Revelation 13

The Two Beasts, 1-18

13:1 Then I saw a beast coming up out of the sea. It had ten horns and seven heads, and on its horns were ten diadem crowns, and on its heads a blasphemous name. 13:2 Now the beast that I saw was like a leopard, but its feet were like a bear’s, and its mouth was like a lion’s mouth. The dragon gave the beast his power, his throne, and great authority to rule. 13:3 One of the beast’s heads appeared to have been killed, but the lethal wound had been healed. And the whole world followed the beast in amazement; 13:4 they worshiped the dragon because he had given ruling authority to the beast, and they worshiped the beast too, saying: “Who is like the beast?” and “Who is able to make war against him?”

To John’s original readers, the beast was the Roman Empire, with its seemingly endless succession of monstrous emperors – Tiberius, Caligula, Nero, Domitian. The beast was many-headed, rather like a Hydra: cut off one head, and another grows in its place.

Seven heads…on each head a blasphemous name – Seven major figures since Augustus had by the objects of emperor-worship. Nero was titled ‘Saviour of the World’, and Domitian was called Dominus et Deus noster – ‘Our lord and god’.

The ten horns…with ten crowns are suggestive of absolute power and authority.

Since the days of the Roman empire, other leaders have emerged who have made similar claims and who have thrived on naked power and opposed God and threatened his people.

13:5 The beast was given a mouth speaking proud words and blasphemies, and he was permitted to exercise ruling authority for forty-two months. 13:6 So the beast opened his mouth to blaspheme against God—to blaspheme both his name and his dwelling place, that is, those who dwell in heaven.

Forty-two months – The time of Elijah, again, time of conflict and suffering, but also of signs and wonders.

13:7 The beast was permitted to go to war against the saints and conquer them. He was given ruling authority over every tribe, people, language, and nation, 13:8 and all those who live on the earth will worship the beast, everyone whose name has not been written since the foundation of the world in the book of life belonging to the Lamb who was killed. 13:9 If anyone has an ear, he had better listen!
13:10 If anyone is meant for captivity,
into captivity he will go.
If anyone is to be killed by the sword,
then by the sword he must be killed.
This requires steadfast endurance and faith from the saints.

We should be wary of attempts to identify the beast with any one person or institution. However, we may view him as one with the antichrist, 1 Jn 2:18,22;4:3; 2 Jn 7; the man of lawlessness, 2 Thess 2:3.

The expression since the foundation of the world could be read either with written, or slain. The former is preferable, since it not only makes better sense theologically, but is in line with Rev 17:8, which repeats what is written here.

The book of life – 

G.W. Hawthorne notes that ‘expressions such as “your names are written in heaven” (Lk. 10:20), “whose names are in the book of life” (Phil. 4:3), “whose name has not been written … in the book of life” (Rev. 13:8), and “I will not blot his name out of the book of life” (Rev. 3:5), crop up several times within the NT. The figure is taken from the OT (cf. Isa. 4:3; Ezk. 13:9; Dan. 12:1), or from the secular world where a criminal’s name was removed from the civic register to take from him all rights of citizenship.’

Hawthorne appears to offer tentative support for a doctrine of conditional immortality when he adds: ‘If one could argue from these statements that all names have been recorded in the book of life, thereby assuring existence for each person, and if one might also argue that for some reason, e.g., wilful disobedience to God’s commands, deliberate refusal to accept Christ as Savior and Lord, etc., one’s name could be removed from this divine register, “blotted out,” then one might argue that that person would cease to exist, for his name would no longer exist.’

ISBE (2nd ed.), art ‘name’

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The Lamb in Revelation

13:11 Then I saw another beast coming up from the earth. He had two horns like a lamb, but was speaking like a dragon. 13:12 He exercised all the ruling authority of the first beast on his behalf, and made the earth and those who inhabit it worship the first beast, the one whose lethal wound had been healed. 13:13 He performed momentous signs, even making fire come down from heaven in front of people 13:14 and, by the signs he was permitted to perform on behalf of the beast, he deceived those who live on the earth. He told those who live on the earth to make an image to the beast who had been wounded by the sword, but still lived.

Another beast – If the first beast is the secular manifestation of Satan, this second beast would appear to be his religious embodiment. It masquerades as the Lamb, but speaks like a dragon. It speaks on behalf of the first beast and may be regarded as its ‘public relations officer’. It is later described as the false prophet, Rev 16:13.

Bewes comments that false religion may made its mark by causing us to

  • ease up (take it easy, no need to make martyrs of yourselves, a little emperor worship won’t do any harm);
  • freeze up (taking refuge in, say barren intellectualism);
  • seize up (fanaticism that leads to sectarianism and extremism).
13:15 The second beast was empowered to give life to the image of the first beast so that it could speak, and could cause all those who did not worship the image of the beast to be killed. 13:16 He also caused everyone (small and great, rich and poor, free and slave) to obtain a mark on their right hand or on their forehead. 13:17 Thus no one was allowed to buy or sell things unless he bore the mark of the beast—that is, his name or his number. 13:18 This calls for wisdom: Let the one who has insight calculate the beast’s number, for it is man’s number, and his number is 666.

