Jeanie C. Crain http://crain.english.missouriwestern.edu

Revelation 12–13

Victory in heaven, disaster for earth—Antichrist and false prophet (Matthew 24.15–24)

To remember chapter thirteen, all the reader needs to do is recall it's the number of the beast--666: "This calls for wisdom: let anyone with understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a person.  Its number is six hundred sixty-six" (18).  The Oxford Annotated Bible says, "Since Hebrew and Greek letters have numerical equivalents, the number of the beast (666) is the sum of the separate letters of his name.  Of countless explanations, the most probable is Neron Caesar (in Hebrew letters) which if spelled without the final n, also accounts for the variant reading of 616."  Chapter thirteen is really the account of two beasts: one from the sea (13.1) and one from the earth (13.11). 

Concerning the number 666, two notes from the Oxford Companion and from F. F. Bruce may be helpful to the reader:

Six is seven minus one. It is the number of incompleteness. The six days of the creation were not complete until the seventh day of rest had come. In the book of Revelation six seals, trumpets, etc. represent the course of the world before God’s final seventh act brings about the eternal Sabbath. And in spite of its seven heads, the number of the beast is only six hundred sixty-six.

David H. van Daalen

...the total numerical value of the letters in some person's name, when spelt in Greek, or possibly in the Hebrew alphabet.  This reckoning of the numerical value of words and names was a riddle-game among the Greeks and Romans (as in the frequently quoted Greek graffito from Pompeii, ' I love the girl whose number is 545'); among the Jews (who called it gematria) and some early Christians, it was treated as a matter of mystical significance--as in the Sibylline Oracles (i.328) where the appropriateness of 888 as the numerical value of the name of Jesus in Greek is pointed out... the seer'suse of gematria could be a precaution against a charge of sedition if the name of the individual were spelt out in full.

The beast of the sea is allowed to exercise sovereignty over the earth for forty-two months (note the recurrence of forty-two equating to 3 and a half years or 1,260 days).  This particular beast is given authority, and people who have not been sealed against it worship it (8).  From the foundation of the world, an omniscient God knows who is written into the book of life of the Lamb (8). This beast utters blasphemy and persecutes the saints (7).

From Patmos, John may have had the mainland of Asia Minor in view, "where the cult of Rome and Augustus flourished" (F.F. Bruce, International Commentary).   

The beast of the earth serves the beast of the sea, enforcing its worship: "by the signs it is allowed to perform on  behalf of the beast, it deceives the inhabitants of the earth, telling them to make an image for the beast that had been wounded by the sword and yet lived, and it was allowed to give breath to the image of the beast so that the image of the beast could even speak (15):

He has authority for the same time that the Gentiles trample on the outer court, the same time as the two witnesses prophecy and the same time that the church is cared for in the desert. The beasts exerts authority over all the world and represents political power, the second beast represents religious and economic power. Hendriksen comments that the first beast is Satan's hand and the second beast is Satan's mind. 'The first represents the persecuting power of Satan operating in and through the nations of this world and their governments. The second symbolises the false religions and philosophies of this world'. He sums up the beast, false prophet and Babylon as the three agents of Satan's attack upon the earth namely 'antichristian persecution, antichristian religion, and antichristian seduction'.

http://www.apocalipsis.org/

The first beast, the reader learns through the description of the second, has "been wounded by the sword and yet lived,  and it was allowed to give breath  to the image of the beast [the inhabitants of the earth have made the image] so that the image of the beast could even speak and cause those who would not worship the image of the beast to be killed" (14,15). Nero, it was rumored, died and became again alive.  The image "is marked on the right hand or the forehead," the right hand, as F.F. Bruce points out, being the place where the Jew wore the phylactery.  Bruce also suggests that the Dragon and the two beasts form an unholy trinity. It should further be noted that this marking is an imitation of the sealing of God's people (Oxford Annotated Bible).

The marks of the figure of Thessalonians [2 Thessalonians 2.1-12). recur in the two beasts of Revelation 13: the beast from the sea, which in its death and resurrection is a parody of Christ, and claims divine honors; and the beast from the earth, which deceives people into worshiping the first beast, and with its lamblike voice and signs and wonders is a parody of the Holy Spirit. But there is also here an element of political coercion, and the sea beast’s healed wound and his number identify him as Nero, returned from the dead, the persecuting emperor who was worshiped as a god. 

The antecedents of this figure lie in Daniel 7, which was immensely important for New Testament writers. This vision relates that before the coming of God’s kingdom there would be a time of disasters, persecution, and apostasy, and that opposition to God and his people would be summed up in a nation or person, human or superhuman, whom God or his agent would destroy. The vision is related to the Near Eastern myth of God’s conflict with the dragon of the chaos waters, out of which this world was created. The myth celebrated the victory of order over chaos in nature; in some biblical passages the powers of chaos were historicized as nations opposed to God and his people—Egypt (Ezekiel 29.3) and Babylon (Jeremiah 51.34)—and in Daniel 7 the four beasts arising out of the sea (on which the sea beast of Revelation 13 is modeled) represent persecuting empires. They culminate in the "little horn" on the fourth beast, which represents the Greek king Antiochus Epiphanes, who tried to hellenize Judaism, and set up his statue in the Temple (the desolating sacrilege referred to at Mark 13.14 and Matthew 24.15). The book of Revelation updates this picture in terms of the Roman empire, the emperor cult, and collaborating Christians (Revelation 2.14–29; Revelation 13.1–18). (Oxford Companion)

Probably no chapter in Revelation has received more attention or more interpretation.  F,F. Bruce says that the solution of John's riddle had been forgotten by the A.D. 180 and remains uncertain to this day. "This calls for wisdom: let anyone with understanding calculate the number of the beast..." (18).  When will all this come to pass? What one is sure of is John's vision of future events from a privilege perspective (he has been taken up in 4.1). What a wrench Michael Coogan throws into most interpretations if he is right about the way time is viewed: "The universal division of time into past, present, and future is expressed in Hebrew (as in other Semitic languages) by a spatial metaphor. Contrary to Western usage, the past is what lies ahead (Hebr. qedem) and is therefore known; the future is unknown and is behind (Hebr. <Œúôr; <aú‡rôn). " (Oxford Companion).

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Last modified: October 27, 2005