Revelation

Who is the Lord of Earth and Sea? – Revelation 13

Over the last few posts on Revelation 13 I have argued the two beasts apply the imagery of the four empires in Daniel 7 to the Roman Empire. Both depict a final empire led by an arrogant ruler who demands worship as a god. In Daniel, that is Nebuchadnezzar (Dan 3) and the arrogant little horn, undoubtedly the Seleucid Antiochus IV Epiphanes who persecuted the Jewish people leading to the Maccabean Revolt. In Revelation, John’s first beast is led by a parody of Jesus Christ who demands worship from the whole world and is supported by wondrous signs performed by the second beast. Setting aside the exact identification of the blasphemous horn in Revelation 13:1-4 (Caligula, Nero, or Domitian), John certainly is equating the final empire in Daniel to Rome.

In both cases, the empire persecutes the people of God who refuse to worship the empire. Shadrach, Meschach and Abednego are sentenced to death in the fiery furnace; Daniel is sentenced to death in the Lion’s Den. In Revelation 13, the first beast wages war on God’s people. Some of those who refused to worship the beast or take his mark were beheaded. They are raised from the dead and reign with Christ for 1000 years (Rev 20:4-5). John says they were beheaded on account of their testimony, or witness for Jesus and for the Word of God. Earlier in the book John refers to Antipas of Pergamum as a “faithful witness” who did not deny his faith and was killed as a result. The letters to the seven churches indicate some Christians were already suffering and some were killed because of their refusal to worship the empire.

John is doing a kind of prophetic exegesis. He reads Daniel in the light of current events and highlights certain similarities between Daniel’s view of the empires and Rome. This is not unusual. There are many examples of Exodus language used in this way in the Old Testament. Many scholars consider Isaiah 40-55 calling for a new Exodus, this time out of Babylon at the end of the exile. It has become quite popular to describe the Gospel of Mark as presenting Jesus’s ministry as a kind of New Exodus. The seven trumpets re-used the plagues to describe judgment on the world (Rev 8-9).

But John also has imperial propaganda in mind. Like any political power, the Roman Empire used propaganda to create a narrative about itself in order to maintain control over a massive territory. The art and architecture of the Roman world told the story of a great world empire which brought peace and prosperity to the world. Even the coins used by everyone in the marketplace declared the emperor as a divine son of God or associated the emperor with a god. One could not enter a city in the Roman world without being overwhelmed with the awesome power of Rome. That Rome is the beast in Revelation is clear. Perhaps this is veiled in chapter 13, but by Revelation 17 it will be obvious John is describing the empire as a great whore drunk on the blood of the saints.

Trajan Inscription, 2018

In Pergamum there is an inscription which illustrates Roman imperial propaganda. It is after the book of Revelation was written, but it is a remarkable background for Revelation 13. Pergamum had a massive imperial cult center. It is possible there was a temple on the acropolis dedicated to earlier emperors, but the one excavated and restored for tourists today is dedicated to Trajan. This inscription begins with the word, αὐτοκρᾰ́τωρα and is followed by a series of imperial relationships (son of Nerva, divine Caesar). The third line begins with Τραϊανὸς, Trajan, the one worthy of worship, σεβαστός. σεβαστός is the title given to Augustus. The fourth line has two of Trajan’s titles, Γερμανικός (conferred in AD 97 before he became emperor) and Δᾱκία refers to his conquest over Dakia, a region in eastern Europe; the title was given to him in AD 101-102.

The fifth and sixth lines declare “of the earth and the sea, Lord.” The “earth and sea” is to say, the whole world. Revelation 13 has a beast from the sea and earth. Notice κύριος is on the sixth line by itself, emphasizing the claim that Trajan is the Lord of the whole world. This inscription declares Trajan is the son of the divine rulers of Rome and conqueror of Rome’s enemies, the lord of the whole world. It is placed in a massive temple dedicated to the worship of Rome and the emperor. This is not some graffiti scratched on a wall in an obscure location, this inscription was placed in a prominent location to be seen by people as they honored the empire.

How would a Jewish person react to this inscription claiming that Trajan is the Lord? Who might a Christian react to the assertion a human emperor is the Lord of the whole world? At the beginning of Revelation, God declares himself to be the Lord, the almighty (παντοκράτωρ, 1:8). In Revelation 4:8 the angelic creatures worship the one seated on the throne day and night saying “Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty” (κύριος ὁ θεὸς ὁ παντοκράτωρ, 4:8, cf. 11:17, 15:3, 16:7, 19:6, 21:22). God is the Lord of all the earth (τοῦ κυρίου τῆς γῆς, 11:4). Revelation 17:14 declares the Lamb will overcome the beast because he is the “Lord of lords and King of kings” (cf. 19:16).

