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seven heads have a double meaning; they are seven mountains, but also seven kings, i.e.
they represent seven Emperors who reigned over the city of the Seven Hills. If it be
asked whether any of the earlier Roman Emperors received a death-blow from which he
recovered or was supposed to have recovered, the answer is not far to seek. In June 68
Nero, pursued by the emissaries of the Senate, inflicted upon himself a wound of which
he died. His remains received a public funeral, and were afterwards lodged in the
mausoleum of Augustus. Nevertheless there grew up in the eastern provinces of the
Empire a rumour that he was still alive, and in hiding. Pretenders who claimed to be
Nero arose in 69 and 79, and even as late as 88 or 89 (Tac. hist. 1:78, 2:8, Zonar. 11:18,
Suet. Nero 57). The legend of Neros survival or resuscitation took root in the popular
imagination, and Dion Chrysostom (orat. 21.) at the end of the century sneers at it as
one of the follies of the time. Meanwhile the idea of Neros return had begun to take its
place in the creations of Jewish and Christian fancy, e.g. in the Ascension of Isaiah (ed.
Charles, 4:2 f.) we read that Beliar will descend
, and in Orac. Sibyll. 4:119f. ,
| ; ib. 138
, , | (cf. ib. 5:143
ff., 362 ff.). The legend has been used by St John to represent the revival of Neros
persecuting policy by Domitian, portio Neronis de crudelitate (Tert. apol. 5); see more
upon this point in c. 17:8 ff. That Nero is intended by the wounded but restored head of
the Beast did not escape the earliest of the Latin commentators, though he failed to
detect the reference to Domitian; on c. 17:16 Victorinus remarks: unum antem de
capitibus quasi occisum in mortem et plagam morris eius curatam, Neronem dicit.
constat enim dum insequeretur eum equitatus missus a senatu, ipsum sibi gulam
succidisse. hunc ergo suscitatum Deus mittet.
] Both for the use of (cf.
Blass, Gr. p. 44) and for the general sense see c. 17:8
... . The eyes of the whole earth , not
simply as in 12:9gaze with wonder after the Beast and his restored
head. For the pregnant see Jo. 12:19 , Acts
5:37 20:30 , 1 Tim.
5:15 . Gunkel (Schpfung, p. 358), postulating a Semitic
original, believes to be a rendering of
read for
, but the
conjecture is unnecessary, and not supported by evidence.
4. .] In its worship of the Beast and the
persecuting Emperors the admiring world worshipped in fact the evil Power which was
behind them. Or the sense may be that the vices of the Emperors found ready imitators;
the demoralizing effects of their example were apparent throughout the Empire. As for
the direct worship of the Beast, toward the end of the first century it was already coordinated with the local cults; in Asia the cities vied with one another for the honour of
erecting a temple to Rome and the Caesars and the neocorate attached to it. Such
fragments as the following from the record of an Epigraphical Journey in Asia Minor
(Papers of the American School at Athens, vols. 2, 3) speak for themselves: []
| [ ] | [] ... | [ ]
[ ][] ... ...
. More upon this subject may be found in Renan, Saint Paul, p. 28 f., Ramsay,
Church in the Roman Empire, Letters to the Seven Churches, passim.
; an intentional parody of Exod. 15:11
, ; cf. Pss. 82. (83.) 1, 88. (89.) 6, 113:5, Mic. 7:18, Isa. 40:25, 46:5perhaps
not without reference to the name .
. The worship of such a monster as Nero was
indeed a travesty of the worship of God. ; points to
the motive which prompted the worship of the Beast. It was not moral greatness but
brute force which commanded the homage of the provinces. The invincible power of
Rome won divine honours for the worst and meanest of men.
5. .] The words . . are from
Daniels description of the Little Horn (Dan. 7:8, 7:20). In their assumption of Divine
titles (v. 1 note) the Emperors followed in the steps of Antiochus Epiphanes, who (1
Macc. 1:24, V) . With cf. Dan. 7:25
. In the repeated there may be a reference to
of v. 2, cf. v. 4; but more probably, as elsewhere in the
Apocalypse, points to the ultimate Source of all power, without Whose
permission Satan himself can do nothing.
