Joel’s Revelation Commentary: Revelation 13–THE BEAST…wait…TWO BEASTS!

At the end of Revelation 12, after we are told that the dragon went off to make war against the rest of the woman’s offspring, the chapter ends with the dragon standing on the shore of the sea. No, it is not the Mediterranean Sea. It is none other than the Sea of Chaos—the mythical sea that represents evil and chaos. You see it in Genesis 1:1 (“darkness was on the face of the deep), as well as Daniel 7:1-3 (four beasts come out of the sea).  If you keep in mind what started in Genesis 3 (i.e. there would be a war between the serpent’s offspring and the woman’s offspring), you should be able to guess what happens next.

Having failed to destroy the “Old Testament Church” (i.e. Israel), having failed to destroy kill Christ, and having now been cast out of Heaven, the dragon goes off to make war with the rest of the woman’s offspring. Who would that be? It is the reconstituted Israel in Christ (i.e. the Church). The rest of the woman’s offspring is every Christian who makes up the Church. So who is going to be the dragon’s/serpent’s offspring? Welcome to chapter 13…introductions are in order.

The Beast Out of the Sea
I mentioned earlier Daniel 7, when Daniel has a vision of four beasts coming out of the sea. The first three beasts represented Babylon, Media, and Persia, and the fourth beast represented Greece. But on this last beast there is a little horn that “makes war with the saints.” In the original context, this was about the rise of Antiochus Epiphanes IV in the 2^nd century BC, and his attempt to destroy the Jews. But the imagery in Daniel 7 is intentional: these empires were depicted as evil. That is why the beasts come up out of the sea. In the ancient world, if a beast came up out of the sea, it was going to be evil.

Here in Revelation, it is no different: a beast comes up out of the sea. This beast is, if you will, one of the dragon’s offspring he’s going to use to make war with the Church, (i.e. the woman’s offspring). So the logical question would be, “Whom did the early Christians in 95 AD have understood this sea beast to be?” Spoiler alert—not Nicolae Carpathia from the “Left Behind” series!

The early Christians would have easily seen this beast out of the sea as either the former Roman Emperor Nero, or Emperor Domitian, the man who was emperor at the end of the first century. There are basically two things that show this is how John wanted his readers to understand who the sea beast was:

1. The blasphemous names on its heads. One of the major points of conflict between the early Christians and Rome was the fact that the Roman emperors were called by such titles as “Lord and God,” or “Lord and Savior.” The Christians would not call the emperors by these titles, and were thus suspected of being traitors. To the Christians such titles belonged only to Christ, therefore to attribute them to Roman emperors was blasphemous. Caesar isn’t Lord and Savior—Christ alone is.
2. The beast has a fatal wound that was healed. This is a blatant reference to Nero, who committed suicide in 68 AD. When this was reported to the Roman people, although they were overjoyed that the tyrant was dead, they thought it was too good to be true. Consequently, many imposters tried to use this fear to their advantage. Imperial edicts were issued in Nero’s name, as though he were still alive, and no less than three men claimed to actually be Nero. One lead a rebellion in Rome in 69 AD; another was welcomed by Rome’s major enemy, the Parthians, in 80 AD; and one nearly persuaded the Parthians to march with him against Rome in 88 AD.

Finally, the belief that he was still alive and would return to take vengeance on Rome was replaced by the belief that he had, in fact, died, but would return from the dead to lead armies against Rome. Consequently, at the time of John’s writing of Revelation in 95 AD, this was a legitimate fear in the Roman Empire—that the destruction of their world would come at the hands of a Nero who had come back from the dead—the anti-Christ in Christians’ eyes.

The Christians had deep fears about Nero. He was the first emperor to savagely persecute Christians. His persecution was limited to Rome itself. One of his atrocities is that he used Christians as human torches to light his garden. The fact that in 95 AD, the emperor Domitian unleashed the first empire-wide persecution of Christians, no doubt had Christians seeing him as sort of a Nero 2.0.

And so, in 13:3-10, this sea beast is described as having dominion over every tribe, people, language and nation. We are told that the entire world followed the beast and worshipped the dragon. At that time, only one man fit that description: the Roman Emperor. Verses 5-8 would have been particularly disturbing for Christians: the sea beast, the very embodiment of the dragon’s evil, would be allowed to exercise his authority for 42 months. Again, this corresponds to the two witnesses in Revelation 11, as well as the woman’s time in the wilderness.

No, this is not to be taken as a literal 42 months. The point is simple: it is ordained by God that His followers go through suffering and tribulation for a time at the hands of Satan’s representative on earth. In fact, the beast was allowed to make war against, and even conquer, the saints—those who have their home in Heaven (13:6)…this is just like when the beast is allowed to kill the two witnesses of chapter 11.

Not only that, but one more thing is said: the inhabitants of the earth will actually worship the beast. The distinction is now made: the people of God are no longer Jews, as opposed to Gentiles, but rather the saints of God who have their names in the Lamb’s book of life, and whose home is in heaven, as opposed to everyone else, who lives on the earth. Ultimately, there are only citizens of Heaven, and citizens of earth. The saints live in Heaven and worship the Lamb, whereas the inhabitants of the earth worship the beast, and ultimately the dragon himself.

