The Beast of Revelation

Below is the 23rd of multiple excerpts of commentary on the Book of Revelation from The Parousia, the late 19th-century masterpiece on the Second Coming by James Stuart Russell:

[THE BEAST OF REVELATION] "4. The First Wild Beast. Chap. xiii. 1-10 [Rev. 13:1-10]---...And I saw a wild beast coming up out of the sea, having ten horns and seven heads, and upon his horns ten diadems, and upon his heads names of blasphemy. And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as it were the mouth of a lion: and the dragon gave him his power, and his throne, and great authority. And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world (land, [Greek: he ge]) wondered after the beast. And they worshipped the dragon because he gave the power unto the beast: and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? Who is able to make war with him? And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies; and power was given unto him to continue forty and two months. ... "We now enter upon an investigation full of interest, but also full of difficulty; though that difficulty is greatly mitigated by the known [generational and geographical] limits of the area within which we are restricted, and where we must look for the personage now introduced upon the scene, and who plays so important a part in the sequel. "... A portentous monster is beheld coming up out of the sea,---he is designated therion (a wild beast), already named by anticipation in chap. xi. 7 [Rev. 11:7]. The description of this monster is very minute, so that his identification ought to be easy. Let us note the particulars of the description:--- "1. The beast comes from the sea. "2. He has seven heads, and ten horns, with ten diadems upon his horns. "3. He bears names of blasphemy upon his heads. "4. He unites the characteristics of all the beasts seen by Daniel (chap. vii. [Daniel 7]). "5. He is invested by the dragon with his delegated power. "6. One of his heads is mortally wounded; but the deadly would is healed. "7. He receives the homage of the whole world [land, i.e., Roman Empire]. "8. Divine honours are paid to him. "9. He blasphemes God, and wars against the saints. "10. The duration of his power is limited to forty-two months [three and a half years]. "11. His number is ‘the number of a man,’ and is declared to be ‘six hundred threescore and six.’ [Rev. 13:18] "12. He was, and is not, and shall again come (chap. xvii. 8 [Rev. 17:8]). "13. He ascends out of the abyss, and goes into perdition (chap. xvii. 17 [Rev. 17:8]). "14. He is a king: one of seven, and yet the eighth (chap. xvii. 11 [Rev. 17:11]). "It would be strange if such a number of marked and peculiar characteristics could be applicable to more than one individual, or if such an individual could be so obscure as not to be immediately recognised. He must be sought among the greatest of the earth; he must be the foremost of his day, the observed of all observers; he must fill the highest throne and rule the mightiest empire. His period, too, is fixed [by a generational time limit: "shall not have gone over the cities of Israel," Matt. 10:23; "shall not taste of death," Matt. 16:28, Mark 9:1, Luke 9:27; "this generation," Matt. 23:36, Matt. 24:34, Mark 13:30, Luke 21:32; "they also which pierced him," Rev. 1:7]: it is in the last days of the Jewish polity [government], close upon the final catastrophe [i.e., the close of the Old Covenant age, culminating in Rome's destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple in A.D. 70]. The mystery stands revealed even by its own self-solution. This portentous wild beast, this potentate of the world, this plenipotentiary of Satan, can be no other than the master of the world, the Emperor of Rome, ‘the man of sin,’ [2 Thess. 2:3]---[the Roman emperor] NERO. "Let us now see how the particulars of the description agree with the character of Nero. "1. None will dispute his claim to the title ‘wild beast.’ If ever man deserved that name it was the brutal monster that disgraced humanity by his infamous cruelties and crimes. St. Paul gives him a similar designation: ‘I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion’ (2 Tim. iv. 17 [2 Tim. 4:17]). "2. By his rising out of the sea is probably meant that the beast is a foreign power. We are to regard him from a Jewish point of view; and in Judea Nero would of course be a transmarine sovereign. "3. The seven heads and ten crowned horns of the beast are the symbols of his plenary power and universal dominion. "4. The names of blasphemy inscribed upon his heads signify the assumption of the prerogatives of deity. "5. The union of the characteristics of the four beasts in Daniel’s vision [Daniel 7] indicates that the dominion of the beast embraces the kingdoms represented in that vision. "6. The possession of the delegated power of the dragon implies the subserviency of the beast to the interests of Satan. He is the dragon’s legate. "7. One of his heads being wounded to death implies the violent end of the individual symbolised by the beast. "8. As a matter of course, it would be true of the Roman emperor that he received the homage of the whole world, and idolatrous worship would be paid to him. "9. History tells us that Nero was the first of the emperors who persecuted Christians. 10. The duration of that first and bitter persecution accords with the period of forty and two months, or three years and a half, mentioned in the vision. (...Now, as a matter of fact, the persecution by Nero began in November A.D. 64, and ended with his death in June A.D. 68, that is as nearly as possible three years and a half.) "Postponing for the moment the consideration of the next and crucial question,---‘the number of the beast,’ [Rev. 13:18] we may here pause to observe how precisely all this tallies with the character of Nero. We might, at first, be disposed to think...that the visionary beast signifies ‘the Roman Empire, or more properly Rome herself, the mistress of the world,---Rome pagan, and the persecutor of the saints.’ But as we proceed we are satisfied that it is not an abstraction, but a real person, that is here described, or, at least, the Imperial power embodied in the most ferocious and brutal of its representatives, the Emperor Nero. Every point of the description identifies the criminal. It was this execrable tyrant who first let loose the hell-hounds of persecution on the unoffending Christians of Rome. More like a wild beast than a man, he glutted his bloodthirsty propensities with the murder of his brother, his mother, and his wife. The incendiary of his own capital, he falsely imputed his crime to the innocent Christians, whom he put to death in vast numbers and with unheard-of barbarities. Wielding the mightiest power on earth, he used it for the indulgence of the basest vices, and made himself the slave of the most brutal passions. He arrogated to himself the prerogatives of deity, and claimed and received the worship due to God. His inordinate vanity made him greedy of admiration; it led him to perform as an actor on the stage, to drive as a charioteer in the circus, to contend in the Olympic games. ‘The world wondered after the beast.’ We are told that he received no less than eighteen hundred crowns for his victories. [Roman historian and senator] Dio Cassius relates that he [Nero] entered Rome in triumph, and was hailed with acclamations by the senate and people, who offered him the most abject adulation. He was greeted with shouts of ‘Victories Olympic! Victories Pythian! Thou August! Thou August! Nero the Hercules! Nero the Apollo! Sacred Voice! Eternal One!’ ... "Much more obscure is the apparently paradoxical statement respecting the deadly wound of the beast which was nevertheless healed. Of course, if it was healed it was not deadly; and if it was deadly it could not really be healed. To require a literal fulfillment of an impossibility would manifestly be unreasonable, yet the explanation ought to reconcile the seeming contradiction. Now, it is a curious fact that a plausible explanation of the paradox has been given. Nero died a violent death,---died by a wound from a sword, inflicted either by his own hand or by that of an assassin. It is needless to say that the wound was mortal; but there was undoubtedly a very general belief at the time that he did not die, but was somewhere in concealment, and would ere long reappear, and recover his former power. [Roman historian and politician] Tacitus alludes to the popular belief (History, chap. ii. [2:]8), as does also [Roman historian] Suetonius (Nero, chap. lvii. [57]). There is nothing improbable in the supposition that such a note of identity, embodying the general belief, might be employed as it is in the vision; at all events, no other explanation supplies so reasonable and satisfactory a solution of the problem."