The Beast of Revelation 13:1-4 Part 1

1. Introduction to Composite Beast of Rev. 13:1-3

This paper will discover in detail the O.T. types that carry through to match the composite first beast in Rev. 13:1-3. The purpose of the methodology is to understand fully what period of O.T. “history” was referenced. This paper will not make any overall comment on the Book of Revelation, but only concentrate on the original types.

Firstly look at the appearance of the beast with the linkage parts underlined.

Rev. 13:1 And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy.

Rev. 13.2 And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth of a lion; and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority.

Rev. 13.3 And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and the deadly wound was healed; and all the world wondered after the beast.

O.T. recollected “history” records these particulars of the compositional beast. Once these elements are sufficiently identified the reader can draw the parallel spiritual application revealed in Revelation.

2. Finding the Lion, Bear, and the Leopard of Rev. 13.2 – 1st,2nd, & 3rd Beasts of Dan. 7

Turn now to the Book of Daniel. Daniel has a vision of four beasts: - lion, bear, leopard, and one dreadful and terrible – Dan. 7:3-8. When explaining the interpretation to Daniel, a minister (Dan. 7:10) said, “These great beasts which are four, are four kings which shall arise out of the earth.” Dan. 7:17. Earth in Chaldean is ARA = low and in Hebrew is ERETS = common, country, ground.

So Daniel gives us the hyperlink to four kings. Once we find the four kings mentioned, we will then understand the carriage of these four types through to the Book of Revelation.

Daniel’s vision of four beasts, concisely covers the ancient biblical pictures of Israel’s and Judah’s experiences. Daniel’s profound concern was for the kingdom of Judah now in Babylonian captivity. Judah’s rampant apostasy and merciless ruthlessness, together with idolatry, had brought captivity as a punishment from God, according to the Bible-temple account. Judah was seen to be the Davidian line, and believed that it would be redeemed by a saviour. “The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come; and unto him shall the gathering of the people be.” Gen. 49:10.

Identification of the Composite First Beast of Rev. 13.2 in Dan. 7

Each of the features must be specifically located to co-incide with one king, – to be perfectly consistent. The words of Dan. 7 are: “and four great beasts came up from the sea, diverse one from another.” Now to find these king beasts.

Daniel’s 1st Identification - the Lion King - Saul

We are told “the first was like a lion and had eagle’s wings: I beheld till the wings thereof were plucked, and it was lifted up from the earth, and made stand upon the feet as a man, and a man’s heart was given it.” Dan. 7:4.

The features:

“lion” had “eagles wings” In Proverbs 23:4,5 regarding eagles wings, the writer inscribes, “Labour not to be rich…riches certainly make themselves wings; they fly away as an eagle towards heaven.” So this king, we need to identify, had riches.

“the wings thereof were plucked” The word plucked is from MERAT and means, peeled, polished (elegant, confident, skilled). Now there was a man of Benjamin, whose name was Kish…“a mighty man of power” (substance, wealth). And he had a son, whose name was Saul, a choice young man and goodly. And there was not among the children of Israel a goodlier person than he.” 1 Samuel 9:1,2.

“lifted up from the earth” and “stand upon the feet as a man” Referencing Daniel, the lion “was lifted up from the earth, and made stand upon the feet as a man.” A lion standing upright upon his hind legs would be taller than all men. Saul, “from his shoulders and upward he was higher than any of the people.” 1 Sam.9:2.

“a man’s heart was given it” “And a man’s heart was given to it” (the lion). Samuel anointed Saul. 1 Sam. 10:1, “And it was so, that when he (Saul) had turned his back to go from Samuel God gave him another heart.” 1 Sam. 10:9.

Now to the next King recorded by Daniel and reflected in Rev. 13.2.

Daniel’s 2nd Identification - the Bear King - David

Consider the second king. “And behold another beast, a second like a bear, and it raised itself on one side (or raised up one dominion, according to the margin) and it had three ribs in the mouth of it between the teeth of it; and they said thus unto it, Arise devour much flesh.” Dan. 7:5.

The features:

“raised up itself on one side” “And David perceived that the Lord had established him king over Israel, and that he had exalted his kingdom for the people Israel’s sake.” 2 Sam. 5:12 and 2 Sam. 7:16.

“three ribs in it’s mouth” David smote Moab but did not destroy them, “the Moabites became David’s servants.” 2 Sam.2:8. The same is said of the Syrians in 2 Sam. 8:6 and the Edomites in 2 Sam. 8:14. The three ribs in the bear’s mouth referred to these three nations. The bear had not devoured these three ribs or peoples.

“devour much flesh” David did devour much flesh in his conquests especially that of Philistia. This is recorded in 2 Samuel and 1 Kings.

It is clearly seen that Daniel’s vision of the bear demonstrated king David.

