The nature of the beast in the book of revelation

One of the first things that comes to mind when you think about the book of Revelation is the dragon and the two beasts with the number 666, marking people’s hands and foreheads. There is no shortage of speculation about what this might mean, so let’s take a careful look at the text itself.

The text

Then the dragon became furious with the woman and went off to make war on the rest of her offspring, on those who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus. And he stood on the sand of the sea.

1 And I saw a beast rising out of the sea, with ten horns and seven heads, with ten diadems on its horns and blasphemous names on its heads. 2 And the beast that I saw was like a leopard; its feet were like a bear’s, and its mouth was like a lion’s mouth. And to it the dragon gave his power and his throne and great authority. 3 One of its heads seemed to have a mortal wound, but its mortal wound was healed, and the whole earth marveled as they followed the beast. 4 And they worshiped the dragon, for he had given his authority to the beast, and they worshiped the beast, saying, “Who is like the beast, and who can fight against it?” 5 And the beast was given a mouth uttering haughty and blasphemous words, and it was allowed to exercise authority for forty-two months. 6 It opened its mouth to utter blasphemies against God, blaspheming his name and his dwelling, that is, those who dwell in heaven. 7 Also it was allowed to make war on the saints and to conquer them. And authority was given it over every tribe and people and language and nation, 8 and all who dwell on earth will worship it, everyone whose name has not been written before the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who was slain. 9 If anyone has an ear, let him hear: 10 If anyone is to be taken captive, to captivity he goes; if anyone is to be slain with the sword, with the sword must he be slain. Here is a call for the endurance and faith of the saints.

11 Then I saw another beast rising out of the earth. It had two horns like a lamb and it spoke like a dragon. 12 It exercises all the authority of the first beast in its presence, and makes the earth and its inhabitants worship the first beast, whose mortal wound was healed. 13 It performs great signs, even making fire come down from heaven to earth in front of people, 14 and by the signs that it is allowed to work in the presence of the beast it deceives those who dwell on earth, telling them to make an image for the beast that was wounded by the sword and yet lived. 15 And it was allowed to give breath to the image of the beast, so that the image of the beast might even speak and might cause those who would not worship the image of the beast to be slain. 16 Also it causes all, both small and great, both rich and poor, both free and slave, to be marked on the right hand or the forehead, 17 so that no one can buy or sell unless he has the mark, that is, the name of the beast or the number of its name. 18 This calls for wisdom: let the one who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man, and his number is 666. (Rev.12/17–13–18)

A bag full of references

The previous verses describe the dragon’s attack on the child (Jesus) and his mother. He fails completely both times, so now he assembles two more beasts, described here in detail — and the description isn’t invented out of nowhere. It draws on a handful of Old Testament passages that first readers would have recognized immediately.

• The first reference goes back to the book of Job 40/15–41/34, a long passage describing Behemoth and Leviathan, two beasts from the sea and from the land — just as the beasts in Rev.13 also come from the sea and from the land. They are invincible to man, but not to God (Isa.27/1); Ps.104 can even be read as suggesting that Leviathan is no more than a toy compared to God, though the Hebrew is ambiguous and most translations take Leviathan itself, not God, as the one “playing.”
• A similar hint appears in Rev.10/2, where the angel plants his foot on land and sea, claiming ownership of both.
• The first beast takes its description from Dan.7, which describes four beasts: the first like a lion, the second like a bear, the third like a leopard. Together they have seven heads (only the third beast’s four heads are stated explicitly, in Dan.7/6; the other three are assumed to have one each), and the fourth beast has ten horns, which are ten kings — a detail that even connects Dan.7 with the harlot’s beast in Rev.17. So what’s the point of reaching back to Dan.7? Read that chapter to the end, and you’ll see: its whole point is to show that the beast is defeated.
• The next major parallel is Dan.3, the well-known story of Daniel’s friends in the fiery furnace. This describes the situation of the second beast: a statue to be worshiped, people punished by fire if they refuse, and even an echo of six in Dan.3, where the statue measures 60 cubits by 6 cubits and the lists of officials and instruments who must bow to it are repeated in sets of six. The story ends with Daniel’s friends saved and the king acknowledging and praising God, then promoting the friends.

At first glance, this chapter gives the impression of the dragon and his beasts as unbeatable rulers and oppressors. But look at how each of these Old Testament sources ends, and the evidence screams “loser” the moment they face God and his people.

That said, the first beast’s appearance doesn’t map onto any single one of the four kingdoms in Daniel — it borrows features from all of them at once, as the table below shows.

