Who Are The Two Beasts Of Revelation 13?

Who Are the Two Beasts of Revelation 13?

By Author Eli Kittim

A “Beast” Represents An Empire

In the Bible, a “beast” represents a kingdom or an empire (see Dan. 7.3 ff.). Dan. 7.3 reports that “four great beasts came up out of the sea, different from one another.” In Dan. 7.4 we read: “The first was like a lion and had eagles' wings. Then, as I watched, its wings were plucked off, and it was lifted up from the ground and made to stand on two feet like a human being; and a human mind was given to it.” So, although it initially appears as an empire, it ends up looking like a human being, probably signifying its leader.

•••••

The Danielic narrative continues. Then a second beast appears, but this one is not depicted as a human being. Dan. 7.5 reads: “Another beast appeared, a second one, that looked like a bear. It was raised up on one side, had three tusks in its mouth among its teeth and was told, ‘Arise, devour many bodies!’ “ This is certainly not a human being. Dan. 7.6 goes on to describe a third “beast” that is also nonhuman, given that it has four heads: “After this, as I watched, another appeared, like a leopard. The beast had four wings of a bird on its back and four heads; and dominion was given to it.” The “dominion” that “was given to it” signifies that it’s some type of a political, economic, or military power and certainly not an individual!

A “Horn” Signifies A King

Dan. 7.7 clearly demonstrates that these beasts represent “kingdoms” or “empires” because it also mentions that the fourth beast had *ten horns,* signifying “ten kings” (see Rev. 17.12: “the ten horns that you saw are ten kings”). Daniel 7.7 declares:

“After this I saw in the visions by night a fourth beast, terrifying and dreadful and exceedingly strong. It had great iron teeth and was devouring, breaking in pieces, and stamping what was left with its feet. It was different from all the beasts that preceded it, and it had ten horns.”

It’s in Dan. 7.8 that a little horn (a king) appears, in addition to the 10 earlier horns, and this king is said to be a human being. But he arises out of the fourth beast (or empire). Dan. 7.17 gives us the exact interpretation:

“As for these four great beasts, four kings shall arise out of the earth.” However, Dan. 7.23-24 is even more precise by referring to the fourth beast as “a fourth kingdom on earth”:

“As for the fourth beast, there shall be a fourth kingdom on earth that shall be different from all the other kingdoms; it shall devour the whole earth, and trample it down, and break it to pieces. As for the ten horns, out of this kingdom ten kings shall arise, and another shall arise after them. This one shall be different from the former ones, and shall put down three kings.”

Thus, in Daniel 7, a “beast” represents a kingdom, while a “horn” signifies a king. Of course, the last king of the final empire will be the one we call the “Antichrist,” who will rule on earth for 3 and a half years (i.e. during the time of the Great Tribulation):

“He shall speak words against the Most High, shall wear out the holy ones of the Most High, and shall attempt to change the sacred seasons and the law; and they shall be given into his power for a time, two times, and half a time” (Dan. 7.25).

The First Beast of Revelation 13

Revelation 13.1 reads:

“And I saw a beast rising out of the sea, having ten horns and seven heads” (cf. Rev. 12).

This is obviously not a description of a human being but of the final empire on earth (cf. Dan. 2; Rev. 12; 17.9-15; for further details on why this is the final empire on earth, see https://www.instagram.com/p/BYr5b5HgBq1/?igshid=1ml02os1or44x Click “more” to view the successive empires).

Revelation 13.3 goes on to say:

“One of its heads seemed to have received a death-blow, but its mortal wound had been healed. In amazement the whole earth followed the beast.”

Question: is the whole earth following a king or a kingdom? It’s quite possible that the Bible has conflated the leader with his actual kingdom, as in Dan. 7.4 where the first beast is transformed into a human being. The evidence for this is that Rev. 13.3 uses the personal pronoun “his” (Gk. αὐτοῦ) in the phrase, “his mortal wound was healed,” which is also found elsewhere in the chapter.

And even though a “beast” is typically an empire, and a “horn” a king, nevertheless this chapter suggests that the so-called first “beast” is both a person and an empire.

•••••

The beast will be granted authority for 42 months (Rev.13.5). Rev 13.7 suggests that the beast will persecute the “saints,” war against them and come out victorious, creating a religious apartheid in the process, and that authority will be given to him over every nation and every language on the planet for three and a half years. Rev. 13.3 suggests that the beast’s resurrection from the dead is what stirs great amazement and causes “the whole earth” to follow him, and ultimately to worship him (v. 8).

