biblestudying.net

Printer Friendly Version

Particulars of Christianity:
314 End Times Prophecy (Eschatology)

Prophetic Symbols: Revelation 13 (Part 1)

Prophetic Symbols: Daniel 9 and 10 (Part 1)
Prophetic Symbols: Daniel 9 and 10 (Part 2)
Prophetic Symbols: Daniel 9 and 10 (Part 3)
Prophetic Symbols: Revelation 13 (Part 1)
Prophetic Symbols: Revelation 13 (Part 2)
Prophetic Symbols: Revelation 13 (Part 3)

Articles 7-12
Articles 13-18
Articles 19-25
Articles 26-29

Having completed our survey of symbolism in Daniel, we will now turn our attention to the book of Revelation and some of the main symbolism employed there. We will primarily be looking at two chapters of Revelation, chapters 13 and 17. Then we will also be taking a look at a few other passages as well. We will begin with chapter 13.

Revelation 13:1 And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy. 2 And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion: and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority. 3 And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast. 4 And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast: and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him? 5 And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies; and power was given unto him to continue forty and two months. 6 And he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme his name, and his tabernacle, and them that dwell in heaven. 7 And it was given unto him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them: and power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations. 8 And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. 9 If any man have an ear, let him hear. 10 He that leadeth into captivity shall go into captivity: he that killeth with the sword must be killed with the sword. Here is the patience and the faith of the saints. 11 And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon. 12 And he exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him, and causeth the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed. 13 And he doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men, 14 And deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast; saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast, which had the wound by a sword, and did live. 15 And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed. 16 And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: 17 And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name. 18 Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six.

The first thing to note from Revelation 13 is using similar imagery to what we found in Daniel 7 and 8, wherein we saw beasts being used to represent political entities. One of the things that we found in our study of Daniel 7 and 8 is that although those two chapters used different images, both were depicting the same succession of empires through differing nations.

The second thing to note from Revelation 13 is that the description of the first beast is actually a composite of the four beasts found in Daniel 7. (We have discussed this matter previously.)

Daniel 7:3 And four great beasts came up from the sea, diverse one from another. 4 The first was like a lion, and had eagle's wings: I beheld till the wings thereof were plucked, and it was lifted up from the earth, and made stand upon the feet as a man, and a man's heart was given to it. 5 And behold another beast, a second, like to a bear, and it raised up itself on one side, and it had three ribs in the mouth of it between the teeth of it: and they said thus unto it, Arise, devour much flesh. 6 After this I beheld, and lo another, like a leopard, which had upon the back of it four wings of a fowl; the beast had also four heads; and dominion was given to it. 7 After this I saw in the night visions, and behold a fourth beast, dreadful and terrible, and strong exceedingly; and it had great iron teeth: it devoured and brake in pieces, and stamped the residue with the feet of it: and it was diverse from all the beasts that were before it; and it had ten horns.

Of primary significance is that verse 3 specifically states that these four beasts are "diverse one from another." Similarly, verse 7 states specifically of the fourth beast that "it was diverse from all the beasts that were before it." The reason we point this out is that we are constructing a map legend of sorts for deciphering the symbols in prophetic passages. As we have said, the goal is to use precedent from earlier passages to build a proper interpretation of symbols, which can be used in later passages such as Revelation. It is appropriate at this point to state that many interpret the first beast of Revelation 13 to be the same as the fourth beast described here in Daniel 7, particularly because both have 10 horns.

Revelation 13:1 And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy.

In fact, most people interpret both beasts as representations of the Roman Empire. However, it is impossible for the fourth beast of Daniel 7 to be the same beast as the first beast of Revelation 13 because the beasts of Daniel 7 are all specifically described as being "diverse from one another." And the fourth beast is specifically described as being "diverse from all the beasts that were before it." Conversely, Revelation 13 goes on to describe the seven-headed beast in the following way.

Revelation 13:1 And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy. 2 And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion: and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority.

While the fourth beast of Daniel 7 is diverse from all the beasts that were before it, this first beast of Revelation 13 has characteristics of all four of Daniel 7's beasts. It has the mouth of a lion and the feet of a bear. It is like a leopard. And it has 10 horns, just as the fourth beast of Daniel 7 has 10 horns.

