Smoodock's Blog

In Revelation 13:11-18 a beast is revealed to us who looks like a lamb, a godly person, but he speaks like a dragon—i.e. he speaks like an enemy, a slanderer, one who speaks and acts deviously (cf. Revelation 12:9). In an earlier study, Who is the False Prophet?, I determined that this beast was Annas the Jewish high priest of the 1^st century AD. It is difficult to understand, today, just how powerful Annas really was as far as first century AD Judaism was concerned. We are told that, as the second beast of Revelation 13:11, he was the executor or national leader of the first beast, apostate Jerusalem, and that beast’s power came from the dragon (Revelation 13:2).[1]

The second beast or Annas deceived the Jewish people through the great works he was able to do as the national and religious leader of apostate Israel. Through him the people worshiped the first beast in that they couldn’t believe God would or could abandon or destroy them (Revelation 13:4).[2] Annas influenced the people to make an image to the beast, that is, to make a god that resembled or pointed to the first beast. Annas was able to get the people to make this god and it was given him to give life to this image and cause it to speak or have influence (Revelation 13:15). Can we know what this image or god was? Yes, but we need to understand what happened in order to be able to recognize this image or god.

It would not be difficult to see that, if an image or god were set up in Jerusalem, it would be an abomination. In fact, this had occurred once before in the history of the Jews, when Antiochus Epiphanes set up an image in the Temple and sacrificed swine’s flesh before it. However, as I said in a previous study, this is not what caused the desolation in the times before the Maccabees. The desolation was caused by the national abandonment of God by the Jewish people. They were so taken by the Grecian culture, through the influence of their own high priests, that they left off their duties in the Temple. As a nation, the Jews were no longer devoted to God but to Hellenism. The Temple existed for the sake of the people, not the other way around. The people weren’t chosen by God, so they could serve the Temple (2Maccabees 5:19). So, when the nation, as a whole, abandoned God, God abandoned the Temple. His Presence was no longer with them. It is only because God had already abandoned the Temple that Antiochus was able to do what he did.

In the context of the Apocalypse and first century AD, things were a bit more complicated than when Antiochus set up his image. Without knowing what was happening, one would not be able to recognize the image of the beast. In fact, during the reign of Gaius Caesar, he tried to set up his own image at the Temple, and it brought the Jews to the brink of war with Rome.[3] Any image intended to be a god is an abomination, but the image of the beast went unrecognized for what it was and setting it up marked a national movement away from God and this caused the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple.

Jesus foretold of the image being set up in the Temple, and Daniel predicted it would take place 1290 days after the daily sacrifice was taken away or in reality after Jesus’ Sacrifice was accepted by God on Resurrection Sunday. From that time forward, the Jews as a nation began on a determinant journey away from God, by persecuting those he sent to them, and the image to the beast began to be formed.

The image of the beast had seven heads, and it lived and spoke through the power of Annas. This image was Annas’ high priestly family. He had five sons, a son-in-law and a grandson who were seven high priests in the first century AD. His sons were Eleazer (16-17 AD), Jonathan (35-36 AD & 52-58 AD), Theophilus (36-41 AD), Matthias (42-43 AD), and Ananias (63 AD). Annas’ grandson Matthias (son of Theophilus) reigned 65-67 AD, and, of course, Annas’ son-in-law Caiaphas reigned as high priest from 18 to 35 AD. Messianic Jews were not persecuted in Palestine before the Jews’ war with Rome, unless one of these men executed the office of high priest. Annas made war with the saints through them. Before his death in 66 AD at the hand of one of the rebels at the beginning of the Jews’ war with Rome, Annas organized three major persecutions against Messianic believers.[4]

When the chief (high) priests cried “we have no king but Caesar” (John 19:15), this was an abomination, but God gave the Jewish leadership another 3 ½ years to repent. When Stephen’s blood was shed, the building of image was begun. From this point on, it was a matter of choosing “who is on the Lord’s side” (cf. Exodus 32:26).

When Annas organized the third persecution in which James, the Lord’s brother was killed, and an all out effort was made to divide and conquer the Church of God in the Diaspora, the last nail was pounded into the coffin of the Jewish nation. When this occurred, it meant the Jews, as a nation, abandoned their God (Jesus, who is the God of the Old Covenant) and chose to follow the way of Annas. The end came 42 months (3 ½ years—see Revelation 13:5) later with the beginning of the war with Rome and the death of Annas, the Jewish high priest, and false prophet.[5]

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[1] See my study: The Beast With Seven Heads.

[2] That is, God couldn’t destroy them in that he was bound to the Jewish nation through the Covenant. In other words, his word to the Jews that he was committed to them prevented him from backing out of the Covenant and destroying them.

[3] See Josephus: Antiquities of the Jews 18.8.1-9]

[4] See my study: The First Three Persecutions of the Church.

[5] This present study has been edited to reflect my current understanding of the Apocalypse.