1Then I saw a beast rising up out of the sea. It had seven heads and ten horns, with ten crowns on its horns. And written on each head were names that blasphemed God. 2This beast looked like a leopard, but it had the feet of a bear and the mouth of a lion! And the dragon gave the beast his own power and throne and great authority. 3I saw that one of the heads of the beast seemed wounded beyond recovery—but the fatal wound was healed! The whole world marvelled at this miracle and gave allegiance to the beast. 4They worshiped the dragon for giving the beast such power, and they also worshiped the beast. “Who is as great as the beast?” they exclaimed. “Who is able to fight against him?” 5Then the beast was allowed to speak great blasphemies against God. And he was given authority to do whatever he wanted for forty-two months. 6And he spoke terrible words of blasphemy against God, slandering his name and his dwelling—that is, those who dwell in heaven. 7And the beast was allowed to wage war against God’s holy people and to conquer them. And he was given authority to rule over every tribe and people and language and nation. 8And all the people who belong to this world worshiped the beast. They are the ones whose names were not written in the Book of Life that belongs to the Lamb who was slaughtered before the world was made. 9Anyone with ears to hear should listen and understand. 10Anyone who is destined for prison will be taken to prison. Anyone destined to die by the sword will die by the sword. This means that God’s holy people must endure persecution patiently and remain faithful. 11Then I saw another beast come up out of the earth. He had two horns like those of a lamb, but he spoke with the voice of a dragon. 12He exercised all the authority of the first beast. And he required all the earth and its people to worship the first beast, whose fatal wound had been healed. 13He did astounding miracles, even making fire flash down to earth from the sky while everyone was watching. 14And with all the miracles he was allowed to perform on behalf of the first beast, he deceived all the people who belong to this world. He ordered the people to make a great statue of the first beast, who was fatally wounded and then came back to life. 15He was then permitted to give life to this statue so that it could speak. Then the statue of the beast commanded that anyone refusing to worship it must die. 16He required everyone—small and great, rich and poor, free and slave—to be given a mark on the right hand or on the forehead. 17And no one could buy or sell anything without that mark, which was either the name of the beast or the number representing his name. 18Wisdom is needed here. Let the one with understanding solve the meaning of the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man. His number is 666.
Revelation 13:1-18
What are you doing to us Ian? Why have we got this next chapter in one solid block?
Welcome to the world of biblical texts. At least I have been kind to you, the text has word breaks and verse numbers. The original UNCIAL texts of the Greek New Testament were all written in CAPITAL LETTERS withoutspacesbetweeneachword. Say, “Thanks Ian for your kindness to us.” I wanted to give you the pleasure, or if not pleasure, at least the experience of grappling with the text and having to make your own decision as to where to divide the text into paragraphs and sections. You could even give your sections a title if you so desired. Imagine yourself to be the translator or the publisher. You decide where to make the section breaks. You learned from the previous Gem that the process can be quite arbitrary. Section this passage and title it how you want it to look. Now you are the one in control.
Now that you have divided the block into paragraphs and named them, it’s time to look back to Chapter 12 and forward to Chapter 14 to see if you can discern any flow or connectedness between them. We ought to expect the biblical text to flow with logical connections. Is that the case in this chapter? Did you see connections flowing from Chapter 12 to 13 and from 13 forward into 14? Often we, the ordinary people of God, think of the Bible as being unconnected. In fact many people have voiced to me before that they expect the Bible to be confusing. I beg to differ. I have been trained to look for the presence of God and Jesus with every word, every subtlety. Expect the Bible to make sense. If it doesn’t yet make sense, wrestle with it some more.
As I have suggested to you before, ask questions related to the text.
- What elements need more explanation?
- What words or phrases are still a little cloudy?
- Are all the words in the text clearly understood?
- Are there words with a double meaning like we’ve met before?
- Are there any word pictures, the meaning or significance of which are still not clear?
- Have you decided whether the opening verse in this passage refers to John himself or the devil?
- Is the verb first person singular [I] or third person singular [he]?
“Oh come on Ian, I can’t make that decision, I don’t know Greek.”
You don’t have to think in Greek; you can think in English or whatever your mother tongue may be.
Of course you can. You know it has to be “I” or “He”, so make a decision for yourself. You are just as competent to make a decision as some commentators. You know all the necessary facts. You can work out for yourself how the last verse of chapter 12 fits with the first verse of chapter 13. Is there anything else in the text which requires some pondering? Do you see some interesting elements you need to think about some more? I sure do!
I will leave you with those prompts until the next Gem before we do some analysis or some waiting on God. Ask Him to show you the gold or the fish (the term we use in Deeper Bible for elements of high significance). I have stirred the pot, now I will leave it to simmer, leaving you to ponder it some more.
Do you see some common links in this chapter? A theme perhaps, a motif? Is John wanting us to observe some commonality here?
Ian
We pray for answers and revelation, instead God gives us a promise and something to do towards its fulfilment. He loves us to make discoveries for ourselves.
Ian
Life is lived best when we compromise least.
Deron Spoo
My Greek Prof used to say, “Class, there’s always more.” “Ian, there’s always more.”
Dr Basil Brown
I have just seen something for the first time, which pulls all of this together. I don’t know why I haven’t seen it before. It’s so obvious; it’s starring us in the face.
Ian
…that belongs to the Lamb that was slaughtered before the world was made. This is out of left field not sure what this means Ian.
End of chapter 12 and beginning of chapter 13 is a boundary crossover and ‘I’ is John. So said Ross!