The two beasts: empire, deception and the number 666

Revelation is a letter from John to seven churches in the Roman province of Asia (1:4, 11), written from the island of Patmos 'because of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus' (1:9). Its date is disputed. Most scholars follow Irenaeus, who wrote in the late second century that the vision was seen near the end of the reign of Domitian, about AD 95. A minority, including the preterist writers Kenneth Gentry and David Chilton and, among critical scholars, J. A. T. Robinson, argue for the late 60s under Nero, mainly from the 'seven kings' of chapter 17 and the number 666.

On either date the first hearers lived in cities where public life was bound up with the worship of the gods and, increasingly, of the emperor. Pergamum, where Revelation 2:13 places 'Satan's throne', had a temple of Roma and Augustus from the first emperor's time. Emperors were called 'son of god', 'saviour' and 'lord'. Provincial priesthoods ran the cult, and trade guilds met at banquets under the patronage of gods. A Christian who stayed away risked suspicion and loss of income. Pliny, a Roman governor, wrote to Trajan from Bithynia about AD 112 that he tested accused Christians by making them offer to the emperor's image. Scholars debate whether Domitian ran an empire-wide persecution, but Revelation names a martyr, Antipas (2:13).

Chapter 13 follows chapter 12, where the defeated dragon turns to make war on the woman's other children (12:17). Chapter 13 shows his method. He works through two agents, a beast from the sea and a beast from the land. It contains the figures later Christians have called the Antichrist and the false prophet, the mark, and the number 666.

Revelation is at once a letter, a prophecy and an apocalypse (1:1, 3, 4). An apocalypse discloses spiritual realities through visions and symbols, usually to people under pressure. A beast here is a picture, decoded mainly through the Old Testament that John's hearers knew. Chapter 13 is thick with Daniel: the sea, the beasts, the ten horns, the arrogant mouth, the forty-two months, and the image all must worship.

• The first rule is to ask what each image meant in its source and then how John has turned it.
• The second rule is to read the chapter as a counterfeit of the book's central pictures: a false father, a false Lamb that seems slain and lives, a false prophet with false signs.
• The third rule is that John wrote to be understood by seven real congregations, so the chapter must have made sense to them.

Four approaches to the book bear on this chapter, each with a strong case. The preterist approach (from the Latin for 'past') holds that most of the book was fulfilled in the first century. For Gentry and Chilton the first beast is Nero and the Roman Empire, the forty-two months match Nero's persecution after the fire of Rome in AD 64, and 666 matches the Hebrew spelling of 'Nero Caesar'. Critical scholars such as Adela Yarbro Collins, David Aune, Craig Koester and Richard Bauckham also take Rome as the referent, on historical grounds. Its strength is that it explains why the clues were given to the seven churches. The historicist approach reads the book as a sweep through church history. The Reformers, and in the nineteenth century E. B. Elliott, saw the first beast in the papacy. Its strength is its attention to the long career of Christendom, reading the forty-two months as 1,260 years by the day-for-year principle. The idealist or spiritual approach, represented by William Hendriksen and in large part by G. K. Beale, holds that the beasts show forces that recur in every age: the state that claims ultimate loyalty, and the culture and religion that serve it. Its strength is that the New Testament itself speaks of many antichrists already present (1 John 2:18). The futurist approach, held by most dispensational writers such as John Walvoord and Charles Ryrie and by many others, expects a final ruler and a final deceiver before Christ returns, and links Revelation 13 with Daniel 7 and 2 Thessalonians 2. Its strength is that the pictures of Daniel 7 reach their goal only when the Son of Man receives the kingdom.

The millennial views touch the chapter too. Amillennial readers (Augustine, Hoekema, Riddlebarger) see the beast as active through the whole age between the two comings. Postmillennial readers (Edwards, Hodge, Warfield, Chilton) hold that its power is broken by the advance of the gospel. Historic premillennial readers such as Ladd expect a final trial under an Antichrist before Christ returns. Dispensational premillennial readers place the beast in a future seven-year tribulation, with the forty-two months as its second half.

Our understanding of the passage is limited to what the text supports. John intends a political power that demands the worship due to God and kills those who refuse, and the seven churches could hardly have heard that as anything but Rome (compare 17:9, 18). The chapter names no individual beyond a riddle and does not say whether the pattern is exhausted by the first century. There the readings part.

Verses 1–2

John 'saw a beast with ten horns and seven heads rising out of the sea.' In Daniel 7:2-7 four beasts come up from the sea: a lion, a bear, a leopard and a terrible fourth beast with ten horns. The sea in the Old Testament is the realm of chaos and its monsters (Psalm 74:13-14; Isaiah 27:1), and for readers in Asia it was also the direction from which Roman governors arrived. John's beast is 'like a leopard, with the feet of a bear and the mouth of a lion': all of Daniel's kingdoms are gathered into one. The crowns and 'blasphemous names' are claims to royal and divine titles. The dragon of chapter 12 'gave the beast his power and his throne and great authority'. The beast is his delegate.

Verses 3–4

One head 'appeared to be mortally wounded. But the mortal wound was healed.' The Greek word for the wound is the word used of the Lamb 'slain' in 5:6, so the beast parodies Easter. The result is that 'the whole world marveled and followed the beast'. The cry 'Who is like the beast, and who can wage war against it?' echoes Israel's confession 'Who is like You, O LORD, among the gods?' (Exodus 15:11), and plays on the name Michael, 'Who is like God?'.