The first beast and the beasts in Daniel

The twofold attack

This passage follows Satan’s failed attempt to destroy Jesus and Israel. Furious at that failure, he now gathers two beasts to attack the descendants of Jesus — the Church.

Let’s take a closer look at these two beasts. They act together and support each other, and the text describes them in a deliberately parallel pattern, laid out below.

There’s another interesting chiasmus hidden in that last row. “Here is … patience and faith” pairs with “he who has ears, let him hear,” and “here is wisdom” pairs with “if anyone has understanding, let him calculate” — which sets up an equivalence: hearing (which in Hebrew thought means obeying) is to patience and faith what understanding is to wisdom. In other words, knowledge is only the first step; it’s meant to lead to action.

He does this in two ways:

• By force and intimidation (conquering the saints, killing any resistance or people who don’t want to follow).
• By deception, which is a little harder to understand, but I will explain.

Start with a few observations that point that way:

• The dragon and the two beasts are three, like the Holy Trinity.
• The dragon gives all authority to the first beast, just as God gives Jesus all authority in heaven and on earth.
• The first beast appears to be killed and resurrected from the death, just as Jesus died and was resurrected.
• All who dwell on earth worship the first beast as every knee will one day bow to Jesus.
• Everyone worships the first beast as they should worship Jesus.
• The second beast has two horns like a lamb.
• The second beast speaks with the authority of the first beast, just as the Holy Spirit speaks with the authority of Jesus.
• It can make fire fall down from heaven in front of all the people as a reminder of Elijah’s sign of the true God.
• It can make a statue come alive, showing that it is more than an idol and recalling the work of the Spirit in Ezekiel.

Put together, it becomes clear that Satan forms an evil trinity:

• the dragon, who represents God the Father and gives all power to
• the first beast, who resurrects and holds power over all nations, representing Jesus, and who is worshipped by the second beast, who in turn
• acts as the counterfeit Holy Spirit, making everyone worship the first beast, performing signs and wonders, and causing the dead image to live.

The dark side

Your first reaction might be that this is just evil. But on second thought, some of it might look appealing:

• People are astonished when they see the strength of the beast — and don’t we sometimes wish that people wouldn’t think our faith is silly, or that our prayers were visibly that powerful?
• The beast gets the whole world to worship it without resistance — wouldn’t that be a relief if you’re tired of inviting people to God only to get rejected?
• Or do you want to see more signs and wonders because you’re beginning to doubt that God is really there?
• Or do you want a God who forces submission and destroys resistance outright — an answer to the question of why a good God doesn’t just stop evil?
• Or do you want all people to submit to our value system?

This counterfeit trinity offers all the things we may long for from time to time. But something about it is deeply wrong.

• The first beast does not give his life out of love, but to make people afraid.
• The first beast does not do things to glorify God, but to insult Him.
• The beast does not build up the church, but attacks the believers.
• The second beast does not invite people, but coerces them and threatens them with the loss of their lives or financial survival.

In short, the beast stands for everything God does not stand for: manipulation, intimidation, punishment, and forcing people into a system. Unfortunately, the church often does just that — and this chapter challenges the church not to.

There is no “setting aside loving acts for the greater good,” because love is the greater good.

The mystery of the second beast

You may ask yourself how this could happen — how even the Church could fall for something the Bible itself describes as the work of the beast. The answer is in verse 11: Then I saw another beast coming up out of the earth. It had two horns like a lamb, but it spoke like a dragon. From the outside, the evil trinity and the Holy Trinity look alike — two horns like a lamb, like Jesus — but the difference is in the voice: this one speaks like a dragon. So who can actually recognize that voice for what it is? Only His sheep, as Jesus says.

But in Hebrew thinking, hearing his voice also means obeying it. So only the Church — by staying attentive and obedient to the real voice — can tell the Holy Trinity and the evil trinity apart. Whenever the church resorts to fear, violence, or manipulation, it isn’t following God; it’s following the way of the beast.

What about miracles

We shouldn’t “throw out the baby with the bathwater,” though. After reading all this, you might be tempted to treat anything associated with the beast’s methods as automatically suspect:

• It performs signs and wonders, so wonders must be bad.
• It is victorious, so we should avoid being strong.

Neither follows. The devil would be doing a very poor job of imitating God if everything about the counterfeit were different from the original. God and the Church are victorious too — just in a different way — and God is still doing miracles today. What the devil can’t, or won’t, copy is God’s signature move: love.

The devil advertises victory, no matter the death toll. God comes in love and cares for people, even when that doesn’t look victorious at all.

Dig Deeper

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