Any Christian hearing this kind of propaganda would be forced to make a choice. Could they bow their head and appear to honor Rome while silently praying to Jesus? Would that kind of compromise endanger their faith? In the case of Daniel, he was willing to die rather than worship the empire. That is the case for the faithful witnesses in Revelation as well.

This is a problem all Christians must face at some point. Modern governments still used propaganda to promote a narrative, and they are just as likely to demand worship (although we call it patriotic loyalty now). How can Christians today (in what ever country they live) maintain their faith and not worship the empire?

The Beast out of the Earth – Revelation 13:11-15

John sees a second beast, this time rising from the earth. The second beast is called a deceiver (13:14).  This second beast is called the false prophet in Revelation 16:13, 19:20; 20:10. Along with the red dragon and the beast from the sea, this third character introduced here is part of a “satanic trinity.” Irenaeus referred to this false prophet as the “armor bearer” of the Antichrist, Adv. Haer. 5.28.2).

Who Is the Antichrist?

As with the first beast, many commentators think this is an allusion to the two primordial beasts in Job, Leviathan and Behemoth. In several Second Temple period texts, God separated Leviathan and Behemoth on the fifth day of creation (1 Enoch 60:7-101, 24; 4 Ezra 6:47–54; 2 Apoc. Bar. 29:4). These two beasts are prepared for the “great day of the Lord” when they will be turned into food (1 Enoch 60:24).

1 Enoch 60.7–10  On that day, two monsters will be parted—one monster, a female named Leviathan, in order to dwell in the abyss of the ocean over the fountains of water; 8 and (the other), a male called Behemoth, which holds his chest in an invisible desert whose name is Dundayin, east of the garden of Eden, wherein the elect and the righteous ones dwell, wherein my grandfather was taken, the seventh from Adam, the first man whom the Lord of the Spirits created. 9 Then I asked the second angel in order that he may show me (how) strong these monsters are, how they were separated on this day and were cast, the one into the abysses of the ocean, and the other into the dry desert. 10 And he said to me, “You, son of man, according (to the degree) to which it will be permitted, you will know the hidden things.”

The second beast has two horns like a lamb, but it speaks with the voice of the dragon. The dragon has already been identified as Satan. The two horns are unusual since they are the usual number from a lamb; usually animals have many horns. It is possible, then, the horns do not represent rulers (as with the first beast), but rather suggest the appearance of harmlessness. But when the harmless looking beast speaks it is communicating the word of the Dragon, Satan. In the opening paragraph I suggested John has created a satanic parody of the trinity. If that is the case, then this second beast is like the Holy Spirit. Rather than communicating the word of God, it speaks the word of the Dragon.

What does this “false prophet” do? Unlike the first beast, John gives a series of activities associated with the false prophet and many evoke the activity of the Holy Spirit in the New Testament. (Note I am using masculine personal pronouns here because they are in the Greek text; this is a possible argument against a parody of the Holy Spirit since the Greek for spirit is neuter.)

First, the false prophet causes the inhabitants of the whole world to worship the first beast. If the first beast refers to the Roman empire, then worshiping the Roman empire naturally brings the imperial cult to mind. Most commentators understand this as an allusion to Daniel 3; Nebuchadnezzar set up an image and demanded everyone worship it or be put to death.

Second, he performs great signs which help convince the first beast has power. In the Gospel of John, Jesus did seven signs (σημεῖον) which were to convince people he was the Messiah (John 20:30-31). This false prophet does great signs (σημεῖον) in order to convince people that the Beast of the Earth has great power, and (perhaps) that the injured horn is the messiah.

Third, he heals the near-fatal wound of the first beast. This is the greatest of miracles, a parody of the resurrection of Christ. In Revelation 13:3 the first beast appeared to have died and was brought back to life, now in 13:14 it is the power of the false prophet that did this great miracle. It is important to observe the first beast was not actually dead, so this is a false-resurrection.

Fourth, he makes the image of the first beast speak.  This was a belief of the first century, that statues could magically be made to talk. Certain cults would use ventriloquism to make statues appear to talk. In this case the statues will pronounce judgement on all who do not worship it.

Fifth, he requires that all men receive the mark of the beast on their hand or forehead. This may allude to increasing pressure on Christians in Asia Minor to participate in the imperial cult. I will deal with the Mark of the Beast in another post.