For . cf. 11:2, 12:6, 12:14, notes. may be simply to
do, i.e. to carry on his work, as i
in Dan. 8:24, 11:28; will then be the
accusative of duration. But perhaps it is better to understand . here in the sense of
passing time; cf. Mt. 20:12 , Acts 20:3 ,
and the Latin facere diem. The Beasts power endures as long as the Womans abode in
the Wilderness, the prophesying of the Two Witnesses, and the Gentile profanation of
the Holy City.
6. ] is
used frequently, if not exclusively, of the beginning of a discourse or prolonged
utterance; cf. Ps. 21. (22.) 14, 77. (68.) 2, 108. (109.) 1; Sir. 15:5; Mt. 5:2; Acts 8:35.
The Beasts blasphemy was not casual but sustained, when once his silence had been
broken; the assumption of Divine Names in public documents and inscriptions was a
standing and growing blasphemy. This blasphemy was aimed at the Divine , i.e.
as the Apocalyptist hastens to explain, ; cf. 12:12
. Primasius seems to have read ...
(tabernaculum eius qui in caelo habitat), though he interprets: id est, adversus deum
et ecclesiam quae in caelo habitat (Haussleiter, p. 130); but the harder reading of the
Greek text is to be preferred. ... either the company of Heaven, or
possibly the Church viewed as ideally installed in the ; Andreas is perhaps on
the right track when he says: ...
(cf. Jo. 1:14, Apoc. 7:15). Blasphemy against God was
coupled with false accusations laid against His saints, the loyal members of the Church.
The clause ... is epexegetical, developing
.
, ,
.
As to the phrase () , it is unknown to the LXX., though
used by Mt. l.c. in a quotation from the Psalms, where it represents
( LXX.,
2
1
1
1
2
1
). The N.T. has it ten times (Mt. , Lc. , Jo. , Eph. , Heb. , 1 Pet. , Apoc.2).
is the foundation of a house in 2 Macc. 2:29, and
occurs in Heb. 6:1; the is doubtless the founding of the whole visible
order, the creation being represented as a vast building under the hands of the Divine
Architect, as in Job 38:4 , and Heb. 3:4
: cf. Hort on 1 Peter l.c., and Dalman, Die Worte Jesu, 1. p. 136.
9. , ] For the Apocalyptic form of this saying see 2:7, note. It
is a call to serious attention, and here, as in 2:7, 2:11, 2:17, it is prospective and not
retrospective, preparing the hearer for the proclamation which is to follow. Let every
member of the Church who has the power to comprehend it take to heart the warning
now about to be given.
10. , . .] The epigrammatic style of this
saying has perplexed the scribes (see app. crit.); some add a verb after the first
, while others omit the second. Translate: if any [is] for captivity, into
captivity he goes; if any shall slay with the sword, he must with the sword be slain.
The verse starts upon the lines of Jer. 15:2 ,
, , ,
. But after adopting the last clause of Jeremiahs proclamation, it goes off
in quite another direction, referring to the saying of our Lord in Mt. 26:52
. Primasius conforms the first half of the
verse to the last, translating: qui captivum duxerit et ipse capietur, as if it had run:
(or ), . But no such change
is necessary; the verse hangs together well enough as it stands in the best Greek text.
The whole is a warning against any attempt on the part of the Church to resist its
persecutors. If a Christian is condemned to exile, as St John had been, he is to regard
exile as his allotted portion, and to go readily; if he is sentenced to death, he is not to lift
his hand against the tyrant; to do so will be to deserve his punishment. For
. see 14:12, note.
1118. THE WILD BEAST FROM THE EARTH .
11. .] A second Beast is seen in the
act of rising, not as the first out of the sea, but out of the earth. In Daniels visions four
Beasts came up from the sea (Dan. 7:3), but in the interpretation (ib. 17) and in the
Gk. versions of both passages they arise out of the earth. From this Bede infers the
identity of the origin of the two Apocalyptic Beasts (quod est autem mare, hoc, teste
Daniele, est terra.) But the cases are different; the Apocalyptist is not, like Daniel,
interpreting his vision, but relating another, which he contrasts with the first. If the
Beast from the sea denotes the world-wide Empire of the West, the Beast from the earth
is of humbler pretensions, a native of the soil (cf. Arethas: ...
