The very first sentence I'm going to read - "the dragon stood on the shore" - you may not see it at the beginning of your Bible if you're reading along. Some translations call this sentence 12:18, other translations end ch 12 with v17 and put this sentence at the beginning of ch 13. So I'm including it in today's reading.
The dragon 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. 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. 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. 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?”
The beast was given a mouth to utter proud words and blasphemies and to exercise its authority for forty-two months. It opened its mouth to blaspheme God, and to slander his name and his dwelling place and those who live in heaven. 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. 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, some translators think this should read: names written from the beginning of time in the Lamb's book of life, the Lamb that was slain"]
Whoever has ears, let them hear.
“If anyone is to go into captivity, into captivity they will go. If anyone is to be killed with the sword, with the sword they will be killed.”
This calls for patient endurance and faithfulnesson the part of God’s people.
Then I saw a second beast, coming out of the earth. It had two horns like a lamb, but it spoke like a dragon. 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. And it performed great signs, even causing fire to come down from heaven to the earth in full view of the people. 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. 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, 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.
This calls for wisdom. Let the person who has insight calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man. That number is 666.
breakdown:
The dragon 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.
So we see the dragon step into the earth realm, and this seems to trigger the beast to come out of the sea - the implication being the dragon is kind of the boss of the beast.
And the imagery of the dragon and the beast are very similar - probably bc the beast is basically the dragon's minion on earth.
Beale says "without exception the imagery of the sea monster is used throughout the old testament to represent evil kingdoms which persecute God's people" - so we're seeing more Leviathan vibes. And of course it's coming out of the sea bc the sea is symbolically the place that evil dwells.
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 (see that?) and his throne and great authority.
Let's look at Daniel 7:2-7 "In my vision at night I looked, and there before me were the four winds of heaven churning up the great sea. Four great beasts, each different from the others, came up out of the sea.
4 “The first was like a lion, and it had the wings of an eagle. I watched until its wings were torn off and it was lifted from the ground so that it stood on two feet like a human being, and the mind of a human was given to it.
5 “And there before me was a second beast, which looked like a bear. It was raised up on one of its sides, and it had three ribs in its mouth between its teeth. It was told, ‘Get up and eat your fill of flesh!’
6 “After that, I looked, and there before me was another beast, one that looked like a leopard. And on its back it had four wings like those of a bird. This beast had four heads, and it was given authority to rule.
7 “After that, in my vision at night I looked, and there before me was a fourth beast—terrifying and frightening and very powerful. It had large iron teeth; it crushed and devoured its victims and trampled underfoot whatever was left. It was different from all the former beasts, and it had ten horns."
So here in Rev 13, John is reworking the themes of Daniel 7. In that Daniel vision, we're later told that the ten horns symbolize ten kings.
Some scholars say that chapter 13 is happening at the same time as the last chunk of chapter 12; while the dragon is persecuting the woman of God, he's also supplying power to this beast as another way to deceive the nations and oppress the saints.
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.
Some scholars say this "wound" (which is the same greek word for "plague") is from God. Maybe it happened when Christ resurrected. And many people point to Gen 3:15 where it's predicted that the Messiah will bruise the serpent on the head.
So we're seeing the one head of the beast wounded - he's slain but standing - a lot of scholars say this description is purposefully similar to the slain lamb in chapter 5 because John wants to compare and contrast them - making this figure an anti-Christ. A satanic counterfeit of the Messiah. (so Beale says it means oppressive empires, but also scholars say it's the anti-christ).
And throughout the book of Rev you'll see a lot of purposeful parallels in the text: Both are slain and risen, their followers bear their mark (their name) written out their foreheads, both have horns (Jesus with seven horns ultimate authority, and the beast with two horns which seems evil and sinister), both take authority over every tribe tongue and nation etc.
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?”
So people are out there not testing the spirits saying "wow this person has power, they're special, they're spiritual" and they start following the beast thinking that's a good thing. These are most likely people who don't have the seal of God (remember that from chapter 7?)
So to the readers who are asking the honest question, is the beast anti-Christ figure in Rev Nero or Rome or a later empire ...or is it the democrats?? or deep state?? or Trump who recently got shot in the head and lived?? [that's very america centric]
I like what Beale says about the identity of this figure: "... the chief opponent of Christ cannot be limited to one historical person or epoch. That is, just as the rule of Christ spans the whole church age, so the evil activities of His ultimate counterpart, the devil and his servants, span the same tune. This analysis leaves open the possibility of an antichrist figure who comes at the very end of history and incarnates the devil in a greater way than before. Whether this consummate expression of evil will be manifested in an individual or institution is hard to say."
