Days of Vengeance - The Preterist Archive

13:15-17
appointed” (cf. Matt. 15:3-9; Acts 13:45; 1 Thess. 2:15-
16). 19 The essential point for our purpose is simply that
St. Paul is accusing the Jewish people of some sort of
idolatry. It is certainly a broad enough term to cover
their rejection of Jesus Christ.
15-17 The extent of the False Prophet’s demonic
power is such that he is able to give breath (or spirit)
to the Image of the Beast, that the Image of the Beast
might even speak. While some have argued that this
refers to some trick of machinery or ventriloquism (and
thus a seeming refutation of Psalm 135:15-16: “The
idols of the nations . . . have mouths, but they do not
speak”), it is more likely that the passage as a whole is
intended to convey the idea of an apostate Jewish
attempt to recreate the world. In the beginning, when
God created the earth, He gave breath/Spirit to His
Image and placed him in His garden-temple (Gen. 2:7-
8); and the first thing we see the Image doing is
speaking, naming and defining the creation in terms of
God’s mandate (Gen. 2:19-20).
The Beast’s spirit-inspired Image itself is able to cause
as many as do not worship the Image of the Beast to
be killed. The Jewish synagogues enforced submission
to the Emperor. Indeed, their leaders’ charge against
Christ Himself was that He was a rival to the allembracing
authority of Caesar (John 19:12-15).
Similarly, they organized economic boycotts against
those who refused to submit to Caesar as Lord, the
leaders of the synagogues “forbidding all dealings with
the excommunicate,” 20 and going so far as to put them
to death.
And he causes all, (note the six categories) the small
and the great, and the rich and the poor, and the free
men and the slaves, to be given a mark on their right
hand, or on their forehead, and he provides that no
one should be able to buy or to sell, except the one
who has the mark, either the name of the Beast or the
number of his name. The Book of Acts is studded with
incidents of organized Jewish persecution of the
Church (Acts 4:1-3, 15-18; 5:17-18, 27-33, 40; 6:8-15;
7:51-60; 9:23, 29; 13:45-50; 14:2-5; 17:5-8, 13; 18:17;
20:3; 22:22-23; 23:12, 20-21; 24:27; 26:21; 28:17-29; cf.
1 Thess. 2:14-16). All of this ultimately served the
interests of Caesar against Christ and the Church; and
the “mark of the Beast,” of course, is the Satanic parody
of the “seal of God” on the foreheads and hands of the
righteous (3:12; 7:2-4; 14:1), the mark of wholehearted
obedience to the Law in thought and deed (Deut. 6:6-
8), the mark of blessing and protection (Ezek. 9:4-6),
the sign that one is HOLY TO THE LORD (cf. Ex.
28:36). Israel has rejected Christ, and is “marked” with
the seal of Rome’s total lordship; she has given her
allegiance to Caesar, and is obedient to his rule and law.
Israel chose to be saved by the pagan state, and
persecuted those who sought salvation in Christ.
The New Testament gives abundant testimony of this
fact. The Jewish hierarchy was involved in a massive,
organized attempt to destroy the Church by both deceit
and persecution. In pursuit of this diabolical goal, they
united in a conspiracy with the Roman government
against Christianity. Some of them were able to
perform miracles in the service of Satan. All this is
exactly what is told us of the Beast from the Land. The
False Prophet of Revelation represents none other than
the leadership of apostate Israel, who rejected Christ
and worshiped the Beast.
There is an interesting reversal of imagery in the text.
The Book of Job has prepared us for St. John’s
prophecy, for it too tells us of a Land Beast (Behemoth,
Job 40:15-24) and a Sea Beast (Leviathan, Job 41:1-34).
In the Greek Old Testament which the early Church
used, the Hebrew word Behemoth is translated The – rion,
the same word St. John uses for Beast; and Leviathan is
translated Drako – n (Dragon). But St. John’s visions
expand on Job’s descriptions of these dinosaurs, and the
order of their appearance is reversed. Job first saw the
Behemoth (Job 40), then Leviathan (Job 41), and
finally God (Job 42). In Revelation, St. John shows us
the demonic reverse of this pattern: First we see Satan
as the Dragon, the Leviathan; then comes the Sea
Beast, who is in the Dragon’s image; finally, trailing
behind and serving them, comes the Land Beast, in the
image of the Sea Beast, bringing along yet another
Image of the Beast. By listing the Beasts in reverse
order, St. John underscores his point: Israel, which was
to have been a kingdom of priests to the nations of the
world, has surrendered her position of priority to
Leviathan and the Beast. Instead of placing a godly
imprint upon every culture and society, Israel has been
remade into the image of the pagan, antichristian
State, becoming its prophet. Abraham’s children have
become the seed of the Serpent.
During three years of ministry in Ephesus, the Apostle
Paul continually suffered persecution because of “the
plots of the Jews” (Act 20:19); in describing his
conflicts with them, he called them “wild beasts” (1
Cor. 15:32). The Jewish Beast was the early Church’s
most deceptive and dangerous enemy. St. Paul
strenuously warned the Church about Judaizers who
propagated “Jewish myths”: “They profess to know
God, but by their deeds they deny Him, being
detestable and disobedient, and worthless for any good
deed” (Tit. 1:14, 16).
We are now in a position to attempt a more precise
identification of the Image of the Beast, which is a
continuation of the Satanic counterfeit, the demonic
reversal of God’s order. Just as the Son of God is the
Image of the Father (John 1 :18; Col. 1:15), so the
Church has been redemptively re-created as the Image
of the Son (Rom. 8:29; Eph. 4:24; Col. 3:10). The
vision of the prophetic, priestly, and dominical Church
seen by St. John parallels that of the Lord Jesus Christ:
Like her Lord, she is robed in glorious light (cf. 1:13-16;
10:1; 12:1; 19:6-8; 21:9-22:5). Assisting the Son in His
19. The Confession of Faith (Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland, 1970), pp.
193ff.
20. Austin Farrer, The Revelation of St. John the Divine (London: Oxford
University Press, 1964), p. 157.
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