The Second Beast of Revelation 13

First off, it’s important to note that, unlike the first beast, the second beast is never explicitly referred to as a person (e.g. “he”) in the Greek text. No wonder that the NRSV descriptions of the second beast are always translated as “it.” And given that we are told that “It exercises all the authority of the first beast on its behalf” (Rev. 13.12), it’s reasonable to assume that it represents some kind of political/religious entity. This explains why it performs the socioeconomic and military functions as well as the public relations of the first beast. And since we know that Biblically a beast represents an empire, it seems quite plausible that the second beast is a reference to a nation. Rev. 13.11 refers to the second beast as ἄλλο θηρίον (Gk. “another beast”), which is suggestive of another nation. A further distinction is that the second beast came “out of the earth,” in contrast to the first beast that arose “out of the sea.”

•••••

So, let’s review the descriptions of the second beast. Rev. 13.11 talks of the appearance of another beast. This one came out of the Earth (not the Sea); “it had two horns like a lamb and it spoke like a dragon.”

This could be a reference to an ecclesiastical monarchy, suggested by the phrase “two horns like a lamb,” that might be governed by 2 heads of state (i.e. 2 horns/kings, such as the 2 heads of the Vatican, Pope Francis and President Bertello [the Holy See and the Vatican City State], for example). In Rev 13.12, this enigmatic second “beast,” which is probably a political/religious institution, makes the inhabitants of the earth to worship the first beast due to the latter’s miraculous resurrection. And the second beast also makes great signs, so that even fire descends from the sky. Although this could be in the category of the miraculous, it’s probably a reference to a nuclear holocaust. At any rate, Rev 13.14 suggests that this second “beast” deceives the entire world through great signs and insists that an *image* be made to the first beast who was killed by some type of weapon yet miraculously came back from the dead. And, in Rev. 13.15, the *image* was animated and took on lifelike qualities. Those who didn’t worship it were to be killed. What is more, the second beast causes all to have a mark on their right hand or forehead (v. 16), “so that no one can buy or sell who does not have the mark, that is, the name of the beast or the number of its name” (v. 17). Rev 13.18 goes on to say:

“Here is wisdom. He who has understanding, vote the number of the beast; it’s a number of a human being, and his number is 600, 60, 6” (my translation).

Who Is the First Beast?

Obviously, the reference in Rev. 13.18 is to the first beast, not the second. And the solution to the riddle of his identity may be associated with the time-period in which he’s *voted into office,* that is, the time-frame during which his political party gains ascendancy. Thus, the triple-digit 666 could be a cryptic code of this particular time-period which might be deciphered and decrypted only through a sort of retrograde inversion or reversal: (i.e. “999”):

The year 1999 seven month,

From the sky will come a great King of terror:

To bring back to life the great King of Angolmois, (the Mongols),

Before after Mars to reign by good luck

(Century X, Quatrain 72)

“Nostradamus' most famous doomsday prediction warns future generations of a King of Terror descending from the skies in July 1999. This holy terror could be linked to the Third Antichrist,” writes John Hogue, an authority on Nostradamus! It is beyond the scope of this paper to describe who the Antichrist might be, but I will briefly mention what most eschatological studies indicate.

•••••

We are accustomed to think of the European Union as the Revived Roman Empire of Bible Prophecy, with a focus primarily on the Western rather than the Eastern leg of this Empire, which was supplanted by Russia after the fall of Byzantium in 1453. The Septuagint, an early Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible, uses the phrase "Ρως Μοσοχ"----which seemingly stands for Ρωσία (the Greek word for Russia) and Μόσχα (the Greek term for Moscow)----in Ezek. 38.2 to identify the country from the far north that will head up a large coalition against Israel in the latter days (see Ezek. 38.15-16). Moreover, according to Josephus, a first-century scholar and historian, "the land of Magog," which is also mentioned in Ezek. 38.2, refers to the Scythians (Ant., bk. I, 6), and thus represents contemporary Russia. And although the "chief prince" of this nation is not explicitly mentioned as the Antichrist (cf. "the troops of the prince who is to come," Dan. 9.26), Ezek. 38 is quite suggestive in this regard, while clearly pointing to the Eastern leg of the Roman Empire! Most Bible prophecy experts agree that this is a reference to Russia. Therefore, the point I made earlier about 666 being a cryptic inversion of 999 has a great deal to do with the current leader of Russia, Vladimir Putin, who actually came to power in 1999!