)a product of the life of the Asian cities.
Early Christian opinion was divided upon the interpretation of the second Beast.
Irenaeus (5:28. 2), who identifies the first Beast with Antichrist, finds in the second
Antichrists armour-bearer (cf. 1 Sam. 17:7), the false Prophet. Similarly Hippolytus
(ed. Lag. p. 24):
, .
Andreas mentions other interpretations: ,
,
.
.] The equipment of the second Beast was as
unpretending as his origin. In sharp contrast to the first he had but one head furnished
with two horns (cf. Dan. 8:5), which were like those of a lamb. But if his appearance
suggested innocence and even weakness, his voice was the roar of a dragon; cf. a
fragment of Hermippus quoted by Wetstein: ,
. Though both and are anarthrous, they
doubtless allude to the Lamb of c. 5:6 and the Dragon of c. 13:1. The second Beast is in
some sense at once a Pseudochrist and an Antichrist:
, (Hippolytus); agnum fingit, ut Agnum
invadat (Primasius).
The description recalls Mt. 7:15 ,
, . Cf.
Victorinus: magnum falsumque prophetam dicit, qui facturus est signa et portenta.
The second Beast is in fact in later chapters of the book called
(16:13, 19:20, 20:10), while or . does not appear; from
this chapter onwards the only mentioned is the first Beast, or the wounded head
which is identified with him (14:9, 14:11, 15:2, 16:2, 16:10, 16:13, 17:3 ff., 19:19,
19:20, 20:4, 20:10). In the second Beast we have a religious, as in the first a civil,
power; he is a (16:23, 19:20, 20:10), who claims a spiritual power
which he does not possess, and misinterprets the Divine Will in the interests of the
persecuting State. Some ancient interpreters saw in him the Christian ministry turned to
unworthy uses; cf. Beatus: bestia de terra praepositi mali sunt in ecclesia. Such men
may be in the background of St Johns thought, but the immediate reference is rather to
the pagan priesthood of his own time; cf. 4:14, 4:15, note.
12. .] The authority of the
Dragon, which was delegated to the first Beast (13:2), descends to the second; the first
fights the Dragons battles, the second supports the first by methods of his own, but with
a strength which is derived ultimately from the Dragon. ...
is a pregnant sentence; written out at length it would be . . .
, or to that effect.
recalls 3 Regn. 17:1 . The true prophet
lives in the presence of God, taking his orders from Him and doing His pleasure; the
False Prophet stands before the Beast, whose interpreter and servant he is.
.] It is the business of the second Beast to
promote the worship of the first; for this end the False Prophet has been entrusted with
his power. ... , causes to, cf. Jo. 11:37, Col. 4:16, Apoc. 3:9 (Blass, Gr. p. 225
f.). , cf. vv. 4, 8. ...
. is repeated from v. 3, where see note.
13. .] Being a false prophet the second Beast simulates
the miracles wrought by true prophets; cf. Exod. 7:11 f. (2 Tim. 3:8), and see Deut. 13:1
... . Great signs were
expected and believed to accompany the mission of the Church (cf. Jo. 14:12, Mc.
16:20), but they were not to be limited to it; see Mc. 13:22 ...
; 2 Thess. 2:9
. Calling down fire from heaven was one of
the miracles attributed to Elijah (1 Kings 18:38, 2 Kings 1:10); if the writer of the
Apocalypse was the son of Zebedee, he would not have forgotten that he had himself
desired to imitate the O. T. prophet (Lc. 9:54 ,
;). In the present case the sign of calling down
fire would doubtless be exhibited in connexion with the worship of the Beast, for which
it would seem to be a Divine guarantee. after . . is scarcely distinguishable
from (Burton 222); the Prophets powers extend so far that he can even ()
cause fire to descend from heaven, and that in the face of the world (
).
