It is important to read this chapter against the background of what is said in the rest of the New Testament about civil government. In Romans 13, Paul argues that the purpose of government is to reflect the just rule of God within human society. He insists it is perfectly possible for government to exercise power in a way that pleases God, indeed God himself has ordained it in order to maintain justice within a fallen world. Civil government is meant to be God's servant for the good of human society. Paul was of course aware that often civil government did not fulfil its God-given purpose. Indeed, in 2 Thessalonians 2, he anticipates a future time of political and moral rebellion when the "man of anarchy" would set himself up against God and his people; and in this passage from Revelation, John seems to be describing that same eschatological personification of antichristian tyranny. The early church called him "the Antichrist". John here calls him "a beast".

As with all apocalyptic symbolism, John's imagery is not meant to be visualised so much as decoded. In the Old Testament, Daniel had a very similar vision, except that he saw not one "beast" coming out of the sea, but four. The first was like a lion, the second like a bear, the third like a leopard, and the fourth was a hideously powerful carnivore unlike any animal he had ever seen. In Daniel 7 we are told these four beasts represented successive world empires - probably Babylon, Persia, Greece, and Rome. So what John seems to have done is to fuse together these four symbolic animals of Daniel to make one composite monster representing the sum total of all the godless tyrannies the world had ever known.

For John, most immediately, the monster represented Roman Imperialism; to Christians, ...   more »