Revelation 13:12

“And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth.” The word for beast, thēríon, is diminutive in form and means a wild beast or animal, and in Revelation it names the two powers that stand against God and his people. “Another” is állos, which marks a second figure distinct from the first. The first beast rose out of the sea and received its power, its throne and great authority from the dragon (Revelation 13:1–10). This one comes “out of the earth”, ek (“out of”) with gē, the word for earth, land or ground. The sea often pictures the restless mass of nations and peoples, so the earth may point to a power that grows up from within settled human life, out of its religion, its thought and its institutions, and that looks familiar and legitimate to the people around it. Daniel was shown beasts as a picture of kingdoms, “These great beasts, which are four, are four kings” (Daniel 7:1–28), and Revelation builds on that picture.

“And he exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him.” The verb behind both “exerciseth” and “causeth” in this verse is poiéō, to make or do, a word of very wide use. Here it is the second beast who makes things happen, and the rest of the chapter shows that he compels as well as persuades. “Power” is exousía, which covers authority and plain power alike, and it is the first beast’s own. The second beast wields it “before him”, enṓpion, in his presence. Everything the second beast holds belongs to the first, so he acts as its agent and enforcer.

His aim is to make “the earth and them which dwell therein” worship the first beast. The verb is proskynéō, to bow down or prostrate oneself in homage, to do reverence. Scripture keeps that honour for God alone. “Thou shalt fear the LORD thy God, and serve him” (Deuteronomy 6:13), and when Satan offered Jesus all the kingdoms of the world for one act of worship, Jesus answered from that verse, “Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve” (Matthew 4:8–10). The commandments forbid other gods and graven images made to be bowed down to (Exodus 20:3–5). So this chapter turns on one question, who will receive the world’s worship, and the angel of the next chapter calls every nation to “worship him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters” (Revelation 14:7). Deceit that draws people to worship something other than God goes back to the serpent in Genesis 3.

“And he doeth great wonders”, megala sēmeia, great signs. A sēmeîon is a sign, mark or token, “an indication, especially ceremonially or supernaturally”, and the KJV renders it “wonders” here and “miracles” in verse 14. God has given his own signs to confirm his word, and here the same kind of sign is put to the service of a lie. The greatest of them is named: “he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men.” Pŷr is the ordinary word for fire. Poiéō appears again for “doeth” and “maketh”.

Fire from heaven was the sign by which God answered Elijah when he faced the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel (1 Kings 18). “Then the fire of the LORD fell, and consumed the burnt sacrifice” (1 Kings 18:38), and the people knew that the LORD is God. Elijah later called down fire on the soldiers sent to take him (2 Kings 1:10–12). The beast copies the very sign that once proved who the true God is, so that anyone who knows those stories is drawn to trust him.

“In the sight of men” makes this a public act, done before a watching world. John describes something people see happen, and its whole power to deceive lies in being seen, so it is best taken as a real event done by power that comes from Satan.

“And deceiveth them that dwell on the earth.” Planáō means to cause to wander, to lead astray, so that people leave God’s path for a false and ruinous one. “Them that dwell on the earth” is Revelation’s name for the people of this world, set against those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life. He deceives them “by the means of those miracles which he had power to do”. “Had power” renders a form of dídōmi, to give: each sign was given him to do. He does them “in the sight of the beast”, before the first beast and for its glory.

Then he tells the people “that they should make an image to the beast”. Eikṓn is a likeness, a representation or a statue. Among the Greeks and Romans an image of a god or an emperor was the focus of worship, so the command is a call to idolatry, a demand for something people can see and bow to. The people themselves make it at his word.

The beast it honours is the one “which had the wound by a sword, and did live.” The wound is plēgḗ, a stroke or blow, the sword is máchaira, a short sword or dagger, and “did live” is záō, to live, be alive. The beast’s survival is held up as its credential, a copy of death and resurrection. Against it stands Christ, who is “the image of the invisible God” (Colossians 1:15), so that whoever has seen him has seen the Father (John 14:9).

“And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast.” The word the KJV renders “life” is pneûma, breath or wind, and by extension a spirit. The common Greek word for life, zōē, is absent here. The second beast gives the image breath, so that it appears alive and carries authority, a demonic counterfeit of God’s power to give life. The image is made to “speak”, the same verb laléō that described the dragon’s voice in verse 11, and what it speaks are the beast’s demands and decrees.

The image then causes “that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed.” Here the worship of verse 12 is enforced by death. Nebuchadnezzar did the same with his golden image in Daniel 3, where it was decreed: “whoso falleth not down and worshippeth shall the same hour be cast into the midst of a burning fiery furnace” (Daniel 3:5–6). Revelation later shows the souls of those who were beheaded and “had not worshipped the beast, neither his image”, and they live and reign with Christ (Revelation 20:4–6). Faithfulness may cost a believer his life, and the Lord honours it.

“And he causeth all”, poiéō once more, with pâs, “all”. The list that follows, “both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond”, sets out three pairs that together take in every rank of society, the powerful and the weak, the wealthy and the destitute, the free and the enslaved. The demand reaches everyone.

They are made “to receive a mark”. The verb behind “receive” is dídōmi, to give, so the mark is given to them. The word for mark is cháragma, from a verb meaning to scratch or engrave. It is an engraved or stamped impression, the kind of thing found on a coin, branded on an animal or pressed onto an official document as a seal, and here it is a visible sign of ownership and allegiance to the beast.

