Revelation differently: the seven-headed beast from the sea that rules the world
I'm finally back with another of my very different progressive perspectives on the book of Revelation. The first two were these threads:
Armageddon, as you never heard it before
Revelation: A Tale of Two Heavens
There will be two big takeaways from this post:
1. It's possible to make sense of Revelation's outlandish and bizarre symbolism.
2. Revelation's message is for all people of all times and all places, not just for one "end times" generation or for the generations of early Christians persecuted by the Roman Empire.
There are several "beasts" in Revelation that are antichrist-like (beast from the sea, beast from the land, dragon, and "the" beast). This post is about the seven-headed beast from the sea that rules the world. The identities and relationships among the various beasts is quite interesting and complex, but way too much information for this post.
To be honest, the story of the beast from the sea just doesn't seem to make any sense. It reads like gibberish, nonsense, and double talk, with a couple oxymorons thrown in. However, I claim that when you understand the meaning of the sea beast, all the nonsense becomes completely sensible.
Here is the story of the sea beast (Rev. 13:1-8), followed by an explanation that makes sense of all the nonsense: A beast with seven heads and ten horns comes up out of the sea. It is partly like a leopard, a bear, and a lion. The dragon gives this beast power and authority, and the beast rules over all nations, tribes, and peoples. One of its heads suffers a fatal wound, but the fatal wound heals (the first oxymoron). Later in Rev 17:8, Revelation says that the beast was and is not and is about to ascend from the bottomless pit (the second oxymoron--it was and is not, yet it is about to do something.).
There is more detail about this beast but that's enough for us to make sense of it.
In one of the previous posts, I mentioned that John of Patmos, the author of Revelation, makes a great many allusions to various biblical passages. The reference to the beast being like a leopard, a bear, and a lion may be the most well-known such allusion. Everyone who studies Revelation soon learns that those three animals allude to the prophecy in Daniel 7. Daniel had a vision of four animals that come up out of the sea; the first three were like a lion, a bear, and a leopard, the same as the sea beast.
Daniel's prophecy refers to a sequence of "kings" (really meaning foreign empires, not individual kings) that would dominate ancient Israel for centuries, beginning with Nebuchadnezzar's Babylonian empire and ending with Rome. (Some interpreters use a slightly different list, but it doesn't matter for our purpose.) Daniel's four separate beasts represent four separate empires.
In Revelation, John makes an important change from Daniel's prophecy. The change is clear and obvious, but nobody pays any attention to it. John combines all of Daniel's separate beasts into a single beast, the sea beast, that includes all of Daniel's separate beasts. The lion, bear, and leopard (all separate beasts in Daniel) are all part of the same single beast in Revelation. The sea beast includes all the empires from Babylon through Rome that dominated ancient Israel. In fact, the sea beast represents the whole human institution of evil oppressive empires, nations, and governments that rule over "all kindreds, tongues, and nations." It is not one single "end times" evil empire; it is not simply the Roman Empire, which persecuted early Christians; it is the whole human institution of evil empires, stretching over many centuries and even millennia.
Later in Revelation, John tells us that the seven heads are seven kings, following Daniel's lead that "kings" really refers to empires. Each head of the beast is a separate individual empire, that collectively form the whole human institution of evil empires. One head is the Babylon/Chaldean empire, one is the Persian empire, and so on.
This leads us to the now obvious solution to the first oxymoron, the fatal wound that heals. John reports that he saw one of the heads of the beast suffer a mortal wound but the wound heals. If it's fatal, how could it heal? It doesn't seem to make sense. But look more closely--John doesn't tell us that the beast suffered a mortal wound; he tells us that one head did. The Babylonian empire was conquered by Persia and was dead and gone; Babylon suffered a mortal wound. The Babylon head suffered the mortal wound, but the beast itself healed and lived on in a continuing series of new empires. The mortal wound that healed makes sense!
The other oxymoron (the beast that was and is not, and yet is about to do something. Some translations actually say simply that it "was and is not, and yet is." ) makes sense using virtually the same logic as the fatal wound that heals. The parts of the beast that had already passed into history are the parts of the beast that were and are not; they existed in the past, but are no more, yet the larger, more inclusive beast itself lives on in whatever evil empires are continuing today.
The sea beast is the whole human institution of evil, oppressive empires, nations, and governments. Initially, that might not sound particularly progressive, and by itself it really isn't. But it establishes a context for progressive ideas. Consider: John is talking about big important issues for all people of all places and all times. He is not simply addressing one "end times" generation or one generation of Christians persecuted by Rome. His message is universal.
There are two big takeaways from this analysis of the sea beast:
1. The message of Revelation is universal, for all people of all times.
2. The outlandish and bizarre symbolism is comprehensible and sensible.
Next up in this series on Revelation: the whore of Babylon, perhaps the most important part of Revelation because it tells us what we really need to do now ("us" meaning all people, and "now" meaning at all times in all eras and situations).
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