Daniel’s 3rd Identification – the Leopard King - Solomon

“The third beast was like a leopard which had upon the back of it four wings of a fowl.” And wings as already stated indicate wealth. “The beast had also four heads,” illustrating much wisdom as, “the wise man’s eyes are in his head,” Eccl. 2:14 - much perception. So the question is, “who was wealthy, who was wise?”

The features:

“four heads” and “four wings” The Bible tells us, “So king Solomon exceeded all the kings of the earth for riches and wisdom.” 1 Kings 10:23. “Hiram king of Tyre said, Blessed be the Lord this day, which hath given unto David a wise son over this great people.” 1 Kings 5:7.

This completes the identification of Rev. 13.2 where the composite beast is described “like unto a leopard” (Solomon), “feet of a bear” (David) and “mouth of a “lion” (Saul). There is plenty of scope here to visualize, this multi-faceted beast.


3. Finding the Types for Rev. 13.1 and 13.3 – 4th Beast of Daniel 7


Daniel’s 4th Identification – the Diverse Beast – Israel and Judah

There is no secret that one must start with Dan. 7 to find what the “minister” explained.

“After this I saw in the night visions, and behold a fourth beast, dreadful and terrible, and strong exceedingly; and it had great iron teeth: it devoured and brake in pieces, and stamped the residue with the feet of it: and was diverse from all the beasts that were before it; and it had ten horns and behold there came up among them another little horn, before, whom there were three of the first horns plucked up by the roots: and, behold, in this horns were eyes like the eyes of man, and a mouth speaking great things.” Dan. 7:7,8.

The features to find are:

“dreadful and terrible”

Amos 2:6,7,12 regarding the transgressions of Israel and Judah, “They sold the righteous for silver and the poor for a pair of shoes.” Micah 1-3 “O heads of Jacob, and ye princes (QATSIYN = magistrates, leaders, guides and rulers) who hate the good, and love the evil; who pluck off their skin from off them, and their flesh from off their bones; who also eat the flesh of my people…break their bones…the prophets make my people err, that bite with their teeth and cry, Peace…” Most of the prophetic books have much to say about Israel’s and Judah’s crimes recorded in O.T. history.

“diverse from all beasts that were before”

Daniel writes, “I would know the truth of the fourth beast which was diverse from all the others.” Dan. 7:19. The word diverse is from SHENA and means changed or made different. This change is explained as follows, Daniel was told regarding the four beasts, “These great beasts are four kings which shall arise.” The word king is from MELEK. When Daniel says, “I would know the truth of the fourth beast”…the interpreter says, “The fourth beast shall be the fourth kingdom upon earth.” The word “kingdom” is from MALKUW. Note the difference, MELEK refers to “king”, MALKUW refers to kingdom.

The fourth beast was diverse, a non-descript beast consisting of two powers, Israel and Judah. They respectively regressed and were seen to devour the people. Bible “history” relates, that because of Solomon’s idolatry 1 Kings 11:4-11, the kingdom of Israel was divided. The northern kingdom of ten tribes became Israel with Samaria its capital. Jeroboam became king - 1 Kings 12:20. Jeroboam introduced the idolatry that the prophets condemned. Jeroboam made two calves of gold which the people worshipped. (See 1 Kings 12:25-33 and paper “Abomination of Desolation”). The southern kingdom of Judah with the small tribe of Benjamin, had its capital at Jerusalem. Rehoboam, son of Solomon, was their first king.

The fourth beast of the two kingdoms, both displayed the same cruel, ferocious characteristics with an emphasis on Judah following Israel’s demise, when it was assimulated into Assyria. All recorded in the Books of Kings and Chronicles.

“ten horns”

Daniel continued, “I would know the truth…of the ten horns that were in his head, and of the other which came up, and before whom three fell; even of that horn that had eyes, and of mouth that spake very great things, and whose look was more stout than this fellows.” Dan. 7:20. The interpreting minister said, “The ten horns…are ten kings,” Dan 7:24. Micah 3:1 called them princes or royals when writing of the ten tribes of Israel. Rev, 13:1 reads “upon his horns ten crowns.” Returning to Dan. 7:24, “the ten horns…are ten kings that shall arise: and another shall rise after them…and shall subdue three kings.”

“there came up among them another little horn and there were three of the first horns plucked up by the roots”, Dan.7:8.

Around the time the ten horns of Israel were lost to Assyria, Hezekiah became king of Judah. Hezekiah brought about a great reform – opening, restoring and cleansing the temple and its services that his idolatrous father Ahaz had polluted. Hezekiah having completed his cleansing of the temple invited all of Judah and Israel to come to Jerusalem to keep the Passover, 2 Chron. 30:5. Divers = man or mortals, of Asher, Manasseh and of Zebulun humbled themselves and came to Jerusalem. 2 Chron. 30:10,11. These are the three horns “plucked by the roots.” Their move to Jerusalem was permanent. “Before whom three fell” Dan. 7:20. “Fell” from the word NEPHAL means, was accepted.

