The Beast out of the Sea
13 The dragon[Some manuscripts And I ] stood on the shore of the sea. And I saw a beast coming out of the sea. It had ten horns and seven heads, with ten crowns on its horns, and on each head a blasphemous name. 2 The beast I saw resembled a leopard, but had feet like those of a bear and a mouth like that of a lion. The dragon gave the beast his power and his throne and great authority. 3 One of the heads of the beast seemed to have had a fatal wound, but the fatal wound had been healed. The whole world was filled with wonder and followed the beast. 4 People worshiped the dragon because he had given authority to the beast, and they also worshiped the beast and asked, “Who is like the beast? Who can wage war against it?”
5 The beast was given a mouth to utter proud words and blasphemies and to exercise its authority for forty-two months. 6 It opened its mouth to blaspheme God, and to slander his name and his dwelling place and those who live in heaven. 7 It was given power to wage war against God’s holy people and to conquer them. And it was given authority over every tribe, people, language and nation. 8 All inhabitants of the earth will worship the beast—all whose names have not been written in the Lamb’s book of life, the Lamb who was slain from the creation of the world.[ Or written from the creation of the world in the book of life belonging to the Lamb who was slain ]
9 Whoever has ears, let them hear.
10 “If anyone is to go into captivity,
into captivity they will go.
If anyone is to be killed[Some manuscripts anyone kills ] with the sword,
with the sword they will be killed.”[Jer. 15:2 ]
This calls for patient endurance and faithfulness on the part of God’s people.
The Beast out of the Earth
11 Then I saw a second beast, coming out of the earth. It had two horns like a lamb, but it spoke like a dragon. 12 It exercised all the authority of the first beast on its behalf, and made the earth and its inhabitants worship the first beast, whose fatal wound had been healed. 13 And it performed great signs, even causing fire to come down from heaven to the earth in full view of the people. 14 Because of the signs it was given power to perform on behalf of the first beast, it deceived the inhabitants of the earth. It ordered them to set up an image in honor of the beast who was wounded by the sword and yet lived. 15 The second beast was given power to give breath to the image of the first beast, so that the image could speak and cause all who refused to worship the image to be killed. 16 It also forced all people, great and small, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hands or on their foreheads, 17 so that they could not buy or sell unless they had the mark, which is the name of the beast or the number of its name.
18 This calls for wisdom. Let the person who has insight calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man.[Or is humanity’s number ] That number is 666.
NOTES:
13:1–10 This wild beast, combining features of the four
beasts in Dn 7:2–28, symbolizes the Roman empire; the seven heads represent the
emperors; see notes on Rev 17:10 and Rev 17:12–14. The blasphemous names are
the divine titles assumed by the emperors.
13:2 Satan (Rev 12:9), the prince of this world (Jn 12:31),
commissioned the beast to persecute the church (Rev 13:5–7).
13:3 This may be a reference to the popular legend that Nero
would come back to life and rule again after his death (which occurred in A.D.
68 from a self-inflicted stab wound in the throat); cf. Rev 13:14; Rev 17:8.
Domitian (A.D. 81–96) embodied all the cruelty and impiety of Nero. Cf.
Introduction.
13:4 Worshiped the beast: allusion to emperor worship, which
Domitian insisted upon and ruthlessly enforced. Who can compare with the beast:
perhaps a deliberate parody of the name Michael; see note on Rev 12:7.
13:5–6 Domitian, like Antiochus IV Epiphanes (Dn 7:8, 11,
25), demanded that he be called by divine titles such as “our lord and god” and
“Jupiter.” See note on Rev 11:2.
13:5 Forty-two months: this is the same duration as the
profanation of the holy city (Rev 11:2), the prophetic mission of the two
witnesses (Rev 11:3), and the retreat of the woman into the desert (Rev 12:6,
14).
13:11–18 The second beast is described in terms of the false
prophets (cf. Rev 16:13; 19:20; 20:10) who accompany the false messiahs (the
first beast); cf. Mt 24:24; Mk 13:22; 2 Thes 2:9; cf. also Dt 13:2–4.
Christians had either to worship the emperor and his image or to suffer
martyrdom.
13:18 Each of the letters of the alphabet in Hebrew as well
as in Greek has a numerical value. Many possible combinations of letters will
add up to 666, and many candidates have been nominated for this infamous
number. The most likely is the emperor Caesar Nero (see note on Rev 13:3), the
Greek form of whose name in Hebrew letters gives the required sum. (The Latin
form of this name equals 616, which is the reading of a few manuscripts.) Nero
personifies the emperors who viciously persecuted the church. It has also been
observed that “6” represents imperfection, falling short of the perfect number
“7,” and is represented here in a triple or superlative form.
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