THE BEAST INTERPRETED (VERSES 7-11)

“But the angel said to me, ‘Why did you marvel? I will tell you the mystery of the woman and of the beast that carries her, which has the seven heads and the ten horns. 8 The beast that you saw was, and is not, and will ascend out of the bottomless pit and go to perdition. And those who dwell on the earth will marvel, whose names are not written in the Book of Life from the foundation of the world, when they see the beast that was, and is not, and yet is.

9 ‘Here is the mind which has wisdom: The seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman sits. 10 There are also seven kings. Five have fallen, one is, and the other has not yet come. And when he comes, he must continue a short time. 11 The beast that was, and is not, is himself also the eighth, and is of the seven, and is going to perdition.’”

As is often true in this interesting book, the interpretation of the woman is left to last [in verses 15-19], even though she is mentioned first. The order of interpretation begins with the beast, followed by the ten horns [verses 12-14], then the waters, and last the woman. The beast and the woman are so closely related that he is spoken of as carrying her (verse 7). Because the beast so nearly represents the dragon and the beast from the sea earlier in the book, it is difficult to be absolutely sure regarding the meaning of the beast. It puzzled John and it puzzles us. In some verses here, it would appear to represent the empire that supports the woman, which is the great city of Rome. In other verses, it appears to refer to one single individual or a succession of individuals, who represent the empire. Thus, the beast can be interpreted personally, as in verse 11. It is likely that this is purposeful on the part of John so that the interpretation may not be too limited.

The beast is describes as one that “…was, and is not, and will ascend out of the bottomless pit and go to perdition,” [verse 8]. It is as if the beast has died, and will soon be resurrected. Scholars have pointed out a kind of parallel between God and His Messiah, Jesus Christ, and Satan and his “messiah,” the beast. There is the living, dying, and “rising again” of both, but with this difference: Christ was raised to reign eternally; the beast comes up to go to perdition.

The seven heads [verse 9] are interpreted not only as seven mountains, an obvious reference to Rome that sits upon seven hills, but also to seven kings [verses 10-11], five of whom are fallen, one exists, and one is about to come for a short time, and then following him an eighth one, who is the beast himself (verses 9-11).

This eighth one is the beast “of the seven,” thus a king like them, yet it is clear from verses 1-6 that the beast represents a city and an empire. It would appear that the heads, the kings, represent the empire as a whole. Some interpreters have tried to work out a historical list of Roman emperors that would come out at the time of Domitian, when the book was written. The most widely followed procedure among this group of interpreters is to begin with Emperor Augustus Caesar, followed by Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius, and Nero, omitting the names of Galba, Otho, and Vetellius, whose short reigns occur during the anarchy of 68 and 69 AD. Vespasian (69-79 AD) is identified as “the one who is” and Titus as the one to come for only a short time (79-81 AD), thus making Domitian the eighth (81-96 AD), the beast that embodied all the evil of the past in himself. This is open to the objections that it omits three names in order to get the right number, and makes the book a product of the reign of Vespasian rather than Domitian. Any endeavor to make the heads correspond to the Roman emperors runs into difficulty. It would seem to indicate that the number “seven” here is symbolic of the Roman rulers as a whole and, by extension, of all world powers opposed to God.

Many scholars see in the beast that was, is not, and shall ascend, a reference to the popular 1^st Century legend that Nero, who actually committed suicide, was not dead, but would return from the East at the head of an army and take possession of the Empire. Nero, who had first cruelly persecuted the Christians, would be “revived” in the beast that would continue to persecute. Domitian was certainly a revived Nero, persecuting Christians and claiming divine honors for himself.

Others look upon the seven “kings” as kingdoms, with five fallen, one (the Roman Empire) in existence, and one yet to come that would more or less embody in itself all the forces of the antichrist against God’s people. The flexibility of this symbol between empire and individual keeps us from being too strict in our interpretation. The fact that there is more to come indicates that the end of the opposition of the evil forces has not yet arrived.

Several times in this paragraph of Scripture, the assurance of the defeat of the beast and his heads allows us to see the failure of Satan’s efforts against Christ and His people. Though the dwellers on earth are amazed and attracted by the beast’s power and revival, they will share in the completeness of his overthrow. Evil will be destroyed in God’s world ultimately, and for men to choose the side of evil is to condemn themselves to complete failure and destruction in the end.