A fabulous kind of serpent (perhaps as supposed to fascinate)
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G1404 names the dragon figure in Revelation, where the vision explicitly identifies the great dragon as the ancient serpent, the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world. 4, the dragon waits to devour the woman's child, opposing God's messianic purpose.
Reader summary
Full entry for δράκων (G1404) · Open the biblical lexicon
G1404 names the dragon figure in Revelation, where the vision explicitly identifies the great dragon as the ancient serpent, the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world. 4, the dragon waits to devour the woman's child, opposing God's messianic purpose.
The BSB source-word alignment has 13 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include dragon (12), a dragon (1).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Revelation 12:3. Its strongest book concentrations include Revelation (13).
G1404 names the dragon figure in Revelation, where the vision explicitly identifies the great dragon as the ancient serpent, the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world. In Rev. 12. 4, the dragon waits to devour the woman's child, opposing God's messianic purpose. In Rev. 12. 9, the dragon and his angels are thrown down after heavenly conflict, and his identity is stated.
In Rev. 20. 2, an angel seizes and binds the dragon, demonstrating that satanic power remains subject to God's authority. G1404 opens teaching on cosmic opposition, deception, persecution, counterfeit rule, and assured defeat. It does not teach that folklore creatures are literal objects of Christian fear, authorize identifying disliked people as dragons, or permit speculation to replace Revelation's own interpretation.
G1404 is concentrated in Revelation's symbolic world. The dragon attacks the woman and child, empowers beasts, receives false worship, produces deceptive spirits, persecutes witnesses, and is finally restrained and judged.
His tail swept a third of the stars from the sky, hurling them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth, ready to devour her child as soon as she gave birth.
The dragon stands before the laboring woman intending to devour her child, displaying opposition to God's promised ruler.
And the great dragon was hurled down—that ancient serpent called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him.
The vision identifies the expelled great dragon as the ancient serpent, devil, Satan, and worldwide deceiver.
He seized the dragon, that ancient serpent who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years.
An angel seizes and binds the dragon, underscoring the creaturely limits of the adversary under divine command.
BSB source-word alignment connects this entry to exact verse rows, English rendering, source form, transliteration, and parsing.
How English Renders ItA compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
Greek word. a fabulous kind of serpent (perhaps as supposed to fascinate)
a dragon, a mythical monster: figuratively, of Satan, Rev.12:3-17 13:2, 4 13:11 16:13 20:2.
Textus Receptus witness, full corpusGreek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
13 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
a dragon or huge serpent
Read versea dragon or huge serpent
Read versea dragon or huge serpent
Read versea dragon or huge serpent
Read versea dragon or huge serpent
Read versea dragon or huge serpent
Read versea dragon or huge serpent
Read versea dragon or huge serpent
Read versea dragon or huge serpent
Read versea dragon or huge serpent
Read versea dragon or huge serpent
Read versea dragon or huge serpent
Read versea dragon or huge serpent
Read verseFull New Testament corpus: 260 chapters, 7,957 verses, 140,628 tokens. Data source: honza/textus-receptus (data only), with authority check against byztxt/greektext-textus-receptus.
How this word appears across different grammatical cases and numbers.
This word appears as a noun across 4 case and number patterns. The form changes show how the word functions in a sentence; they do not change the basic lexical meaning by themselves.
Verse guides are not available for this word yet, so verse references remain plain evidence markers.
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
G1404 gives monstrous form to satanic power so persecuted churches can recognize its character without believing its claims. The dragon seeks to devour the promised child, but the child is caught up to God and destined to rule. Cast down, the dragon accuses, deceives, and makes war on those who keep God's commands and hold Jesus' testimony. He gives authority to beasts that mimic divine rule and demand worship.
Revelation therefore exposes a network of spiritual deception, imperial coercion, false prophecy, and economic allegiance. Yet the dragon is never God's equal. He is expelled, limited, seized by an angel, released only within divine permission, and finally judged. Faithful response is allegiance to the Lamb, truthful testimony, patient endurance, and refusal of beastly worship.
Christians must not project the dragon label onto neighbors or use fear to build their own coercive power. Revelation unveils evil so the church can resist its methods and trust its defeat.
Rev.12.9
G1404 is a masculine Greek noun for a dragon or great serpent-like monster. Revelation uses it symbolically and directly interprets the referent, while repeated articles and descriptions track the same adversarial figure across visions.
Genesis's serpent, exodus and prophetic sea-monster imagery, Daniel's beasts, and psalms of God's victory over chaotic powers contribute to Revelation's imagery. The book identifies the dragon and centers victory in the Lamb's blood and faithful testimony.