Verses 5–8

The beast is 'given' a mouth for arrogant and blasphemous words and 'authority to act for 42 months'. The repeated passive 'was given' tells the reader that the beast's power is permitted. Forty-two months is three and a half years, the 1,260 days of 11:2-3 and 12:6 and the 'time, times and half a time' of Daniel 7:25 and 12:7. It is a limited season, whether read as a literal span, a symbol, or a long period. In verse 7 the beast is permitted 'to wage war against the saints and to conquer them'. John means this: the saints win by witness unto death, as the Lamb did (12:11). The phrase 'tribe and people and tongue and nation' is the one used of the redeemed (5:9; 7:9). In verse 8 the Greek can mean either 'written from the foundation of the world' or 'the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world'. Revelation 17:8 supports the first.

Verses 9–10

'He who has an ear, let him hear' repeats the refrain of the seven letters (2:7). The saying about captivity and the sword draws on Jeremiah 15:2 and 43:11. It may mean that violence returns on those who use it, or that God has fixed the suffering. John states the response: 'Here is a call for the perseverance and faith of the saints.'

Verses 11–12

The second beast rises 'out of the earth', has 'two horns like a lamb', and 'spoke like a dragon'. It is later called 'the false prophet' (16:13; 19:20). Its task is to make the earth worship the first beast. Many scholars see in it the machinery of the imperial cult in Asia: priests and officials who ran the festivals, images and loyalty tests. Futurist readers see a single religious deceiver who leads the world to worship the final ruler.

Verses 13–15

It performs 'great signs' and brings 'fire from heaven', as Elijah did (1 Kings 18:38), and Jesus warned of false prophets who show 'great signs and wonders' (Matthew 24:24). It orders an image of the first beast, recalling the gold image of Daniel 3 and its death penalty for those who would not bow, and it is permitted to give the image breath so that it speaks. Ancient writers report statues of gods that seemed to speak through priestly trickery, and some modern futurists propose a coming technology. The text states the purpose: the image enforces worship, on pain of death.

Verses 16–17

The mark on 'right hand or forehead' mimics Deuteronomy 6:8, where God's words are bound on the hand and between the eyes, and it counterfeits the seal on God's servants (7:3; 14:1; compare Ezekiel 9:4). The effect is economic: 'no one could buy or sell unless he had the mark'. For a merchant in a guild-based economy the pressure was real. Whether the mark is a literal brand, a coin or a sign of allegiance is open.

Verse 18

'Here is a call for wisdom: Let the one who has insight calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man, and that number is 666.' Letters were also numbers in Greek and Hebrew, and reading names as numbers is called gematria. The most widely held solution is Nero Caesar, whose name written in Hebrew letters adds to 666. Some early manuscripts read 616, which fits the Latin spelling of Nero without its final letter. Irenaeus knew the number, offered other names such as Lateinos, and cautioned against certainty. Others hold that six, one short of seven, is the number of fallen humanity, and that no name is intended.

What do all the main readings agree on here? That evil is real, organized and borrowed. The dragon gives power, but the beasts act only as long as they are permitted (13:5, 7), and the same pattern appears in Job 1 and 2, where the accuser's limits are set by God. That political and religious power can claim what belongs to God alone, and that the church must then refuse. That the faithful conquer by endurance and witness, not arms (13:10; 12:11). And that the beast's apparent triumph is temporary: the Lamb's book, not the beast's, decides who belongs to God (13:8). All four approaches affirm these things. The dispute is about which powers fit the picture, and when.

The chapter also completes the Bible's picture of political power. In Romans 13:1-7 Paul calls the governing authorities 'God's servants' who restrain wrongdoing. In Revelation 13 the state appears as it is when it demands the worship that belongs to God. Together they teach that government has a legitimate place and no right to ultimate loyalty. The pattern appears earlier in Pharaoh, Nebuchadnezzar (Daniel 3) and Antiochus IV (Daniel 8 and 11). Related New Testament terms are 'antichrist' (1 John 2:18, 22; 4:3; 2 John 7), a spirit of opposition already present in many forms, and 'the man of lawlessness' (2 Thessalonians 2:3-12). Many link these figures with Revelation 13. The word 'antichrist' does not occur in Revelation, so the link is an inference, drawn more strongly by futurist readers and more loosely by idealist readers.

What remains debated is whether the beast is a first-century empire and its cult, a pattern recurring until the end, or a final figure still to come. The chapter's contribution to the study of the last things is the 'already and not yet' of the church's situation: the Lamb has conquered and has not yet put every enemy under his feet, and history under the beast is bounded by a fixed time and a book that cannot be altered.

The beast is built as a counterfeit of Christ, and the counterfeit tells us what is true of him. The Lamb was slain and lives (5:6), and the beast seems slain and living. The Lamb has authority from the Father (Matthew 28:18), and the beast has authority from the dragon. The Lamb's people bear his name and seal, and the beast's followers bear his mark. The Lamb is worshipped by every tribe and tongue (5:9-13), and the beast demands the same.

The Old Testament background makes the same point. In Daniel 7 the beasts rise from the sea, and then 'one like a son of man' receives from the Ancient of Days a kingdom that will not pass away, and the saints of the Most High receive it with him (7:13-14, 18, 27). Jesus took the Son of Man title as his own (Mark 14:62), and John has already seen him in that role (Revelation 1:13). The beasts have power for a set time. The Son of Man has it forever. The question 'Who is like the beast?' is answered by Exodus 15:11 and by the rest of the book, where the Lamb and the One on the throne are worshipped together. Verse 8 calls the Book of Life the Lamb's own, and the security of the saints rests on belonging to him (compare John 10:28).