14. .] To deceive mankind is a
characteristic power of Satan (12:9 , where see note)
and it has descended to the false Prophet; see reff. cited on v. 12. The success of the
latter is due to the signs ( ) which he is empowered to work (vv. 13, 15).
These are done before the Beast (v. 12, note), i.e. in the presence and with the approval
of the Imperial officers. It is hardly possible to misunderstand the Apocalyptists
meaning. The Caesar-worship was a State function at which the Proconsul and the other
magistrates assisted, and the pagan priesthood wrought their before these
representatives of the Empire; their jugglery addressed itself to persons in authority and
not only to the ignorant populace.
... .] Yet the chief purpose of
the wrought by the magic of the priests of the Augusti was to popularize the new
cult, and promote its ends, by suggesting the religious use of the statue of the Emperor
(on = followed by the infinitive see Blass, Gr. pp. 232, 240). Any
representation of the reigning Caesar which served to place him before the eyes of the
provincials might be described as an (see Lightfoots note on Col. 1:15), whether
it were merely the Emperors head (effigies) upon a coin (Mc. 12:16), or an imago
painted or wrought upon a standard, or executed in metal or stone. The bust or statue,
however, is doubtless intended here. Such imagines together with other symbols of the
power of Rome had always received the highest honours from loyal subjects of the
Empire; cf. Suetonius, Tib. 48 largitus est quaedam munera Syriacis legionibus,
quod solae nullam Seiani imaginem inter signa coluissent (i.e. because they alone had
been loyal to himself; ib., Calig. 14 aquilas et signa Romana Caesarumque imagines
adoravit). When Christians were brought before Imperial officials an image of the
reigning Emperor was produced by way of testing their Christianity. Cf. Plinys famous
letter (ep. 96, A.D. 112): qui negabant esse se Christianos nut fuisse, cum praeeunte me
deos appellarent et imagini tuae quam propter hoc iusseram cum simulacris numinum
adferri ture ac vino supplicarent dimittendos esse putavi, and the appeal of the
to Polycarp (Mart. P. 8): ,
(i.e. to offer incense, see Lightfoot, ad loc.) ,
; cf. Eus. H. E. 7:15 . But
in the present passage the reference is rather to imagines set up in the or
temples of Rome and the Augusti. The judicial use of the Emperors image was
perhaps as yet unknown, but already, as it seems, the pagan priesthood had succeeded in
securing for it religious worship with results disastrous to the Christian communities (v.
15).
., as in vv. 3, 12, but with the addition of a new
feature which makes for the identification of the wounded head with Neroand with
substituted for ... . The Beast did not die with Nero; he lived
on and reappeared in Domitian, who resumed Neros policy of persecution (cf. note on
13:3).
15. .] Another wrought by the
magic of the second Beast. That such tricks were employed in the is by no
means improbable. As we are reminded by Andreas, it was the age of Apollonius of
Tyana, whose legerdemain was freely attributed to the powers of evil:
. In the Clementine Recognitions (3:47), Simon
Magus is made to boast, statuas moveri feci, animari exanima haec non solum feci,
sed et nunc facere possum, a claim doubtless suggested by the writers experience of
contemporary magic; as for calling down fire, see Apringius on v. 13: haec magi per
angelos refugas et hodie faciunt. It is not necessary to suppose that either Simon or
Apollonius (Ramsay, Exp. 1904, 2:4, p. 249 f., Letters to the Seven Churches, p. 101 ff.)
is directly referred to; the second Beast is probably, like the first, a system rather than a
person, though, as the first culminated in Nero, the second may well have been
represented by the best known magician of the age. But that magic was used by the
Caesar-priests is probable enough, as Ramsay has well pointed out (ib. p. 98 ff.), even if
the Apocalypse is the only witness to the fact; nor is it impossible that they may have
acted under the sanction of the officials, so that the Empire itself lent its weight to the
proceeding. Magic was not thought unworthy of a place in high quarters, as St Paul
learnt at the outset of his missionary work; cf. Acts 13:6
... .
