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The Woman of the Apocalypse (or Woman clothed in the Sun, ; ''ラテン語:Mulier amicta sole'') is a figure from Chapter 12 of the Book of Revelation (written ''ca.'' AD 95). In the narrative, she gives birth to a male child, which is attacked by a Dragon, "called the Devil, and Satan". The woman flees into the wilderness, while the child is taken to heaven, leading to "War in Heaven", in which the angels cast the Dragon out. The Dragon now takes to attacking the woman, who is given wings to escape, the dragon attacks her with a flood of water from its mouth, which is however swallowed by the earth. Frustrated, the dragon then goes to make war on "the remnant of her seed" identified as the righteous followers of Christ. The Woman of the Apocalypse is widely identified with the Virgin Mary. This interpretation is in the ancient Church as well as in medieval and modern Roman Catholicism. The interpretation does not preclude the alternative interpretation of the Woman as representing the Church,〔 Some Catholic commentary, such as Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary (1859) allows for the interpretation of the woman as either the Church or Mary. The commentary of the New American Bible (the official Roman Catholic Bible for America) states that "The woman adorned with the sun, the moon, and the stars (images taken from Gn 37:9–10) symbolizes God’s people in the Old and the New Testament. The Israel of old gave birth to the Messiah (Rev 12:5) and then became the new Israel, the church, which suffers persecution by the dragon (Rev 12:6, 13–17); cf. Is 50:1; 66:7; Jer 50:12." ()〕 as in modern Catholic dogma, Mary is herself considered both the Mother of God and the Mother of the Church (while in Reformed theology and traditions that are averse to Marian veneration, the interpretation of the Woman as representing the Church is naturally predominant). ==Narrative== The text describes "a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars" (12:1). The woman is pregnant and about to give birth, "travailing in birth, and pained to be delivered" (12:2). Then there is "a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads" (12:3) who is about to "devour her child as soon as it was born" (12:4). But her child is "caught up unto God" (12:5), and the woman herself is "fled into the wilderness, where she hath a place prepared of God, that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred and threescore days." (12:6) Then there is a description of "War in Heaven" of the angels against the dragon, and "the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him." (12:9) The woman is again mentioned in 12:13, as she is persecuted by the dragon, and " two wings of a great eagle" are given to her to escape (12:14). The dragon attacks her by "water as a flood" emerging from his mouth (12:15), but the flood is swallowed up by the earth (12:16), so the dragon went "to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ" (12:17). 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Woman of the Apocalypse」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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