Revelation 13

In Revelation 12, the dragon, cast out of heaven, went to make war with the remnant of the woman's seed. In this chapter, two beasts appear that receive the dragon's authority. The chapter stands in contrast to the vision of the Lamb that immediately follows in Revelation 14.

Outline

• Verses 1–4: A beast with ten horns and seven heads rises out of the sea. The dragon gives this beast his power, his throne, and great authority. One of the beast's heads is wounded as if to death, but the deadly wound is healed, and all the world follows the beast and worships the dragon and the beast.
• Verses 5–10: The beast is given power to continue forty-two months. It blasphemes God, makes war with the saints, and overcomes them. Those whose names are not written in the book of life worship the beast.
• Verses 11–15: Another beast comes up out of the earth, having two horns like a lamb and speaking as a dragon. This beast deceives people with wonders, such as making fire come down from heaven, and causes an image of the first beast to be made and worshiped.
• Verses 16–18: The second beast causes everyone to receive a mark in the right hand or in the forehead, and those without the mark cannot buy or sell. The number of the beast is six hundred sixty-six.

Key Verses

• Revelation 13:8 "in the book of life of the Lamb slain" — The book of life is presented as the criterion that distinguishes those who follow the beast from those who belong to the Lamb.
• Revelation 13:10 "Here is the patience and the faith of the saints." — An exhortation to saints facing persecution.
• Revelation 13:18 "for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six." — The most debated verse in the chapter.

Figures and Places

• The dragon: The being identified in Revelation 12:9 as the old serpent, the Devil, and Satan.
• The beast from the sea: Its appearance, resembling a leopard, a bear, and a lion, recalls the vision of the four beasts in Daniel 7:1–8.
• The beast from the earth: Called the "false prophet" in Revelation 16 and 19.
• The Lamb: The slain Lamb, that is, Jesus Christ.

Considerations for Reading

• Interpretive approaches: How the beast is identified depends on one's interpretive approach.
• Preterism reads it as the first-century Roman Empire and the imperial cult.
• Historicism reads it as a power arising in the course of church history; the Reformers identified it with the papacy.
• Futurism sees it as the Antichrist who will appear at the end of the age; Dispensationalism also follows this approach.
• Idealism reads it as a symbol of the evil powers at work in every age.
• 666: A widely known interpretation holds that, according to the numerical values of Hebrew letters, the number refers to the Emperor Nero. Some manuscripts read 616. Another view takes the number as a symbol of imperfection, falling short of the perfect number seven.
• Relationship to the Antichrist: The term "antichrist" does not appear in the text. Interpreters differ on whether this beast should be identified with the antichrist of 1 John or with the "man of sin" of 2 Thessalonians 2:3–4.
• Forty-two months: Commonly read as the same period as the 1,260 days of chapters 11 and 12 and the "time and times and the dividing of time" in the Book of Daniel.

In the Korean Church

Claims linking the mark of the beast to barcodes, implanted microchips, COVID-19 vaccines, and similar things have at times circulated in some churches and on the internet. In response, Christian media and theologians have criticized such claims as interpretations that ignore the context of the text.