Revelation 13 is the thirteenth chapter of the

Book of Revelation The Book of Revelation, also known as the Book of the Apocalypse or the Apocalypse of John, is the final book of the New Testament, and therefore the final book of the Bible#Christian Bible, Christian Bible. Written in Greek language, Greek, ...

or the Apocalypse of John in the

New Testament The New Testament (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus, as well as events relating to Christianity in the 1st century, first-century Christianit ...

of the

Christian A Christian () is a person who follows or adheres to Christianity, a Monotheism, monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus Christ. Christians form the largest religious community in the wo ...

Bible The Bible is a collection of religious texts that are central to Christianity and Judaism, and esteemed in other Abrahamic religions such as Islam. The Bible is an anthology (a compilation of texts of a variety of forms) originally writt ...

. The book is traditionally attributed to

John the Apostle John the Apostle (; ; ), also known as Saint John the Beloved and, in Eastern Orthodox Christianity, Saint John the Theologian, was one of the Twelve Apostles of Jesus according to the New Testament. Generally listed as the youngest apostle, he ...

, but the precise identity of the author remains a point of academic debate. The author records visions of two beasts (or monsters) which he saw while "standing on the seashore", the beast from the sea and the beast from the land.

Text

The original text was written in

Koine Greek Koine Greek (, ), also variously known as Hellenistic Greek, common Attic, the Alexandrian dialect, Biblical Greek, Septuagint Greek or New Testament Greek, was the koiné language, common supra-regional form of Greek language, Greek spoken and ...

. This chapter is divided into 18 verses.

Textual witnesses

Some early manuscripts containing the text of this chapter are, among others: *

Papyrus 115 Papyrus 115, also known as ''P. Oxy. 4499'', is a fragmented manuscript of the New Testament written in Greek on papyrus. It is designated by the siglum in the Gregory-Aland numbering of New Testament manuscripts. It consists of 26 fragments of ...

(ca. 275; extant verses 1-3, 6-16, 18) *

Papyrus 47 Papyrus 47, also known as ''P. Chester Beatty'' III, is an early Greek New Testament manuscript written on papyrus, and is one of the manuscripts comprising the Chester Beatty Papyri. It is designated by the siglum in the Gregory-Aland numberi ...

(3rd century) *

Codex Sinaiticus The Codex Sinaiticus (; Shelfmark: London, British Library, Add MS 43725), also called the Sinai Bible, is a fourth-century Christian manuscript of a Greek Bible, containing the majority of the Greek Old Testament, including the deuterocanonica ...

(330-360) *

Codex Alexandrinus The Codex Alexandrinus (London, British Library, Royal MS 1. D. V-VIII) is a manuscript of the Greek Bible,The Greek Bible in this context refers to the Bible used by Greek-speaking Christians who lived in Egypt and elsewhere during the early ...

(400-440) *

Codex Ephraemi Rescriptus The Codex Ephraemi Rescriptus (Paris, National Library of France, Greek 9) is a manuscript of the Greek Bible, written on parchment. It is designated by the siglum C or 04 in the Biblical manuscript#Gregory-Aland, Gregory-Aland numbering of New ...

(ca. 450; complete)

New Testament references

* :

The beast from the sea (13:1–10)

The last verse (verse 18) of the previous chapter connects the appearance of the beast to the dragon who delegates to the beast what power it has.

Verse 1

: ''Then I stood on the sand of the sea. And I saw a beast rising up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and on his horns ten crowns, and on his heads a blasphemous name.'' Some manuscript texts read ἐστάθην, ''estathēn'', ''I stood'', while others read ἐστάθη, ''estathē'', ''he stood'', referring to the dragon of . *"The sea": here represents 'the sphere of primeval chaos, the source of evil, an alternative image to the abyss (cf. ).

Verse 2

:''Now the beast which I saw was like a leopard, his feet were like the feet of a bear, and his mouth like the mouth of a lion. The dragon gave him his power, his throne, and great authority.'' The dominant violent characteristic of the beast is modelled on the vision of four beasts in the Book of Daniel, representing four great world empires ().

Verse 5

:''And he was given a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies, and he was given authority to continue for forty-two months.'' The language of verse 5 reflects , , . Although the beast's power is given by the dragon ( verse 2), it can only be exercised by God's permission (

verse 5 Verse may refer to: Poetry * Verse (poetry), a line or lines in a poetic composition * Blank verse, a type of poetry having regular meter but no rhyme * Free verse, a type of poetry written without the use of strict meter or rhyme, but still re ...

The beast from the land (13:11–18)

This is the second beast, which also called the "false prophet" (; ; ), 'represents the priesthood of the imperial cult, which included prominent members of the elite of the cities'.

Verse 11

: ''Then I saw another beast coming up out of the earth, and he had two horns like a lamb and spoke like a dragon.'' *"Spoke like a dragon": speaking arrogantly like the devil himself 'as if he was above all' or even 'as if he was God himself' ().''John Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible'' - Revelation 13:11
/ref>

Verses 16–17

:'' He causes all, both small and great, both rich and poor, both free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hand or on their forehead, so that no one may buy or sell, except he who has the mark or the name of the beast or the number of his name.'' The mark of the beast seems to be 'a parody of God's seal of ownership on the foreheads of faithful Christians' (; ). The reference to "buying and selling" may reflect the fact that 'it was particularly in order to participate in the business life of the cities that Christians were tempted to compromise with idolatry'.

Verse 18

:''Here is wisdom. Let him who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man: His number is 666.'' NKJV The reference that "the number of the beast" is the same as "the number of a person" leads to many interpretations, because the Greek or Hebrew letters also functioned as numbers, so it was possible to "add up the numerical value of a word"—a practice known as

gematria In numerology, gematria (; or , plural or ) is the practice of assigning a numerical value to a name, word, or phrase by reading it as a number, or sometimes by using an alphanumeric cipher. The letters of the alphabets involved have standar ...

. The Greek word for "beast" (''therion'') or "Nero(n) Caesar" when transliterated into Hebrew letters has the total value of 666, but the 'verbal link' to Revelation 17:9 indicates more significance of the number (which will be developed further in chapter 17). The number 666 is unusual for being a

triangular number A triangular number or triangle number counts objects arranged in an equilateral triangle. Triangular numbers are a type of figurate number, other examples being square numbers and cube numbers. The th triangular number is the number of dots in ...

(that is, the sum of all numbers from 1 to 36), and also a

doubly triangular number In mathematics, the doubly triangular numbers are the numbers that appear within the sequence of triangular numbers, in positions that are also triangular numbers. That is, if T_n=n(n+1)/2 denotes the nth triangular number, then the doubly triangu ...

(because 36 is the sum of all numbers up to 8) and the eighth such number (in the series of 1, 6, 21, 55, 120, 231, 406, 666). Nero is also revealed to be "the eighth" in power. At least one manuscript reads 616.

Notes

References

Sources

External links

* King James Bible - Wikisource
English Translation with Parallel Latin Vulgate

''Online Bible'' at GospelHall.org
(ESV, KJV, Darby, American Standard Version, Bible in Basic English)
Multiple bible versions at ''Bible Gateway''
(NKJV, NIV, NRSV etc.) {{Book of Revelation 13 The Beast (Revelation)