, especially if the editors don’t use the serial comma (sometimes referred to as the Oxford comma) to add clarity. The things specifically mentioned in the biblical text are: “the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ.” It’s unclear whether “of our God” pertains to salvation, power, and kingdom, only to power and kingdom, or only to kingdom. The precise number of things isn’t what’s important, and the numerical element has been removed from the question. (In the translators’ defense, original manuscripts for Scripture wouldn’t have included any punctuation.)

the best Catholic commentary about Scripture
To find out more about how Church teaching is supported by Scripture passages in The Revelation of Jesus Christ: The Faithful Witness, check out the Index of Citations in the Catechism of the Catholic Church. Links to the primary Scripture passages in the lesson (Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition [RSVCE*]) and relevant paragraphs in the Catechism are provided here. Not every passage in the biblical text for this Catholic Bible study is referenced in a Catechism paragraph, however.

the book of Revelation 12:1–17—paragraph 1138
the book of Revelation 12:9—paragraphs 391, 2852
the book of Revelation 12:11—paragraph 2853
the book of Revelation 12:13–16—paragraph 2853
the book of Revelation 12:17—paragraphs 501, 757, 2853

ways our glossary might prove helpful
In addition to providing extra information about geographical locations, our glossary also points out persons and places mentioned in the biblical text under multiple names or spellings. If you can remember a name but aren’t sure in which lesson it shows up, you can find it in the glossary, which lists every proper noun in the primary biblical text for The Revelation of Jesus Christ: The Faithful Witness.

to learn more, read more Scripture
If you’re having difficulty with a passage of Scripture, it can be helpful to read the cross references pertaining to it—but looking these up can take time. To make that easier, we’ve compiled the cross references from the Revised Standard Version Second Catholic Edition (RSV2CE)—the translation that we reprint in our study books. That list can be found at the top of every online study page, and it includes links to cross references in the primary biblical text for The Revelation of Jesus Christ: The Faithful Witness.

review previous lessons
As we progress through the book of Revelation, the images become more complex, increasing the potential for confusion. To help participants in our study keep track of what’s happening in the Scripture, we’ve prepared a chapter-by-chapter review of key events and images in the book of Revelation. A link can be found at the top of every online study page that accompanies The Revelation of Jesus Christ: The Faithful Witness.

don’t forget about our indexes & extra online material
If you’re trying to locate information about a specific Scripture passage, you can look it up in the index at the back of the study book or sample lesson. If you want to find a particular commentary, you can look up its title in the topics index. To learn more about another book of the Bible for which there’s a Turning to God’s Word study, visit the online study directories to read the commentaries and watch any accompanying videos. Finally, if you have a question or would like to make a comment about any of our studies, you can use one of the “ask us your question” or “what do you think” buttons to email our authors.

ex libris—Church documents & books about religious topics
You can find links to magisterial documents referred to in Turning to God’s Word Catholic Bible studies at ex libris—magisterial documents. This page includes a listing of significant recent encyclicals as well as a number of historical Church documents. Recommended books related to Scripture study can be found at ex libris—main bookshelf.

wondering how to pronounce some of these words?
The following link is to a reading from the New International Version (NIV) Bible. To listen, click on the audio icon above the printed text. Although not taken from the translations used in our study materials, the NIV reading provides an audio guide to pronunciation of words in this lesson’s primary biblical text. A close online version of the translation of the Bible used in Catholic liturgy in the United States as well as an audio guide for daily Mass readings for the current month can be found on the website of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB).

the book of Revelation 12:1–17 (NIV)

close with Bible-based prayer related to this lesson
Many of our Catholic study groups like to conclude their discussions with a prayer based on the scriptural focus of their lesson, and some participants include Scripture-specific prayer in their individual study. If you’re uncomfortable composing your own Bible-based prayers, you can follow our four easy steps. If you prefer, you can use the following short prayer based on this lesson’s text from the book of Revelation.