John’s description of the first beast is consistent with warnings against false prophets in Deuteronomy 13:1-3, Jesus’s warnings about false prophets and false messiahs (Mark 13:21-23, Matt 24:23-25), as well as Paul’s description of the coming Lawless one (2 Thess 2:9-11). The Lawless One is empowered by Satan and will have “all power and false signs and wonders” in order to deceive those who have refused to love the truth. People believe these deceiving signs because God has sent a “strong delusion” so that they believe what is false. Similarly, here in Revelation 13 the second beast does great signs to convince the whole world of the power of the first beast.

Other Second Temple period texts describe the coming evil one as doing many great signs. Aune points to Sibylline Oracle 3.63-74 since it combines the Return of Nero myth with the satanic Beliar performing great miracles, including raising the dead:

Sib. Or. 3.63–67 Then Beliar will come from the Sebastēnoi and he will raise up the height of mountains, he will raise up the sea, the great fiery sun and shining moon, and he will raise up the dead, and perform many signs for men.

In summary, the second beast in Revelation 13 is the religious support for the empire and emperor described by the first beast. Although many in the modern west think of the separation of church and state as good and normal, the Roman world did not think of the political world as separate from the religious. The emperor demonstrated proper piety toward the gods and was deified and worshiped in the imperial cult. The imperial cult served to unified the empire and served to broadcast imperial propaganda throughout the Roman world.

Although little is known about the function of the imperial priesthood, John appears to be describing the function of the imperial cult and its priesthood. (Aune, 756; Beasley-Murray, 216). If the first beast is the Roman empire and the horns are various emperors, then the imperial cult was the religious support system for the empire, especially in Asia Minor. This will be clearer with the final activity of the second beast, forcing all people to take the mark of the beast.

The Beast Who Lived – Revelation 13:3-4

After describing the Beast from the Sea as the ultimate fulfillment of Daniel’s vision of the final nation (Dan 7:7), John sees that one of the heads seemed to have a mortal wound, but that wound was healed (13:3). This wound was healed by the second beast (13:12) and filled the world with wonder.

Worship of the Beast

The beast as a whole an empire and the horns are leaders or kings associated with that empire. In Daniel 7, the final beast referred to Seleucid control of Judea and the arrogant little horn was Antiochus IV Epiphanes. The son of man was given authority by God to judge this arrogant little horn (Dan 7:9-10) and establish a kingdom that would never end (Dan 7:14). Antiochus did in fact make war against God’s people, leading to the Maccabean Revolt. Although the revolt did result in a brief time of semi-autonomous self-rule, the Hasmoneans were not the anything like the son of man waging war against the arrogant horn until they possessed a kingdom that would never end (Dan 7:21-22).

Since the everlasting kingdom of God ruled by God’s representative, the son of man, did not happen in the second century B.C., John applies Daniel 7 to the evil empire of his own day, Rome. Picking up on many themes from Daniel, God will humble the empire and arrogant world leader just as he had humbled Babylon and Nebuchadnezzar, or the Seleucids and Antiochus. Rome did not lack for arrogant rulers in the first century A.D. and it is difficult to say which first-century Roman emperor John had in mind.

Who is the ruler of the empire who died and came back to life? It is possible “one of his heads” as “his first head.” It is possible to translate the number μίαν (accusative singular of εἷς) as “first,” but this is usually found in expressions of time, such as the first day of the week (Matt 28:1 for example). It is possible this unusual use of the word reflects a Hebrew or Aramaic expression (BDAG εἷς 4), which might be expected in a Jewish apocalypse like Revelation. If the word does refer to the first of the horns, then the references is to Julius Caesar. Julius was never an emperor; however, he was assassinated. There were no legends of a “revived Julius,” but he was deified and his family became central to the imperial cult.

Another common suggestion is that this revived emperor refers to Nero who committed suicide by slitting his own throat (Caligula is a possibility as well, since he was deathly ill and people wondered if he might recover, but the text indicates this head is killed by the sword in verse 14.). The rumor Nero was not dead persisted for many years after his suicide and many commentators take the recovery of the first beast as a reference to this myth. Dio Chrysostom said “Even now everyone wishes that Nero were alive, and most people actually believe it.” David Aune has an excursus on the Nero Myth along with an extensive bibliography (2:737).

