And there are seven kings five have fallen, one is, the other has not yet come; and when he comes he must remain [only] a little while.
The angel has just told John that the seven heads carry a double sense: they are seven mountains, and they are also seven kings. Verse 10 places those kings on a timeline: five gone, one present, one still to arrive.
The word "kings" here means a run of governing systems that followed one another in Rome. The angel's count — some fallen, one standing, one still ahead — shows they never overlapped.
"There are seven kings," says the Spirit of God: "five of whom have fallen, one is, the other has not yet come." It is hard to doubt that these heads or kings refer to the various forms of power which followed each other in Rome. Other beasts were simply said to have one head. The Macedonian empire might become four heads, and these were clearly at the same time, not one after another. But in Rome we hear of seven heads. From the language of the interpreter, these are not at the same time but in succession. The figure refers to the complete variety of political power that would mark that empire.
Commentators who name the five list offices that ruled Rome before the emperors:
"Five have fallen." These are Kings, Consuls, Dictators, Decemvirs, and Military Tribunes.
Commentators differ over the five. Two popular identifications fail on the same ground: the symbol here is a head.
Some have applied the five fallen heads to the successive kingdoms of Egypt, Assyria, Babylonia, Greece, and Persia. Others think the reference is to Rome's first five emperors — Augustus, Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius, and Nero. The first idea cannot be right, for it is the Beast, that is, the Roman empire, that is before us in the prophecy. Nor can the second theory be right, for the heads are different forms of government. There might have been some ground for calling these emperors "horns," but "heads" they cannot be.
The present tense fixes the moment the angel is speaking from. Since the beast itself at that moment "is not," the only present left is the writer's own lifetime.
The heads are also seven kings. They rule one after another, not at the same time. Five had already fallen, one was, and another was yet to come, only to exist for a short time. The beast himself is the final one. Imperial Rome was clearly what existed in the apostle's day. "One is" we must take as applying to the apostle's day. At the time of the vision the beast itself "is not." The only other present time would be the time the apostle lived in.
A long stretch of history lies between the sixth head and the seventh. In it the empire was not there at all.
"The other has not yet come." So between the breakup of the empire and its future devilish reappearance many centuries have passed. "When he comes he must remain only a little while." This is the seventh head. It is the rise of the fallen empire under new conditions, as presented in chapter 13:1.
The brief span given to the seventh becomes a test.
Here again we find this last ruler, whose duration is so brief, has been by some attributed to the papacy. That seems unreasonable. A system which has existed for so many centuries should not be taken as the one that only continues for "a little while," especially when this king is put in connection with five other kings which had passed away.
One writer sees Napoleon as a shadow of the last head, perhaps even the seventh. He still warns against turning a likeness into a fulfilment.
It is quite true that events often foreshadow the fulfilment of a prophecy. The first Napoleon passed across the stage of the world. By his energy and speed of conquest he was an undoubted shadow of the final head of the Roman Empire, if not the seventh head himself. But it is a mistake to think that striking agreements with the thing predicted mean you have found the complete fulfilment.
And the believer loses nothing by not knowing the details:
To understand the prophetic word you do not require history. Suppose the simple Christian believes that the five forms of power fell before the existing imperial one — what of importance can history add? He is assured on the word of God that there were five, though he may not know their histories or their characters. Further details are of no importance to the believer.
- Heads, not men. The seven kings are seven forms of Roman government. They come one after another, not side by side.
- Five fallen. Kings, Consuls, Dictators, Decemvirs and Military Tribunes had all gone before John wrote.
- One is. The sixth head was the imperial line of the Caesars. It stood in John's own day, which dates the vision from his present.
- One to come. The seventh is the fallen empire rising again under new conditions. Centuries pass first, in which the beast "is not."
- Only a little while. Its short span rules out any long-running system. It also warns against pinning the prophecy on a passing figure from history.
And the beast that was and is not, he also is an eighth, and is of the seven, and goes into destruction.
The angel has just counted seven kings: five fallen, one reigning, one still to come. Now he adds a figure who breaks the count — a beast that is both an eighth and one of the seven. The riddle is how something can be new and old at once, and why its single stated future is ruin.
One writer traces the beast through four stages. The first two are already behind us:
It "was." The Beast existed as one huge united empire under a long line of emperors. "Is not." It has no political existence now. The countries and lands once inside it are still there, of course, but the empire itself came to a shameful end in A.D. 476. That ancient empire, famous and vast, has not existed for many centuries.
The number marks a new source of power behind the empire:
The Beast in its last and worst state comes up out of the abyss. That is different from how it first rose, and different from its future revival by human hands. So it stands as a complete picture on its own, and that earns it the name an "eighth." Satan revives it, and that devilish character is why it is given this number. Revelation 13 shows the empire coming back by human means; Revelation 17 shows its revival from hell.
The number itself carries this sense elsewhere in Scripture:
EIGHT. A new start outside the order of creation, yet linked to it: so it stands for resurrection. Circumcision came on the eighth day, when a new fellowship began. Eight people were saved in the ark, to start a new world… The new form of the future Roman empire will be the eighth.