With the passing of the reformer, Hezekiah, the panorama changes in this great shadow. The seven last kings of pre-exilic Judah reigned. With the exception of king Josiah, who conducted a partial correction (he repaired the temple) these kings did “evil in the sight of the Lord.” Together with the people they continued to pay homage to idols and the unwritten worship of gods (keep in mind the seven heads of Rev.13:1).. The little horn of Dan, 7:8, after the passing of Hezekiah, will be seen to represent the latter kings of Judah, he “had eyes like the eyes of man.” The word “eyes” from AYIN means outward appearance. A much later writer put this condition thus, “Having a form of goodliness, but denying the power thereof; from such turn away.”

This horn had a mouth speaking great things, Dan. 7:8,20. Great things from the word RABRAB in Chaldean meaning domineering in character. “His look was more stout that his fellows = RAB = more mighty and domineering. See Jer. 23:1-40 for more details about the “great things” he spoke. “woe be unto the pastors that destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture! saith the Lord.” The same horn made war with the saints, and prevailed against them. Dan. 7:21. And that is putting it mildly.

The seven last kings of pre-exilic Judah:-

Mannasseh – shed innocent blood in Jerusalem 2 Kings 21:16
Amon – did evil ….2 Chron. 33:22
Josiah – great reformer, but people remained in idolatry 2 Kings 23:4-27 & 2 Chron.34: 22,25.
Jehoahaz – did evil…2 Kings 23:32
Jehoiakim – taxed the people…2 Kings 23:34-37. “They shall not lament him…he shall be buried with the burial of an ass….” Jer. 22:18,19.
Jehioachin – did evil 2 Kings 24:9 - “a despised broken idol…a vessel wherein is no pleasure.” Jer. 22:28-30.
Zedekiah – did evil – rebelled against Nebuchadnezzar with whom he made a covenant, then broke it, and was blindly lead into Babylonian captivity – 2 Kings 24:17.

Daniel chapter seven is a summation of the Bible – temple-history of pre-exilic Israel and Judah. The prophetic books tell us Judah was delivered from Babylonian captivity by a saviour in the form of the Persian king Cyrus, the righteous man from the east - Isa. 41:2, the Lord’s anointed – Isa, 45:1. But that is not the subject of this paper.

The Book of Daniel continued accounts in a latter era of contemporary neighbouring nations of the Kingdom of the Jews. The Greek Selucid king Antiochus Epiphanes, with the help of renegrade Jews, was juxtaposed with ancient Israel and Judah. This showed they were all ferocious and barbaric. They were all in principle of the same ilk. The true king of both apostate Jews and the Selucid soldiers was Antiochus Epiphanes. Rev. 9.11 speaking (antitypically now of course) of the Greek destroyer writes “And they had a king over them which is the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in the Hebrew tongue is Abaddon, but in the Greek tongue hath his name Apollyon.”

The Old Testament covered two eras, pre and post exilic, in the days of ancient Israel. In the latter chapters of O.T. the inception of Kingdom of Jews, as an entity appears. The writers of Revelation, in the Christian era, utilized these shadows projecting emblematically their groundwork formulae. They apportioned their description of events to two beasts, only the first being covered in this paper.


4. Now to Parallel Daniel with Revelation

The beast of Rev. 13:1-3 arose out of the sea. This is because in the original type in Dan. 7:3 “four great beasts come out of the sea.” (Seas or waters represent peoples throughout Scripture, but is not documented in this article). Israel arose from a struggling confederacy of tribes to form a nation. Christianity also struggled with small communities. Some Jews realizing that a messianic movement had arisen still clung to the exactions of the sanctuary service, some did not. Gentiles embraced the new-found principles of compassion, charity justice and beneficence. Unfortunately the little groupings, portraying life symbolically, were swallowed up by hierarchical institutions that had great outward appearance of beneficence and piety. In time deep, deep dogma prevailed.

Rev. 13:1-4 includes the dragon and shows a break from beast. Having studied the beasts of Daniel 7, here the first beast of Rev. 13 shall be considered. Revelation looking backwards sees the kings of Israel in opposite order to Daniel who looked forward. Rev. 13:2 “The beast which I saw was like a leopard” (Solomon – Solomon was wealthy and wise), “his feet were as the feet of a bear.” (David - David did cover much ground in his conquests.) “His mouth as the mouth of a lion” (Saul - Saul had many faults, condemned David as he was jealous of him and wanted to kill him.)

