The First Beast
Here
we get the famous passage of the two great beasts. We can read that the first beast has seven
heads and ten horns. As I have done in
past blogs, let me spin out a historical explanation before bringing it into a
contemporary setting.
From
a historical perspective contemporary to John, the seven heads likely refer to
the seven Emperors (up to John’s present day) who followed Augustus, who was
the first Emperor. These emperors are:
- Tiberius (14-37),
- Caligula (37-41),
- Claudius (41-54),
- Nero (55-68),
- Vespasian (69-79),
- Titus (79-81), and
- Domitian (81-96).
With
this understanding, the ten horns likely represent the ten leaders of Rome. These would be the seven emperors mentioned
above plus Galba, Otho, and Vitellius who unsuccessfully tried to gain the
office after Nero’s death. This largely
means that the first beast represents ether the Roman Empire as a whole or at
least the Emperors who led Rome.
Seeing
the first beast as the Rome Emperors makes a lot of sense. The beast comes from the sea, and a Roman
Emperor coming to visit Asia Minor – the people to whom John was writing the
letter – would travel by the sea, thus coming out of the sea to visit and
govern.
The
blasphemy mentioned in this passage would imply denying our dependence upon God
and therefore rejecting His sovereignty.
After all, is not sin itself ultimately rooted in the denial of God’s
sovereignty? Following Augustus, the
Emperors of Rome claimed the name divas,
which means “god” or “divine.”
Furthermore,
the Roman Empire claimed power over the world (known world) which is a part
also mentioned within this passage. In
fact, the Roman name for the Mediterranean Sea was Mare Nostrum, which means “Our Sea.” When we look for a literal interpretation of
the beast contemporary to John, the Roman Emperors are a natural fit.
The
appearance of the beast is an image drawn largely out of Daniel 7:3-7. In that passage the lion is Babylon, the bear
is Media/Persia, the Leopard is Greece, and the fourth beast is likely Rome. By combining all of these images into a
single terrifying beast, John is making the claim that the worst kingdoms in
Israel’s past do not equate to the present day evil of Rome.
Furthermore,
this beast has a wounded and restored head.
The literal Greek translation is “having
been slaughtered.” Note that the wound mimics
Christ’s life experience. It is a wound
that should have killed, but miraculously the beast lives. This is similar to Christ – except that Christ
actually did die and God the Father restored His life. The interesting aspect of this is that while
not many believed in Christ after His death, the beast is widely renowned
because of his wound! Oh, how humanity will
follow anything but the truth.
The
divine war mentioned in Revelation 13:6-10 has some very interesting thoughts
contained within it. Note that the
beast’s power comes specifically from the dragon and thus by its very nature is
opposed to Christ and His followers.
Even more strongly, John tells us that the beast’s power is so great
that he is able to conquer the saints. This tells us that even those who have faith
in God will not be able to stop the world from worshipping the beast. The only defense given against the beast is
faith. Those whose names are written
with the lamb will be able to resist worshipping the beast, but even they will
not be powerful enough to stop others.
In fact, the quotation in v.10 comes from Jeremiah 15:2. The quotation essentially means that what God
has decreed to happen will happen. We
may have free will in much of our life, but when God establishes a concrete
plan we are powerless to avoid it. The
defense for the Christian is not in violence, because whoever lives by the
sword dies by the sword. Rather, our
best defense is patient endurance through faith in God. Courageous acceptance
is the only way to follow God.
Second Beast
Now
we turn to this second beast and the famous “mark of the beast.” Note that the whole point of this second
beast is to point people to worship the first beast. If we continue with the understanding that
the first beast was the Roman Emperors (at least in terms of a contextual
interpretation with respect to John), then what John may well be saying is that
this second beast represents the offices and priests of the Roman government
who were in charge of enforcing the Emperor worship. The second beast also brings about a law that
whoever does not worship the first beast will be killed. Of course, this statement by John is a
reasonably obvious reference to the Emperor Worship cult. Therefore, this interpretation is highly
likely especially since we know that the Emperor Cult was extremely strong in
many of the seven cities to which John began this letter.
The
beast has two horns as though to appear like a lamb. The imitation of Christ continues, although
it continues in a manner that actually detracts away from Christ. Isn’t it a shame that people will go to many
lengths to bow and worship imitations of the real thing but they will not bow
and worship what God has freely offered in the first place?
The Mark of the Beast
Let’s
now turn to a discussion on the Mark of the Beast. Although I will have some numerology fun in a
few paragraphs, I do not intend for the fun to take away from the seriousness
of the passage. This is clearly a
passage where the beast mocks and parodies the Jewish custom of wearing
scriptures on their left hands and foreheads.
The mark – any allegiance – is a serious thing. Even God Himself demands that we have no
other gods before Him.
As
for the mark itself, it sounds like an announcement of slavery as slaves in
John’s time were often given a stigma
– a brand – that signified them as property of the owner. For those in favor of the beast, it probably
is a sign of devotion to the beast. Soldiers
in the Roman army would mark themselves with a symbol or the name of their
general. This practice continues to this
day in special units. In either case,
what is happening here is that the beast is demanding ultimate allegiance (voluntary
or involuntary) to him. In John’s day, we
know that those who refused to acknowledge the divinity of the Emperor were
enslaved and sometimes killed. The
reality is that all dictators eventually come to a time when a statement of
loyalty is demanded. It has happened all
throughout history and will likely continue throughout time.
Now,
let’s have a little fun with this mark. Remember
that in ancient languages, they did not have numbers. They used their alphabet as numbers. For example, we’re all familiar with Roman
Numerals, I = 1, V = 5, X = 10, L = 50, C = 100, D = 500, M = 1,000. In this case, the number 666 in Roman
Numerals would be DCLXVI. This doesn’t
reveal anything particularly funny, but it does serve as an example.
If
we turn to Hebrew numbering systems instead of Roman systems, a very
interesting thing does happen. In fact,
we can likely see an explanation for the number. In Hebrew, E = 6, N = 50, O = 60, and R = 500. Using each letter just once, this totals 616
– which some ancient manuscripts have in place of 666 in an attempt to make the
name NERO match the number of the beast. However, when we remember that we are speaking
about the Hebrew language and not Latin this correction becomes most
unnecessary. The proper declension of
Nero in the Hebrew language would make Nero into Neron, which makes the numeric
total equal to 666. From the perspective
of looking for an interpretation within John’s historical context this is too
much of a coincidence to be ignored.
Likely, John is speaking of these beasts in reference to Nero, the
Emperor Cult, the possible return of Nero, and the depravity that the Roman
Emperors are bringing to the people.
From
another perspective, some people use the number 666 as a link to the
Trinity. If 7 is God’s number of
completion, then under the Christian Trinity we may well see God as 777. One less than perfection would then be
666. This provides yet another hint to
Satan imitating Jesus Christ, and it also points to the Dragon, the sea beast,
and the land beast as a false Unholy Trinity.
Ultimately, the mark of the beast leads to the question: Who is Lord?
As
far as a reflection on this passage in my life and yours, these words speak
greatly to the importance of declaring our allegiances and making sure that we
have our allegiances in the right place.
If our allegiance is not with God, then something else will demand our
allegiance: work, family, hobbies, or even Satan himself through the
temptations of sin. Only those whose
truly rest with God have the ability to resist making false allegiances. And trust me – there are plenty of people and
things out there that will desire our allegiance. If our allegiance is not with God we will
fall. We will stumble. We will be worshipping the beasts of our own
life before we realize it.
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