Revelation chapter 17, part 1.

Introduction.

Revelation chapter 17 is a different chapter, and it is not easy to understand this chapter. Yet it is both complementary and enlightening in relation to all the powers that over time have oppressed God’s people, ever since God chose a special people through Abraham.

I think also we must read Revelation chapter 17 from the contemporary of the prophet, because in the same way that Daniel saw the events unfold from his time, so John sees the history develop from his time. But there is a difference between what Daniel and John see, and that is that Daniel only sees his present and the future, while John in addition to the present and future also gives us a look back in time. Another important point I think must be taken into account is the cosmic conflict which is a battle between God and Satan, a conflict in which Satan uses all means to blemish God’s name, and from the time God chose a special people to bring the gospel out into the world, Satan has done everything in his power to turn God’s people away from God and to destroy God’s people.

If we look at the text in verses 3 and 7, seven heads and ten horns are mentioned, in verses 12 and 16 it is about 10 horns. The seven heads are said to be seven kings, which in turn implies that there are seven kingdoms. It is said that the ten horns are also kings, and then I mean we must distinguish between king and king, because here we will see that king and king are two different things. I want to use the book of Daniel to help distinguish between these kings, because I believe that this book gives us the recipe for how to understand the symbols given in all the prophecies that deal with the same theme.

As I said, the book of Daniel and Revelation tell us about many of the same events. In the book of Daniel chapter 2 we learn that the statue in Nebuchadnezzars dream is four kingdoms. These are four of the seven heads we see in Revelation 17. Nebuchadnezzar dreams of a statue of four different metals which is explained as four kings by Daniel saying to King Nebuchadnezzar that … you are this head of gold … which means that Nebuchadnezzar, as the king of Babylon, represents his kingdom. The same applies for the following kingdoms. The kings represent their kingdoms. When it comes to the fourth kingdom, this kingdom has ten toes (Daniel 2,40-44) and Daniel himself calls the toes kings. In Revelation 17,3,7 we find ten horns, which represent the same as the toes in Daniel 2, and we see that here too it is said that the toes are kings. The seven heads here in Revelation 17 are seven empires that have a destructive influence on God’s people. The ten toes and ten horns are the result of the change the fourth kingdom in Daniel’s prophecies undergoes when this kingdom is divided between the ten toes/horns. Neither the ten toes we find in Daniel 2, nor the ten horns no matter where we find them in Daniel and in Revelation is something new that enters the scene after the fourth kingdom, they have been there all along and they are a part of it fourth kingdom, they are the extension of the fourth kingdom as the toes are an extension of the feet and legs of the statue. Even though Revelation 17 mentions seven kings instead of the four kings Daniel is talking about, I think the parallel to Daniel is clear, and despite the fact that the kingdoms are named differently, and come in different numbers, we have the same scenario.

The common denominator for the prophecies in both the book of Daniel and Revelation is that the ten kings who appear do not do so until the fourth empire undergoes, or has undergone, its change. This is in the same way as what happened to the Greek Empire when Alexander the Great died. There was no new kingdom or new kingdoms, the Greek empire continued to exist as the Greek empire in a changed form. There is, therefore, an essential difference between the four kings of Daniel and the seven kings of Revelation who are great empires on the one hand, and the ten toes or horns which are ordinary kingdoms on the other hand.

Daniel sees, as we know, the story from his contemporary and the future until Jesus return. In Revelation 17, John also sees the story from his contemporary and the future, but he also sees the past, therefore John sees seven kingdoms where Daniel only sees four. Daniel only sees the four kingdoms that are emerging in the part of the world that Daniel worries about, the Middle East and Europe. He sees that the fourth kingdom changes character, and he sees the ten toes in Daniel 2, which in verse 44 is said to be ten kings. John sees more than Daniel did. John sees a total of seven kingdoms of which five are fallen in his time, which means that there must have been two kingdoms before the time of Daniel that Daniel did not see in his visions. John also sees a seventh kingdom that will enter the stage in the future, a kingdom Daniel did not see either. John also sees a woman sitting on a scarlet coloured beast, verse 3. The seven heads of this beast are the seven kingdoms in verse 10, and in verse 12 we learn that the ten horns are ten kings. Daniel 7,24 also says that the ten horns are ten kings that will come* from this kingdom, which is the fourth kingdom. I think we can safely assume that the four kingdoms in the book of Daniel are four of the seven kingdoms that John sees, but in addition John sees three other kingdoms, two of which are before Babylon and one that is after the kingdom in question in John´s contemporary.

