Revelation 12:4

And his tail draweth the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth: and the dragon standeth before the woman that is about to be delivered, that when she is delivered he may devour her child.

And his tail draweth the third part of the stars of heaven ... Pieters and many other present-day commentators decline to find any meaning here except that of emphasizing the dragon's size;[23] but, "ancient interpreters took the passage as referring to the fall of Satan, who took with him one third of the angels of heaven (cf. Milton's Paradise Lost)."[24] This ancient understanding of it is attractive to this writer. It is true that we do not have much revealed on this subject; but all that is revealed fits the interpretation perfectly. We know that Satan has some angels (Matthew 25:41), and that these are almost certainly the same as the angels of 2 Peter 2:4. No less a scholar than Bruce agrees that, "The reference is probably to the angels who were involved in Satan's fall."[25]; Revelation 12:9 also mentions these same wicked angels.

Standeth before the woman that ... he may devour her child ... The enmity of Satan was of long standing. Through Pharaoh, he endeavored to destroy Israel; and, at a later time, Haman was Satan's instrument in the passing of a law "to kill, destroy, and cause to perish all Jews, young and old, little children and women, in one day, and to take the spoil of them for a prey" (Esther 3:13). Herod's murder of the innocents (Matthew 2:16) is another example of the same malicious hatred on the part of Satan. Having failed to destroy the mother (Israel), Satan was alert to destroy her child (the Christ); and failing also in that, his continuing hatred is vented against Christ's servants throughout the ages. "This is another example of the personal history of Christ being repeated in the history of the church."[26] It is said that Diocletian decided to exterminate Christianity; and Gibbon said of that emperor that, "He declared his intention of abolishing the name Christian."[27] Herod Agrippa I also attempted to do the same thing (Acts 12).

Hendriksen is correct in seeing this single verse as, "The entire history of the Old Testament, the story of the conflict between the Seed of Woman and the dragon, between Christ and Satan."[28]

[23] Albertus Pieters, op. cit., p. 158.

[24] Ralph Earle, Beacon Bible Commentary, Vol. 10 (Kansas City: Beacon Hill Press, 1967), p. 569.

[25] F. F. Bruce, A New Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan Publishing House, 1969), p. 651.

[26] A. Plummer, op. cit., p. 311.

[27] Edward Gibbon, Esq., The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire in Five Volumes (Philadelphia: Henry T. Coates and Company n.d.), Vol. II, p. 69.

[28] William Hendriksen, op. cit., p. 165.