Finally, 13:10 gives a downright chilling statement to the seven churches to whom John was writing: “He who has an ear, let him hear! If anyone is to go into captivity, into captivity he will go. If anyone is to be killed with the sword, with the sword he will be killed. This calls for patient endurance and faithfulness on the part of the saints.” Basically, John is telling these churches that some of them are going to die, so they had better be prepared to be either killed or uprooted from their homes—this is what is means to follow Christ, so endure and be faithful to Him.

There is no “Don’t worry! You’re going to be raptured out of the coming tribulation!” There is no “Don’t worry! This doesn’t apply to you! This will happen 2,000 years from now, during a 7-year tribulation period, when Christians who only become Christians after the rapture will be persecuted!” All there is, is John warning those seven churches that the persecution under Domitian is going to get worse, so be faithful.

Let me just stop and say here that such a passage is hard for Christians in 21^st century America to relate to—we’re not undergoing persecution. That is why, I believe, people assume this is a prediction of yet future events. But it’s not—it’s a description of what Christians should expect in this world, be they first century Christians, Christians who suffered under the Communists, or Christians now who are being slaughtered by ISIS. Such a message has direct revelatory relevance to Christians who are being persecuted. We need to remember that.

The Beast from the Earth
There’s another beast! Here is what John says about it:

1. It had two horns like a lamb, but it spoke like a dragon (v. 11)
2. It made the inhabitants of the earth worship the sea beast (v. 12)
3. It performed miraculous signs and deceived the inhabitants of the earth (v. 13-14)
4. It had an image made of the sea beast, and made it talk (v. 15)
5. It killed anyone who didn’t worship the image (v. 15)
6. It made everyone take a mark on their foreheads or hands in order to buy and sell (v. 16)

So who the heck is this second beast? Well, it sure seems that the earth beast is in the service of the sea beast, doesn’t it? So if the sea beast is the Roman Emperor (Nero or Domitian), who is the earth beast? Since the chief objective of the earth beast is to get people to worship the sea beast, scholars agree that the earth beast is a reference to the official cult of the Emperor throughout the Roman Empire—it was the state-sponsored worship of the Roman Emperor as a god, as the “Lord and Savior” of the world.

The Emperor Domitian, for example, actually claimed the title “Lord and God” while he was still alive. Most of the time, once an emperor died, the Senate would declare him to be a god, but for an emperor to claim that for himself while he was still alive, well, that’s just a bit megalomaniacal, don’t you think? In any case, not all emperors encouraged this imperial cult. The early emperors of the first century discouraged it, but later emperors like Caligula, Nero, and Domitian, embraced it. In fact, throughout the Roman Empire, it was common to have the huge images of various gods (and presumably god-emperors!) that were set up in pagan temples to have hollowed out heads, so that the priests could actually climb inside these idols and give the impression that the image of the “god” actually spoke.

In any case, it is no wonder that Domitian unleashed an empire-wide persecution of Christians—they wouldn’t address him as “Lord and God.”  John’s point here is thus clear. He saw this growing fascination of emperor worship as the work of Satan. The Roman emperor had become the “lamb of the dragon” so to speak—hence the reference to having two horns like a lamb, yet speaking like a dragon. He was utterly hostile to Christ, the Lamb of God. The persecuting Roman emperor, and the cult of emperor worship, embodied Satan’s war against the woman’s offspring…the Christians. The war of Genesis 3 is being played out.

One Final Thing: What’s 666 All About?
The “mark of the beast”—what is it? Here in Revelation 13 it is said that anyone who did not have this number on their foreheads or hands could not buy or sell. No, it’s not about bar codes on merchandise at your local store. Back then, many Roman coins had the title of the Emperor on them, and undoubtedly many Christians would have a big problem buying something with a coin that said, “Caesar is Lord and Savior” on it.

By why “666”? No, it’s not some kind of secret computer code. Here’s the most likely explanation. In Greek and Hebrew, they didn’t have numbers—that is why they used letters to denote their numbers (i.e. x = 10; vii = 7). Therefore, every name also had a numerical value. And it just so turns out that the name “Nero Caesar” had a numerical value of…yes, you guessed it…666. It is likely that the early Christians would have identified 666 as referring to Nero or the “second coming of Nero,” if you will—i.e. Domitian. In addition, there is something else significant about 666: it is a triple failing of 777. “7” is the divine number of God, and therefore “666” (possibly a reference to the dragon, sea beast, and earth beast) is a triple failure of trying to defeat God and his Christ.

Revelation 12-13 have been two chapters that have terrified many good Evangelicals for the past 50 years, and have been the focus of many bad Christian movies like “The Thief in the Night” and, obviously, the books and movies of “Left Behind.”

Now that you understand what Revelation 12-13 really are about, you can now put your fears away. You’re welcome!