‘When people’s actions (the right hand) and thinking (the forehead) are controlled by a philosophy alien to Christ…you could say the beast has stamped himself upon their lives.’ (Bewes)

The mark of the beast – A mark of ownership.  Ian Paul notes that everyone has either of two identifiers: either the seal of God’s ownership and protection (Rev 14:1; 22:4), or the mark of the beast.

Beasley-Murray:

‘The mark of the beast on non-Christians is a counterpart of the seal of God on Christians (Rev 7:1–8); both show the allegiance of an individual, whether to God or the devil. The immediate effect of demanding that all receive the mark of the beast is the social ostracism of those who refuse it, and it entails economic warfare by the state against the church, with death to those who do not comply.’ (NBC)

Wall, similarly:

‘The universal scope of the anti-Christian kingdom on earth is indicated by the coupling of society’s opposites—small and great, rich and poor, free and slave—signifying everyone; and the nature of their devotion to evil is pervasive, touching even upon basic economic realities, so that no one could buy or sell unless he had the mark of the beast.’

Man’s number – Or, ‘the number of a man’, i.e. denoting a person.

The number of the beast…666 – Either a man (probably Nero) or humankind in its present imperfect condition.  See note following.

'His number is 666'

Rev 13:18 This calls for wisdom: Let the one who has insight calculate the beast’s number, for it is man’s number, and his number is 666.

There have been two main ways of explaining this number.

1. The number of Nero

This is been the identification traditionally and in much recent scholarship.

In Greek and Hebrew, numbers were written using letters of the alphabet in the 1st century, and in that language the letters making up ‘Nero Caesar’ add up to 666.

According to Koester, the word translated ‘calculate’ (psēphizein) is precisely the word that was used for the adding up of numerical values of letters of the alphabet.

Clint Burnett thinks that inscriptional evidence supports the identification of this number with Nero:

One of the most interesting things about name calculations is that Latin speakers participated in the practice. However, given that the letters of the Latin alphabet did not function as numbers but that Latin speakers had Roman numerals, Latin speakers had to express their name calculations in Greek. Thus, Latin speakers who made name calculations in graffiti expected those who read them to calculate the names in question not in Latin but in Greek—there appears to be a wide assumption that these inscriptions will be read and interpreted bilingually.

These observations help us to make sense of the number of the beast in Rev 13:18 because John the prophet provides enough information for his audience to decipher 666 as the name calculation Nero Caesar. His most explicit account of imperial divine honors in the book prefaces his reference to the beast and his number (Rev 13:4, 8, 12, 15). With his reference to one of the heads of the beast with ten diadems and blasphemous names that received a death blow that was healed (Rev 13:3), he alludes to the myth that was circulating in the late first century AD that Nero would return from the dead. Just as Latin speakers expected their audiences to calculate their name calculations in Greek, John expects his audience to transliterate the number from Greek to Hebrew/Aramaic, which means that it would lack vowels—he makes the same assumption that his readers will read and interpret bilingually. Thus, Νέρων Καῖσαρ in Greek letters must become nrwn qsr in Hebrew letters, which calculates to 666: n = 50 + r = 200 + w = 6 + n = 50 + q = 100 + s = 60 + r = 200 = 666.

Mounce, however, says that this solution

‘asks us to calculate a Hebrew transliteration of the Greek form of a Latin name, and that with a defective spelling.’

Ladd and others point out that this requires a variant spelling, and in any case it is difficult to see why the Hebrew should be recalled when the book itself was written in Greek. Cf. Rev 17:9.11.

Ladd further notes that no ancient interpreter of Revelation made this identification.  Irenaeus thought that 666 might represent lateinos (the Latin Empire); Ladd and others find this plausible.

Michaels observes that, with a little ingenuity, many names – ancient and modern – might be represented by the number 666.  (‘Hitler’ is one good candidate, if A=1, B=2, C=3 etc!)

Some ancient manuscripts have the number as 616.  It is possible, according to Mulholland and others, that this variant found its way into the textual tradition as an adaptation of the gematria for readers whose primary language was Latin, in which language 616 would represent ‘Nero Caesar’.

2. The number of imperfection

More simply, six, being one short of seven, represents a falling short, a missing the mark, a failure. 666, then, stands for failure upon failure upon failure.

For Hendriksen, the numbers means ‘failure upon failure upon failure’.

For Ladd, the number 666 might symbolize ‘the best that man can do’.  This might be what is meant be the expression ‘it is a human number’.

Beasley-Murray (NBC):

‘For Christians, 666 was an eminently suitable figure for the antichrist; it represents a consistent falling short of the divine perfection suggested by 777, whereas the name Jesus in Greek totals 888! Therein lies one aspect of the difference between the devil’s christ and the Christ of God: the pseudo-christ falls as far short of being the deliverer of the world as the Christ of God exceeds all the hopes of humankind for a Saviour.’

Ian Paul suggests that even without the letter/number system 666 would have been significant to early readers.  Since 7 symbolises completeness, 6 represents a falling short.  Moreover, 666 is a triangular number (yielding an equilateral triangle of side 36).  As for a specific referent, Ian Paul, like many others, opts for Nero.

Some, including Wright (Revelation for Everyone) embrace elements of both explanations, suggesting that the number is not only a cryptogram but also a parody.

It would seem, with our present level of knowledge, that it is best to avoid dogmatism on the precise meaning of the number 666.

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