Bible Gem 2309 – Have Others Seen Parody or Satire in Revelation 13?

The First Beast

¹Then I saw a beast rising up out of the sea. It had seven heads and ten horns, with ten crowns on its horns. 

• 1          Written on each head were names that blasphemed God.
• 2          the dragon gave the beast his own power and throne and great authority. 
• 3          one of the heads of the beast seemed wounded beyond recovery—but the fatal wound was healed! 
• 3b       The whole world marvelled at this miracle and gave allegiance to the beast. 
• 4          They worshiped the dragon for giving the beast such power, 
• 4b       they also worshiped the beast. “Who is as great as the beast?” they exclaimed. “Who is able to fight against him?” 
• 5          the beast was allowed to speak great blasphemies against God.
• 5b       he was given authority to do whatever he wanted for forty-two months. 
• 6          he spoke terrible words of blasphemy against God, slandering his name and his dwelling—that is, those who dwell in heaven. 
• 7          the beast was allowed to wage war against God’s holy people and to conquer them.
• 7b       he was given authority to rule over every tribe and people and language and nation. 
• 8          all the people who belong to this world worshiped the beast. 
• 8b       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. 

Revelation 13:1-10

The Second Beast

            ¹¹ Then I saw another beast come up out of the earth.

• 11        He had two horns like those of a lamb, but he spoke with the voice of a dragon. 
• 12        He exercised all the authority of the first beast.
• 12b     He required all the earth and its people to worship the first beast, whose fatal wound had been healed.
• 13        He did astounding miracles, even making fire flash down to earth from the sky while everyone was watching. 
• 14        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. 
• 14b     He ordered the people to make a great statue of the first beast, who was fatally wounded and then came back to life. 
• 15        He was permitted to give life to this statue so that it could speak. 
• 15b     Then the statue of the beast commanded that anyone refusing to worship it must die. 
• 16        He required everyone—small and great, rich and poor, free and slave—to be given a mark on the right hand or on the forehead. 
• 17        No one could buy or sell anything without that mark, which was either the name of the beast or the number representing his name. 

¹⁸ Wisdom 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 13:11-18

As  I wrote in Gem 2308:

After finishing my comments about satan’s claims regarding the Second Beast I intend to look through all the resources I have in my library. I now want to see who among the commentators have recognised the parody or satirical nature of Revelation 13. I will keep you posted after I have finished my current self-appointed assignment.

My investigation of the 50 commentaries in my library currently yielded the following results specifically on the issue of Parody, Satire or Diptych. (That’s right, I even picked up a new technical term to describe it). 

David E. Aune

4b This is a brief hymn of praise introduced with . . . the rhetorical question “Who is like?” and should be taken as an intentional parody of similar rhetorical questions used in OT hymns. . . In fact this question appears to be an echo in reverse of Exod 15:11, “Who is like thee, O Lord, among the gods?” David E Aune Word Biblical Commentary 52b Revelation 6-16 p. 741.   

G. R. Beasley-Murray

John’s parallelism is clearly intended as a parody of the seal of God on the forehead of His servants. . . There can be no doubt that this parallelism is deliberate. The Book of Revelation

Beasley-Murray’s Parallelism

1. Satan, antichrist, false prophet a kind of trinity of evil cf the Holy Trinity (brought together in one sentence 16:13)
2. he has 10 crowns, Christ has many (19:12)
3. has many blasphemous names vs many names of Christ.
4. forces men to worship vs draws men to worship
5. had a fatal wound and lives vs monstrous imitation of Christ’s death, burial and resurrection   
6. has power, throne and authority of satan cf Christ having power, throne and authority of God
7. 2^nd beast, false prophet // horns like a lamb yet talks with voice of satan
8. Priestly advocacy role of 2^nd beast similar to Christ ~ Holy Spirit

G. B. Caird

The monster is a parody of Christ. G B Caird The Revelation of St John the Divine p. 164

Eli-Lizorkin Eyezenberg & Pinchas Shir 

‘Mark’ is reminiscent of Jewish prayer boxes (Tefillin). As a visual symbol, Tefillin signifies complete allegiance to the LORD in thought and deed. Even with Revelation’s obvious parallels to this prayerful practice, parody is at play. Eli Lizorkin Eyezenberg & Pinchas Shir Hebrew Visions of Revelation p. 143

Gordon D. Fee

The present narrative is masterly composed  – a stroke of genius in every way. Having begun the book by noting the special roles of the divine Trinity – Father, Son and Holy Spirit – John now sees the Empire as a kind of perverse “trinity”: the dragon, the beast who comes out of the sea and the beast who comes out of the earth. . . For John, therefore, the three functioned as a kind of demonic parody of the divine Trinity.    Gordon D Fee ‘Revelation’ p 178-179  

Bruce M. Metzger 

“John once again provides a second panel to create a diptych^a.” Page 97

By definition a diptych is ^a: 

1. a painting, especially an altarpiece, on two hinged wooden panels which may be closed like a book.
2. an ancient writing tablet consisting of two hinged leaves with waxed inner sides.