* The ten horns are ten kings who will come from this kingdom. After them another king will arise, different from the earlier ones; he will subdue three kings. (Daniel 7,24; NIV 2984)

What we need to do is find out who the various actors in Chapter 17 are.

Who is the great whore in verse 1? Who is the woman in verse 3? Who is the scarlet coloured beast in verse 3? Why does the scarlet beast have seven heads and ten horns? Who or what are the seven heads in verses 3 and 7, which in verse 9 are said to be seven mountains and seven kings in verse 10? Who are these five who have fallen? Who is the one which is described as follows: one is? Who is the other who is not yet come? And at last but not at least, what or who is the eighth?

If we can find out who these are, we will have a better understanding of the prophecies and history.

The great whore and the woman.

Woman in the Bible is a picture of God’s people, be it Israel in Old Testament times or the Christians and the church in New Testament times. Whore is used in the Bible to describe both a woman who is a prostitute in the true sense of the word, and it describes a fallen church and God’s people who have fallen from the pure faith. In Proverbs, Solomon give us a pictorial description these verses: Say unto wisdom, Thou [art] my sister; and call understanding [thy] kinswoman: That they may keep thee from the strange woman, from the stranger [which] flattereth with her words. For at the window of my house I looked through my casement, And beheld among the simple ones, I discerned among the youths, a young man void of understanding, Passing through the street near her corner; and he went the way to her house, In the twilight, in the evening, in the black and dark night: And, behold, there met him a woman [with] the attire of an harlot, and subtle of heart. (She [is] loud and stubborn; her feet abide not in her house:) (Now [is she] without, now in the streets, and lieth in wait at every corner.) So she caught him, and kissed him, [and] with an impudent face said unto him, [I have] peace offerings with me; this day have I payed my vows*. Proverbs 7,4-14 * Payed my vows in the meaning of kept my promises.

What does Solomon mean by this? Is it simply an ordinary prostitute, street girl or temple whore we are talking about, or is it something else? The passage begins with Solomon saying that we should call wisdom our sister and understanding our kinswoman, and it is probably not to protect against a whore in the true sense of the word Solomon comes with this. There is probably something else behind the term whore. The term refers primarily to the relationship a married man has with a prostitute. A married man who goes to a whore is unfaithful to his wife and consequently commits adultery with the whore. Also an unmarried man who goes to a whore commits adultery. To commit adultery can also be done in relation to God. As individuals or as a church, we belong to God. We all have a relationship with Him whether we are faithful to God or not. A church that is not faithful to God commits adultery, such a church is an unchaste woman, a whore. Woman and woman are therefore two different things, and we can see from how they are described what type of woman they are. Either she is clean, or she is unclean.

In Revelation 12,1 we find a description of a woman. And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars. The sun is an image of Jesus and the gospel, the moon reflects as we know the sunlight, and here it is then that the woman dressed in Jesus/the gospel reflects this, the twelve stars represent Israel’s twelve patriarchs, tribes or apostles. This woman is therefore a pure woman.

The woman we find in Revelation 17 is dressed in purple and scarlet colour with gold and precious stones and pearls, verse 4. This is an unclean woman, and that is why she is called a harlot in verse 1, and it is said in verse 2 that the kings of the earth committed fornication with her. We understand from verse 2 that she is not an ordinary prostitute this harlot because all the kings of the earth committed fornication with her, and all those who live on earth were made drunk with the wine of her fornication. The expression the wine of her fornication used here in verse 2 is translated from the Greek word porneia which has given us the words porn, pornography, pornographic. The fact that the kings of the earth committed fornication with her and the fact that all the people in the whole world were drunk by her fornication means, in other words, that the world leaders were unfaithful to God, and followed the whore instead of God. And that the people, those who live on earth, were drunk by the wine of her fornication, means that people were seduced by this woman/whore.

What is most frightening in the sequence from the Proverbs is that the whore says this day have I payed my vows (kept my promises). What has this woman promised herself? She has promised herself to put an end to all opposition against her, the fallen church, and this is done by inviting the young man – the reformed church – to a peace offering! She says: I have peace offerings with me. The fact that this woman in Revelation 17 sits on many waters means that it is a worldwide church that controls not only large parts of the religious world, but also more and more of the secular world, which has gradually begun to submit to her.

