Apocalipse 13

ARC · Chapter 13/22

1E eu puz-me sobre a areia do mar, e vi subir do mar uma besta que tinha sete cabeças e dez cornos, e sobre os seus cornos dez diademas, e sobre as suas cabeças um nome de blasphemia.

2E a besta que vi era similhante ao leopardo, e os seus pés como de urso, e a sua bocca como de leão; e o dragão deu-lhe o seu poder, e o seu throno, e grande poderio.

3E vi uma de suas cabeças como ferida de morte, e a sua chaga mortal foi curada; e toda a terra se maravilhou após a besta.

4E adoraram o dragão que deu á besta o seu poder; e adoraram a besta, dizendo: Quem é similhante á besta? quem poderá batalhar contra ella

5E deu-se-lhe bocca para fallar grandes coisas e blasphemias; e deu-se-lhe poder para assim o fazer quarenta e dois mezes.

6E abriu a sua bocca em blasphemias contra Deus, para blasphemar do seu nome, e do seu tabernaculo, e dos que habitam no céu.

7E deu-se-lhe poder para fazer guerra aos sanctos, e vencel-os; e deu-se-lhe poder sobre toda a tribu, e lingua, e nação.

8E adoraram-n'a todos os que habitam sobre a terra, cujos nomes não estão escriptos no livro da vida do Cordeiro morto desde a fundação do mundo.

9Se alguem tem ouvidos, ouça.

10Se alguem leva em captiveiro, em captiveiro irá: se alguem matar á espada, necessario é que á espada seja morto. Aqui está a paciencia e a fé dos sanctos.

11E vi subir da terra outra besta, e tinha dois cornos similhantes aos do Cordeiro; e fallava como o dragão.

12E exerce todo o poder da primeira besta na sua presença, e faz que a terra e os que n'ella habitam adorem a primeira besta, cuja chaga mortal fôra curada.

13E faz grandes signaes, de maneira que até fogo faz descer do céu á terra, diante dos homens.

14E engana aos que habitam na terra com signaes que se lhe permittiram que fizesse em presença da besta, dizendo aos que habitam na terra que fizessem uma imagem á besta que recebera a ferida da espada e vivia.

15E foi-lhe concedido que désse espirito á imagem da besta, para que tambem a imagem da besta fallasse, e fizesse que fossem mortos todos os que não adorassem a imagem da besta.

16E faz que todos, pequenos e grandes, ricos e pobres, livres e servos, ponham um signal na sua mão direita, ou nas suas testas;

17E que ninguem possa comprar ou vender, senão aquelle que tiver o signal, ou o nome da besta, ou o numero do seu nome.

18Aqui está a sabedoria. Aquelle que tem entendimento, conte o numero da besta; porque é o numero de um homem, e o seu numero é seiscentos e sessenta e seis.

📖 Chapter study

Summary

A terrifying beast rises from the sea, receiving power and authority from the dragon, and is worshiped by the whole earth, except by those whose names are written in the book of life. A second beast rises from the earth, forcing humanity to worship the first beast and receive a mark, whose number is 666.

Explanation

The first beast, combining features of a leopard, a bear, and a lion (images used in Daniel 7 to describe world empires), likely represents oppressive political power that demands absolute loyalty and opposes God, historically associated by many early readers with the cult of the Roman emperor. The second beast, later called the 'false prophet' in the book, represents religious or propagandistic systems that promote and sustain the first beast's power through signs and social pressure. The number 666, described as 'the number of a man,' has intrigued interpreters for centuries; a widely accepted explanation among scholars is gematria (a system in which letters represent numbers) applied to the name 'Nero Caesar' in Hebrew, which adds up to exactly 666. Today's practical application is to discern and resist systems of power, whether political, economic, or religious, that demand absolute loyalty in place of faithfulness to God.

Fun facts

  • An ancient manuscript of the book of Revelation (Papyrus 115, from the 3rd century) records the number of the beast as 616, not 666, and scholars point out that both numbers result from applying gematria to the name of the Roman emperor Nero Caesar, written in slightly different forms in Hebrew and Latin.

Verse-by-verse explanation

  1. Apocalipse 13:1In the Jewish imagination, the sea represented chaos and the unknown; in the book of Daniel, four beasts also come up out of it. This beast inherits the seven heads and ten horns of the dragon from the previous chapter, showing that it acts with his very same authority.
  2. Apocalipse 13:2This description combines, into a single monster, the four separate beasts from the vision in Daniel 7, usually read as a sequence of ancient empires. Here they become a single composite figure.
  3. Apocalipse 13:3A wound that heals is usually read as a distorted imitation of the Lamb that was slain and lives, back in chapter 5 - the beast's power presenting itself as a false copy of Christ's resurrection.
  4. Apocalipse 13:4The question “Who is like unto the beast?” distortedly mimics praise that originally belongs to God alone, as in the song of Moses in Exodus 15 (“who is like unto thee, O Lord?”), showing the beast as a false imitation of divine authority.
  5. Apocalipse 13:5It receives authority to speak blasphemies for “forty and two months,” the same period of three and a half years already used elsewhere in the book for a limited time of oppression.
  6. Apocalipse 13:6The beast's blasphemy strikes directly at God, His dwelling place, and those who dwell in heaven, a total attack on everything sacred in the book.
  7. Apocalipse 13:7It receives power even to overcome the saints in battle and dominion over every people of the earth, showing a reach of influence that is practically universal.
  8. Apocalipse 13:8Worship of the beast becomes nearly unanimous among the inhabitants of the earth, with a single exception: those who already have their name written in the Lamb's book of life, described as planned from before the foundation of the world.
  9. Apocalipse 13:9This repeats the same call to attention already used in the seven letters of chapters 2 and 3, now applied to this scene of persecution.
  10. Apocalipse 13:10This describes a kind of destiny already set, echoing a similar idea in Jeremiah, and concludes with a call to patient endurance: the faith of the saints is proven precisely by holding on without striking back with violence.
  11. Apocalipse 13:11This second beast looks gentle on the outside, with horns like a lamb, but speaks like the dragon, a warning that deception can look harmless on the surface while serving the very same hostile power behind it.
  12. Apocalipse 13:12The second beast acts as the representative of the first, using all of its authority to make the earth worship the beast whose deadly wound had been healed.
  13. Apocalipse 13:13Making fire come down from heaven recalls the prophet Elijah doing the same before the prophets of Baal; here, however, the sign serves to deceive, a distorted imitation of a genuine miracle.
  14. Apocalipse 13:14Using these false signs, the second beast convinces the inhabitants of the earth to build an image in honor of the first beast, celebrating the wound it survived.
  15. Apocalipse 13:15The image is given a kind of artificial life, able to speak, and begins to demand worship on pain of death for whoever refuses - the peak of the imitation of true divinity.
  16. Apocalipse 13:16The scene probably echoes certificates and seals used in the trade of the Roman Empire to certify loyalty, in contrast with the seal of God on the foreheads of the faithful, back in chapter 7. Christian traditions read this mark in quite different ways, and the text does not settle that question.
  17. Apocalipse 13:17The beast's control extends to economic life: without its mark, no one can buy or sell, an enormous practical pressure on anyone who refused to worship it.
  18. Apocalipse 13:18The text itself invites the reader to ‘count’ the number, using gematria, a practice common at the time in which letters of the alphabet also carried numeric value. Exactly which name this number points to has been read in very different ways over the centuries, and that question is not settled here.

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