What Is the Second Beast?

According to the undermentioned symbols of Bible prophecy, the second beast with “two horns like a lamb,” which is traditionally associated with the false prophet of Revelation, appears to represent the Vatican City-State, a Country in Europe and the headquarters of the Roman Catholic Church! Rev 17.1-6 reads:

“Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and said to me, ‘Come, I will show you the judgment of the great whore who is seated on many waters, with whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and with the wine of whose fornication the inhabitants of the earth have become drunk [the sacramental wine of the Eucharist?].’ So he carried me away in the spirit into a wilderness, and I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast that was full of blasphemous names, and it had seven heads and ten horns. The woman was clothed in purple and scarlet, and adorned with gold and jewels and pearls, holding in her hand a golden cup full of abominations and the impurities of her fornication; and on her forehead was written a name, a mystery: ‘Babylon the great, mother of whores and of earth's abominations.’ And I saw that the woman was drunk with the blood of the saints and the blood of the witnesses to Jesus [martyrs who were killed as heretics by the Catholic Church?].”

The symbolism of drunkenness “with the blood of the saints” coupled with the golden cup in her hand suggest not only the perpetual sacramental wine of the Eucharist but also the innumerable saints that were burned or killed as heretics by the Catholic Church. The specific colored attire of verse 4 also matches the Vatican dress code: for example, the purple cassocks worn by Bishops and honorary prelates, as well as the scarlet cassocks worn by members of the College of Cardinals. Moreover, the commingling with the kings of the earth (v. 2) is suggestive of the union of church and state in former times when the Catholic Church flaunted its power in Europe and controlled both countries and kings! She is also said to be “adorned with gold and jewels and pearls” (v. 4), an obvious description of the papal tiara (crown) that is adorned with gold and is heavily bejewelled with sapphires, rubies, emeralds, and other precious stones. As you can see, the specific symbols generated in Revelation 17 match perfectly with those of the Holy Mother Church, a term that is often used to refer to the Roman Catholics Church!

Conclusion

Studies in Biblical eschatology suggest that the second beast is the so-called “false prophet” of Rev. 16.13:

“And I saw three foul spirits like frogs coming from the mouth of the dragon, from the mouth of the beast, and from the mouth of the false prophet.”

This verse would strongly indicate that the false prophet represents a religious figure/institution. And the previous symbolism strongly suggests that it might be the Roman Catholic Church. After all, the term Antichrist doesn’t only mean “against Christ”; it also means “in place of Christ.” Similarly, the term Vicar of Christ (Lat. Vicarius Christi) means that the Pope is the”earthly representative of Christ” or acts “in place of Christ” (i.e. Antichrist)! Also, the second beast appears to be in collaboration with the first beast in controlling the world for 42 months (during the time of the Great Tribulation), as well as the one that causes all to take the latter’s “mark,” while killing all those who refuse. The Bible warns that those who take the mark of the beast will be eternally condemned (Rev. 14:9-10). So, the coded trilogy of 666 appears to be a reference to a person, to wit, the so-called first beast of Revelation 13. Astoundingly, most comprehensive Bible-prophecy studies suggest that this figure is most likely the leader of Russia!

•••••

So the so-called “whore” (πόρνη) of Revelation 17.1 (the second beast) appears to be the Papacy, which is sitting on the first beast, while the “scarlet beast that was full of blasphemous names, and . . . had seven heads and ten horns” (Rev. 17.3) represents the final superpower on earth, namely, Russia!

(For further details on this point, see https://www.instagram.com/p/BqRDTWHgOIQ/?igshid=fzgzeal7j94t

Click “more” to view the 10 kings).

•••••

However, later in the narrative, Revelation 17 reveals that Russia, despite its alliance, will nevertheless turn on the Vatican and destroy the Papacy, probably after it has accomplished its mission of promoting its leader:

“The beast and the ten horns you saw will hate the prostitute. They will bring her to ruin and leave her naked; they will eat her flesh and burn her with fire” (Rev. 17.16).

•••••

So, let’s answer this paper’s original question.

. . . . .

Question: Who Are the Two Beasts of Revelation 13?

Answer: The first Beast probably represents Vladimir Putin and Russia, while the second Beast seemingly represents the Pope (Vatican) and the Roman Catholic Church!

