Prophecy Insights
Prophecy Scenes of the Future
2. The beast is likened to a leopard (or ‘panther’ as some understand pardalis). The feet are those of a bear and the mouth like that of a lion. Since the animal has seven heads the singular, mouth, is curious. We should be clear that John’s interest is in symbolism. He is not going into detail to help his readers visualize the beast. In fact it seems impossible to put together all the features John mentions to make up one animal. But that is not his intention. He is making use of a variety of the features of the animals mentioned in Daniel 7. His composite beast thus becomes indescribably horrible. He combines in one the terrible features hitherto associated with different beasts. The beasts of Daniel 7 are to be understood of the various world empires and it may well be that this is in mind with John’s beast. In that case he stands for a final empire in which will be concentrated the frightfulness of all its predecessors. But John does not see the beast as having any power of its own. The dragon gave it its power, its throne, and great authority. The combination adds up to a formidable foe. John’s readers should not think that the powers of good are opposed to a negligible enemy.
The chapter says little about the dragon. He remains very much in the background. He does his work not openly, but through people. John is talking about a more than human evil, but it is an evil that reveals itself in human deeds.
The beast has ten crowns on his horns, which is a curious place for them (Satan has them on the heads, 12:3). But it is a way of stressing that his dominion (diadēmata are crowns of royalty; see note on 12:3) rests on force, while leaving the heads free for the blasphemous name.
English translations customarily use the translation beast, but what John saw can better be rendered by the term monster. John described it, starting with the horns and finally moving on to the feet, as it came up from the water.
The body parts of this brute are a composite of three of the four creature of Daniel 7:1–6, but in reverse order: body of a leopard, feet of a bear, and mouth of a lion. In Daniel’s vision, these represented historical empires that opposed Judah, such as Babylon and Persia. Here they are all combined into one monster—raw political-military power.
So far the water monster could be thought of as symbolizing corrupt political power throughout history, but in these verses, the monster transforms into what must be a single individual. In other Bible books, he is the Antichrist (1 John 2:18, 22; 4:3; 2 John 1:7). The monster is now revealed as the “Christ of Satan” presented as an evil parody of the Christ of God. Remember that the Lamb on God’s throne had seven horns and seven eyes and “looking as if it had been slain” yet standing alive (5:6). The water monster also seemed to have had a fatal wound—exactly the same Greek, construction as 5:6—yet the fatal wound had been healed
Following a human leader is one thing; outright worship is another. Now we learn that people worshiped the beast just as they worshiped the dragon. The verb for worship includes the notion of bowing down and acknowledging divine status, as the twenty-four elders had fallen before God (5:14; 11:16). Thus, the world’s people are so deceived that they worship Satan as God; they give the monster the divine status that belongs to Jesus. The monster is truly a pseudo-Jesus, an Antichrist.