And I stood upon the sand of the sea; and I saw a beast rising out of the sea, having ten horns and seven heads, and upon its horns ten diadems, and upon its heads names of blasphemy.
Chapter 12 has just shown Satan thrown down to the earth; now a monstrous power climbs out of the sea. Who is standing on that sand, what does the sea stand for, and why does God picture an empire as an animal?
The ESV above opens with the beast. Older translations begin the verse with someone standing on the sand, and the copies differ over who that is. Walter Scott sets out the choice and explains why he settles on John:
"And I stood upon the sand of the sea." Some read: "he stood." If we take the first reading, it refers to the Seer. If we take the second, the dragon is meant. Hengstenberg notes that outside evidence cannot settle the choice, and the authorities are divided. But a careful study of the context shows clearly that it is the Seer, not the dragon, who "stood upon the sand of the sea." The prophet always takes his stand at a point of observation that suits the subject in hand. So Heaven (Rev. 4:1), the sand of the sea (Rev. 13:1), the wilderness (Rev. 17:3), and a high mountain (Rev. 21:10) are the points of view from which he watches the visions pass before his eyes.
William Kelly reads the sea as a picture of people, and names what such a state throws up:
The sea sets forth the unformed mass of the people in a troubled state of the world — people in great agitation, like the restless waves of the deep. It represents a revolutionary condition among men. And it is out of that mass of anarchy and confusion that an imperial power rises.
The word "beast" is a verdict, not decoration. Kelly draws the line between a man and an animal:
What is meant by "the Beast"? The imperial system of Rome revived. All the empires refused to recognise God above. Of all beings on the earth, man alone was made to look up to One above, and he is responsible to do the will of God. A beast does not look up but down; it has no sense of an unseen superior, no conscience toward God... this is the more tremendous, because an empire ought to reflect the authority that God in His providence gave it. This Beast will go further than all before it in lawless contempt of God and in blasphemies.
W. W. Fereday notes that the nations have taken up the very badge God gave them:
God describes the Gentile powers of both past and future as wild beasts. That is, they have neither conscience nor heart. They rule by greed and brute force. Remarkably, the states of this in-between period, while the Roman Empire lies dormant, have taken up this character of their own accord. Every one of them has adopted either a wild beast or a bird of prey as its national symbol. So we get the British lion, the German eagle, and the rest.
Edward Dennett ties the iron and the ten toes of Daniel's vision to the empire John watches rise:
This last is the Roman empire. First it appears in its original energy and unstoppable strength, pictured by the emblem of iron. Then it appears in its final form of ten kingdoms, foreshadowed by the ten toes, welded together in one confederation under a supreme head. Rev. 13 describes the rise of that imperial power in its final form.
The dragon of chapter 12 wore his crowns on his heads; this beast wears them on his horns. F. B. Hole explains what the shift of the crowns tells us:
The heads stand for the varied forms the ruling power has taken through the years. Whatever they have been, the devil has claimed to wear the crown, and has in fact dominated the scene. When the Roman power reappears in the last days, it will be in a ten-kingdom form, and each king will claim a crown under the beast.
Kelly weighs why the horns are named before the heads:
Both clauses of the verse put the horns first. Perhaps this is because the beast here holds these powers in actual use, while Satan had them only in principle.
The last detail of the verse is the worst. Walter Scott shows how far that guilt spreads:
The Beast is described as "full of names of blasphemy." Blasphemy and the public denial of God and of Christ are acts the Beast commits. The names of blasphemy on its heads (Rev. 13:1) stamp the ruling authority with this awful guilt, but clearly it marks the whole state — leaders and people alike. The fear of God is gone. The empire in all its parts is wholly given up to this most horrible sin.
- Shore — John takes his stand on the sand, since every vision in this book has a fitting vantage point. Commentators differ over whether the text reads "I stood" or "he stood"; Scott reads the context in favour of the prophet.
- Sea — the water is humanity in upheaval; out of anarchy and confusion, not order, the imperial power climbs.
- Beast — God made man to look up; an animal looks down. An empire with no conscience toward God earns the name, and nations have chosen beast emblems for themselves.
