📖 Biblical Definition
The two beasts of Revelation 13 together form the satanic counterfeit of Christ and His church. The first beast rises from the sea — political and imperial blasphemy, drawing on the four beasts of Daniel 7, with seven heads and ten horns. The second rises from the earth, with two horns like a lamb and a dragon’s voice — religious deception serving the political beast, performing signs, demanding the mark, enforcing worship. Together they wage war on the saints for an appointed season. Historic Protestant interpreters identified the system in Rome’s persecuting power and papacy; futurist readers see a final escalation. Either way, the Lamb wins (Revelation 17:14), and faithful endurance is the church’s charge.
📜 Webster 1828 Definition
Revelation's two beasts: imperial and religious.
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The two figures of Revelation 13: the first beast rising from the sea — political-imperial power blaspheming God and warring against the saints — and the second from the earth — false-religious power performing signs to compel worship of the first; together the great anti-Lamb coalition.
📖 Key Scripture
Revelation 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."
Revelation 13:11 — "And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon."
Revelation 13:16-17 — "He causeth all... to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads."
⚠️ Modern Corruption
Read as a code to crack instead of as a perpetually applicable pattern of imperial-religious idolatry.
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Whatever specific historical fulfillment Revelation 13 has, the pattern recurs: political power demanding ultimate allegiance with religious sanction, persecuting saints who confess the Lamb. Read the Beast typologically and you see it in many ages, including our own.
🔗 Greek & Hebrew Roots
Greek thērion — wild beast.
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['Greek', 'G2342', 'thērion', 'wild beast']
['Greek', 'G5480', 'charagma', 'mark, brand']
Usage
"Read the Beast as recurring pattern."
"Imperial-religious idolatry is perennial."