Despite modern popular depictions of Nero as a tyrannical monster, he was popular in the eastern part of the empire. A rumor (or urban legend) spread that Nero had faked his death and was hiding among the Parthians where he was raising an army to retake the throne of Rome (Sib. Or. 4.119-122; Collins, The Sibylline Oracles, pp. 80–87). Tacitus refers to two pretenders in A.D. 69 (, Hist 2.8, 9; cf. Dio Cassius 64.9) and Suetonius mentions a third other active in A.D. 80 (Nero, 57).

Tacitus, Histories 2.8 About this time Achaia and Asia were terrified by a false rumour of Nero’s arrival. The reports with regard to his death had been varied, and therefore many people imagined and believed that he was alive. The fortunes and attempts of other pretenders we shall tell as we proceed; but at this time, a slave from Pontus or, as others have reported, a freedman from Italy, who was skilled in playing on the cithara and in singing, gained the readier belief in his deceit through these accomplishments and his resemblance to Nero. He recruited some deserters, poor tramps whom he had bribed by great promises, and put to sea. (LCL 1:173)

The fourth Sibylline Oracle may refer to this Nero redivivus legend:

Sib. Or. 4.119–122 Then a great king will flee from Italy like a runaway slave unseen and unheard over the channel of the Euphrates, when he dares to incur a maternal curse for repulsive murder and many other things, confidently, with wicked hand.

Sib. Or. 4.137–139 Then the strife of war being aroused will come to the west, and the fugitive from Rome will also come, brandishing a great spear having crossed the Euphrates with many myriads.

See this post for the Nero myth in Sibylline Oracle 8.

Larry Kreitzer follows Collins closely and extends the Nero myth to include Hadrian, referring specifically to 5.28-34; 93-110. Like Nero, Hadrian was responsible for destroying Jerusalem and his extensive tour of the east may have evoked the Nero redivivus myth. However, Jan Willem van Henten argued the Nero Redivivus legend is a modern scholarly construct. He surveys references to Nero in the Sibylline Oracles and concludes they are “creative recycling of tyrannical rulers’ stereotypes” rather than “a posthumous return to life of the emperor Nero.” For van Henten, scholars like Collins and Kreitzer “take the Nero redivivus for granted” (5).

Although a Christian text, the Martyrdom of Isaiah 4:2-3 compares Beliar, the satanic “king of this world” to Nero.

Mart. Ascen. Isa. 4.2–3 And after it has been brought to completion, Beliar will descend, the great angel, the king of this world, which he has ruled ever since it existed. He will descend from his firmament in the form of a man, a king of iniquity, a murderer of his mother—this is the king of this world—and will persecute the plant which the twelve apostles of the Beloved will have planted; some of the twelve will be given into his hand.

In Revelation the beast is the Roman empire, as the persecutor of the church. Like Dan 7:21-22, this beast will persecute God’s people until God himself intervenes to destroy the power of the beast and establish an eternal kingdom.

Along with Revelation 17:8, the death and resurrection of the first beast is a parody of Christ. Vern Poythress offers several examples of parody in Revelation 13.

  • He has a counterfeit resurrection in the form of a mortal wound that was healed (Rev 13:3). The miraculous character of his healing creates astonishment and followers for him, just as the miracle of the resurrection creates followers of Christ.
  • The beast has ten crowns (13:1), parallel to Christ’s many crowns (19:12).
  • The dragon gives the beast “his power and his throne and great authority” (13:2), just as the Father gives the Son his authority (John 5:22–27).
  • Worship of the dragon and the beast go together (Rev 13:4), just as worship of the Father and the Son go together (John 5:23).
  • The beast claims universal allegiance from all nations (Rev 13:7), just as Christ is Lord over all nations (7:9–10).

I would add to this list the mysterious “mark of the beast” as a parody of God marking his own people (the 144,000 in Rev 14:1).

As is often the case in Revelation, John looks back to the book of Daniel and re-works the apocalyptic outline of history to apply to his own day. Just as Babylon and Persia became Antiochus and the Seleucids, John transforms the image of a beast from the sea with an arrogant little horn into Rome. But also like Daniel, there is an aspect of this apocalypse which does look forward to an ultimate enemy of God’s people and an ultimate arrogant little horn who will be finally judged when God’s kingdom arrives (Rev 19:11-20:6).

