“The beast” in Revelation 13 has been the subject of endless speculation—especially with regard to his “mark” (is it a barcode? a tattoo? a vaccine?). Seen rightly, the beast is such a recurring character that it’s hard to narrate salvation history without it. C. S. Lewis even featured a beast character (Shift) in the final book of The Chronicles of Narnia.

Revelation 13 actually features two beasts (v. 11). Together with “the dragon” (v. 2), they make up the ultimate unholy trinity. But it’s the first one (vv. 1–10) who’s called “the beast” by way of preeminence (16:13; 19:20; 20:10). The beast was introduced in 11:7, where it makes war on God’s two witnesses. Now, in the repetitive, recapping nature of Revelation, chapter 13 circles back and describes it from another angle.

There’s plenty we can’t be sure about. But based on the intercanonical connections of Scripture, the beast should be understood as a powerful human kingdom that blasphemes God and persecutes his people and is seen throughout history (especially at the end of the age).

Powerful Human Kingdom

The beast should be understood as a powerful human kingdom that blasphemes God and persecutes his people.

If you want to understand this beast, the first rule is to read Revelation 13 in light of the Old Testament, not in light of the news cycle (although the news cycle can help you make applications). No one familiar with Daniel 7 could’ve failed to see the similarities between John’s beast and Daniel’s dream. In his dream, Daniel saw four beasts:

• one like a lion (v. 4),
• one like a bear (v. 5),
• one like a leopard (v. 6),
• one with 10 horns and a little horn with “a mouth speaking great things” (vv. 7–8, 19).

Unlike Daniel, John only sees one beast. But it reads like a mashup of Daniel’s four. In verses 1–2, John describes this beast as

• like a leopard (Daniel’s third beast),
• with feet like a bear’s (Daniel’s second beast),
• with a mouth like a lion’s (Daniel’s first beast),
• with 10 horns and a mouth uttering haughty and blasphemous words (Daniel’s fourth beast and its little horn, cf. v. 5).

Daniel’s four beasts are explicitly identified as “four kings” (7:17), which also includes the “kingdoms” over which they ruled (vv. 23–24). (Most interpreters agree that they match the four kingdoms represented in Nebuchadnezzar’s dream in Daniel 2.) Not surprisingly given its clear derivation, the beast in Revelation 13 is also a powerful kingdom—one with a “throne and great authority” (v. 2)—authority so great that it extends to “every tribe and people and language and nation” (v. 7). Its power is symbolized by the 10 horns (five times that of the normal beast). In John’s original context, it would’ve naturally suggested the Roman Empire.

Blasphemes God and Persecutes His People

Just like Daniel’s “little horn,” the beast was “given a mouth uttering haughty and blasphemous words” (Rev. 13:5; cf. v. 6; Dan. 7:25; 2 Thess. 2:4). Like the ancient dragon who empowers him, the beast doesn’t want to serve God but to be God. Here, the verbal similarities with Paul’s “man of lawlessness” are so close that it makes his identity with the beast virtually certain (2 Thess. 2:1–12).

Not only does the beast hate God, but it also hates God’s people. We’re told it’s “allowed to make war on the saints and to conquer them” (Rev. 13:7; Dan. 7:21). Through the threat of violence (Rev. 13:15) and economic penalties (v. 17), the beast and its cronies pressure people into false worship. In the end, the only ones who resist are those whose names were written in the Lamb’s book of life (v. 8).

This beast turns the purpose of civil government on its head (1 Pet. 2:14; Rom. 13:3–4). Instead of punishing evil, it practices and promotes evil. Instead of praising good, it persecutes those who do good and who refuse to practice idolatry. While the Lamb commands us to give to Caesar what is Caesar’s, the beast commands us to give to Caesar what is God’s (i.e., worship: Rev. 13:5–6, 15; Mark 12:17).

Seen Throughout History (Especially at the End of the Age)

All this seems clear enough when comparing Scripture with Scripture. But when does the beast appear historically? Does it represent the Roman Empire that John lived under 2,000 years ago? Or is it some person or power who arises at the very end of the age? The answer seems to be both.

On the one hand, Paul’s beast figure, the “man of lawlessness” (likely an individual), is clearly placed at “the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered together to him” (2 Thess. 2:1). Not only is his revealing a necessary condition for Christ’s coming, but Christ’s coming is when he’ll be brought to an end (vv. 3, 8). So this beast figure seems to be a last-minute event.

While the Lamb commands us to give to Caesar what is Caesar’s, the beast commands us to give to Caesar what is God’s.

And yet 2,000 years ago, Paul could claim that “the mystery of lawlessness [was] already at work” (v. 7). As with much of New Testament theology, there’s an “already, not yet” aspect to the beast. As John put it, “Children, it is the last hour, and as you have heard that antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have come” (1 John 2:18).

Practically, this frees us to identify numerous embodiments of the beast throughout history. For the early church, it was Nero and the Roman Empire. For 20th-century Russian Christians, it was the Soviet Union. For modern American Christians, there can be times when it’s our own government. One thinks of the abominable Obergefell court decision redefining God’s creation ordinance of marriage, which caused even Justice Roberts to ask, “Just who do we think we are?”

This also frees us from having to decide whether the current beast figure is the final one. In one sense, it doesn’t matter. Any time a government or its figurehead requires us to disobey God under pain of legal or economic sanctions, it has become the beast, and we’re called to resist. Perhaps the final antichrist will be brazen enough to actually say, “I am God.” But he doesn’t have to—he simply has to make all other claims of loyalty subservient to those of the state, whether it’s the claims of the family, the church, or God himself. To demand ultimate allegiance is to demand worship, and to yield ultimate allegiance is worship.

So let’s be on the alert. For if Revelation teaches us anything, it’s that those who follow the Lamb must always be ready for the beast.