Presenting two contrastive, parallel images or accounts.  Bruce M. Metzger, Breaking the Code, Chapter 8 –The Satanic Counterfeit: The Dragon and the Two Beasts

Leon Morris

Morris sees Revelation 13:3 as an example of a parody of Christianity “one of the beasts heads as it were wounded to death” contrasting it with the death and resurrection of Christ, is thus a parody.

“This is one of several places in which the evil one is pictured as parodying Christianity.” Revelation: An Introduction and Commentary p 167

On page 168 he quotes Swete . . . “such a comment shows the sort of thing that is in mind. ‘Who is like unto the beast? May be meant as a parody of a similar Old Testament expression. And in view of the activities of the angel Michael, it is possible that we should also detect a reference to the meaning of his name [Michael’s], “Who is like God?”

Morris sees parodies in several other passages:- 

• two in 11. – p. 171
• one in 13. – p 172
• one in 14 – p.172     

Robert H. Mounce

There is a parody that runs through this section. It’s the first, not the second, beast who corresponds to the Lamb. (p. 259)

The parody is found connected to the sealing of the servants of God in Chapter 7. As the elect are sealed upon their foreheads to escape the destruction about to fall upon the earth, so the followers of the beast are [sealed] to escape his wrath against the church by bearing his mark. . . Only those who would rather die than compromise their faith will resist the mark of Antichrist. [p. 262 – The Book of Revelation (NICNT)]

David Pawson 

I would not be surprised if he (AntiChrist) called himself Jesus. It has long been a popular name in the underworld with those who like to parody the truth.  A Commentary on the Book of Revelation p 168

R. H. Preston & A. T. Hanson 

See a reference to the X of Christ’s name in Greek as a kind of parody of the practice of making the sign of the cross on the forehead of new Christians. The Revelation of St John the Divine  p. 99 

Henry Barclay Swete

The Apocalypse of St John p 164 – sees Rev 13:4 as an intentional parody of Exodus 15:11. See also op. cit. as quoted in Morris.

Tom Wright

A parody is what you get when someone produces a fake which looks real but isn’t. Sometimes this is done deliberately, for comic effect, as when people turn a Shakespeare tragedy like Hamlet into a short funny skit or play. Sometimes it is done with the intent to deceive. And if you deceive enough people, your parody becomes a new reality. This is what happened across the Ancient Near East in John’s day. p.73 Tom Wright Revelation for Everyone. 

Wright’s notes and questions p. 76 in Revelation for Everyone. p 76

For Christians at the time of John, worshipping or not worshipping the Roman gods became the dividing line between people who were acceptable in the community and who weren’t – unless you offered the required sacrifices you weren’t allowed in the market. If you did sacrifice to the Romans gods you were no longer considered a true follower of the Lamb.

What can we do now so that, when we face even more serious situations, we respond well?

I can now say unequivocally that I am on solid ground when calling Revelation 13, John’s parody or satire on the devil’s dastardly delusions. I have some strong support from the afore-mentioned scholars. If I had been the only one to come to this conclusion I would still think it, but I would have been offering it to you with a hesitancy that belies my confidence that I am on to something which explains all the controversy in this chapter. Now I am utterly convinced that John is writing this as satire while poking fun at the devil to encourage the saints to hang in there and stay faithful to their confidence in Jesus Christ.

In the following Gem I will deal with the knotty problems in Revelation 13:8b and 13:9-10. It might be to your advantage to do some digging or thinking on those verses related to what could be problematic about them. Following that I will address the final issue contained in Chapter 13. 

One reader wrote: Ian, I hope you are going to give us an answer to the one question to which we all want  the answer  – Who is the man behind the number 666? You’re not going to duck that one are you, Ian?        

Even when the devil works his worst he remains God’s devil.

Martin Luther

Whatever satan pumps himself up to be, he is a still a pawn, a lackey under God’s control.

Ian

John’s present narrative [Chapter 13] is a masterly composed stroke of genius in every way, which functions as a kind of demonic parody of the divine Trinity.    

Gordon Fee 

However much the idea of Satan has developed since Job 1:6 remains true; Satan is an authorised minister of God.

Ethelbert Stauffer