Seven heads of the Beast
I saw one of his heads as if it had been fatally wounded or slain, and his fatal wound was healed. And the whole earth was amazed and followed after the beast. (Rev. 13:3).
John saw one of the seven heads of the Beast being fatally wounded, and yet, to his amazement and discouragement, it simply healed itself with only temporary harm to the Beast. This resulted in “the whole earth” – which in biblical language signifies a great number of people – being intrigued with the nature and power of the Beast. Revelation calls the wound fatal because the Beast appeared “as slain to death” (hos esfagmenein eis thanaton, ὡς ἐσφαγμένην εἰς θάνατον). This is an idiomatic way of speaking because the Lamb in Rev. 5:6 was also “standing as slain” (hestekos hos esfagmenon, ἑστηκὸς ὡς ἐσφαγμένον).
Both the Beast and the Lamb were wounded, and this brush with death contributed to their appearance. There is deliberate mirroring between the Beast and the Lamb in Revelation. Who wounded the Beast? The strike must have come from God because “wound” (pleigei, πληγὴ) also means a “plague” in Greek, and plagues are usually sent by God. The head injury to the Beast was caused by the Messiah himself. The image of the seed (zerah, זֶרַע) of Chava from Genesis and the seed of the serpent (nachash, נָחָשׁ) may be the context for this circumstance. (Gen. 3:15) Click HERE.
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