People in John’s day knew such marks. Slaves were sometimes branded with their master’s mark, soldiers might bear a tattoo of their commander or god, and devotees of some cults, such as those of Isis or Serapis, took marks to show their devotion. The emperors’ images were stamped on the coins everyone needed for trade.

The mark goes “in their right hand, or in their foreheads”. The right hand stands for action, labour, trade and power, and the forehead for thought, belief and open identity. The beast claims both what a person does and what a person confesses. God’s people knew this pairing from the law, where his words were to be bound “for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes” (Deuteronomy 6:8). Before this, John saw God’s servants sealed: “till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads” (Revelation 7:3). The beast’s mark is the counterfeit of that seal. Those who worship the beast and receive his mark face God’s wrath, and in the same place John says, “Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus” (Revelation 14:9–12).

“And that no man might buy or sell.” “Man” renders tìs, anyone at all, and “might” is dýnamai, to be able. Every kind of trade, from daily bread to great commerce, is shut to anyone who lacks the beast’s token. The one exception is “save he that had the mark”. Ei mḗ means “if not”, “except” or “save”, and échō is to have or hold. The token may be the mark, “or the name of the beast, or the number of his name”. Ónoma is name, arithmós is number, and thēríon is again the beast. The three belong to one system of allegiance, and the number is given in the next verse.

So the beast reaches for control of every part of life, the wish behind the old boast, “I will be like the most High” (Isaiah 14:14). Under Rome, refusing the cult of the emperor could bring ruin, and people in trade and public office were often pressed to take part in it. Here each person must choose between keeping a livelihood and keeping faith. Jesus said, “Ye cannot serve God and mammon” (Luke 16:13), and he told his disciples that the Father who feeds the birds and clothes the lilies knows what they need (Matthew 6:25–34).

“Here is wisdom.” Sophía is wisdom of every kind, worldly or spiritual, human or divine, and here it is the insight needed to see the beast for what it is. The same call comes again in Revelation 17:9: “And here is the mind which hath wisdom.” God gives such wisdom to those who ask him (James 1:5), and Christ himself is “the power of God, and the wisdom of God” (1 Corinthians 1:24).

“Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast.” Understanding is noûs, the mind. The verb “count”, psēphízō, means to reckon with pebbles, to calculate, and it appears only here and in Luke 14:28, where a man sits down and “counteth the cost” before he builds a tower. So the reader is asked to work something out with care.

“For it is the number of a man.” The number lies within human reckoning, and it belongs to humanity, whether that means one man, a human system or humanity in its rebellion against God. For all the beast’s borrowed power and its source in Satan, it is human and limited. In Greek the letters also serve as numerals, and the number is written as three letters, chi, xi and stigma (chx stigma), standing for 600, 60 and 6.

Everything the beast from the earth does is a copy of something true, and the true thing is Christ. The beast has horns like a lamb. Jesus is “the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world” (John 1:29), “the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world” (Revelation 13:8), whose blood redeemed people from every nation (Revelation 5:6–10). The beast speaks with the dragon’s voice. Jesus says, “I am the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6), and “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: And I give unto them eternal life” (John 10:27–28).

The first beast’s wound was healed for a show. Christ died and rose, and he says, “I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore” (Revelation 1:18). Through death he destroyed “him that had the power of death, that is, the devil” (Hebrews 2:14–15). The image receives a borrowed breath, and of Christ it is written, “In him was life” (John 1:4). He came “that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly” (John 10:10).

The beast wields borrowed authority. Christ says, “All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth” (Matthew 28:18), and heaven declares the Lamb worthy to receive power and riches and wisdom and honour and glory (Revelation 5:12–13). The beast compels worship by fear and trade. Christ’s kingdom “is not of this world” (John 18:36), and he calls disciples to deny themselves, take up the cross and follow him (Matthew 16:24). His people bear their own mark, for they are “sealed with that holy Spirit of promise” (Ephesians 1:13–14), and he promises to write on the one who overcomes the name of his God and his own new name (Revelation 3:12).

The end of the story belongs to the Lamb. John next sees the Lamb on mount Sion with a company “having his Father’s name written in their foreheads” (Revelation 14:1), who “follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth” (Revelation 14:4). He sees “them that had gotten the victory over the beast, and over his image, and over his mark, and over the number of his name” standing with “the harps of God” (Revelation 15:2). The King of kings rides out, and the beast and the false prophet are taken and cast alive into the lake of fire (Revelation 19:11–21). “The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever” (Revelation 11:15).

This passage gives God’s people a clear sight of how deception works. It comes with the look of the Lamb, it brings real signs, it holds out the world’s worship as proof, and in the end it backs its claims with the loss of a livelihood or of life. Against all of that God gives his word as the measure of every voice, and the call of verse 18 is a call to the understanding he gives.

It also shows who God is. Every power the beasts hold is given to them, used for a time and counted, and the number of the beast is only the number of a man. God seals his servants before the trouble comes, he knows their needs, and he sets those who keep faith beside the Lamb with harps in their hands. Jesus put it plainly: “fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul” (Matthew 10:28), and “he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it” (Matthew 10:39). Paul’s word to the churches fits the same hour: “be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind” (Romans 12:2), and “Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free” (Galatians 5:1). The way through is to keep looking to Jesus, “the author and finisher of our faith” (Hebrews 12:2).