5-6 The beast was given a mouth to utter proud words and blasphemies and to exercise its authority for forty-two months. [yep that's 3.5 yrs]. It opened its mouth to blaspheme God, and to slander his name and his dwelling place and those who live in heaven.
So the beast exalts himself above God and blasphemes God; he does this of course using lies and deceit, the language of the enemy.
Some Bible interpretations place this 3.5 yr period in the second half of the tribulation which they would say is right before Christ's return. However you interpret it, we're seeing here that while there's gonna be a short time that the beast is given POWER... God still has CONTROL.
I'd like to take a side quest with ya'll about the topic of the anti-christ. "Anti-christ" is a word that doesn't explicitly appear in Revelation, but definitely does implicitly.
https://scripturesavvy.com/the-antichrist-in-revelation/
"The Antichrist is a figure of great interest and mystery in Revelation. The Bible provides details about this person and their role in end times...
1 John 2:18
“Children, it is the last hour; and as you have heard that the antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come, by which we know that it is the last hour.”
(btw some teachers say that since satan doesn't know the timing, cause nobody knows except the Father - unless u think Jesus knows now too after the ascension - that satan just always has a "little a" anti-christ locked and loaded, at the ready, and whenever the end times moves forward and potentially the great trib goes down, then that antichrist becomes the Antichrist.)
1 John 2:22
“Who is a liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist who denies the Father and the Son.”
1 John 4:3
“And every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. And this is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard was coming, and is now already in the world.”
2 John 1:7
“For many deceivers have gone out into the world who do not confess Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist.”
Revelation 13 (lots of verses) - the beast from the sea represents the Antichrist. It is described as having characteristics of different animals, symbolizing its fierce and destructive nature. The dragon, which represents Satan, grants the beast its power and authority.
The Antichrist is depicted as speaking arrogantly and blasphemy against God, His name, and His dwelling place. This demonstrates the Antichrist’s rebellion against God and his desire to exalt himself above all that is called God.
During the Antichrist’s reign, he will persecute and conquer the saints. The authority and power given to him will extend to all people, and those whose names are not written in the Lamb’s Book of Life will worship him. This highlights the widespread deception and spiritual warfare during the end times.
The Antichrist will enforce a system where everyone, regardless of social status, must receive a mark on their hand or forehead in order to engage in economic activities. This mark signifies allegiance to the beast and restricts those who refuse it from participating in society.
[Revelation 14, 16, 19 as well]
2 Thessalonians 2:9-10
“The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders, and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved.”
Daniel 7:25
“He shall speak pompous words against the Most High, shall persecute the saints of the Most High, and shall intend to change times and law. Then the saints shall be given into his hand for a time and times and half a time.”
In Daniel’s vision, the Antichrist is described as one who speaks arrogantly against God. He will persecute the saints and try to alter the established order. This verse also refers to a specific period of time during which the saints will be under the Antichrist’s control.
Daniel 8:23
“And in the latter time of their kingdom, when the transgressors have reached their fullness, a king shall arise, having fierce features, who understands sinister schemes.”
Matthew 24:24
“For false christs and false prophets will rise and show great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect.”
Jesus warned that during the end times, 1) false christs and 2) false prophets would perform miraculous signs and wonders with the intent to deceive, even targeting believers if possible. This cautions us to be vigilant in discerning the truth and not being swayed by misleading displays of power.
Matthew 24:15
“Therefore, when you see the ‘abomination of desolation,’ spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place (whoever reads, let him understand),”
Jesus refers to the prophecy in Daniel about the abomination of desolation, an event that signifies the Antichrist’s ultimate act of defiling the holy place.
2 Corinthians 11:13-15
“For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into apostles of Christ. And no wonder! For Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also transform themselves into ministers of righteousness, whose end will be according to their works.”
Mark 13:21-22
“Then if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Christ!’ or, ‘Look, He is there!’ do not believe it. For 1) false christs and 2) false prophets will rise and show signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect.”