- Crowns — Daniel's fourth empire returns in a ten-kingdom form. The crowns move from the dragon's heads to the beast's horns: power now held and used.
- Blasphemy — the last mark, on its heads, is open denial of God. It stamps the rulers, and the whole state with them.
And the beast which I saw was like to a leopardess, and its feet as of a bear, and its mouth as a lion's mouth; and the dragon gave to it his power, and his throne, and great authority;
John sees a beast built out of three animals: a leopard's body, a bear's feet, a lion's mouth. The images come from an earlier vision in the book of Daniel, and the verse answers a plain question: where does this world ruler get his throne?
In Daniel four beasts rose one after another. This one creature carries the features of three of them. Writers link each animal to an empire, and read a different kind of menace in each:
It looks like a leopard (the Greek Empire). Its feet are like a bear's (the Medo-Persian Empire). Its mouth is like a lion's (the Babylonian Empire). The leopard speaks of how fast it conquers. The bear's feet speak of how firmly it holds the land it has taken. The lion's mouth speaks of the strength and savagery with which it takes that land. Put together, they picture the horrible power of this fourth world-empire.
Commentators read the bear's feet in more than one way. One reference work points to how a bear kills:
In Revelation 13:2 the beast that stands for the still future Roman empire is like a leopard, with feet like a bear's. This shows how destructive it is. A bear destroys its prey by the strength of its feet, tearing it open.
The mixture is not new material. It is old material put back together, and one writer sees Satan's method in that:
Here we have, not the territories, but certain qualities that resemble all three of the first beasts of the prophet Daniel. Satan does not invent; he takes over whatever suits him from what has already been. So by this very strange mixture he tries to bring out the beast, or fourth empire, in its final form. No empire follows it. In this way it lays claim to everything known of old, and to evil without equal.
The verse names the dragon as the giver. One reference work gathers what the book says about him:
In the New Testament the dragon is a picture of Satan and of those he energises. In Revelation 12:3 the "great red dragon, with seven heads and ten horns" stands for Satan's power in the form of the Roman empire. Through Herod, that power tried to destroy Christ when He was born. In Revelation 13:2, 4 it is Satan who gives the revived Roman empire in a future day its throne and great authority.
Three things change hands: power, throne and great authority. One writer says what each of them means, and notes that the same offer was once made to Christ and refused:
The beast combines the marks and characteristics of the empires before it, and their sovereignty too. So it is a fitting instrument through which the dragon can work… Satanic power out of the abyss, Satan's own throne in the middle of a scene that defies God, and unlimited authority on the earth: that is the awful picture here. Christ refused the sovereignty of the world from Satan (Luke 4:5, 8); here is one who accepts it. The dragon hands over his throne and authority at the time when the beast comes up out of the abyss (Revelation 17:8), after Satan has been thrown out of heaven.
In the book of Daniel, Babylon's king Nebuchadnezzar received his rule from God. Here that source is turned upside down:
This beast gathered into itself all the beast-like forms that had marked the three empires before it. More than that, it received its kingdom, in its final form, straight from the hands of Satan. Nebuchadnezzar had received his rule from God. The revived Roman empire at the end will take its power from Satan, and Satan will energise it. It is the complete falling away of human government from God. Among the ruling powers it will be seen in the dethroning of God and the lifting of Satan to His seat!
This satanic rule does not last. It has a fixed length and a fixed end:
The satanic character and history of the empire cover the most serious crisis in the world's future: the three and a half years before the Lord's coming in glory. At the end of that period… the beast and his partner in evil go "to destruction" — that is, into the lake of fire.
- Composite. Leopard, bear and lion put the speed, grip and ferocity of three past empires into one final world power.
- Borrowed. Satan invents nothing. He takes what suits him from empires already gone, and pushes it past anything known before.
- Given. The beast does not seize power, throne and authority. The dragon hands them over, so the beast's rule is Satan's rule.
- Refused. Satan once offered the world's kingdoms to Christ, and Christ said no. This ruler says yes.
- Ended. Rule that began as God's gift to Nebuchadnezzar ends up wholly satanic. It lasts three and a half years, and then comes destruction.