The Great Christ Comet (32 page)

We may presume that the baby was relatively small when it first appeared. However, it grew in size over the following days even as it remained within the womb of Virgo.

As she begins labor, Virgo, playing the part of Israel/Mary, is described in the following terms: “[she] was screaming because of labor pain”
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(v. 2b). That Virgo was scream
ing due to her pain suggests that the cometary baby has descended within Virgo to the point that it appeared to be weighing down on her pelvic floor muscles. The pelvic floor muscles would most naturally be regarded as corresponding approximately to the level of the star 80 Virginis (see
fig. 7.11
).
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Evidently the cometary coma had dropped down so that the baby's head seemed to be where it is when labor begins.

Verse 2 states that Virgo was crying out in pain not only because of the labor but also because of the torment she was experiencing in connection with the delivery of the baby. Unfortunately, the Greek text is unclear regarding whether Virgo's suffering here is essentially the same as her labor pain (“in torment
to
be delivered”)
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or is due to the actual delivery of the baby (“in torment
associated with
giving birth”).
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In the former case, John is simply underscoring dramatically the extraordinary suffering experienced by Virgo in connection with her labor. In the latter case (which is arguably more compelling
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), he is portraying Virgo as suffering not just in the first stage of labor—active labor (dilation)—but also in the second stage—expulsion of the fetus. Virgo in dilation would have consisted of the cometary coma baby resting head-down on a point along Virgo roughly at the level of 80 Virginis. Virgo in the expulsion phase would have consisted of the baby passing out of the area associated with the womb. Of course, the birth would occur only when the area of sky corresponding to the level of Virgo's vaginal opening (80 Virginis) rose above the eastern horizon in advance of any part of the coma-baby, so that no part of the baby remained within her womb.

When ancient observers of the sky saw Virgo's baby located relative to Virgo where a fetus is relative to its mother at the point of dilation and during the stage of fetal expulsion, it was natural for them to attribute labor pain to the constellation figure. Of course, any growth in the baby's size as it descended within Virgo would have caused them to assign more distress to her, as would a long delivery.
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We conclude, then, that Revelation 12:2 essentially consists of a series of predawn comet observations in the eastern sky as Virgo was heliacally rising. When observers got their first glimpse into the womb of Virgo since September 15, 6 BC, they saw inside it a new occupant—a bright cometary coma that, as it heliacally rose over the eastern horizon, looked like a baby in Virgo's womb.
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Over the following days, Virgo's special baby grew and grew. Eventually, the baby dropped down to the level on Virgo where 80 Virginis is, making it seem to observers that Virgo had begun labor. Then over the following observing sessions the coma-baby seemed to emerge from Virgo's womb, moving into the region of her legs.

We now briefly turn our focus to a discussion of the conflict theme of Revelation 12.

The Combat Myth in the Greco-Roman and Egyptian World and Revelation 12

In Revelation 12:3 and following it becomes clear that what is in view in chapters 12–14
is a great cosmic war between Virgo's son, the Messiah, and the great serpentine dragon Hydra. The Messiah is destined to conquer the dragon at the end of the age, but not before the dragon has persecuted the woman (Israel) and the woman's other offspring (the church). The climax of the dragon's reign comes at the end of the age, when he invests his royal authority in one man, the first beast, a megalomaniac who mounts an unprecedented offensive against the church (13:1–10). However, the Messiah will return and overthrow the dragon and the beast, establishing the kingdom of God on the earth (
14:6–20
).

A number of scholars, including Adela Yarbro Collins, have drawn attention to the employment of the Combat Myth in Revelation 12. This myth, which was widespread in the ancient world, took a variety of forms, most notably Greco-Roman and Egyptian.

Greco-Roman

The Greco-Roman version of the Combat Myth featured Leto as the pregnant goddess. According to one tradition (related by Hyginus), Python, the dragon, discovered that Leto's son, the child of Zeus, would slay him. Python pursued Leto and sought to kill her and her unborn infant. However, thanks to the north wind and Poseidon, Leto escaped to Delos, where she gave birth to Apollo and Diana. Sure enough, not long afterwards, four days in fact, Apollo slayed the dragon with arrows. For this reason he came to be called Pythian Apollo.
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Egyptian

In the Egyptian Combat Myth, which was Egypt's major national myth for some three millennia
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and was well known internationally,
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the combat was all about sovereignty. The red Chaos Monster, the serpent-dragon Seth-Typhon, killed Osiris (god of the underworld), but the dead king nevertheless managed to impregnate Isis. The child in her womb was Horus. The pregnancy was exceptionally long and her labor excruciatingly painful and difficult.
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But she eventually bore the child. The dragon, discovering that Isis had delivered her child, determined to slay the boy, but Isis fled on a papyrus boat through the marshes to Chemnis in lower Egypt. Her son was destined to become king and to restore order to a world that had been dominated by Chaos since the dragon had slain Osiris. In due course Horus fought with Seth-Typhon and defeated him, imprisoning him and then ultimately destroying him with fire. Horus became king of the living and Osiris became king of the underworld.
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Revelation 12's Version

In Revelation 12 the woman is Virgo qua Israel and she is pregnant with the Messiah, and the dragon is Hydra, the massive neighboring constellation figure to her south (
fig. 7.13
).

