Angels-DRAGONS

Often depicted as a mix of several creatures, the dragon is a fantastic
beast found in mythology and folklore worldwide. In Oriental
mythologies the dragon is seen as a beneficent animal and is often a
symbol or a portent of prosperity, whereas in most European mythologies
it is viewed as a demonic beast hostile to man. In Christian symbolism,
for instance, the dragon represents the chief of the fallen
angels, the Devil.One inspiration for the Christian Devil via
Hebrew Scriptures (the Old Testament) is the
Babylonian female dragon monster known as
Tiamat. In early Christian thought, the Devil as
dragon has taken on the allegorical role of representing
the Antichrist, or, more generally,
evil passions, paganism, or the oppressive powers
of this world. In the Book of Revelation,
chapter 12, he is described as big and red, with
seven heads and ten horns.
In the war in heaven, the archangel
Michael is usually represented as the slayer of
the dragon, and his angels fight against the
dragon and his angels. “The great dragon was
thrown down, that ancient serpent who is
called Devil and Satan, the deceiver of the
whole world; he was thrown down to the earth,
and his angels were thrown down with him.”
In Hebrew Scriptures, in the battle between
God and the dragon, Yahweh is depicted as a
storm god. At his coming “the earth trembled,
and the heavens dropped, yea, the clouds
dropped water, the mountains quaked before the
Lord” (Judg. 5:4–5). “Thou didst break the heads of the dragons on the
waters,” says the psalmist in Ps. 74:13, and “the Lord . . . shall slay the
dragon that is in the sea,” declares Isa. 27:1. Moreover, according to Ps.
91:13, the saints will “trample the dragon under their feet.” The battle
between Yahweh and the dragon is very popular in the visions of the
later Hebrew prophets, although the dragon usually embodies a purely
symbolic meaning as the enemy of Israel, that is, the Assyrians, the
Babylonians, or the Egyptians.
An account of God’s hostility toward Pharaoh is reported by the
prophet Ezekiel, who speaks of Pharaoh as “the great dragon that lies
in the midst of his streams,” into whose jaws he will put hooks and
whom he will have thrown into the wilderness. Elsewhere in the Old
Testament, the dragon is also a symbol of mourning and desolation.
One of the most discussed chapters of the Old Testament is
Daniel 7, which reports a dream, alleged to have occurred in the first
year of Belshazzar, king of Babylon, in which Daniel sees the four
winds of heaven stirring up the great sea. Out of the sea emerge, one
after the other, a series of beasts, four in number, all of fabulous form.
The fourth beast, in particular, is especially terrible and has ten horns.The four beasts represent in succession the Babylonian, Median, Persian,
and Hellenistic empires.
In Gnosticism, the dragon is a symbol for the angel of dawn.