 

Bibliography: Larry Kreitzer, “Hadrian and the Nero Redivivus Myth” ZNTW 79 (1988): 92-115; Vern S. Poythress, “Counterfeiting In The Book Of Revelation As A Perspective On Non-Christian Culture” JETS 40 (1997): 411-418; Jan Willem van Henten, “Nero Redivivus Demolished: The Coherence Of The Nero Traditions in the Sibylline Oracles,” JSP 21:3-17

A Dragon with Ten Horns and Seven Heads – Revelation 13:1-2

This first beast which rises from the sea has ten horns and seven heads. What do these horns represent? These horns are an allusion to Daniel 7:7. The fourth beast rising from the sea in Daniel’s vision has ten horns, representing a fourth empire which will persecute God’s people. Revelation reinterprets Daniel’s fourth beast as the Roman Empire.

The Beast from Luther Bible

Daniel 7:7 “After that, in my vision at night I looked, and there before me was a fourth beast—terrifying and frightening and very powerful. It had large iron teeth; it crushed and devoured its victims and trampled underfoot whatever was left. It was different from all the former beasts, and it had ten horns.

That horns represent rulers in Daniel 7 and Revelation 13 is clear. Daniel 7:24 and Revelation 17:12 interpret the horns are “ten kings who have not yet received a kingdom,” although the precise identity of those kings is open for debate. In Daniel 7, the only horn that is important is the blasphemous little horn which refers to Antiochus IV Epiphanes, the Seleucid ruler who sparked the Maccabean Revolt by outlawing certain Jewish practices. The fourth beast in Daniel 7 is the final kingdom before God’s representative, the Son of Man begins to rule over a kingdom which will never end.

The beast with seven heads and ten horns was introduced in Revelation 12:3 and will appear again in 17:3. In each case the horns wear crowns (διάδημα, diadem or royal headband) as a symbol of their kingship. That there are seven heads seems odd, but the power of this beast comes from the dragon, who had seven heads in 12:3. I discussed some of the possible ways to identify these ten kings in a post on Revelation 17.

One of the earliest interpretations of the first beast identified it as Rome. Both Irenaeus and Hippolytus thought the first beast was Rome, although the ten heads were ten kings who would replace of Rome (Adv. Haer. 5.26.1): “In a still clearer light has John, in the Apocalypse, indicated to the Lord’s disciples what shall happen in the last times, and concerning the ten kings who shall then arise, among whom the empire which now rules [Rome] shall be partitioned.”

Connecting Daniel 2 and 7, Hippolytus says: “A fourth beast, dreadful and terrible; it had iron teeth and claws of brass.” And who are these but the Romans? which (kingdom) is meant by the iron—the kingdom which is now established; for the legs of that (image) were of iron” (de Ant. 25). He then draws the obvious parallels to the great whore (quoting large sections of Revelation 17-18).

Although David Aune points out Roman emperors never wore diadems signifying royal status (Aune 2:733), it is still likely John means the reader to understand the horns as Roman power and the beast as Imperial Rome.

Each of the seven heads has a blasphemous name and in 13:16 the second beast will force people to write a blasphemous name on their foreheads. Later the whore of Babylon will have blasphemy written on her forehead. These names likely refer to the titles used by Roman emperors. For example, Nero minted coins with the phrase “Nero, Savior of the World” and Domitian used the title “Lord and God.”

John exposes the power behind the empire. Although the Roman Empire is the most powerful kingdom in human history, the source of its power is the dragon, Satan. This condemnation of Rome as Satan’s kingdom will become increasingly clear as John moves toward the climax in Revelation 19:11-20:6, the coming of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords to establish a real kingdom of peace.

Background for the Beast of the Sea – Revelation 13:1-2

At the end of Revelation 12, the dragon stands at the shore of the sea and summons two beasts, one from the sea and another rising out of the earth (13:11-18). These beasts make war against God’s people and demand worship from the entire world.

Beast from Sea Bamberg Apocalypse

Although the sea is sometimes interpreted as “disturbed and stormy social and political” of the first century, but since much of Revelation 13 is satanic parody, summoning the beast out of the sea may be a parody of creation. Satan is mimicking God standing at the chaotic sea creating the order of the earth (Gen 1:2). Vern Poythress, for example, suggests the sea in Revelation 13:1 evokes the chaotic pre-creation world before God imposes order on the days of creation. The coming time of tribulation will be a return to the “formless and void” (tohu-wa-bohu) before God’s creative actions in Genesis 1.

