Who is the beast of Revelation?
Revelation shows two beasts in chapter 13 — one rising out of the sea, one out of the earth — and the book keeps returning to them until their end in chapter 19. Commentators read them as figures already sketched in Daniel: a world empire and the man who heads it, together with a second power that imitates Christ.
Why "beast"
The word itself is a moral verdict. It describes a power that has lost the one thing that marks man out.
William KellyWhat is meant by "the Beast"? The imperial system of Rome revived. All the empires refused to recognise God above… Man alone of all beings on earth was made to look up to One above, and 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… here it is the more tremendous, because an empire ought to be the reflection of the authority that God in His providence conferred on it.
The first beast: an empire brought back
The seven heads and ten horns tie this creature to the fourth empire Daniel saw. What Revelation adds is a resurrection, and a new source of authority.
William KellyIn Revelation 13:1-10 the "Beast" is seen emerging once more from the sea, that is, the revolutionary state of the nations, having seven heads and ten horns. These have always been held to identify it with Daniel's fourth empire… Only we have to observe an entirely new fact connected with the healing of that one of his heads (the imperial, as I understand it) which had been wounded to death: that the great dragon (who in Revelation 12 is declared to be Satan) gave him his power and his throne and great authority.
An empire and a man, spoken of as one
Readers ask whether the beast is a system or an individual. The chapter slides from one to the other.
F. B. HoleIn these early verses we pass almost without noticing it from the kingdom to the remarkable man in whom the dominion is to be headed up… The deadly wound is healed in the surprising rise of the beast energised by the devil; and now the beast pictures the imposing individual who will wield the power of the Empire in the last days… Solomon inherited from David a throne that came from the hand of God, and riches and power were added to him from the same hand. This individual will accept everything from the hand of the devil.
The second beast: a counterfeit Christ
The second figure looks harmless and sounds satanic. His two horns are read against the seven horns of the Lamb in Revelation 5.
Walter ScottWho is the Beast referred to here as "another"? His lamb-like appearance points him out at once as the false Messiah… Fullness of power is with the Lamb; limited power is with this Beast. The two horns of power signify the double office of king and prophet taken by the Antichrist. As king he reigns in Jerusalem, but under his great chief, "the Beast"… Under this title, "the false prophet," he exercises great spiritual authority among the Jews and the peoples of Christendom generally.
Commentators differ over which of the two answers to Paul's "man of sin," and the two options are set out plainly:
William Kellythe belief that the "man of sin" (2 Thess. 2:3-4) stands either for the political head of the Roman Empire when it is revived (Rev. 13:1), or for his confederate prince of a revived Jewish State, called the false prophet in Rev. 16:13
The mark and the number
Endless calculations have been attempted on 666. The text's own explanation, that it is a man's number, points in a different direction.
Numerical Bible NotesThe 6, three times repeated, while it speaks of labour and not rest, of failed effort to reach the divine 7, declares evil at its highest to be limited and in God's hand. This number is, after all, we are told, the number of a man — and what is man? He may multiply responsibility and judgment, but the Sabbath is God's rest, and set apart to Him. Without God, man can have no Sabbath. So 666 is the number of a man who is only a beast and doomed.
Who worships, and who does not
Revelation 13:8 divides humanity by a register, not by courage.
L. M. GrantThose who worship the beast are earth dwellers (v. 8), settling down in the world as though they are going to keep it forever. Their names are not written from the foundation of the earth in the book of life, which belongs to the Lamb who was slain. The elect have their names written in this book because God has foreknown them.
The end
The career closes in a single arrest, and the empire falls with the man.
Walter Scott"And the Beast was taken." The personal chief of the empire gave it his character. The empire and its ruling head were to all intents and purposes one… the Beast and its last great imperial chief are so closely connected that the empire perishes in the everlasting ruin of its head. The Beast is cast alive into the lake of fire — a man, of course, yet spoken of as "the Beast."
Summary
- Beast — the name is the diagnosis: a power with no sense of anyone above it, when an empire was meant to reflect God's authority.
- Revived — the first beast is Daniel's fourth empire come back from a deadly wound, receiving throne and authority from the dragon.
- Doubled — the beast is at once the system and the man who heads it; Revelation speaks of both in the same word.
- Counterfeited — the second beast wears lamb's horns and speaks like a dragon: a false Christ, later called the false prophet, whose number is only a man's.
- Ended — the man is taken and cast alive into the lake of fire, and the empire dies with him; only those written in the Lamb's book of life stand outside his worship.