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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comRobertson Word Pictures - Revelation 13:1 - 13:1
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
He stood (estathē). First aorist passive indicative of histēmi (intransitive), as in Rev 8:3. “He stopped” on his way to war with the rest of the woman’s seed. P Q read here estathēn (I stood) when it has to be connected with chapter Rev 13.
Upon the sand (epi tēn ammon). The accusative case as in Rev 7:1; Rev 8:3, etc. Ammos is an old word for sand, for innumerable multitude in Rev 20:8.
Out of the sea (ek tēs thalassēs). See Rev 11:7 for “the beast coming up out of the abyss.” The imagery comes from Dan 7:3. See also Rev 17:8. This “wild beast from the sea,” as in Dan 7:17, Dan 7:23, is a vast empire used in the interest of brute force. This beast, like the dragon (Rev 12:3), has ten horns and seven heads, but the horns are crowned, not the heads. The Roman Empire seems to be meant here (Rev 17:9, Rev 17:12). On “diadems” (diadēmata) see Rev 12:3, only ten here, not seven as there.
Names of blasphemy (onomata blasphēmias). See Rev 17:3 for this same phrase. The meaning is made plain by the blasphemous titles assumed by the Roman emperors in the first and second centuries, as shown by the inscriptions in Ephesus, which have theos constantly applied to them.