IV.       Analysis of Revelation 13:11-18

F.         Heals the Beast’s Fatal Wound

            οὗ ἐθεραπεύθη ἡ πληγὴ τοῦ θανάτου αὐτοῦ (13:12b)

1.         Textual and Exegetical Issues

a.         The first beast has a wound (πληγὴ).

1)         πληγὴ is used 16 times in Revelation, 13 for the plagues that God sends on the earth, 3 for the first beast’s wound (13:3, 12, 14).

2)         It can also mean a sudden hard stroke or blow with an instrument; a wound or bruise caused by a blow; a sudden calamity that causes severe distress, blow in the sense ‘a blow of fate’ (BDAG).

3)         It is called a “mortal” wound in 13:3 (ἡ πληγὴ τοῦ θανάτου αὐτοῦ “his plague of death” objective genitive: blow causing death).

4)         Here it is a “sword” wound (τὴν πληγὴν τῆς μαχαίρης). Bauckham (Climax, 433) thinks it could refer to Christ’s sword from his mouth that carries out God’s judgment (1:16; 2:12, 16; 19:15, 21). However, Christ has a ῥομφαία not a μάχαιρα.

5)         ἡ πληγὴ may have been used because of its reference to the plagues that bring judgment on the beast (9:18-19; 11:6; 15:1-2; 16:9, 21; 18:4, 8; 21:9; 22:18).

6)         In 13:3 it is one of the heads that is wounded while in 13:14 it is the beast itself that is wounded.

b.         It is not clear who heals (ἐθεραπεύθη) the sea beast’s wound.

1)         This is a relative clause used analeptically to give additional information about the first beast’s wound (Rev 13:3, 12).

2)         θεραπεύω means to render service or homage; to heal, restore (BDAG).

3)         It is used only twice in Rev (13:3, 12), both for the healing of the first beast’s wound; it is used 40 other times in the NT, all for healing except once, in Acts 17:25 for rendering service to the gods.

4)         Coming back to life is a parody of Christ’s resurrection; ἔζησεν is used of Christ coming back to life in Rev 2:8; 20:4, 5. (Osborne, 515). 

2.         Literary Background

a.         Just as the Lamb was slain (σφάζω 5:5, 6, 12), one of the heads of the first beast was slain unto death (μίαν ἐκ τῶν κεφαλῶν αὐτοῦ ὡς ἐσφαγμένην εἰς θάνατον 13:3).

b.         Just as Jesus rose again, so too the first beast rises from the dead.

3.         Historical and Cultural Background

a.         Nero Redivivus (see Appendix III)

1)         Nero was depicted as the end time tyrant (Sibylline Oracles 5.361–376, 8.68–72, 8.531–157).

2)         Nero committed suicide by thrusting a dagger into his neck

3)         Lactantius wrote that Nero, “suddenly disappeared, and even the burial-place of that noxious wild beast was nowhere to be seen. This has led some persons of extravagant imagination to suppose that, having been conveyed to a distant region, he is still reserved alive; and to him they apply the Sibylline verses.” (Lactantius, Of the Manner in Which the Persecutors Died, II)

4)         Tacitus describes Nero extensively torturing and executing Christians after the fire of 64. (Tacitus, Annals, XV.44)

5)         Suetonius (Life of Nero, 16) says Nero punishing Christians because they were “given to a new and mischievous superstition” but he does not connect this persecution with the fire.

6)         The eighth king of 17:11, the Antichrist, receives this wound. (Osborne, 513) In some reckonings, Nero was the eighth emperor, who would return.

•           Nero Claudius Caesar was born on December 15, 37 AD, was emperor of Rome 54-68 AD, deposed by the Senate on June 8, 68 AD, and committed suicide the next day.

•           There were few witnesses who saw his corpse and his burial, causing rumors to spread that he was still alive.

•           Many believed he had fled to Parthia and would return as the leader of the dreaded Parthian army, numbering in the myriads (Suetonius, Life of Nero, 57; DioChrys, Orat., 21.10). The Sibylline Oracles and the Ascension of Isaiah have several different accounts of a Nero Redivivus (SibOr 3.63-74; 4.119-122, 137-139; 5.28-34, 93-110, 137-154, 214-227, 361-380; 8.68-72; 12.78-94; AscIsa4.2-14). Bauckham claims John is using two of these different accounts. (Bauckham, Climax, 423)

•           The Parthians defeated Rome in 55 BC and A.D. 62 and made several incursions into Roman territory in the 60s and 70s. (Osborne, 277)

•           After Nero’ death, edicts were issued in his name threatening his enemies, and three imposters posed as the returned emperor. (Aune, 739; Bauckham, Climax, 413-414)

•           Nero was loathed in Rome but loved in the provinces. (Aune, 780)

•           The Parthians worshipped Nero as the god Mithras because he brokered a peace with Armenia and crowned prince Tiridates king of Armenia. (Bauckham, Climax, 409)

•           Because of his brutality, some Romans called him a beast. (Bauckham, Climax, 409)

•           Nero was the emperor who sent Vespatian to attack Jerusalem, so Jews often hold him responsible for its destruction. (Bauckham, Climax, 410)

7)         However, in the Nero Redivivus legend, Nero only disappears while in Revelation he dies and comes back to life.

8)         The return of Nero is a parody of the Parousia of Christ, and who was and is and is to come (17:8, cf. 11) is a parody of God in the Parousia of Christ (4:8; cf. 11:17; 16:5). (Bauckham, Climax, 396)

9)         Noah was the 8th saved (2 Enoch 33:1-2; Barn 15:9) and Sunday is the 8th day = new creation. It is not certain whether John is using this parallel. (Bauckham, Climax, 396)

b.         Domitian

1)         Many deny that there was any persecution of Christians during Domitian’s reign. Since the Roman historians were anti-Flavian, they made up the stories to discredit him (Collins, A.Y., Crisis and Catharsis; Fiorenza, Revelation and Judgment).

2)         Even if there was little official persecution, the emperor would still have been seen as responsible for any local persecution that arose from Christians’ refusing to worship the emperor cult (see below).

4.         Interpretive Options (see Appendix IV)

a.         Preterit

1)         Nero Redivivus.

2)         The period of chaos in AD 69 during the “Year of the Four Emperors.”

3)         Rome stopped persecuting Christians when Nero committed suicide but started persecuting them again under Domitian.

b.         Idealist

1)         A false resurrection of Rome leads to the worship of Rome, symbolizing the rise and fall of human empires throughout history and man’s worship of them.

2)         Satan was wounded by Christ’s death.

c.         Futurist

1)         Antichrist actually dies, descends to the abyss, and returns to life through the power of Satan.

2)         The fallen Roman Empire will be revived at the end of time.