Revelation chapter 13 describes the all out assault of the Beasts, Rome and apostate Judaism, on the Church.
Revelation 13:1 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. 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. 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 with the sword, with the sword they will be killed. This calls for patient endurance and faithfulness on the part of God’s people.
11 Then I saw a second beast, coming out of the land. 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 land 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 land. 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. That number is 666.
The Roman Empireis described as a wild beast dangerous beast.
Revelation 13:1 The dragon stood on the shore of the sea. And I saw a beast coming out of the sea.
The beast came out of the sea. Geographically Rome is across the sea from Judea. Remember as we have seen, symbolically, The wicked are like the tossing of the sea; for it cannot be quiet. Isaiah 57:20
Revelation 13:1 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 beast is in the image of the dragon, Revelation 12:3, which, as we saw in chapter 12, John identifies the dragon as Satan, Revelation 12:9
Getting a little ahead of ourselves, as John will explain in Revelation 17, the ten horns represent the governors of the ten imperial provinces of Rome. Revelation 17:12, while the seven heads are explained as the line of the Caesars. Revelation 17:9-11, This calls for a mind with wisdom. The seven heads are seven hills… 10 They are also seven kings. Five have fallen, one is, the other has not yet come; but when he does come…
Blasphemous names were taken by each Caesar, as they claimed divinity, Augustus or Sebastos means “One to be worshiped.” And, as we saw in the seven letters to the Churches, temples to the Caesars were built throughout the empire and worship was required. Paul called Caesar a man of sin, II Thessalonians 2:3-4 Don’t let anyone deceive you in any way, for that day will not come until the rebellion occurs and the man of lawlessness [sin] is revealed, the man doomed to destruction. 4 He will oppose and will exalt himself over everything that is called God or is worshiped, so that he sets himself up in God’s temple, proclaiming himself to be God.
Nero had a 120 foot high image of himself built and demanded he be worshipped.
We are charged with being irreligious people and, what is more, irreligious in respect to the emperors since we refuse to pay religious homage to their spiritual majesties and refuse to swear by them. Christians are considered to be enemies of the State, enemies of the public well-being. Tertullian, “Apology”
In a perverse parody of the High Priest of God, who wore the divine Name on his forehead, Exodus 28:36-38, the beast has blasphemous names displayed on his forehead, i.e. each Caesar claimed divinity.
Revelation 13:2 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.
As we saw earlier, here John is again referring to Daniel’s prophesy, Daniel 7:1-6. The leopard, bear and lion refer to the first three great world empires, Babylon, Persia, and Greece. The fourth empire, Rome, shares the beast-like evil qualities of the other empires, but was much worse.
Daniel 7:7 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.
Revelation 13:3 One of the heads of the beast seemed to have had a fatal wound, but the fatal wound had been healed. The whole land 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?”
Daniel had prophesied that in the days of the Roman rulers, Christ’s Kingdom would be set up and it would crush and replace the empires of the world. Christ himself had announced that Satan had been bound, disarmed, defeated, and would be crushed, as God had promised Adam and Eve in Genesis 3:15. And, in fact, within the first generation, the gospel had rapidly spread across the empire. Churches were everywhere, including Caesar’s household Philippians 4:22.
“Tiberius Caesar, in whose days the Christian name made its entry into the world, having himself received reports from Palestine of events which had clearly shown the truth of Christ’s divinity, brought the matter before the Senate, with his own decision in favor of Christ. The Senate… rejected his proposal.” Tertullian, “Apology”
Early on, Rome seemed to be defeated as the Church rapidly spread. However, as the gospel spread, so too did the persecution of the Church by both the state and by the apostate Jews. And under persecution many believers fell away and heresy and apostasy increased, (topics frequently addressed in the letters to the Churches).
Faced with the choice between Caesar and Christ the people of the land, that is the Jews, declared, “We have no king but Caesar.” John 19:15
Their reaction to Rome’s victory over the Church? Because it is always very thoughtlessly easy to follow a mob: The whole land was filled with wonder and followed the beast. Which is why, as we saw, Christ had referred to the Jews who gathered to worship the beast, “synagogues of Satan.” Revelation 2:9, 3:9
Revelation 13:5 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 land 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.