In Old Testament times it was common for the prostitutes to mark themselves with their name or another mark on their forehead so that everyone could see that she was a prostitute, and that is why it is written something on the forehead of the woman in Revelation 17,5. It says: MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH. The most striking thing is that the prophecy calls this church the mother of harlots … when we know that she calls herself the mother church. The Roman Catholic Church is in fact the mother of all denominations, because all denominations have sprung from her.

The woman was also drunk with the blood of the saints and the blood of Jesus’ martyrs, verse 6. But, many will say, here we have a problem. How can a church be drunk with someone’s blood? The explanation is very simple. The Roman Catholic Church persecuted and killed all those who were in opposition to the church over a period of 1260 years, and an estimated 50 million were killed. It gives an average of 4,6 killed every hour, or one person killed by this power every 13 minutes. Some say that there were as many as 100 million, but whether it is 50 or 100 million, it is an incredibly high number, but if we take into the account that the papacy, with the help of the kings of the earth who committed fornication with her, literally made war against God’s faithful, we quickly achieve such a large number. In just a couple of hours in a single night, on the night of August 24, 1572, the Huguenots, the French Calvinist Protestants, were slaughtered in the thousands, probably as many as 60,000.

The scarlet coloured beast.

Beasts in the prophecies are usually a picture of a kingdom or a nation. In Daniel we see several different beasts representing Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece and the Roman Empire. In Revelation 13 we see two beasts representing Rome and the United States, respectively. But here in chapter 17, it is not certain that the scarlet coloured beast represents a kingdom or a nation. Should this scarlet coloured beast be the same power that in Revelation 13 represents Rome, a problem arises. Most, if not all, who think this claim that the woman, who is the Catholic Church, is sitting on the military-political Rome. This implies that the fourth beast in the book of Daniel is not one kingdom, but two different kingdoms, which will have major consequences for the interpretation of the book of Daniel and Revelation. Should the fourth kingdom of Daniel be two different kingdoms, the Greek kingdom must also be divided so that we get 1 + 4 Greek kingdoms, and the Medo-Persian kingdom must be divided into two, the Median kingdom and the Persian kingdom. We then end up with at least ten different kingdoms where the prophecy in the book of Daniel speaks of 4 kingdoms, neither fewer nor more.

The woman, who is Rome’s religious-political phase, is sitting on this beast which has seven heads and ten horns. It is a common belief that this scarlet coloured beast with seven heads is the worldly powers that keep woman – the Roman Church – up. But can this power – the Roman Church – be sustained by any secular powers? Hardly. An argument against the fact that it is the secular powers that support the Roman Church is what the papacy itself has repeatedly claimed, and rightly so, that they have the authority to depose and install kings. We see this in what happened in Canossa. Emperor Henry IV was excommunicated by Pope Gregory VII, and the emperor went to Canossa where the pope resided. The emperor arrived on January 25, 1077. When he arrived, he had to stand barefoot and thinly clothed in the snow for three days, without food or drink, before he had an audience with the pope to ask forgiveness for what the emperor had done to abuse the Catholic Church.

Here in Revelation 17 we find a woman sitting on a scarlet beast in verse 3. Nothing is said about the beast except that it is scarlet, and full of blasphemous names and that it has seven heads and ten horns. However, this woman appears several times in chapter 17, and we find her in eleven verses. We find the beast in 8 verses. And we find the woman and the beast in the same verse three times, in verses 3, 7 and 16.

Problem: If the woman is the Catholic Church, and she sits on seven secular world powers that support her, the question becomes quite simple; What seven secular world powers are we talking about? If it is the case that the woman represents the Catholic Church, then the woman also represents the fourth beast in the chronology of the book of Daniel which is the Roman Empire. Thus, it may not be all the four kingdoms Daniel gives us in his prophecies. Consequently, it may not be all the seven kingdoms in the chronology of Revelation that we will look at below, because the Roman Empire is one of the seven kingdoms also in this chronology. As I said, we are dealing with seven kingdoms here in Revelation 17, and one of these kingdoms is the Roman Empire, and the Roman Empire is one and the same kingdom whether it wears a military-political or a religious-political mantle. If we agree that this woman represents the papacy, then it is impossible that the scarlet beast, or power, the woman sits on is also the papacy, because the woman represents the papacy which is the religious-political phase of the Roman Empire. Put another way: as long as the woman in verses 1, 3, 4, 5, and 6 is the Roman Catholic Church, she also represents the fourth kingdom in Daniel 2, 7, and 8, which is the Roman Empire.

