Revelation 13:1
What is written? (ESV)
And I saw a beast rising out of the sea, with ten horns and seven heads, with ten diadems on its horns and blasphemous names on its heads.
What does it say?
I saw a beast rise from the sea with ten horns and seven heads. The horns had ten diadems the heads had blasphemous names.
What is its immediate context?
The book of Revelation is what John saw and was told to write down (1:1-2). Using “in the Spirit” as a structural marker, the book can be sectioned into four visions in particular:
- Vision One (1:9-3:22) – Jesus speaking to the seven churches
- Vision Two (4:1-16:21) – Seven seals, seven trumpets, seven bowls of wrath; “one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls” introduces the last two (and therefore possibly connected):
- Vision Three (17:1-21:8) – Babylon the Harlot
- Vision Four (21:9-22:5) – Jerusalem the Bride
The rising of this beast from the sea is immediately preceded by visions in heaven of:
- a woman giving birth (12:2) to a son,
- a red dragon (12:3) wanting to devour the child,
- the child (a son) that’s taken to heaven to his throne (12:5),
- the woman flees into the wilderness to a place that is prepared by God and where she will be nourished (12:6).
Unsuccessful at destroying the son, the dragon (identified as Satan in 12:9) is thrown to earth where he seeks to destroy the woman (12:13). Still unsuccessful, he seeks to destroy (“make war”) with her offspring (“those who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus”). As we transition to chapter 13, the beast was given authority from the dragon (e.g. Satan) and many worshipped the dragon/beast (vs 4)….in spite, as it were, a mortal wound on its head that healed (vs 3). The beast goes on to utter blasphemies against God and is permitted to “make war on the saints and to conquer them.” (vs 7)
How Revelation 13:1 is applied across Bible answers
Who is the Antichrist?
Based on chapters 12 and 13 in full context, the beast appears to be illustrating the way in which Satan wages war against the "woman's offspring." Here is a summary of what John sees:
- The child: Jesus (but we are not told this explicitly)
- Dragon: Satan (we are told this)
- The woman: Christ's church (we are not told this explicitly but John does address the church this way5; we know Satan cannot triumph over it)
- The woman's offspring: All Saints (we are told this and note: they would be Jesus' brothers/sisters by birth and they "held to the testimony")
So what/who is the beast? We are not told except that he, like Satan, waged war on the saints. Also that he, like Satan, was worshipped by all (that weren't saints). Within all the parameters of John's vision, it is more than reasonable to conclude John is describing Rome and its active crusade and persecution against Christians of that day.