And, additionally, while Daniel 7:6 is careful to inform us that the leopard has four heads, Daniel's description of the fourth beast does not include multiple heads. Given the fact that Daniel's fourth beast is by far the most detailed in its description, we can be sure that if this fourth beast had seven heads, Daniel would have told us so. Thus, the first beast of Revelation 13 differs from the fourth beast of Daniel 7 in that the first beast of Revelation 13 has the peculiar feature of 7 heads while the fourth beast of Daniel 7 apparently has only 1 head.

We must conclude that the fourth beast of Daniel 7 is not the same beast as the first beast of Revelation 13. In fact, the first beast of Revelation 13 is actually a composite of the four beasts of Daniel, just as we have already said.

So, what does it mean that this first beast of Revelation 13 is a composite of the four beasts of Daniel 7?

Well, when we look at our symbolic map legend, we find two items that will assist us here. As we have noted in our survey of Daniel 2, 7, and 8, all three of those visions depict the same succession of kingdoms. First, Daniel 2 depicts all of these individual empires collectively in a single symbol, the statue. Second, Daniel 7 depicts Greece and the four kingdoms that would arise from it using the four-headed leopard. When we apply these precedents from our symbolic map legend to the first beast of Revelation 13, having noted that this first beast is a composite of Daniel 7's four beasts, we can see that Revelation 13 is simply depicting the same succession of individual empires collectively in a single symbol, a multiple-headed beast.

And what do the heads represent? Well, as was the case with the four-headed leopard, each head represents one of the kingdoms whose power comes from that overarching beast. So, in the case of Revelation 13, each of the seven heads would likewise symbolize a kingdom in this succession of Gentile empires, just as the statue of Daniel 2 represented the succession collectively.

Of course, in Daniel 2, the statue only represents five kingdoms, one of gold, one of silver, one of brass, one of iron, and one of clay. We have identified all but one of these kingdoms and arrived at the following succession: Babylon (gold), Media-Persia (silver), Greece (brass), and Rome (iron). (We have yet to identify the clay and we will see why when we get to Revelation 17.) Given that Revelation 13's first beast is a composite of the four beasts from Daniel 7 and since we know that Daniel 2, 7, and 8 all discuss the same succession, we, therefore, know that Revelation 13 is discussing this same succession and not some other succession of empires. Therefore, we know that 5 of the 7 heads are Babylon, Media-Persia, Greece, Rome, and "the kingdom of clay." This leaves us with two kingdoms not represented in Daniel 2 that are represented as heads in Revelation 13.

And this leads to two questions. First, who are these two kingdoms? And second, why are they not represented in Daniel 2?

For the answer to the first question, we look back at history. Recognizing that all of the empires depicted in some way suppressed the Jewish people, we would begin by looking for additional imperial kingdoms of the Middle East who likewise suppressed the Jewish people. And not surprising, we find two very prominent contenders mentioned frequently in the Bible. The first is Egypt, who enslaved the Jews from the time of Joseph to the time of Moses. The second is Assyria, who destroyed the kingdom of Israel and sent the Jews into exile in 721 BC. Both of these imperial powers are mentioned frequently throughout the Old Testament.

If the additional two heads represent Egypt and Assyria, this would explain why those two kingdoms are not depicted in the statue of Daniel 2. At the time of Daniel, both of these empires had already passed away, while the statue in Daniel 2 begins by depicting the current imperial power (Babylon) and continues by depicting the empires that would succeed Babylon. Daniel 2 is concerned with explaining what would happen in the time after Babylon. Simply put, Egypt and Assyria are not present in Daniel 2, because their dominions were a matter of history and had already passed.

On the other hand, part of the purpose of the book of Revelation is to complete the presentation of the end of human history and in particular with the culmination of history in the kingdom of the Messiah Jesus Christ. This being the case, part of what Revelation seeks to do is to pull together many prophetic visions and themes as well as figures depicted in the Old Testament. Therefore, when discussing the empire of the antichrist, Revelation also depicts for us the complete picture of the history behind this imperial succession by connecting these Gentile empires together in much the same way as Daniel 2 does. However, in order to provide a complete picture of the history behind these empires, Revelation makes sure to include all of the seven kingdoms in this succession.

In summary, the seven heads of the first beast of Revelation 13 would be Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Media-Persia, Greece, Rome, and the yet to be identified "kingdom of clay." This interpretation will be further corroborated and commented on by Revelation 17.