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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comVincent Word Studies - Revelation 13:14 - 13:14
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An image to the beast (εἰκόνα τῷ θηρίῳ)
Εἰκών is a figure or likeness. Thus Mat 22:20, of the likeness of Caesar on the coin. Rom 1:24, an image of men, birds, beasts, etc. Col 3:10, “the image of Him that created him;” i.e., the moral likeness of renewed men to God. Christ is called the image of God (Col 1:15; 2Co 4:4). Besides the idea of likeness, the word involves the idea of representation, though not of perfect representation. Thus, man is said to be the image of God (1Co 11:7). In this it resembles χαρακτήρ image in Heb 1:3. Caesar's image on the coin, the reflection of the sun in the water (Plato, “Phaedo,” 99); and the statue or image of the beast in this passage, are εἰκών.
The word also involves the idea of manifestation. Thus, Col 1:15, where, in the image there is an implied contrast with the invisible God. Hence Philo applied the term to the Logos. See on Joh 1:1.
The word played an important part in the Arian controversy, in which the distinction was sharply emphasized between εἰκών image as assuming a prototype, and therefore as properly representing the relation of the Son to the Father, and ὁμοίωμα likeness, as implying mere similitude, and not embodying the essential verity of the prototype. The image involves the likeness, but the likeness does not involve the image. The latter may imply only an accidental resemblance, while the former is a veritable representation. Christ is therefore the εἰκών of God.
The image of the beast occurs ten times in Revelation; four times in this chapter, and in Rev 14:9, Rev 14:11; Rev 15:2; Rev 16:2; Rev 19:20; Rev 20:4.