I am using the King James Version of the Holy Bible. Revelation 12:7-9 state:
7 And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon found and his angels,
8 And prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven.
9 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.
Notice in verse 7 and 9, “his angels” are stated, and in verse 9, “he” and “him”. I would like to verify the gender of this “great dragon” in the original Greek version.
Please go to http://www.bible.com/ and select any Greek version, like 1881 Westcott-Hort New Testament. If you may access an original Greek version, that would be better.
Thank you for your help in advance.
Update:20091004.1125
Dear morporc,
Thank you for your enlightenment.
I asked the question of the gender of the dragon or the Old Serpent, the Devil, or Satan because I would like to know how it was expressed in Greek. If I am not mistaken, the New Testament was originally written in Greek.
Did you know that we (plural) talk to the Holy Spirit? He revealed to us that the Devil is a woman. That may be the reason why we have the song “Devil Woman” or the phrase “The Devil is a woman.”
According to Him, the name of the Devil in Heaven was “Lucibel” or “Light of Heaven”, and she was the only woman among the eight archangels. She is the twin of archangel Michael. When she rebelled, she and her followers were thrown out of Heaven to earth. She became “Lucifer”.
In Heaven, according to the Holy Spirit, there are no more sex organs and no more “twin peaks”, but there are still males and females, distinguished by their features and not segregated.
Update 3:This will be a case of faith in believing that the Great Dragon or the Devil is a woman – belief in the revelation of the Holy Spirit or belief in man’s writing because of the shortcoming of his language.
What do you think?
Answers & Comments
Verified answer
7και εγενετο πολεμος εν τω ουρανω ο μιχαηλ και οι αγγελοι αυτου του πολεμησαι μετα του δρακοντος και ο δρακων επολεμησεν και οι αγγελοι αυτου
8και ουκ ισχυσεν ουδε τοπος ευρεθη αυτων ετι εν τω ουρανω
9και εβληθη ο δρακων ο μεγας ο οφις ο αρχαιος ο καλουμενος διαβολος και ο σατανας ο πλανων την οικουμενην ολην εβληθη εις την γην και οι αγγελοι αυτου μετ αυτου εβληθησαν
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This is Westcott-Hort. I'm not sure what you would consider 'an original Greek version'. If you are relying on the Authorised Version, I would guess you don't mean the Septuagint / Textus Receptus.
The 'great dragon' is ο δρακων ο μεγας -so grammatically the gender is masculine.
This need not prove that the dragon itself is male. Gender is grammatical in Greek, and occasionally a male word will indicate a female person (though this is rare)
It seems clear that the angels in verse 9 belong to the dragon, since the Greek says:
και οι αγγελοι αυτου μετ αυτου εβληθησαν
(and with him were cast out the angels belonging to the same).
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In language with a gender system, gender does not always follow sex (though it usually does). The extreme case would be German Maedchen ('little girl') which is neuter.
In Greek male things nearly always take masculine gender, female things feminine; but the spanner in the works is that if you don't know the sex, you use masculine.
ο δρακων ο μεγας is masculine; so this dragon is either male or gender-unknown; but very probably male.
When you consider that the dragon is also the Old Serpent, the Devil, and Satan - it becomes almost impossible to assume that we have a female entity here.
But we might have a gender-not-specified entity. What sex are demons, anyway?