God's divine purposes and the 7-Headed Beast

“And he carried me away in the Spirit into a wilderness, and I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast that was full of blasphemous names, and it had seven heads and ten horns.” Revelation 17:3

The seven-headed beast is mentioned several times in the Bible. And it is without a doubt a difficult subject to understand. It takes time and study and we only have a limited understanding. To grasp this pictorial image at all, we must first look to other places in the Bible. Let’s begin in the same chapter, Revelation 17:7-11 says, “But the angel said to me, “Why do you marvel? I will tell you the mystery of the woman, and of the beast with seven heads and ten horns that carries her. 8 The beast that you saw was, and is not, and is about to rise from the bottomless pit and go to destruction. And the dwellers on earth whose names have not been written in the book of life from the foundation of the world will marvel to see the beast, because it was and is not and is to come. 9 This calls for a mind with wisdom: the seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman is seated; 10 they are also seven kings, five of whom have fallen, one is, the other has not yet come, and when he does come he must remain only a little while. 11 As for the beast that was and is not, it is an eighth but it belongs to the seven, and it goes to destruction.”

And before we begin, also we need to read Revelation 13:1-2: “And I saw a beast rising out of the sea, with ten horns and seven heads, with ten diadems on its horns and blasphemous names on its heads. 2 And the beast that I saw was like a leopard; its feet were like a bear's, and its mouth was like a lion's mouth. And to it the dragon gave his power and his throne and great authority.”

Now, let go back and look at the scarlet beast with blasphemous names. What would that mean? Nick Needham in his book, 2000 Years of Christ’s Power, writes, “Hellenistic culture already saw kings as divine figures, gods incarnate…where Hellenistic values were more deeply rooted, people worshipped the emperor in his own lifetime as a living god.” Julius Caesar was deified after his assassination, “the divine Julius" (divus Iulius), and his adopted son, Octavian (Augustus Caesar) became known as divi Iuli filius (son of the divine Julius) or simply divi filius (son of the god). Augustus used divi filius as a title to advanced his political position and power. The title was even put on the back of the coins which had a picture of Augustus on the front.

The same was done with many of the Caesars, and I point all this out to say, the blasphemous names in Revelation could be referring to the Caesars taking on names and titles of divinity. So, does this mean the beast of Revelation is simply Roman? Well, let’s consider Revelation 13: “the beast that I saw was like a leopard; its feet were like a bear's, and its mouth was like a lion's mouth.” (Rev. 13:2). Does this sound familiar? The sentence is definitely describing a Roman beast, but the language is very similar to Daniel 7. In Daniel, there are 4 beasts that represent four different world kingdoms.

1) Lion – Babylon

2) Bear – Medo-Persia

3) Leopard – Greece

4) Rome

Revelation 13 uses the same animals and imagery in reverse order, leopard, bear, and lion. This simply means that Rome is a composite beast or that Rome is comprised of all the beast kingdoms. Looking at Revelation 17, it states, “the beast that you saw was, and is not, and is about to rise”. What this means is the beast is a system of world kingdoms and some of the kingdoms have “fallen” (no longer are dominate) and some are coming. But it is all part of the same system. Some are no longer (Babylon, Greece, Persia), yet some are and are coming. There is a duality of meaning in Revelation pertaining to the beast as well. Revelation 17 tells us that the 7 heads of the beast are mountains and they are also kings. It may seem obvious that the heads are nations or kingdoms, but if in doubt, Jeremiah 51:25 describes the nation of Babylon as a mountain. So, the beasts of Daniel and the 7-headed beast of Revelation are one and the same. The Apostle John just gives a more complete picture. So, you are probably asking the obvious question. How does 4 kingdoms become 7? As always, the Bible tells us. In Daniel, 7:6 it states, “After this I looked, and behold, another, like a leopard, with four wings of a bird on its back. And the beast had four heads”. This may seem odd since none of the other beasts had four heads, but as you may already know from history, after Alexander the Great died, the Greek kingdom was split up between his generals. The four heads of the Grecian beast describe the four different parts of the Greek empire. So what do the 7 heads represent - well again they are mountain-kingdoms and they are kings. As far as the nations, here is what I believe the Bible is saying –

1) Babylon

2) Medo-Persia

The Greek empire has four heads or four parts. After Alexander the Great died, the generals who became kings ruled the different areas. There is a lot of history to it but we will make it simple.

3) Macedonia and Greece - Cassander

4) Thrace and Asia minor (Turkey) – Lysimachus

5) Egypt, Palestine, Cilicia, Petra, Cyprus - Ptolemy

6) Mesopotamia, the Levant, Persia, part of India – Seleucos I

To make is easy, we can simply refer to these nation heads as Greece, Turkey, Egypt, and Persia. Below is a map of the divided Greek Empire.

7) Rome

Now, I am certainly not saying you must accept the above scenario. But it seems the closest to me based on the texts on Daniel and Revelation. As you already know, there are many other opinions, I am offering one as a way to understand the text. Now, let’s proceed to the kings. The kings are difficult, but the text of Revelation tells us that the 7 heads are mountains and kings. So who are these kings? If you look back at the text of Daniel 7 and see how it describes the first beast but also the man, king Nebuchadnezzar. And I think this is an ancient way of describing kings and kingdoms. They are interchangeable. The first beast in Daniel is describing Babylon and king Nebuchadnezzar. So, does that mean that all the kings in Revelation 17 are kings of each empire? Good question. I think the answer is yes. The kings and kingdoms go together. So, the kings might be Nebuchadnezzar, Cyrus, Alexander the Great, Antiochus IV Epiphanes (Seleucid dynasty, Greek Empire), Ptolemy I (or another Ptolemaic ruler, Greek Empire), Julius Caesar (or another Caesar such as Augustus or Nero). But then of course then you must deal with the famous Revelation verses, “they are also seven kings, five of whom have fallen, one is, the other has not yet come, and when he does come he must remain only a little while.” (vs. 10) I must be honest, this verse creates quite a difficulty. Some argue that the 7 kings are Roman Caesars and that 5 had “fallen” and one was living when John was writing Revelation (Nero). And this is a good assertion, however, I believe the kings refer to all the beast kingdoms, thus the text refers to specific kings in each empire. I will confess, I am unsure on how the 7 kings play out in specific terms. It is difficult to know for sure. Some argue that this also refers to kingdoms, meaning 5 kingdoms have fallen, one is (Rome), and one is to come. Again, this is possible, but also a difficulty. And you can see we can start to run away with ourselves on this topic. The best idea is to view these difficult verses with a broad lense. There are 7 heads, which are 7 kingdoms or empires and also 7 kings from those empires. The kings and kingdoms go together.

So what can we draw from all of this. Keep the picture in mind, the beast is a system, a world system, that operates in opposition to God. And we must remember how Revelation 17 begins, “I will show you the judgment of the great prostitute…with whom the kings of the earth have committed sexual immorality”. Revelation 17 is about the woman who fornicates with the beast (kings of the earth), and what happens because of great iniquity. “They will make her desolate and naked, and devour her flesh and burn her with fire, for God has put it into their hearts to carry out his purpose”. (vs.16-17) John revealed the truth about the beast and the woman, showing how God’s purposes would be fulfilled in the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D. It is striking, it is stunning and even unbelievable. (When I saw, I marveled greatly v. 6) But God’s destructive and good and peaceful purposes are worked out according to his plan, which in the end is always redemptive.