Thus in the immediate view of the Seer the second Beast represents the sorcery and
superstition of the age engaged in a common attempt to impose the Caesar-cult upon the
provinces, behind which there lay the Satanic purpose of bringing ruin upon the rising
Christian brotherhoods. In its wider significance the symbol may well stand for any
Exp. The Expositor.
religious system which allies itself with the hostile forces of the world against the faith
of Jesus Christ.
here= (11:11), in the sense of breath or animation.
: the vitalizing of the image went so far that it was even able to speak, an effect
doubtless produced by the art of the ; of contemporary ventriloquism
there is probably an instance in Acts 16:16, where see Knowlings note. The reading
has good support (see app. crit.), but, as Dr Hort admits, it is unintelligible:
it is impossible either to account for the text [] as a corruption of , or to
interpret it as it stands; he suggests that may have been lost after , or have
given place to it (Notes, p. 138). But to bring in from vv. 11, 12 ff. the conception of a
spirit of the earth seems artificial. Can be an early or even primary error due to
the mind of the writer having reverted to (v. 14), or to his eye having been
caught by , which immediately follows?
, sc. . As they stand, the words can only mean that the
ventriloquist used his opportunity to make the image suggest that all who refused
worship to the image of Caesar should be put to death. But it is possible that is a
slip on the part of the writer for .
16. , .] The False Prophet causes all who accept
the Caesar-cult to receive a mark of fealty. , . (cf. 11:18, 19:5, 19:18,
20:12) covers the entire population, from the Asiarch down to the meanest slave. The
construction changes after the long string of accusatives: had the writer stopped to think
of the formation of his sentence, he would naturally have written ,
., , or , ., or even
, ., or . The indefinite plural (v.l.
) finds a parallel in cc. 10:11 , 16:15 . Dr Hort suggests
(Notes, p. 139) that the original reading was , written by itacism . But
, which is read by all our uncials, makes excellent sense; the second Beast worked
through his ministers, the menials of the Augustan temples.
may be either a work of art such as a graven image (Acts 17:29
), or, as here and in cc. 14:., 16., 19., 20., the impress made by a stamp; cf. the
use of in Lev. 13:28 where the sear of a leprous spot is called .
. To the procedure ascribed to the second Beast there is a striking parallel
in 3 Macc. 2:29, where Ptolemy Philopator I. (B.C. 217) orders such Jews as submitted
to registration to be branded with the badge of the Dionysiac worship:
,
. Deissmann (Biblical Studies, p. 242) shews that in Egypt under the
Empire official documents were stamped with the name and year of the Emperor (e.g. L
), and that
the stamp was known as a ; but he produces no instance of persons being
similarly marked. Others have thought of the branding of soldiers, slaves, and temple
devotees; cf. Gal. 6:17, with Lightfoots note, and Philo de monarch., p. 22
, ...
. But it is difficult to believe that such a mark
was actually imposed on all the provincials who conformed. Ramsay (op. cit., p. 110 f.)
is disposed to think rather of some certificate, similar to the libelli of the Decian
persecution, which was put into the hands of those who sacrificed, and to regard the
mark on the forehead as merely the apocalyptic description of a universal reputation
for conspicuous devotion to the cult of the Emperor. This is hardly a satisfactory
solution, and in our present ignorance it is perhaps better to be content with one which
is suggested by the symbolism of the Book. As the servants of God receive on their
foreheads (7:3) the impress of the Divine Seal, so the servants of the Beast are marked
with the stamp of the Beast, in fronte propter professionem, in manu propter
operationem (Ps. Aug.); the word being perhaps chosen (as Deissmann
suggests) because it was the technical term for the Imperial stamp. For a partial parallel
see Pss. Sol. 15:8 ff. ...
...
. That the Antichrist would seal his followers became a
commonplace in the Christian legend; see Bousset, Der Antichrist, p. 132 ff.