Eli Kittim — Public Figure — Independent Scholar— Author

thelittlebookofrevelation.com

http://thelittlebookofrevelation.com

Was Mythicism or Historicism More Dominant In the Early History and Development of the Christian Church?

By Goodreads Author Eli Kittim

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Preface

There are certain things in the Bible that we all take for granted today, such as the historicity of Jesus, his execution by Pontius Pilate, and the like. We think that these “facts” were written in stone and have been known since Christianity’s inception. How can anyone seriously challenge them?

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Christian Origins

But early Christianity was not monolithic. It was diverse. There were many different sects that held very different views both about Jesus and the interpretation of the New Testament. Orthodoxy eventually won the day but that doesn’t mean that they necessarily represented the sect that held the hermeneutically-correct and valid Bible interpretations or that they had the correct view about Jesus. Far from it. There were, in fact, diametrically opposed views that ranged from one extreme to another, from a completely human Jesus to a phantom or a ghost that never really existed. But, as we will see, there is a middle ground where mythicism and historicism meet.

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Gnosticism

The New Testament is a literary creation. So it’s difficult to probe its historical antecedents. What were some of the opposing views to “Orthodoxy”? One of the most vocal of these Christian sects was centred in Alexandria, Egypt: the Gnostics. They were the first advocates of the “you-don’t-need-religion, you-need-a-relationship-with-Jesus” pitch. Although there were many splinter groups, they all emphasised a personal “gnosis” (knowledge) and acquaintance with spiritual realities rather than a preoccupation with dry religious discourses and traditions. They originated in the first century C.E. and flourished until the second century, during which the Patristic Fathers denounced them as heretics. But were they? According to Bart Ehrman and Elaine Pagels, they were the genuine Christians of that early period whom the Orthodox Church tried to suppress!

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To be sure, their theology was influenced by Greek thought, but the focal point of their doctrine and practice was not based on rhetoric or dogma but rather on personal existential experience. And based on their own inimitable style, one can infer that they had better insights into the divine than their orthodox counterparts who did little more than debate the issues.

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Docetism

Then there were the Docetists, who held the “heterodox” (i.e. “at variance with orthodoxy”) doctrine that what appeared to be a historical Jesus was nothing more than an apparition or a phantom, and that his phenomenological bodily existence was not real. This is actually more in line with Scripture, which repeatedly talks of visions and apparitions in one form or another (cf. Lk 24.23–24; Gal. 1.11-12). These are the first mythicists who believed that Jesus never existed! There’s a great deal of Biblical evidence that supports this view. This early Christian view called “Docetism” (derived from the Greek term “Dokesis,” meaning “to seem”)——which held that Christ did not really exist in human form, an idea that was later picked up by Islam——attracted some of the greatest Biblical thinkers of Antiquity:

“According to Photius [a 9th century Byzantine Patriarch], Clement of Alexandria held at least a quasi-docetic belief regarding the nature of Christ, namely that the Word/Logos did not became flesh, but only ‘appeared to be in flesh,’ an interpretation which directly denied the reality of the incarnation” (Ashwin-Siejkowski, Piotr. “Clement of Alexandria on Trial: The Evidence of ‘Heresy’ from Photius’ Bibliotheca.” [Leiden: Brill, 2010], p. 95).

As would be expected, Docetism was eventually rejected as a heretical doctrine at the First Council of Nicaea in 325 C.E. But this verdict was issued in the 4th century. And there is a very good reason why mythicism had thitherto been on the upswing. In fact, despite this setback, the hermeneutical doctrine that gave rise to Docetism continued to hold sway over most of the church until the Reformation.

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The Monophysite Christian church

According to tradition, the Coptic Church of Egypt was founded by Mark the evangelist in the first century CE. Due to a Christological dispute, this “Monophysite” Christian church was condemned as heretical by the Council of Chalcedon in 451 CE. Instead of accepting the doctrine that Christ was fully human and fully divine, the Coptic church asserted that Christ had only one nature, and that nature was divine. In other words, just like the Docetists they denied the incarnation and therefore they can be technically defined as mythicists! A similar monophysite explanation of how the divine and human relate within the person of Jesus is Eutychianism. Eutychians were often classified as Phantasiasts by their opponents because they reduced Jesus’ incarnation to a phantasm or an illusion of some kind. Their Christology was along the lines of Docetism in that they, too, denied the full reality of Jesus’ humanity. Thus, we find that there were quite a number of sects that denied the historicity of Jesus during the early period of the church. Things started to change with the onset of the first ecumenical councils!

