The beast from the land forms a priesthood. He turns the people of the land to worship the first beast, and Mosaic/Elijan signs and wonders encourage the people to worship the image of the beast (Revelation 13:14). He can bring fire from heaven, not only like Elijah, but like Yahweh Himself who descends from heaven in fire at the dedication of the temple (2 Chronicles 7:3; Revelation 13:13). The worshipers he organizes into a pseudo-church, where distinctions of economic and... Read more
Each of the “letters” to the churches in Revelation 2-3 ends with a Christianized “shema”: He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. A sevenfold shema exhorts the saints to endure through the end of the old creation. The eighth shema is nestled in the middle of chapter 13, not in a letter but in the midst of a vision of a beast making war on the saints and gathering every tribe to... Read more
Revelation 13 is throughout a parody of John’s vision of the heavenly worship of Revelation 4. In both scenes, there is a sea. In both, there is a beast – a Lamb, and the composite predatory empire. In both, there is a beast slain – the lamb, and then one of the heads of the beast. Both beasts are warriors, and both beasts open things – the Lamb opens the scroll, and the beast opens the mouth given by the... Read more
The beast’s head is slain, a wound that is described as “the plague of his death” ( he plege tou thanatou ; Revelation 13:3). That might go in a couple directions. On the one hand, the Hebrew noun nega’ (plague) is used only once in the plague narratives, in Exodus 11:1, when Yahweh announces one final plague against Pharaoh. (Even in the LXX, the noun form plege is used only a few times in Exodus: 12:13; 22:1; 33:5). This plague... Read more
One of the heads of the sea beast is “slain” (Revelation 13) and then healed. It is an obvious parody of death and resurrection. Everyone in Revelation follows a slain-and-healed beast; it’s just a choice of which one. The Lamb is the one slain (5:6, 9, 12), slain long before the beast appeared, slain before the foundation of the world. And the saints share in that slaying (cf. 6:9; 18:24). The lamb is not slain to deliver the saints from... Read more
The sea beast that appears in Revelation 13 is a composite of beasts from Daniel 7, with features of leopard, bear, and lion and seven heads equal to the total number of heads on the beasts that Daniel sees in vision. But the beast is also a parody of Yahweh, who threatens to tear and devour Israel like a lion, leopard, and bear (Hosea 13:4-8). And he is a parody of David, the king who is the Lion of the... Read more
In a Mars Hill Audio with Ken Myers, Christopher Page discusses teh ritualizing effects of music. Speech is much more tonally and rhythmically complicated than music. To reduce all the tones and variations in speech to a seven-note scale is a radical simplification of sound, and, Page thinks, moves toward ritual. He immediately adds an observation about the difference between singing and talking to yourself. If you find someone singing to himself, you’d think him uncommonly happy; if you find... Read more
Matthew 28 1 Now after the Sabbath, as the first day of the week began to dawn, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to see the tomb. 2 And behold, there was a great earthquake; for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from the door, and sat on it. 3 His countenance was like lightning, and his clothing as white as snow. 4 And the guards shook for fear of... Read more
Psalm 88 1 O LORD, God of my salvation, I have cried out day and night before You. 2 Let my prayer come before You; incline Your ear to my cry. 3 For my soul is full of troubles, and my life draws near to the grave. 4 I am counted with those who go down to the pit; I am like a man who has no strength, 5 Adrift among the dead, like the slain who lie in the... Read more
Alasdair MacIntyre’s comment is often quoted, and exaggerated in a curmudgeonly way, but it gets at so much of the truth of modern politics that it’s worth another citation: “The modern nation state, in whatever guise, is a dangerous and unmanageable institution, presenting itself on the one hand as a bureaucratic supplier of goods and services, which is always about it, but never actually does, give its clients value for money, and on the other as a repository of sacred... Read more
Leithart
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In