The New Testament with Commentary Revelation 13

Various Vignettes

A beast from the sea

1 Now I* was standing on the seashore, and I saw a Beast of prey coming up out of the sea,† having seven heads and ten horns, and on his horns ten diadems and on his heads blasphemous names.‡ 2 The beast that I saw was similar to a leopard, his feet were like those of a bear, and his mouth was like a lion's mouth. And the dragon gave him his power and his throne and great authority. 3 And one of his heads was as if it had been mortally wounded, but his fatal wound was healed. And the whole earth marveled after the Beast.

4 And they did obeisance to the dragon who had given the authority to the Beast, and they did obeisance to the Beast saying, “Who is like the Beast, and who is able to make war with him?” 5 And he was given a mouth speaking great things, that is, blasphemy; and he was given authority§ to make war forty-two months. 6 So he opened that mouth of his in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme His name and His tabernacle, those who dwell in Heaven.* 7 And it was given to him to make war with the saints and to conquer them. And authority was given him over every tribe and language and ethnic nation. 8 All who dwell on the earth will do obeisance to him, whose names have not been written in the Book of Life of the Lamb slaughtered from the foundation of the world.†

9 If anyone has an ear, let him hear. 10 If anyone has captivity, he goes away.‡ If anyone kills with the sword, with the sword he must be killed. Here is the endurance and the faith of the saints.§

A beast from the land

11 Now I saw another beast of prey coming up out of the land, and he had two horns like a lamb and spoke like a dragon. 12 And he exercises all the authority of the first Beast in his presence; and he started to cause the earth and those who dwell in it to worship the first Beast, whose mortal wound was healed. 13 And he performs great signs, including that fire should come down from heaven upon the earth before the people. 14 And he deceives my own people,* those dwelling on the earth, by the signs that it was given to him to perform before the Beast, telling those who dwell on the earth to make an image to the Beast who had the sword wound and lived. 15 And it was granted to him to give breath to the image of the Beast, so that the image of the Beast should actually speak, and should cause as many as would not worship the image of the Beast to be killed.† 16 And he causes everyone—both small and great, both rich and poor, both free and slave—to receive marks on their right hand or on their foreheads, 17 so that no one would be able to buy or sell who does not have the mark, the name of the Beast or the number of his name. 18 Here is wisdom: let the one who has understanding evaluate the number of the Beast, for it is the number of man—his number is 666.‡

*13:1 Less than 10% of the Greek manuscripts have ‘he’ (presumably referring to the dragon). The difference is between ΕϹΤΑΘΗΝ (I stood) and ΕϹΤΑΘΗ (he stood)—it would be easy to drop off the final Ν, especially since it is similar to Η (more so in handwriting).

†13:1 I am not sure that this beast is the same as the one in 11:7—they are said to come from different places (but see 17:8).

‡13:1 There is a family resemblance—seven heads, ten horns; might the Beast be the son of the Dragon? (Imitating God is Satan's ‘thing’.)

§13:5 I take it that here and in verse 7 it is God who does the giving—this is part of the Plan.

*13:6 Compare 1 Corinthians 3:16. We are the ‘temple’ of God; those who dwell in Heaven are His tabernacle.

†13:8 1 Peter 1:20 makes clear that it was actually before the foundation of the world. God knew what was going to happen before He created the human race, the terrible price He would have to pay, but He went ahead anyway.

‡13:10 Two of the three main independent lines of transmission (including the best one) so read. The third line reads, ‘If anyone goes away into captivity…’—the second half of the conditional clause (the apodosis) is missing. The rendering of KJV and NKJV reflects a very few late manuscripts. But what does the Text mean? Anyone who has been appointed to captivity will certainly be taken away.

§13:10 I confess that this sentence puzzles me. Well, if I believe that my God is Sovereign over all, that He knows what He is doing, and that He has my ultimate well-being in view (Romans 8:28), then I will endure in faith.

*13:14 “My own people”—two of the three main independent lines of transmission (including the best one) so read. Since John is speaking (writing), his physical people would be the Jews, while his spiritual people would be the Christians. The use of “own” points toward the physical, which accords with the information given elsewhere (Daniel 9:27) that Israel makes a deal with the Beast.

†13:15 Worship an image or be killed—how humiliating! It sounds like a rerun of Daniel 3.

‡13:18 I find this verse difficult to translate. The main verb has two basic meanings: ‘to calculate’ and ‘to vote’. Since the number is immediately provided, what is there to calculate? In the context, any wise person will vote against the number, that is, refuse to receive it, but the idea of ‘against’ is not stated. The number itself is represented by three letters (in Greek), the middle one looking rather like a snake. (Some versions write out the number, but since it has to fit on forehead or hand, just the three letters seems more likely.) Note that the number is 600 plus 60 plus 6, not 6 plus 6 plus 6.