In verse 7, the angel tells John to explain the mystery of the woman and of the beast that carrieth her. We should note that the angel tells John that he, the angel, shall explain the mystery of the woman and of the beast. It is clear that the angel considers these two, the woman and the beast, as two independent entities, and since the woman is the religious phase of the Roman Empire, she represents the Roman Empire in both phases, both the military-political and the religious-political phase, or if we only should say the military and the religious phase, because both phases have the same declared, political goal – a complete world domination. This woman is described in the following ways: verse 1; the great whore … verse 3; a woman … verse 4; dressed in purple and scarlet … verse 5; Babylon the Great, the mother of harlots and abominations on earth, verse 6; drunken with the blood of the saints …

We may not put so much into it, but it may be interesting to include this point as well. The emperors’ toga, called the Toga trabea, was purple. Other prominent Romans, such as generals, who had won at least one great battle and expanded the kingdom’s borders, were given the right to wear a scarlet toga. As we see, the woman was dressed in both purple and scarlet, which shows that the Roman Empire is the Roman Empire regardless of military or religious wrapping

Now it is time to include a quote from Ellen G. White who in Early Writings writes the following under the heading Death Not Eternal Life in Misery the following: I saw that God had especially guarded the Bible; yet when copies of it were few, learned men had in some instances changed the words, thinking that they were making it more plain, when in reality they were mystifying that which was plain, by causing it to lean to their established views, which were governed by tradition. But I saw that the Word of God, as a whole, is a perfect chain, one portion linking into and explaining another. True seekers for truth need not err; for not only is the Word of God plain and simple in declaring the way of life, but the Holy Spirit is given as a guide in understanding the way to life therein revealed.

I believe this is important information we must consider in all studies of the Bible. The Bible has been changed in ancient times, something the Codex Siniaticus testifies to with all its deletions, additions, corrections and corrections of corrections. Even today, the Bible is subject to major changes, where important words are removed, words are replaced with other words so that the meaning is not always as clear. The Codex Siniaticus, which is the preferred manuscript used by Bible translators today, was found in a rubbish bin in a monastery near mount Sinai!

Before we move on, I want to ask a question: Can we agree that the devil is a brutal guy?

Since the woman is the religious Roman Empire, it cannot be the Roman Empire which the woman sits on, but it must be another power. Verse 8 gives us additional information about the beast in verses 3 and 7: shall ascend out of the bottomless pit. This term, the bottomless pit, is used seven times in Revelation and can tell us something about who or what the beast is. In Revelation 17,3 we find the following text: … and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast… and in Revelation 17,8 it says that the Beast that you saw (in verse 3) is to ascend out of the bottomless pit. As for the term the bottomless pit, the term is used as said seven times in Revelation: 9,1; 9,2; 9,11; 11,7; 17,8; 20,1; 20,3.

But first to the beast, which in Greek is thérion (thay-ree’-on). This word is translated with wild beast or any beast, but the most interesting is that Strong’s Concordance says that thérion in a figurative sense is translated into English with a brute; thérion is thus translated to wild beast, beast but it also is translated into a brute. As long as we are dealing with prophecies, we should not always interpret words and expressions literally, so when thérion is to be translated into English, perhaps the best translation we can use here is a brute, put into the context – the cosmic conflict.

From Strong’s Concordance thérion: a wild beast D efinition: a wild beast Usage: properly: a wild beast, hence: any animal; met: a brute.

Let us then look at the verses in Revelation that use the term abyss: 9,1; 9,2; 9,11; 11,7; 17,8; 20,1; 20,2-3.

Revelation 9,1 refers to a star that fell from the sky and was given the keys to the bottomless pit. This star is Satan.

Revelation 9,3 shows us that locusts come out of the smoke from the bottomless pit (verse 2). The book of Joel explains this swarm of locusts as a kind of messenger of the devastation caused by the events of the day of the Lord (Joel 1,4; 2,25). We are not dealing with literal locusts here, but with demonic forces that will torment anyone who is not sealed with the seal of the living God. The smoke from the abyss is a symbol of seduction. These locusts are the devil’s angels.