That was all from scripturesavvy.com
A Bible teacher named Ryan Pitterson, who goes on a lot of podcasts and geeks out about the end times, told the guys on Blurry Creatures about an early church bishop Hippolytus (who some people claim was discipled by a disciple of a disciple of John) who wrote "The Christ and antiChrist" and talks about a possible eschatological scenario: imagine if you had thousands of angels in the sky glowing with divine light, singing with angelic voices, but they're fallen angels. But they're presenting as beautiful beings - how would the world react? They claim to be benevolent beings and they point to a person they claim is the savior but really they're pointing to the anti-Christ. and Ryan Pitterson says that once you have 4th dimensional (or spiritual realm) beings showing up, it's easy for some people to start worshipping them as creator. He reminds us that satan appears as beautiful, peaceful, that the anti-Christ is going to claim to be able to lead the world in peace and be a guru. The world is gonna start thinking "wow this was the true religion after all," and start following him, and not Christ. He's not gonna appear as the beast he is. Only the God-following discerners are gonna be able to see him for who he really is (pretty much).
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.
Daniel 7:21 says one of the horns of the beast wages war against God's holy ones and defeated them; this is taken from that - I personally don't like reading this verse and feel that it's very sad.
Also remember the fate of the two witnesses in chapter 11 was "the beast that comes up from the abyss will make war on them, gain victory over them and kill them." (It's interesting language to say "make war on" two people - which makes it seem even more like John is describing the church as a whole or at least larger portions of it when he uses the avatar of the witnesses.)
So we see that the book of Rev seems to be the same handful of messages through many different but related visions and accounts. Like this beast for instance, it comes back up in chapter 17 and we see that while he tried to mimic Christ, he is doomed to eternal defeat and destruction.
Basically the resurrection sealed the deal, but the beast continues to operate for a while after its defeat. It has been vanquished, but what we're seeing in chapter 13 is that the day hasn't yet come where it's thrown in jail for good.
8 Everyone on earth whose name was not written from the world’s foundation in the slaughtered Lamb’s Book of Life will worship the Beast.
Again we see this theme of deception from the dragon and beast - a particular deception that leads people to worship them, instead of the one true deserving God YHWH.
9 Whoever has ears, let them hear.
Throwback to the letters to the churches at the beginning of Revelation that said this a lot. Believers are being encouraged to use discernment, and tell the difference between true and false spiritual leadership. And test the spirits.
"Whoever has ears let them hear" is rooted in the tradition of parables like Jesus told, where some people are gonna catch the meaning and others aren't.
10
“If anyone is to go into captivity, into captivity they will go. If anyone is to be killed with the sword, with the sword they will be killed.” [That's a quote from the bk of Jeremiah].
This calls for patient endurance and faithfulnesson the part of God’s people.
As the battle gets hot, this reminder is repeated - believers, don't compromise, don't even shrink back from the very real possibility of death for your faith.
Ok here comes the final section of chapter 13
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.
Did you catch that? It had horns like the lamb - it mimics the messiah - but it spoke like a dragon. Deception, temptation, nefariousness.
Tim Mackey from Bible Project says, "One of [the beasts] represents national military power that conquers through violence, the other beast symbolizes the economic propaganda machine that exalts this power as divine."
There's a dragon, a sea beast and a land beast - all connected and in operation with each other; this is the unholy trinity. You could think of it as a mockery or a counterfeit or a parody or a perversion of the OG Trinity. In other words you've got 1) the dragon which is satan. 2) the sea beast which is the anti-Christ. and 3) the land beast which is the false prophet that points people to the anti-Christ.
So we've got two beasts - a sea beast and a lesser land beast. I wonder if there's any OT precedent for this, oh look there is! In Job 40 and 41 you've got a sea beast and a land beast.
Like I mentioned in the last Rev episode, the flood/the torrent/ the waters is associated with chaos is associated with Leviathan. And the ancient Hebrew idea of chaos is basically anti-Eden. Stress, darkness, struggle, sickness, death, confusion, distance from God. Everything that's not going to be in the final heavenly city at the end of Rev, which is the restoration of Eden.
So then who's the land beast? McDonough as well as Heiser's assertion is that the land beast is Rahab. And it seems that many scholars think Behemoth is another name for Rahab. So the two beasts are Leviathan and Rahab aka Behemoth, which are ancient monsters well-known in Ancient Near Eastern writings.
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.
Many Bible scholars assert that this is where the institution of the state systematically persecutes the followers of Jesus. that this beast is a conglomeration of the beasts in Daniel who represented kings of the earth.
13 And it performed great signs, even causing fire to come down from heaven to the earth in full view of the people.
We'll see in later chapters that another name for this beast is the "false prophet" - it's giving false religion, false Moses, false Elijah.
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.
