The nature of the beast
The devil and all his minions take up quite a bit of space in the book of Revelation, and this study has spent quite a few articles on the subject too. Why is that? Shouldn’t the effort go toward describing God instead? There is a reason.
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The character of the devil
The devil is described as aggressive, which is hard to deal with as a believer — but at least you know what you’re dealing with. He’s also a deceiver, though, and that’s even more dangerous: you may grow tired of the fighting and think there’s an easy way out, only to end up loyal to the devil without ever fully realizing it. That’s why the book describes God and Satan side by side, so you can see both the differences and the deceptive similarities.
The description of the devil
The devil always appears in the form of a trinity, since God himself is three.
The first time is right after the enthronement of Christ, when he alone is found worthy to open the scroll, and the devil shows up as four horsemen — the fourth summarizing the other three. His action here is described in a mere eight verses, in sharp contrast to the two full chapters of eternal worship of God that precede it.
The first horseman appears as the great victor, but only a few verses later he leaves a scene of total destruction: the devil cannot fulfill his promises.
The second time he appears is when Jesus is declared victorious again, born of the woman. Here Satan is shown as the ultimate loser:
- He tries to destroy the child — and fails.
- He fights against Michael — and is cast out of heaven.
- He tries to destroy the woman — and fails.
- He tries to destroy the descendants of Jesus, the Church, and also fails, as we see in the number 666.
The devil is shown a third time as a trinity in the sixth bowl, which is then judged in chapters 19 and 20. These passages frame the story of the harlot, where the beast and the harlot appear together.
These three views are interrelated, each adding to the picture of the devil’s activity.
The false trinity
To better understand how the devil is described, we need to look at the second story of the dragon and the two beasts.
He sets up an evil trinity to deceive the church, but to no avail.
The dragon and the beasts are described as working together to accomplish their goal, but they act differently: the first beast relies on violence, while the second relies on signs, miracles, and economic pressure — see also in the historical context.
If we now look at the four horsemen, we find the same pattern (developed in more detail there):
- first comes the deceiver,
- followed by the one who uses violence and brings war,
- followed by the one who brings economic injustice.
The fourth horseman summarizes all three — another instance of the same trinity pattern.
Finally, there’s the story of the harlot. Despite the many players in chapter 17, a trinity isn’t obvious there at first. But two observations bring it into view.
First, there is a strong parallel between the beast in chapter 17 and the first beast in chapter 13.
| The first beast of Revelation 13 | The beast on Revelation 17 |
|---|---|
| Has 7 heads and 10 horns | Has 7 heads and 10 horns |
| Head as if slaughtered, grows back | 5 kings fallen, the seventh yet to come (both point to the beast’s mysterious continuity and return, cf. the beast that was, and is not, and is to come) |
| Who can fight against the beast | Beast makes war on King of Kings |
| Speech of blasphemy | Blasphemous name |
| Fight against saints and defeat them | Fights against Lamb and is overcomeFight against Harlot and destroys it. |
| All who are not written in the book of life worship the beast | All who are not written in the book of life are overwhelmed |
Second, there is also a strong connection between the second beast in chapter 13 and the harlot.
The harlot and the second beast
| The Second Beast of Revelation 13 | The Harlot |
|---|---|
| Comes from Earth | Sits in desert |
| Has two horns like a lamb | Is richly dressed and adorned, recalling the bride’s imagery later in the book (the bride of the Lamb) |
| Acts in power of the (first) beast | Sits on the (first) beast |
| Can make fire fall from the sky | Will be destroyed by fire (Rev.18/9) |
| All who do not worship it will be killed | Drink blood of the saints |
| Make a mark on forehead and hand | Has sign on forehead: Babel |
| Cannot buy or sell without the mark | Merchants who traded with her can no longer buy or sell anything, now that she has fallen (Rev.18/11-17) |
| Requires wisdom | Requires wisdom |
Notice how the power is reversed here too: while in chapter 13 the beast drops fire from heaven, in chapter 17 she is destroyed by fire; while she makes a mark on people’s foreheads there, here her own forehead bears a name, as if she were owned or marked out for judgment.
So where is the third member of the trinity in this scene? He stays in the background, just as he does in chapter 13 and in the description of the horsemen — but you do see him in the sixth bowl and in chapter 20.
This was also the case in the historical context: you see the two beasts, but not the devil directly.
The development of the picture
Tracing the development of this image across the book, we first meet Satan in the four horsemen. That scene comes right after Jesus is identified as the one worthy to open the scroll that brings salvation to the world — and Satan is exposed immediately afterward, because victory without lasting substance is exactly what he claims to offer in the first horseman.
He appears to be the victorious one, but he ends up leaving destruction and death everywhere. He is exposed for bringing the very opposite of what Jesus brings. But what, exactly, does Jesus bring that the devil can’t?
That’s the theme developed in the story of the dragon and the two beasts. There, Satan does have some genuinely appealing things to offer. Yet the text sets a clear alternative alongside it: the two witnesses, who live a lifestyle of worship and stay faithful in their testimony even to death.
This contrast finally unfolds in full in the last vision, where Babylon is described in detail as the dark counterpart of the New Jerusalem.