Revelation 9,11 shows us the angel of the bottomless pit, here also called Abaddon/Apollyon who is the same as Satan.

Revelation 11,7 shows us a beast ascending from the bottomless pit and making war against God’s two witnesses who are the New and Old Testaments …

Revelation 17,8 shows us a beast (same beast as in Revelation 11,7) ascending from the bottomless pit …

Revelation 20,1 shows us an angel of God with the keys to the bottomless pit, and…

Revelation 20,2-3 shows us that the dragon, the old serpent, which is the devil and Satan, were bound for 1000 years (pictorial expression). If we take a closer look at Revelation 20,2-3, it is said that Satan was thrown into the bottomless pit.

In addition to the creature we have in Revelation 17, we also find a creature in chapter 12 and verse 3 described as … a great red dragon having seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns upon his heads. In Revelation 13,1 we find a creature that we have explained as the Roman Empire, the fourth beast in Daniel’s chronology. There are many who equate this beast with the beast in Revelation 17, but it is questionable whether it is correct.

As you can see, we have three different beings, who appear in this order:

1) a great red dragon Revelation 12,3 …

2) a beast Revelation 13,1 and …

3) a scarlet coloured beast Revelation 17,3.8.11.13.16 …

When we set up the different attributes and other important characteristics of these beings, we quickly see that there are a few essential differences between the beast in chapter 13 and the other beings in chapters 12 and 17.

1) Revelation 12; 7 heads; 10 horns; 7 crowns on the heads; red; rising appeared in heaven

2) Revelation 13; 7 heads; 10 horns; 10 crowns on the horns; no colour; rising up out of the sea

3) Revelation 17; 7 heads; 10 horns; no info; scarlet; in the wilderness

All three beings have, as we see, seven heads and ten horns, but that is where the similarity ends. What we can deduct from this is that they are somehow related, and that they have the same goals. Red and scarlet basically describe the same colour.

The being in Revelation 12 is called a dragon, and the dragon is the same as Satan (see Revelation 12,9). On the seven heads of the dragon there are seven crowns, and this refers to seven kingdoms, and that these kingdoms have power – they rule as shown by the crowns they have – and it is these seven kingdoms that Satan throughout history uses to oppress the people of God. Crowns thus shows governmental power. The 10 horns in chapter 12 do not have crowns because they rule at the mercy of the beast, that is, the beast in chapter 13, and are the kingdoms that today make up modern Europe. We also find these 10 kingdoms in Daniel 2,41.42 as toes, and in 7,7.8.20.24 as horns.

Neither the ten toes nor the ten horns are new elements in the prophecy. We see in Daniel 2,41 that they were there when Daniel explains the dream to Nebuchadnezzar; And whereas thou sawest the feet and toes, part of potters’ clay, and part of iron, the kingdom shall be divided; but there shall be in it of the strength of the iron, forasmuch as thou sawest the iron mixed with miry clay … and they are there in Daniel’s first vision of the same kingdoms in Daniel 7,7: After this I saw in the night visions, and behold a fourth beast, dreadful and terrible, and strong exceedingly; and it had great iron teeth: it devoured and brake in pieces, and stamped the residue with the feet of it: and it [was] diverse from all the beasts that [were] before it; and it had ten horns.

The being in Revelation 13 is called a beast, and this beast is the same as the fourth beast Daniel sees in Daniel chapter 7,3-7: And four great beasts came up from the sea, diverse one from another. The first [was] like a) a lion … And behold another beast, a second, like to b) a bear … After this I beheld, and lo another, like c) a leopard … After this I saw in the night visions, and behold, d) a fourth beast, dreadful and terrible, and strong exceedingly; and it had great iron teeth: it devoured and brake in pieces, and stamped the residue with the feet of it: and it [was] diverse from all the beasts that [were] before it; and it had ten horns. In comparison, John sees the fourth beast in chapter 13 verses 1 and 2 in this way: And I saw d) a beast rise up out of the sea having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy. And the beast which I saw was like unto c) a leopard, and his feet were as [the feet] of b) a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a) a lion: and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority.

Daniel and John see the same beast. Both see the history from their contemporary. Daniel sees the story from his time and forward towards the end, while John sees the story from his time and backwards towards the beginning, therefore they appear in reverse order in John in relation to how Daniel sees them. John provides information that can tell us something about what is also going on in Revelation 17: and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority.