Greg Beale suggests Revelation 13 is in part based on Job 40-41. In those chapters there are two beasts who opposed God, the Behemoth on the land and Leviathan from the sea (Revelation, 682). “On earth there is not his like, a creature without fear. He sees everything that is high; he is king over all the sons of pride” (Job 41:33-34). Perhaps this is more clear in the Septuagint, “And the netherworld of the deep is like a prisoner (δὲ τάρταρον (tartarus) τῆς ἀβύσσου, “bottomless pit” or Abyss in Revelation). He regards the deep as a walk. There is not anything upon the earth like it, being made to be mocked by my angels. It sees everything that is high, and it itself is king of all that is in the waters” (Job 41:23–25 LES2).

In the Old Testament sea monsters like Leviathan and Rahab refered to foreign powers who oppressed Israel, especially Egypt Ps 74:14; 87:4; Isa 30:7; Ezek 29:3; 32:2-3; Jer 51:3 refering to Babylon). Revelation 13 draws on this common Old Testament imagery since the beast from the sea is an enemy of God and an persecutor of his people.

Psalm 74:14 It was you who crushed the heads of Leviathan and gave him as food to the creatures of the desert.

Psalm 87:4 “I will record Rahab and Babylon among those who acknowledge me— Philistia too, and Tyre, along with Cush— and will say, ‘This one was born in Zion.’”

Isaiah 30:7 to Egypt, whose help is utterly useless. Therefore I call her Rahab the Do-Nothing.

Ezekiel 29:3 Speak to him and say: ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: “‘I am against you, Pharaoh king of Egypt, you great monster lying among your streams. You say, “The Nile is mine; I made it for myself.”

Ezekiel 32:2-3 “Son of man, take up a lament concerning Pharaoh king of Egypt and say to him: “‘You are like a lion among the nations; you are like a monster in the seas thrashing about in your streams, churning the water with your feet and muddying the streams. 3 “‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: “‘With a great throng of people I will cast my net over you, and they will haul you up in my net.

In the Pseudepigrapha, Leviathan and Behemoth were a single primordial beast separated by God at the time of creation.

1 Enoch 60:7-10 On that day, two monsters will be parted—one monster, a female named Leviathan, in order to dwell in the abyss of the ocean over the fountains of water; 8 and (the other), a male called Behemoth, which holds his chest in an invisible desert whose name is Dundayin, east of the garden of Eden, wherein the elect and the righteous ones dwell, wherein my grandfather was taken, the seventh from Adam, the first man whom the Lord of the Spirits created. 9 Then I asked the second angel in order that he may show me (how) strong these monsters are, how they were separated on this day and were cast, the one into the abysses of the ocean, and the other into the dry desert. 10 And he said to me, “You, son of man, according (to the degree) to which it will be permitted, you will know the hidden things.”

4 Ezra 6:47-52 “On the fifth day you commanded the seventh part, where the water had been gathered together, to bring forth living creatures, birds, and fishes; and so it was done. 48 The dumb and lifeless water produced living creatures, as it was commanded, that thereafter the nations might declare thy wondrous works. 49 “Then you kept in existence two living creatures; the name of one you called Behemoth and the name of the other Leviathan. 50* And you separated one from the other, for the seventh part where the water had been gathered together could not hold them both. 51 And you gave Behemoth one of the parts which had been dried up on the third day, to live in it, where there are a thousand mountains; 52 but to Leviathan you have the seventh part, the watery part; and you have kept them to be eaten by whom you wish, and when you wish.

In the Psalms of Solomon 2:28-32 Pompey speaks with the “arrogance of the dragon” who is judged by God with a dishonorable death.

Psalms of Solomon 2:28-32 And do not delay, God, to repay them upon their heads, 29 to speak the arrogance of the dragon (δράκων) in dishonor.” 30 And I did not delay until God showed to me his insolence, a man pierced on the mountains of Egypt, being scorned more than the smallest upon the earth and the sea, 31 his body being carried over the waves in great insolence; and there was no one to bury it 32 because he rejected him in dishonor.”

But the most oblivious background for this first beast from the sea is the fourth beast in Daniel 7. Beale, for example, calls Revelation 13:1-2 a “creative reworking of Dan. 7:1-7 (683). Revelation 13 describes the first beast as having ten horns (Dan 7:7) and seven heads and was like a leopard; bear and lion, Daniel’s first three beasts in reverse order. In Daniel, “the arrogant little horn” comes from this fourth beast.

In the context of Daniel, the immediate reference is to Antiochus IV Epiphanes and his arrogant persecution of Judea which led to the Maccabean Revolt. Revelation is written about 250 years after Antiochus, suggested John is re-interpreting the fourth beast of Daniel 7 as the current arrogant empire, Rome. If this is the case, then the wounded horn may refer to an emperor, just as the little horn referred to Antiochus.