17. .] There is possibly a reference to 1
Macc. 13:49
. But the cases differ materially. Here citizens who do
not bear this mark are not prevented from entering the markets, but if they enter none
will buy their goods or sell them the necessaries of life. Such a boycotting of
Christians might result partly from the unpopularity of their faith, partly from a dread of
offending the dominant priesthood or their Roman supporters. If we ask whether the
fear expressed by the Apocalyptist was realized, there is no certain answer. As Ramsay
says (op. cit., p. 107 f.), how much of grim sarcasm there lies in those words [
.] it is impossible for us now to decide but that there is an ideal truth
in them, that they give a picture of the state of anxiety and apprehension, of fussy and
over zealous profession of loyalty which the policy of Domitian was producing in the
Roman world, is certain. Cf. Eus. H.E. 5:1
.
is in apposition to
; the stamp may bear the name or its number. The number of the name is
probably the name itself written in numerals, according to a sort of gematria known to
the Apocalyptist and his Asian readers, but not generally intelligible. The point of
is not clear. According to Arethas, the name and the number are alternatives
( ). But as
no would have borne the Christian cipher, it is better to treat here as
practically equivalent to the name, or, which is the same thing, the
number. Where the heathen provincial saw only the name of the reigning Emperor, the
Christian detected a mystical number with its associations of vice and cruelty.
18. .] A similar formula occurs in c. 17:9
. Schoettgen compares the cabbalistic phrase i .
is apparently the spiritual gift answering to the gift of (cf. Eph. 1:17
)the power of apprehending and interpreting
mysteries. Here was an opportunity for the exercise of this power; let the hearer or
reader interpret what is now about to be revealed. ., let him who has
intelligence , a character not without its value in spiritual things; cf. Dan.
12:10 , ; Mc. 12:34
calculate
(for cf. Lc. 14:28) [the meaning of] the Beasts number, for [beast though he
is] his number is that of a man, i.e. so far as the arithmetic goes, it is simple and
intelligible, because it is human and not bestial; cf. 21:17 ,
.
.] Within a century after the date of the
Apocalypse the precise figures were uncertain. Irenaeus bears witness that while all
good and old copies had , and this reading was attested by those who had seen St
John, there were those who read (5:30, 5:1
,
...
... ), and attempted to
interpret the cipher on these lines. The reading thus curtly dismissed gained so good a
footing that it survives in one of our best uncials and in two cursives, and was adopted
by a writer (?Tyconius) in the appendix to Augustines works, who says ad l. sexcenti
et sexdecim graecis litteris sic faciunt , and interprets accordingly. It can hardly
therefore have originated in a simple confusion between and (which indeed is itself
unlikely, see Nestle, Text. crit. p. 334), and is probably a true though less widely
received alternative for . With reference to the meaning of the cipher, Irenaeus
speaks with far less confidence. If a clue had existed at first in the churches of Asia, it
had been lost, probably because of the common belief that the second Beast directly
represented Antichrist. Irenaeuss guesses (for they are obviously no more) are based on
this hypothesis. The number, he says, is that of Noahs age at the time of the Flood
(Gen. 7:6), plus the height and breadth of the image set up by Nebuchadnezzar (
); and it also alludes to
the six millennia of the worlds history (5:29, 2). When he comes to transform this
number into a name for Antichrist, he mentions several guessesthe impossible word
(=5+400+1+50+9+1+200), (=30+1+300+5+10+50+70+200),
Latini enim sunt qui nunc regnant, and (300+5+10+300 +1+50); of these he
thinks the last best, though he declines to decide (
); urging that if the writer had wished us to know the
name, he would have written it in full (ib. 30, 3). And this in the face of St Johns
.
Nor is Hippolytus more illuminating. Regarding the stamp as bearing the number of
the Beast, which like Irenaeus he reads as , he sees in it the word
= (=1+100+50+70+400+40+5), explaining: ...
, ,
(ed. Lag. p. 110 f.). Later patristic interpreters offer a large choice of
conjectures, some of which are yet more improbable or even absurd. Such attempts to
1The Apocalypse of St. John ( ed. Henry Barclay Swete;, 2d. ed.; New York:
The Macmillan company, 1907), 158.