Rev. 13:1 repeats the details of the fourth beast in Daniel with added information that is recorded in the books of Kings and Chronicles. This non-descript beast had “seven heads”. By tracing the Old Testament Bible-history, the last seven pre-exilic kings of Judah fit the illustration of idolatry and blasphemy, except Josiah, who did reform in repairing the temple. Regardless of Josiah’s reform the people continued to worship idols. This beast had “ten horns” representing the northern kingdom of Israel consisting of ten tribes. The ten horns have “ten crowns” indicating a time of reigning kings prior to Israel being captured by Assyria. Rev. 13:4 note: “one of the (seven) heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed.”

“Wounded to death” - “wounded” meaning a victim or maimed, and THAHATOS meaning made deadly silent and having no defense, “and his deadly wound was healed”. “Healed” is from THERAPENO meaning, to wait upon menially.

Who was this king? Jehoiachin was the sixth of the seven last kings of Judah before total captivity by Babylon. “At that time Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon came against Jerusalem…And he carried away all Jerusalem, and all the princes…And he carried away Jehoiachin to Babylon. And Nebuchadnezzar made Zedekiah, Jehoiachin’s uncle, king.” 2 Kings 24:8-17. What a dint to Jehoiachin’s ego. Jehoiachin’s dignity maimed, deadly silence followed, and there was no possible defense for Judah’s dethroned king.

Jeremiah, meaning God is high, wrote, “this man Coniah (Jehoiachin) a despised person, he is a vessel wherein there is no pleasure, they are cast out, he and his seed, cast into a land which they know not…write this man childless, a man that shall not prosper, no man of his seed shall prosper, sitting upon the throne of David, and ruling any more in Judah.” See Jer. 22:24-30.

But regardless of this, “his deadly wound was healed.” “… it came to pass in the seven and thirtieth year of the captivity of Jehoiachin king of Judah…that Evilmeridach king of Babylon…lifted up the head of Jeroiachin king of Judah, and brought him forth out of prison. And spake kindly unto him, and set his throne above the throne of the kings that were with him in Babylon, And changed his prison garments: and he did continually eat bread before him all the days of his life…” See Jer. 52:31-34.

“That which hath been is now; and that which is to be hath already been; and God requireth that which is past.” What a wonderful tutorial is type and antitype, to warn the just and wary!

The Dragon – Rev. 13:2

The dragon gave him (the beast) his power. Now to establish the identity of the dragon in O.T.

The words serpent, whale and dragon ( = NACHASH or = TANNIYM) in the Old Testament are the same as the DRAKON DRAGON = a fabulous kind of serpent, and from OPHIS = a snake, malicious person in the New Testament. Therefore we can refer to the word serpent, whale or dragon in the Old to determine the features of dragon in Rev. 13.2.

Initially, what did the dragon or serpent do? In Genesis the serpent deceived Eve, telling her to eat a forbidden fruit. The serpent said , “For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods knowing good from evil.” When Eve saw the tree was good for food, pleasant and a tree to be desired she took of the fruit, and gave also to her husband. See Gen. 3:6. Just as the serpent deceived Eve likewise the dragon deceived the beast. You may discern from Old Testament figures where the serpent or dragon, first seen in the garden of Eden sketch, is lurking today.

This ingenuous allegory is expanded in Gen. 4:1. Eve conceived and bare Cain and said “I have gotten a man from the Lord.” Lord from YEHOVAH meaning, the eternal, the self existent, the beacon. The word Cain means acquisition. I have acquired knowledge of good and evil. So begins the struggle of good versus evil and continues throughout the entire Scriptures. What a curse, when the knowledge of possessions and ownership was born. Ownership makes one very great, very strong. Such a god is superlative, can judge, be mighty powerful and have rule over others for one’s own benefit. Acquisition is the more one could grab, the more control over others one could have. How enchanting and distracting a thought!

The Genesis scene is philosophically the beginning of a have and have-not world - an organized way of life, and society ruled by vehemence, disadvantaging the innate conscience. It heads for disaster. It is called Civilization by Kenneth Clark. Imagine such decadence in the hands of “justice” and “ethics”.


5. In Conclusion

The ancient writers believed the creative element would finally prevail. After disaster, calamity, captivity, would come a merciful deliverer. This is their story, their hope, our hope. Today, of course, deliverance comes not in the form of a person e.g. Hezekiah, Cyrus or Judas Maccabees. These stories are Old Testament-day shadows. Today the liberation of intuition, self-determination and dignity is the coming of understanding principles of genuine charity, mutual community interest and steadfast faithfulness to the pristine psyche. This is the indwelling God of love, this is the action of principle.

This essay has set out to establish in stone the type/antitype principle, layered within the Scriptures. It cuts asunder any exposition not based on type/antitype. No understanding of the N.T. can be acheived without a professional knowledge of the Old. We all learn by simple symbols, we all associate life with symbols. When it comes to symbolism, the ancient writers are the greatest teachers of a philosophy of history. Don’t you think so?