The beast in Revelation 13 has seven heads like the dragon in Revelation 12, both also have ten horns. The beast in Revelation 12 has seven crowns on the heads while the beast in Revelation 13 has 10 crowns on the horns. It is a significant difference that the crowns are placed on the horns and on the heads, respectively. I think a lot of the answer lies in just this. The fact that this beast also has seven heads means nothing but show similarity and/or kinship with the dragon. This does not mean that they are the same being, because the crowns they have sit on different attributes and have different numbers.

The similarity between the two only shows from where the beast in Revelation 13,1 gets its power, and that this beast is only one of the seven beasts that Satan uses to oppress God’s people. When the crowns sit on the heads of the dragon, it means that the dragon gives the heads, or kingdoms, power and authority to perform their deed, and when the crowns sit on the horns of the beast, it means that the beast in Revelation 13 gives the ten horns, or kings, power and authority in a similar way as the dragon does to the beasts in Revelation 12. The papacy claims, as we know, to have the power and authority to depose and install kings.

As for the colour, both the dragon in Revelation 12 and the beast in Revelation 17 are red, while the beast in Revelation 13 has not been given any colour. I firmly believe that there are no coincidences in the Bible because God is a God of order. The fact that the beast in Revelation 13 has not been given a colour makes this beast different from the other two beings in a distinct way.

The last difference we treat is the place where the individual beings rise from. The beast in Revelation 13 rises from the sea, i.e. it emerges as a result of war and/or political upheavals. About the dragon in Revelation 12 it is not said where it comes from, not in this verse, but we know from other verses in Revelation that the dragon, the devil or Satan rises from or is thrown into the bottomless pit (11,7; 20,3), and then we can assume that also the dragon in Revelation 12 can be located to the bottomless pit. The beast in Revelation 17 rises from the bottomless pit verse 8.

There is a fundamental difference between rising from the sea as the beast in chapter 13 does and rising from the abyss as the beast in chapter 17 does (and as the dragon in chapter 12 does), and then it must mean something important.

I mean we have the situation that Satan is not only called dra´kôn = dragon, but also thérion = beast and then in a figurative sense a brute, (the beast we saw in Revelation 17,8). This means that the beast that appears in Revelation 17,3.7.8.11 is the devil.

Revelation 13,2 says that it is the dragon, or the devil, who gives the beast its power. Then follows the question: How can it be described that the devil gives his power to the beast? Can it be said in a better way than that the woman is sitting upon the scarlet coloured beast?

Who are the seven heads, mountains and kings?

Head in the Bible is used as an image of a nation or kingdom. In chapter 2 of the book of Daniel, Daniel says to King Nebuchadnezzar as he explains to the king the dream he had that: Thou art this head of gold. By this Daniel does not mean that King Nebuchadnezzar was the head of gold, but he was the head of gold as the representative of his kingdom Babylon because he was the reigning king. Head is therefore a picture of a kingdom. Mountains are also a picture of kingdoms, and so is a king. But who are these heads?

We read in the text that these seven heads sit on the scarlet beast, which is explained as the devil. This brute has seven heads, and these heads are seven kingdoms that figuratively originating from the scarlet beast, or put another way, they are Satan’s tools that he uses in his attempt to destroy God’s faithful people, and thus ending the true worship of God. What can be confusing is that the beast in Revelation 13,1 also has seven heads, making it difficult to tell the difference between these two beasts. But there are a couple of significant differences between them that we have looked at above.

To repeat, the beast in Revelation 13,1 has seven heads, ten horns and ten crowns on the horns, also the beast in Revelation 17,3 has seven heads, ten horns, here no information is given about crowns. If we take a look at the dragon in Revelation 12, we see that it also has seven heads, ten horns and seven crowns, and here the seven crowns are on the seven heads. This shows that the beast in chapter 13 is different from the beasts in chapters 12 and 17.

The beast in Revelation 13,1 is one of the nations that oppress God’s people throughout history, and is shown as one of the heads of the scarlet beast in Revelation 17,3, which is the same power as the dragon in Revelation 12,3. When the beast in Revelation 17,3 has seven heads, this harmonizes with the statement in Revelation 17,9-10 which tells of seven heads/kings. We will take a closer look at who they are in part 2.