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The Alexandrian School

The early Christian church held to an allegorical (theological) Interpretation of the Bible, not a historical one. Philo’s essential approach to Biblical interpretation influenced the Christian School of hermeneutics, which also developed in the city of Alexandria, Egypt. One of its principal leaders was the Great Bible scholar, Clement of Alexandria (150-215 CE), who while acknowledging that the Bible contained various levels of meaning also realized that the non-literal (i.e. the allegorical/mystical) interpretations contained the ideal spiritual insights. Alexandrian hermeneutics were so popular that they eventually became the dominant force in Biblical interpretation up until the time of the Protestant Reformation. So, the allegorical/theological Biblical interpretation that gave rise to such views as Docetism was the mainstay of early Biblical scholarship. This method was obviously more inclined towards the spiritual, the metaphorical, and the metaphysical, dare I say the Gnostic!

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The School of Antioch

Sometime towards the end of the 3rd century CE, the School of Antioch was founded. It was the first Seminary, so to speak, founded in Syria that overemphasized the literal interpretation of the Bible and the humanity of Christ. This so-called “exegetical school” interpreted Scripture primarily according to its historical and grammatical sense. In an attempt to offset the earlier excesses of Biblical interpretation that could lead to various questionable doctrines, such as those of Docetism, the Antioch school became increasingly dogmatic and heavily involved in overemphasizing the literal interpretation of the Bible and the full humanity of Jesus. This led to the so-called “Nestorian Heresy,” namely that Jesus possessed two hypostases, one human and one divine! As a result of the condemnation of Nestorius (386 – 450 CE) at the First Council of Ephesus in 431, the Antioch school’s influence declined considerably and never really recovered. Many followers abandoned the school and it eventually moved to another location further East in Persia. Even though the Antiochian school’s tenets had lost traction, they were eventually taken up again by Martin Luther and John Calvin, who restored them to their former glory.

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Conclusion

So, the earlier Alexandrian School of allegorical interpretation at least allowed the possibility of mythicism to be considered as a viable option, whereas the later Antiochian school of literal interpretation——which influenced not only “the dogma of Christ” in the early ecumenical councils, but also modern Bible scholarship——eventually became the dominant school of hermeneutics that held to a rigid form of literalism and overemphasized the historicity of Jesus. In other words, the early church was not as adamant about the historicity of Jesus as the later Church! Thus, up until the end of the third century (the Ante-Nicene Era), and just prior to the onset of the first ecumenical council, the allegorical/metaphorical Jesus dominated the Biblical landscape. It was not until much later that the literal, historical interpretation of Jesus became the prevalent view that it is today!

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Bible Researcher Eli Kittim is the Goodreads Award-Winning Author of the 5-Star Christian-Nonfiction Book, “The Little Book of Revelation.”

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What’s the Book About?

It’s a Retelling of the Jesus Story: A Biblical Study of the Sequence of End-time Events.

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Grab your copy here (buying links):

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This book is a fascinating study in search of the real Jesus. The author concludes that scripture is essentially a collection of prophecies,

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https://rhondapattonauthor.wordpress.com/2018/07/06/welcome-author-eli-of-kittim/

The Croak 500

Welcome Author Eli of Kittim

Bio Eli of Kittim (pen name) is a published author and an expert on Bible prophecy. Under his real name, he has published articles in numero

Goodreads Contest Winner! #award_winning_book

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*The Little Book of Revelation* was a winner in a Double Decker Books contest on Goodreads, a few years back. As a result, Double Decker Books and five other blogs promoted this book for several weeks. They included a book description, an author bio, editorial reviews, and buying links.

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Here are some of the links:

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InkSpell Reviews - https://inkspellreviews.wordpress.com/2015/02/04/the-little-book-of-revelation-the-first-coming-of-jesus-at-the-end-of-days/

Ink Spell Reviews

The Little Book of Revelation: The First Coming of Jesus at the End of Days

The Little Book of Revelation: The First Coming of Jesus at the End of Days Blurb: “Sounds like you’ve got the subject well in hand … Your i

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~Spilling Words~

The Little Book of Revelation: The First Coming of Jesus at the End of Days

The Little Book of Revelation: The First Coming of Jesus at the End of Days Blurb: “Sounds like you’ve got the subject well in hand … Your i

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