In v. 2 all four titles by which Satan is designated in Revelation are brought together. He is the dragon defeated in heavenly combat by Michael (12:7–8), the serpent who tried to sweep away the messianic community with a flood (12:15), and the devil who knows that his time is short (12:12). What the binding of Satan entails depends upon whether the passage is taken as descriptive of the present age or of a period that will follow the second advent. The first option holds that in the period between