In Revelation 12, John depicts Satan in the form of a dragon. Without getting too deep into what that represents, I just wanted to note something I thought of when looking at the text.

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.

Revelation 12:9

In v9, the dragon is specifically called the Devil and Satan (though it was obvious the whole time that’s who the dragon was). He’s also called “that old serpent.” Notice: “that” (particular) old serpent. One you’ve met before.

In fact the word “dragon” has no translation; it’s just a transliterated word (drakon). It’s not referring to a great winged creature like in Tolkien’s writings. In the Old Testament when the word appears it means “a water serpent” so it’s safe to assume that whatever specific appearance it has, it’s serpentine in its form.

I couldn’t help but think back to the Garden, when the Devil came to Eve to tempt her and he was called by Moses “the serpent” (Genesis 3:1). We often think of Eve talking to a garden snake or something, but maybe she was talking to the serpentine creature that John saw in the stars here in Revelation 12.

Hasn’t it ever struck you as odd that God would curse the serpent with having to crawl on its belly (Genesis 3:14)? Don’t all snakes do that? What was this snake doing if it wasn’t slithering on its belly? The only thing I can imagine is it was walking on feet.

A long, serpentine creature with hands and feet seems hard to visualize, but that’s the implication. Maybe one was running around the Garden which Satan took control of to tempt the first woman. And after Eve sinned, God changed its form to the armless, legless snakes we have today. And maybe the knowledge of what it used to look like was passed down from Adam to Seth, and from Seth to his children and so on, until eventually it passed into myth and legend, becoming the traditional “asian dragon” with a long snake-like body and arms and legs that we know of today.

And maybe that traditional mythical creature was used by God (in a perfect full-circle sort of thing; from first Bible book to last Bible book) to show John a “form” of the Devil that has some historical precedence, and show how he was overthrown once and will be again.