Smoodock's Blog

In my previous study: The Beast with Seven Heads, I mentioned John described the main portion of the beast, i.e. its body, as a leopard (Revelation 13:2). The leopard is the third beast of Daniel 7:3-7), and according to nearly every scholar who studies Daniel, this beast represents Greece and Alexander the Great. In the context of Revelation 13:2, this seems to mean the beast would be Grecian or Hellenistic in its character. Moreover, this character is described in Scripture as one who watches its prey (Jeremiah 5:6), and considers them with a view to destroy (Hosea 13:7-8; cf. Luke 6:7; 14:1; Acts 9:23-24).

In addition to the beast’s body, John describes its feet as those of a bear, which categorizes Daniel’s second beast (Daniel 7:5). The bear would represent the Persian Empire, according to most scholars. In the context of Revelation 13:2, it seems that the beast would seek to destroy its enemies with the fury of a mother bear bereft of its cubs (cf. Hosea 13:7-8; Proverbs 28:15). In other words, the beast of Revelation 13 would observe his enemies as a leopard, but, when it was time to act, it would destroy them with unmerciful fury, from which there would be no turning back, just as when a mother bear has her cubs taken away. Finally, John describes the beast’s mouth as that of a lion, implying its ferocity in devouring its prey (Psalm 22:21; 2Timothy 4:17), and the lion in Daniel 7 represents Babylon.

It is interesting to note that, although John compares the beast of Revelation 13 with the beasts of Daniel 7, he never describes the heads of the beasts. That is, the heads of the beast in the Apocalypse are not that of a lion, a leopard or a bear. So, although the beast of Revelation 13 seems to have Daniel 7 as its source, there are notable exceptions between the two Scriptures.

First of all, the beasts that we see in Daniel represent empires that are different one from the other (Daniel 7:3). However, the beast of Revelation 13 incorporates certain characteristics from all four of Daniel’s empires, which seems to imply that the beast of Revelation 13 is not an empire in its own right. Rather, it seems to be a kind of composite entity that incorporates all four other empires. This would fit my understanding that the beast of Revelation 13 is the apostate state of Israel. While it is not an empire, it has been influenced by four ancient empires and bears out that influence in how it represents itself in world of the first century AD.

The text tells us that the dragon gave this beast its power, seat (throne) and great authority (Revelation 13:2). How this played out in reality, however, may be quite different from this straightforward statement. For example, Luke tells us that Satan offered Jesus his seat (throne) and great authority (Luke 4:5-7). Yet, if we consider Luke 4:1-2, where Jesus is said to have spent forty days in the wilderness, tempted of Satan, and compare this with the three days of the Gospel of John, which immediately followed Jesus’ baptism (John 1:29, 35, 43; 2:1), we find no room for Jesus spending forty days in a literal wilderness. Therefore, Satan’s temptations came through people, who were called wild beasts by Mark (Mark 1:13). The wilderness, into which Jesus was driven, was a wilderness of people, and he was tempted among them and by them (cf. Ezekiel 20:35).[1]

So, in the context of the dragon giving the beast his power, seat and authority, how would that be worked out in the first century AD world, remembering that John is writing about things extremely difficult to put into human words (2Corinthians 12: 4)? It seems to me, if we consider the fact that the beast is a composite of the four empires of Daniel 7 (cf. Revelation 13:1-2), but not any one of them in particular, and since these empires were different one from another (Daniel 7:3), then it could be said that the beast of Revelation 13 was an entity different from the four empires, but was influenced by each of them. This entity, itself, existed longer than any one of the first three and was presently being influenced by the fourth, the Roman Empire. It was the dragon (Satan, the Devil – i.e. the rebellious Jewish state in another form) in the person of its head, Caesar, that gave the beast its power, seat, and great authority. In other words, just as Satan (the rebellious Jewish state) tempted Jesus (to become its “head”) in the persons of the “wild beasts” (zealots, Pharisees etc.) in the wilderness of people,[2] so, too, Satan (the dragon of Revelation 12), in the person of its head, Caesar, gave the beast of Revelation 13 its power, seat, and great authority.[3]

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[1] See my study: Led Into the Wilderness and Jesus’ Trials and the Wedding at Cana.

[2] Josephus: “And now Archelaus took possession of his ethnarchy, and used not the Jews only, but the Samaritans also, barbarously; and this out of his resentment of their old quarrels with him. Whereupon they both of them sent ambassadors against him to Caesar; and in the ninth year of his government he was banished to Vienna, a city of Gaul, and his effects were put into Caesar’s treasury.” (Wars of the Jews 2.7.3).

[3] See my two previous studies: The Birth of the Beast of Revelation 13 and The Beast With Seven Heads.