New in origin, but not new in kind:
When he has risen, he will be the "eighth" — that is, under his eighth "head," or form of government. Still he "is of the seven," because although he has only just risen to power, it is only an old, earlier form of power brought back. In the kind of power, it is one of the seven brought into being again; but in the way it actually appears, it is an "eighth," or new headship over the empire.
The verse speaks of the beast, yet the seven heads were kings. One ruler so fills the empire that the two names become one:
The eighth head is one individual ruler, yet he bears the name of the beast, or the empire, because in character he is the empire. He stands at the top, directing all its authority. He is of the seven, because some earlier form of power will carry on, or be taken up again. But he will be the eighth, because something about him will be so unusual that it deserves a name of its own.
Some push this identification too far. One writer warns against that:
Some see the beast (the empire) and its last head as one, and so have even argued for the literal resurrection of a person here. That is only a wild fancy. Real resurrection could only come from God, and the beast in its last form is completely under Satan's power. So the rising up out of the abyss is figurative, just as the beast itself is.
Commentators do not agree on how the eighth relates to the seventh king of verse 10. One takes the eighth to be the seventh head revived in the same person:
He himself will receive a deadly wound… So he falls as the seventh head, but rises by Satan's power as the eighth head.
Another keeps them as two men. The seventh gives way to the "little horn":
The seventh head continues for a short time only. We may take him to be a person of importance, in control when the empire first reappears. Then the "little horn" — Satan's own choice — takes his place. That horn rises up looking "greater than its companions," and three kings fall before him.
The other heads simply fell. This ending falls on persons, and it takes the empire down with it:
The two great leaders, heads of the political power and of the religious power, are thrown alive into the lake of fire; those under them and their armies perish forever. The first five heads fell one after another. Then the sixth came to a violent end. The seventh merges into the eighth, and the eighth suffers a judgment more terrible than anything in history. This head and the Beast are one, so if the head is destroyed the whole Beast must go into utter ruin.
- Was — the empire really existed, ruled by a long line of emperors, and then it ended.
- Is not — the empire is gone today, but that is not the end of the story; it comes back.
- Eighth — the number marks a new start, and what makes it new is that Satan, not God, raises it.
- Of the seven — the form is nothing new; an old shape of imperial power comes back under a new head.
- Destruction — the eighth head and the beast are one, so its judgment is not decline but the lake of fire and utter ruin.
And the ten horns which thou sawest are ten kings, which have not yet received a kingdom, but receive authority as kings one hour with the beast.
The angel now explains the ten horns John saw on the scarlet beast. It raises two questions: who are these ten kings, and when do they rule?
One writer gives both the wide sense of "horn" and the narrow one, then sets the ten beside the seven heads of the earlier verses.
These horns refer to royal persons. The word "horn" stands for power in general, but as used here it refers to kings. So the ten horns stand for that many separate royal persons or their kingdoms. Another writer has put it well: "The ten kingdoms will exist at the same time, unlike the seven heads, which came one after another."
The angel says these kings have no kingdom yet. Commentators say the verse points to something history has never produced.
It is very clear that this is still future. Never in the past did the Roman empire consist of ten kingdoms welded together, as this prophecy plainly describes. In ancient times Rome's vast lands were under one government. But in the future ten separate kingdoms will be welded firmly together. Each will keep its own ruler, yet all will follow the general leadership of one head.
Daniel's visions stand behind this picture.
Anyone who has carefully read Daniel's explanation of the statue that King Nebuchadnezzar saw in his dream, and Daniel's own vision of the fourth beast with the angel's explanation, will be ready to understand the ten horns or kings of this chapter. Put these scriptures together, and it is very plain. The final form of the restored western Roman Empire will be ten kingdoms, all of them joined in one alliance under a single imperial head — the beast.
Much turns on this short phrase, and one writer weighs the grammar behind it.
The grammar here, like the word "at," supposes the same starting point for the beast and the ten horns. But it adds the other and main piece of information: they receive authority as kings for one hour with the beast. This is not the Roman empire as it once was, without the kings. Nor is it the kings as they were afterwards, without the empire. It is both together — the revived empire in its place, the kings in theirs, lasting for the same span, until they all perish together at the appearing of Jesus.
Commentators differ on what is new for these kings. One reads their authority as belonging to this league, and the hour as a very short term.
These kings may not be new rulers. The authority they receive may refer only to this present league. So we need not think they became kings at this time. But they are given power now for one special object, for a very brief term, only "for one hour." Yet that is long enough to carry out their dreadful purpose of making war with the Lamb.
This one verse rules out any fulfilment in the centuries after Rome fell. The empire and the ten kings never stood together.
"One hour with the beast" — mark this. It is the clear evidence that this had not been going on since the fall of the Roman Empire, when the northern nations invaded. Those nations broke it up and, for the time, destroyed the beast — gave it its deadly wound. These receive power one hour with the beast: therefore the beast must come up again. It existed at first without these kings. Then these kings existed without it, and you have the ten kings without the beast. At the end you get the ten kings with the beast.