The sea-dragon is presented in terms that highlight his royal authority—he has ten horns and seven crowns. When Virgo was giving birth to the messianic baby, the dragon dragged, or swept from their places, one-third of the stars, throwing them to the earth. Then he stood up aggressively, ready to kill the newborn (v. 4), no doubt because he realized that this baby posed an enormous threat to his dominion—destined to destroy him and inaugurate the kingdom of God in the world. Thereafter Virgo's son was quickly snatched away to God and his throne—the description of this in verse 5b strongly recalls Psalm 110:1, where the divine Messiah is invited by God to sit down at his right side until God has made his enemies a footstool for his feet. The dragon was thus thwarted in his bid to derail the divine plan and hence was doomed to see the evil world empire he sponsored decisively terminated. Consequently, the dragon mounted a vicious attack on the baby's mother, the woman. However, she was given wings with which to escape into the wilderness for 3½ years and there was aided by the earth (vv. 6, 13–16). Frustrated once more, the dragon then turned his attention to all-out persecution of the other offspring of the woman (v. 17).

The Egyptian myth is closer to Revelation 12
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—in both, the pregnant woman gives birth to her divine son before the dragon chases her, and what is at stake in the conflict is royal authority.
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Of course, the fact that Virgo was often
regarded as Isis and that Revelation 12:1 is portraying Virgo in terms strongly reminiscent of Isis—enthroned and gloriously enrobed—strengthens the case for regarding the Isis-Horus myth as more important for Revelation 12 than the Greco-Roman myth concerning Apollo. Some have suggested that Seth-Typhon was identified with Hydra by Teukros of Bab­ylon and others.
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Regardless, the case for regarding Revelation 12 as picking up on contemporary associations between Virgo and Isis is formidable.

Isis was frequently portrayed as having the Moon on her crown, and Horus as the Sun God (
fig. 7.14
).

When, therefore, Revelation 12:1 describes Virgo as enthroned, with the Sun clothing her and the Moon under her feet, it naturally brings images of Isis to mind, although it challenges Isis theology as it does so. First, the locations of the celestial lights with respect to Virgo's body are important, making the point that Virgo did not give birth to the Sun, nor was she sovereign over the Moon, but the Sun could beautify her and the Moon could exalt her. Moreover, her son was not Horus, but rather the Messiah. Furthermore, it is very possible that the Sun was playing the part of the divine Father who begot the Messiah.

Of course, Teukros the Bab­ylo­nian mentions that, in his day, Virgo was thought to be Isis enthroned and nursing Horus. If this indicates that the Greco-Egyptian identification of Virgo as Isis had taken root in Bab­ylon, that would mean that the celestial narrative that is preserved for us in Revelation 12, and in which the comet plays the star role, would have spoken powerfully to Bab­ylo­nian astronomers-astrologers at the time of Jesus's birth. Indeed the fact that Revelation 12 is interacting with pagan mythology regarding Isis and Horus may well hint at the kind of paradigms through which some pagans (perhaps especially those in Bab­ylon) had sought to interpret the celestial drama. More important, since the celestial drama was essentially an adaptation of the internationally known combat myth, it offered pagan observers a ready paradigm by which to understand the importance of the Messiah's nativity in salvation history. It highlighted that Jesus was the fulfillment of the hope of all humans for deliverance from Chaos and Disorder.

The Dragon, the Meteor Storm, and the Birth

The Relationship of Revelation 12:3–5 to verses 1–2

Revelation 12:3ff. is set apart from verses 1–2 by the new introduction (“And another sign . . .”), but it is clear from verse 4b that the story of Virgo's pregnancy and delivery of her child is still very much in view. While everything in verses 1–2 seems to relate to Virgo's pregnancy, verses 3–5 are united by their focus on the grand conflict between the dragon and Virgo's special son. However, although the spotlight in verses 3–4a is on a dragon rather than a woman, the dragon is introduced here because he is playing the role of antagonist in the nativity drama. It is important to appreciate the continuity between verses 1–2 and verses 3–5. For one thing, they are both astronomical in nature (“in heaven”; vv. 1, 3). For another, verses 3–5 continue the narrative that began in verses 1–2. The action of verses 3–5 clearly follows the events of verses 1–2 in time. The delivery of Virgo's baby began in verses 1–2 and is completed in verse 5. The action of verses 3–4 manifestly belongs chronologically between the action of verses 1–2 and that of verses 5ff. Accordingly, what is described in verses 3–4 occurs while Virgo is in labor and indeed on the verge of fully delivering her baby. As the baby is about to be fully delivered, the dragon is ready to devour him (v. 4b). With this in mind, let us examine verses 3–5. As we do so, we must remember that verses 2–5 record moments drawn from predawn astronomical observing sessions stretching over a few weeks (long enough to make room below Virgo's womb into which the comet could descend to be born). The cometary baby was slowly emerging from her belly, descending into the region of sky associated with her legs.