And that is exactly what happened. Nero’s persecution of the Church lasted 42 months, from the middle of November 64 to the beginning of June 68.
Revelation 13:9 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 with the sword, with the sword they will be killed. This calls for patient endurance and faithfulness on the part of God’s people.
Here John is quoting from the prophet Jeremiah. Jeremiah is told by God to NOT pray for Jerusalem because the people are going to be punished by God. They will have no place to hide from the coming judgment. When the terrified people ask Jeremiah “Where shall we go?” Jeremiah is instructed by God to answer the people:
Those destined for death, to death; those for the sword, to the sword; those for starvation, to starvation; those for captivity, to captivity. Jeremiah 15:2
In rejecting the Messiah and refusing to turn from their wicked ways the apostates had sealed their fate, just as Christ had warned them…
Jesus turned and said to them, “Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me; weep for yourselves and for your children. 29 For the time will come when you will say, ‘Blessed are the childless women, the wombs that never bore and the breasts that never nursed!’ 30 Then they will say to the mountains, “Fall on us!” and to the hills, “Cover us!” Luke 23:28-30
Revelation 13:11 Then I saw a second beast, coming out of the land. 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 land 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 land. 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.
Christ had warned that the land beast, that is, the beast coming from within Israel, would try to mislead the Church. “Many will come in My Name saying, ‘I am the Christ’ and will mislead many… Many false prophets will arise, and will mislead many. Matthew 24:5,11 Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravening wolves. Matthew 7:15
It had two horns like a lamb, but it spoke like a dragon. The false religious leaders looked like, were disguised as, claimed to be, followers of the truth: sheep’s clothing, but, in reality, they were using subtle, deceptive, intentionally seductive language and lies, to mislead the people. But I am afraid that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent’s cunning, your minds may somehow be led astray from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ. 2 Corinthians 11:3, Genesis 3:1-6
The Jewish leaders, symbolized by the lamb, joined forces with Rome, in an attempt to destroy the Church. They were even able to perform miracles as Christ had warned, to deceive the people. For false messiahs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect. Matthew 24:24
See also: Acts 8:9-24, 13:6-11, Matthew 7:22-23, Acts 19:13-16
Revelation 13:16 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.
Again, in a perverse parody of the seal of God on the righteous, Revelation 3:12, 7:2-4, 14:1, Exodus 28:36, Deuteronomy 6:6-8, Ezekiel 9:4-6, Israel having rejected Christ, is marked, not with a seal of blessing and protection, “Holy to The Lord”, but is marked with allegiance to Caesar. Israel, as it had done so many times in the past, is playing the harlot, rejecting her God and forming a forbidden alliance, this time with Rome.
Revelation 13:18 This calls for wisdom. Let the person who has insight calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man. That number is 666.
John now provides his readers with the identity of the Beast.
If you are familiar with Roman numerals you know that in ancient times, before the widespread use of numbers, letters were given numerical values. The same was true in Greek and Hebrew.
The Hebrew letter נ equals fifty,
The Hebrew letter ר equals two hundred,
The Hebrew letter ו equals six,
The Hebrew letter ק equals one hundred,
The Hebrew letter ס equals sixty,
The letters ר ס ק נ ו ר נ equal 666, spelling out Nero Caesar.
- The name-number 666 must be that of a man.
- The name must be one of John’s contemporaries.
- The name must be someone relevant to the First Century Christians
- The name must be that of someone of an evil and blasphemous nature.
- He must also be a political figure possessing great authority.
Kenneth Gentry “The Beast of Revelation”
All inhabitants of the land 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. Revelation 13:8
All of the earliest Christian writers on the Apocalypse, from Irenaeus down to Victorinus of Pettau and Commodian in the fourth, and Andreas in the fifth, and St. Beatus in the eight century connect Nero… with the Apocalyptic Beast. F.W. Farrar, “The Early Days of Christianity”