That gap in history drove some readers to identify the beast with the pope.
In the Middle Ages there may have been ten kings. That was the reverse of the ancient state, where the Beast ruled without them. But there was no Beast, no imperial system with lesser chiefs or vassal kings under it. This is what drove men to the idea of making the pope the Beast. But that idea is wholly unable to cover or meet the word of God.
The kings do not lose their thrones by joining the beast. They hand over what they have, and the combined force turns against Christ.
Here we have kingdoms that still exist. Without ceasing to be kingdoms, they have given their power to one head, who leads them all as a whole. "They will make war on the Lamb, and the Lamb will conquer them, for He is Lord of lords and King of kings, and those with Him are called and chosen and faithful."
- Horns. The ten horns are ten kings or their kingdoms. They stand side by side at one time, unlike the seven heads, which followed one another.
- Not yet. They have no kingdom yet. No age of history has shown ten kingdoms welded together under one imperial head.
- Together. "One hour with the beast" means kings and empire hold power for the same span. Not the empire without the kings. Not the kings without the empire.
- Therefore future. The two must hold power together, so the beast has to rise again. Readings that place the fulfilment in the past, the papacy included, fall short.
- Then judged. The kings hand their power to one head and make war on the Lamb. He conquers them, and all perish together at the appearing of Jesus.
These have one mind, and give their power and authority to the beast.
Ten rulers agree to put everything they have behind one man. The questions are what holds them together, why proud nations would ever accept this, and what they will do with the pooled power.
Why would ten rulers do this? One writer points out that no army forced them:
The ten nations are not forced into alliance with the Beast by military conquest. Rather, they have one mind and give their power and strength to the Beast. Of course these nations want the advantage of a strong leader. They also want mutual protection and economic advantage. This "one mind" therefore is one purpose, not really unity of heart and soul.
Another writer puts the whole weight of the verse on where that purpose is aimed — the entire will of these ten rulers bends toward one man:
The whole mind and purpose of these ten sovereigns is to yield themselves entirely to the will and service of the Beast (v. 13).
Nothing in history matches this. Nations have always worked the other way, each guarding itself against any one power growing too large:
"They have one mind, and give their own power and authority to the beast." So far history has shown the reverse of this. The horns have constantly opposed each other, and sometimes even the pope. Since then the world has not seen an imperial power to which all bow. Have we not all heard of the balance of power? Nations have worked at this constantly, in case any one power should become the beast. If a few join on one side, others are sure to help the other. They are jealous of any one power gaining such overwhelming authority and power as to govern the rest. But in the time really in view here all this political manoeuvring will be over.
Another writer describes the arrangement, and uses Napoleon as an illustration:
The ten kings "shall give their strength and power to the beast." There will be an imperial head — an emperor — and ten kings who will give him their power. The kingdoms will continue to exist, but it will be a confederation of them. As an illustration, we may point to the kingdoms of Spain, Holland, Westphalia, and others under Napoleon. There has been the beast. There may have been ten kings. But there have never yet been ten kings giving their power to the beast who was not, and who then came into existence again.
They hand over power without losing their thrones. They stay kings, and they submit by choice:
And now note the character and actions of these ten kings. "They have one mind and give their power and strength to the beast." They are lesser kings. They are distinct from the beast, and yet entirely and willingly subject to him.
But no proud nation submits like this by choice. One writer finds the reason outside the kings themselves:
How does this come about? The answer comes a little later. "God has put it into their hearts to fulfil His will." It is not their own will. A nation that values its independence would refuse to stoop like that. Is there anything a kingdom would be more ashamed of than being nothing but the servant of a harsh, driving power? But here they submit completely.
So what do they do with all that pooled power? One writer points to the war that follows:
The ten kings are the beast's willing servants. They back his Satanic schemes, even to the point of madness in making war with the Lamb. Men are going to become so puffed up in mind, so self-confident and so arrogant that they will throw themselves against the mighty power of God. Borrowing the language of 1 Corinthians 8:5, we may say this. However many lords and kings there may be in heaven and on earth, the Lamb is Lord and King of them all. The beast and his followers are included.
Their story does not end with the beast. One writer traces it from their alliance to their own judgment:
The ten kings give their authority to the beast, and join him in his opposition to Christ. God uses them to do His will in executing His judgment on the false church before they come in for judgment at Armageddon.
- Agreement — "one mind" means shared purpose, not shared heart. No army conquers them. They want a strong leader and mutual protection, so they hand their power over.
- Surrender — they keep their thrones and still obey the beast. No proud kingdom would accept that. God has put it in their hearts.
- Novelty — history has nothing like it. Nations have always blocked any one power from ruling the rest. That balancing act ends here.
- Target — they aim all that power at the Lamb. Human arrogance finally throws itself against God.
- Outcome — God uses these kings to judge the false church. Then they face judgment themselves at Armageddon. The Lamb is Lord and King of them all.