Revelation 13 is the thirteenth chapter of the

Book of Revelation The Book of Revelation is the final book of the New Testament (and consequently the final book of the Christian Bible). Its title is derived from the first word of the Koine Greek text: , meaning "unveiling" or "revelation". The Book of ...

or the Apocalypse of John in the

New Testament The New Testament grc, Ἡ Καινὴ Διαθήκη, transl. ; la, Novum Testamentum. (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus, as well as events in first-century Chri ...

of the Christian

Bible The Bible (from Koine Greek , , 'the books') is a collection of religious texts or scriptures that are held to be sacred in Christianity, Judaism, Samaritanism, and many other religions. The Bible is an anthologya compilation of texts ...

. The book is traditionally attributed to

John the Apostle John the Apostle ( grc, Ἰωάννης; la, Ioannes ; Ge'ez: ዮሐንስ;) or Saint John the Beloved was one of the Twelve Apostles of Jesus according to the New Testament. Generally listed as the youngest apostle, he was the son of Zebede ...

, but the precise identity of the author remains a point of academic debate. The author records visions of two

beasts Beast most often refers to: * Non-human animal * Monster Beast or Beasts may also refer to: Bible * the Beast (Revelation), Beast (Revelation), two beasts described in the Book of Revelation Computing and gaming * Beast (card game), English n ...

or monsters which he saw while "standing on the seashore", the monster from the sea and the monster from the land.

Text

The original text was written in

Koine Greek Koine Greek (; Koine el, ἡ κοινὴ διάλεκτος, hē koinè diálektos, the common dialect; ), also known as Hellenistic Greek, common Attic, the Alexandrian dialect, Biblical Greek or New Testament Greek, was the common supra-reg ...

. This chapter is divided into 18 verses.

Textual witnesses

Some early manuscripts containing the text of this chapter are, among others: *

Papyrus 115 Papyrus 115 (''P. Oxy.'' 4499), designated by (in the Gregory-Aland numbering of New Testament manuscripts) is a fragmented manuscript of the New Testament written in Greek on papyrus. It consists of 26 fragments of a codex containing parts of t ...

(ca. 275; extant verses 1-3, 6-16, 18) * Papyrus 47 (3rd century) *

Codex Sinaiticus The Codex Sinaiticus ( Shelfmark: London, British Library, Add MS 43725), designated by siglum [Aleph] or 01 (in the Gregory-Aland numbering of New Testament manuscripts), δ 2 (in the von Soden numbering of New Testament manuscript ...

(330-360) *

Codex Alexandrinus The Codex Alexandrinus (London, British Library, Royal MS 1. D. V-VIII), designated by the siglum A or 02 (in the Gregory-Aland numbering of New Testament manuscripts), δ 4 (in the von Soden numbering of New Testament manuscripts), is a manu ...

(400-440) * Codex Ephraemi Rescriptus (ca. 450; complete) La Bête de la Mer

The monster from the sea (13:1–10)

The last verse (verse 18) of the previous chapter connects the appearance of the beast to the dragon who delegates to the beast what power it has.

Verse 1

: ''Then I stood on the sand of the sea. And I saw a beast rising up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and on his horns ten crowns, and on his heads a blasphemous name.'' Some manuscript texts read ἐστάθην, ''estathēn'', ''I stood'', while others read ἐστάθη, ''estathē'', ''he stood'', referring to the dragon of . *"The sea": here represents 'the sphere of primeval chaos, the source of evil, an alternative image to the abyss (cf. ).

Verse 2

:''Now the beast which I saw was like a leopard, his feet were like the feet of a bear, and his mouth like the mouth of a lion. The dragon gave him his power, his throne, and great authority.'' The dominant violent characteristic of the beast is modelled on the vision of four beasts in the Book of Daniel, representing four great world empires ().

Verse 5

:''And he was given a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies, and he was given authority to continue for forty-two months.'' The language of verse 5 reflects , , . Although the beast's power is given by the dragon (

verse 2 ''Verse 2'' is the first extended play by South Korean male duo JJ Project. It was released on July 31, 2017 under JYP Entertainment and incorporates a variety of genres like pop, hip-hop and rock. The album contains eight tracks, with two only ...

), it can only be exercised by God's permission (

verse 5 Verse may refer to: Poetry * Verse, an occasional synonym for poetry * Verse, a metrical structure, a stanza * Blank verse, a type of poetry having regular meter but no rhyme * Free verse, a type of poetry written without the use of strict ...

The monster from the land (13:11–18)

This is the second beast, which also called the "false prophet" (; ; ), 'represents the priesthood of the imperial cult, which included prominent members of the elite of the cities'.

Verse 11

: ''Then I saw another beast coming up out of the earth, and he had two horns like a lamb and spoke like a dragon.'' *"Spoke like a dragon": speaking arrogantly like the devil himself 'as if he was above all' or even 'as if he was God himself' ().''John Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible'' - Revelation 13:11
/ref>

Verses 16–17

:'' He causes all, both small and great, both rich and poor, both free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hand or on their forehead, so that no one may buy or sell, except he who has the mark or the name of the beast or the number of his name.'' The mark of the beast seems to be 'a parody of God's seal of ownership on the foreheads of faithful Christians' (; ). The reference to "buying and selling" may reflect the fact that 'it was particularly in order to participate in the business life of the cities that Christians were tempted to compromise with idolatry'.

Verse 18

:''Here is wisdom. Let him who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man: His number is 666.'' NKJV The reference that "the number of the beast" is the same as "the number of a person" leads to many interpretations, because the Greek or Hebrew letters also functioned as numbers, so it was possible to "add up the numerical value of a word"—a practice known as

gematria Gematria (; he, גמטריא or gimatria , plural or , ''gimatriot'') is the practice of assigning a numerical value to a name, word or phrase according to an alphanumerical cipher. A single word can yield several values depending on the cipher ...

. The Greek word for "beast" (''therion'') or "Nero(n) Caesar" when transliterated into Hebrew letters has the total value of 666, but the 'verbal link' to Revelation 17:9 indicates more significance of the number (which will be developed further in chapter 17). The number 666 is unusual for being a

triangular number A triangular number or triangle number counts objects arranged in an equilateral triangle. Triangular numbers are a type of figurate number, other examples being square numbers and cube numbers. The th triangular number is the number of dots i ...

(that is, the sum of all numbers from 1 to 36), and also a doubly triangular number (because 36 is the sum of all numbers up to 8) and the eighth such number (in the series of 1, 6, 21, 55, 120, 231, 406, 666). Nero is also revealed to be "the eighth" in power. At least one manuscript reads 616.

Notes

References

Sources

External links

* King James Bible - Wikisource
English Translation with Parallel Latin Vulgate''Online Bible'' at GospelHall.org
(ESV, KJV, Darby, American Standard Version, Bible in Basic English)
Multiple bible versions at ''Bible Gateway''
(NKJV, NIV, NRSV etc.) {{Book of Revelation 13