Now we learn that the head wound is from a sword. This may be a nod to Isaiah 27:1 "the Lord will punish Leviathan the twisted serpent WITH HIS FIERCE SWORD... the dragon who lives in the sea."
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.
What's going on here? Beast 2 can give breath and speech to an image of Beast 1. An un-holy spirit is breathing into an idol of some kind. Some scholars explain this by just pointing to Cesar who was very powerful at the time, other scholars widen the scope to any substitute for God's truth, throughout the ages.
16-17 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, 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.
This was actually a known thing at the time - some people had tattoos on their hand. If someone had a slave they might tattoo their hand. Some soldiers were tattooed by the state. Some religious idol worshippers would tattoo their hand with a mark of their god.
And what COULD be going on on this verse is, the state keeping tabs on people for mandated idol worship. And if you say no to this mark, you don't get to buy or sell. We've seen economic issues elsewhere in Rev - the church in Smyrna was poor (but spiritually rich), and one of the four horsemen in chap 6 was about famine and issues of buying and selling.
We also know that in the OT God's ppl were encouraged to keep the Torah on their foreheads and hands - probably meaning keep the beliefs and ideologies, and keep the actions.
And Beale says: "The mark may also connote that the followers of Christ and the beast both are stamped with the "image" [= character] of their respective leader."
And of course ultimately we've all taken a mark aka a Name. If you have committed to following Jesus, you bear the mark of God, and you Have the Holy Spirit as proof. In fact bearing the Name makes you a representative of Him, a proxy for God on the earth. you caddy YHWH.
If you still belong to the world system, the beast owns you and you're spiritually marked if not also physically. (And some Bible teachers say the mark in Rev is just figurative anyway, while others talk about it being something physical). You may get along easier in the current fallen system in some ways, but in light of eternity it's not worth it - cause you were actually created and designed to bear the mark of God. And it's not too late to switch teams; you're invited to the party.
I also found what the Life App Study Bible said very interesting: "When Satan tempted Jesus in the wilderness (Mt 4), he wanted Jesus to show His power by turning stones into bread, to do miracles by jumping from a high place, and to fain political power by worshipping him. Satan's plan was to rule the world through Jesus, but Jesus refused to do Satan's bidding. Thus, Satan turns to the fearsome beasts described in Rev. To the beast of the sea he gives political power. To the beast of the earth he gives power to do miracles. Both beasts work together to capture the control of the whole world. This unholy trinity - the dragon, the beast of the sea, and the beast of the earth (later identified as the "false prophet" in Rev 16) unite in a desperate attempt to overthrow God, but their efforts are doomed for failure. (see what becomes of them in Rev and 20)."
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- a human measurement). That number is 666.
It's time to say it - the thing I say a lot in this series: IT'S HECKA DEBATED.
I like what Tim Mackey says: "John's making a clear Hebrew OT reference here... this mark is the anti-shema... a prayer of allegiance to God from Deuteronomy. This prayer was also written on the forehead and hand as a symbol of devoting all your thoughts and actions to the one true God. But now the rebellious nations demand their own allegiance and they force everyone to decide who they will follow."
Some people think we should use gematria, where you figure it out through alphanumeric assignments to Hebrew and Greek letters, and many of them say it works out to "Nero Caesar" - here's what Tim Mackey says about it:
"Hebrew letters were also numbers. If you spell the GREEK words Nero Caesar, and the word beast in HEBREW, each one amounts to 666. John wasn't saying that Nero was the only fulfillment of this vision; Nero's just a recent example of the ancient pattern set out by Daniel - that the nations become beasts when they exalt their own power and economic security as a false god and then demand total allegiance. So Babylon was the beast in Daniel's day, but was followed by Persia, followed by Greece and now Rome in John's day, and so it goes for any later nation that acts in the same way."
I mean the verse does say CALCULATE THIS! which I believe is unique in the book.
But then other people come in and say, you're fudging a bit to get that, it's not super straightforward.
People like Beale point out that this book doesn't really do that anywhere else, rather it uses numbers as meanings, and 666 might mean the incompleteness that "6" often symbolizes in Hebrew scripture, contrasting with 777 being God's completeness and perfection. He says the number is more of a stand-in for the beast's name. Plus he says, "the sixth seal, the sixth trumpet, the sixth bowl depict God's judgement on the followers of the beast. The seventh trumpet by contrast, portrays the eternal kingdom of Christ... Three 6's are a parody of the divine Trinity of 3 sevens."
So those were the two most common views on 666 that I encountered.