Revelation 13
The Beast from the Sea Rises 1–10
The Beast from the Earth (The False Prophet) 11–18
Bible text: King James Version (1769 Blayney text) · Public domain
Study Notes for Revelation 13
Verse 1
a beast rise up out of the sea — Therion, a wild beast. Daniel saw ‘four great beasts’ come ‘up from the sea’ (Dan 7:2–3), and the fourth had ten horns (Dan 7:7). The dragon of Rev 12:3 also has ‘seven heads and ten horns’, but with the crowns (diadema) on its heads; here they are ‘upon his horns’. The heads bear ‘the name of blasphemy’.
Verse 2
like unto a leopard… bear… lion — These are the three animals of Dan 7:4–6, named there in the order lion, bear, leopard; here the order is reversed and all three are joined in one beast. ‘The dragon’ is ‘that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan’ (Rev 12:9), and gives the beast his power, his ‘seat’ (thronos, throne; cf. ‘Satan’s seat’, Rev 2:13) and authority.
Verse 3
wounded to death — Sphazo, to slay, is the verb used of the Lamb ‘as it had been slain’ (Rev 5:6) and of the martyrs ‘slain for the word of God’ (Rev 6:9). The healing of the wound draws the wonder of ‘all the world’; Rev 17:8 says the earth’s inhabitants ‘shall wonder’ at ‘the beast that was, and is not, and yet is’.
Verse 4
Who is like unto the beast? — The question echoes the praise of God at the Red Sea: ‘Who is like unto thee, O LORD, among the gods?’ (Ex 15:11). Proskuneo, to bow down in worship, is given first to the dragon, the offer he made to Christ: ‘All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me’ (Matt 4:9).
Verse 5
forty and two months — This is the same period as the Gentiles’ treading of the holy city (Rev 11:2). It equals the ‘thousand two hundred and threescore days’ of Rev 11:3 and 12:6, and the ‘time, and times, and half a time’ of Rev 12:14 (Dan 7:25 has ‘a time and times and the dividing of time’). ‘A mouth speaking great things’ is the phrase of Dan 7:8. ‘Was given’ stands twice in this verse.
Verse 6
his name, and his tabernacle, and them that dwell in heaven — Skene, tabernacle, whose verb skenoo (‘dwell’) appears in Rev 12:12 of those in heaven; Rev 21:3 says ‘the tabernacle of God is with men’. Dan 7:25 says the same horn ‘shall speak great words against the most High’.
Verse 7
to make war with the saints, and to overcome them — Daniel saw the same: ‘the same horn made war with the saints, and prevailed against them’ (Dan 7:21). Nikao, to overcome, is the verb of Christ’s promises to the churches and of Rev 12:11: ‘they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb’. His authority covers three groups: ‘kindreds, and tongues, and nations’.
Verse 8
the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world — The ‘Lamb’s book of life’ appears again in Rev 21:27, and Rev 17:8 speaks of names ‘not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world’. The phrase may be read with ‘written’ or with ‘slain’; for the latter, compare 1 Pet 1:20, ‘foreordained before the foundation of the world’.
Verse 10
He that leadeth into captivity shall go into captivity — Jer 15:2 has ‘Such as are for the captivity, to the captivity’, and Christ said, ‘all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword’ (Matt 26:52). Hypomone, ‘patience’, is endurance; compare ‘Here is the patience of the saints’ (Rev 14:12).
Verse 11
two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon — Arnion, ‘lamb’, is the title of Christ throughout Revelation; the Lamb has ‘seven horns’ (Rev 5:6). This beast looks like a lamb but ‘spake as a dragon’. He is called ‘the false prophet’ who ‘wrought miracles before him’ (Rev 16:13; 19:20), and he rises from the earth where the first beast came from the sea.
Verse 12
he exerciseth all the power of the first beast — Exousia, authority, is the word of the dragon’s gift to the first beast (v.2); the second acts ‘before him’ (enopion, in his presence). The purpose is worship: the earth and those who dwell on it are made to worship the first beast ‘whose deadly wound was healed’, as in v.3.
Verse 13
great wonders… fire come down from heaven — Semeia, signs. Christ warned that false prophets ‘shall shew great signs and wonders’ (Matt 24:24), and Paul of ‘all power and signs and lying wonders’ (2 Thess 2:9). Fire came down from heaven at Elijah’s word (1 Kgs 18:38; 2 Kgs 1:10); here it is done ‘in the sight of men’.
Verse 15
power to give life unto the image — The word translated ‘life’ is pneuma, breath or spirit; it is given to the image so that it speaks. Death for refusing is the penalty of Nebuchadnezzar’s image: ‘whoso falleth not down and worshippeth shall… be cast into the midst of a burning fiery furnace’ (Dan 3:6). See also Rev 20:4.
Verse 16
a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads — Charagma, a mark cut or stamped, used elsewhere of idols ‘graven by art’ (Acts 17:29). It answers the sealing of God’s servants ‘in their foreheads’ (Rev 7:3; 14:1) and the name that will be in the foreheads of the redeemed (Rev 22:4). Israel was told to bind the law ‘for a sign upon thine hand… between thine eyes’ (Deut 6:8).
Verse 17
no man might buy or sell — Agorazo is to buy at the market, poleo to sell. The mark is ‘the name of the beast, or the number of his name’; Rev 14:9–11 gives the judgment on those who receive it, and Rev 15:2 shows those who had victory ‘over his mark, and over the number of his name’ standing on the sea of glass.
Verse 18
the number of a man… Six hundred threescore and six — Psephizo, ‘count’, is to reckon with pebbles, found elsewhere only in Luke 14:28, ‘counteth the cost’. ‘Here is wisdom’ is matched by Rev 17:9, ‘here is the mind which hath wisdom’. The number is ‘of a man’ (anthropos), and the call is for understanding, not a guess.