Revelation 13:1

The Beast from the Sea. Chap. 13 Revelation 13:1-10

1. And I stood We should probably read " and he [the Dragon] stood " the clause being connected with the preceding chapter.

and[I saw … out of the sea Daniel 7:3.

seven heads and ten horns Read, ten horns and seven heads. The ten horns are from Daniel 7:7. But the beast seen by Daniel seems to have only one head, Daniel 7:20: and hence some have supposed that this beast is not the same as that, but a combination of all Daniel's four and that the seven heads are obtained by adding together the four heads of the leopard with the single ones of the other three beasts. But this seems far-fetched: it is better to remember (see on Revelation 4:7) that God is not obliged always to reveal the same truth under the same image. St John's vision was like enough to Daniel's to indicate that it applied to the same thing, but it supplied details which Daniel's did not. For one thing, comparing this description with Revelation 12:3, we learn that this beast has a special likeness to the Devil.

the name Read, names, as in the margin. Cf. Revelation 17:3. The reference perhaps is to the blasphemous assumption of divine honours by the Roman emperors most markedly (at least up to St John's time) by Gaius.