O God, you placed your own Son at the center of time.
Teach us to use the minds you have given us
to think about the wonders of your love.
Help us to take advantage of the sacraments,
which are the signs of our faith,
to attain eternal life with you and your Son, Jesus Christ,
in whose name we pray. Amen.

Lesson 14 Men Worshiped the Dragon, the book of Revelation 13:1–18
Lesson 12 I Will Grant My Two Witnesses Power, the book of Revelation 11:1–19

you also may like our study of Scripture & the Rosary
Scripture & the Rosary: New Testament Mysteries, Old Testament Parallels, a 26-lesson Catholic Bible study with an imprimatur, looks at the biblical foundations of the Rosary. The study includes lessons on Pope St. John Paul II’s Rosarium Virginis Mariae (Rosary of the Virgin Mary), the Apostles’ Creed, and the Luminous Mysteries as well as the original 15 Mysteries of the Rosary. Color photographs of stained glass windows depict key scenes in the lives of Jesus and Mary. Free digital lessons rotate throughout the year on our website.

start a Turning to God’s Word Bible study
Thank you for your interest in The Revelation of Jesus Christ: The Faithful Witness. Information about beginning a Turning to God’s Word Bible study can be found at start a Bible study. Tami, Matthew, and I are available to answer questions and offer support. Contact us if you’d like to start one of our studies or have your schedule listed with other TtGW study groups on our website. —Jennifer

*There are seven deuterocanonical books in the Old Testament—the Books of Tobit, Judith, Wisdom, Sirach, Baruch, and First and Second Maccabees, as well as some passages in the Books of Esther and Daniel. Protestants usually refer to these works as “apocryphal,” a word that means “outside the (Protestant) canon” because they’re excluded from most Protestant Bibles. The word “deuterocanonical” means “second canon”; Catholics use that word to refer to any section of the Catholic Old Testament for which there are no extant, or existing, Hebrew manuscripts. All of the deuterocanonical books appear in the Septuagint, the earliest remaining versions of which date to the 1st century B.C. This Greek translation of the Old Testament was in common use by Jews at the time of Jesus—but the same books aren’t found in existing Hebrew manuscripts, which aren’t as old as the oldest version of the Septuagint. Learn more by reading How Do Catholic & Protestant Bibles Differ?

Turning to God’s Word printed Bible studies use the 2006 Revised Standard Version Second Catholic Edition (RSV2CE) translation for all Scripture references except those to the Psalms, which are taken from The Abbey Psalms and Canticles, prepared by the Benedictine monks of Conception Abbey and published in 2020 by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB). All Scripture links for the online pages of The Revelation of Jesus Christ: The Faithful Witness are to the 1966 Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition (RSVCE) translation. The New International Version (NIV) audio recordings follow the same chapter and verse numbering as the RSV Catholic translations, but the NIV translation doesn’t include the deuterocanonical books and passages.

The 1966 RSVCE uses archaic pronouns and verb forms such as “thee,” “thou,” “didst” in the Psalms and in direct quotations attributed to God. The 2006 RSV2CE replaces these with more accessible English. The few significant translation changes in the RSV2CE include rendering almah as “virgin” in the Book of Isaiah 7:14 and restoring the term “begotten” in the Gospel According to John 3:16.

Numbering varies for some passages in this Bible study. Turning to God’s Word studies (print and digital) follow the numbering in the Revised Standard Version Catholic translations (RSV2CE and RSVCE). Discrepancies in the New American Bible Revised Edition (NABRE) are noted in the Index of Scripture Citations in the study book and the online sample.

You can learn more about the Psalms by viewing a sample lesson from the Turning to God’s Word Catholic Bible study Sing a New Psalm: Communicating with God Through the Prayers of the Church—Volume I: Lauds & Vespers. The second part of that study, Sing a New Psalm: Communicating with God Through the Prayers of the Church—Volume II: Vigils, Day Prayer & Compline, is scheduled for publication in 2025. Some verse numbers may vary in different translations of the Psalms.