Revelation 13

1. I stood. R.V., following the best MSS., “he (the dragon) stood.” The verse should not be separated from ch. xii. The dragon stands watching for the agencies of evil, which soon appear.

a beast. That is, a wild beast; emblem of worldly persecuting power. Cp. Dan. vii. 2-8, 17-27, and notes.

the name of blasphemy. Rather, “names of blasphemy” (as in xvii. 3), apparently signifying impious claims to dignity and authority belonging to God only: see ver. 6.

2 seat. Rather, “throne”: cp. xvi. 10.

3 wondered after the beast. They followed him with admiration. In former visions the adversaries of the Church gained only a transient victory over Christ’s faithful witnesses; but these extend their power through the world (4, 8). Many willingly submit to their dominion; and so ultimately share their doom.

4. Who is like unto the beast, etc.? The “dragon” and “the beast” are both worshipped as possessing irresistible power.

5 blasphemies. Cp. ver. 1, and Dan. vii. 8, 20. The objects of his blasphemies are God, and heaven, and its holy inhabitants (6).

forty and two months. Cp. xii. 6, and note.

8 all that dwell upon the earth, etc. Only those who are in vital union with Christ can resist this delusion: see Matt. xxiv. 24.

not written, etc. From xvii. 8 it appears that the connexion is, “not written from the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb that hath been slain.”

9. If any man have an ear, let him hear. See ii. 7; also Matt. xi. 15.

11. And I beheld another beast. Many think that this symbol refers to the employment of religious deception in aid of persecuting power. The two powers which have been chiefly employed by Satan in his conflict with the Church have been that of persecuting governments founded on force, and that of false priesthoods founded on delusion. Or, in a more general sense, the two evil agencies thus embodied may be described as Force and Fraud: the power that crushes and the power that deceives.

like a lamb . . . as a dragon. Fair-seeming, subtle and malicious (2 Thess. ii. 8-10).

12 all the power of the first beast. See ver. 3.

13 wonders. Or, “signs”; “false miracles: cp. Exod. vii. 8-13; Matt. xxiv. 24; Acts viii. 9-11; xiii. 6.

16 a mark. The “mark” appears to refer to the sign or token anciently borne by persons who were devoted to any particular deity, or to the branding of slaves. It has been a common mode of persecution to forbid men to “buy or sell.”

18. The number of a man. Some scholars identify this number with the name of “Nero Caesar,” or “Nero Redivivus”; others with “Lateinos” (Latin; suggesting the rule of Rome); others, again, with various characters in modern history. But none of the conjectures seems convincing. “No explanation has ever been given why St. John should in this instance, and in this instance only, depart from his invariable use of the symbolism of numbers and suddenly adopt a new method” (Dr. Limmer Sheppard in Devotional Commentary).