Mark 4 · The beast from the earth
A Counterfeit Lamb
A second beast rises from the earth. It looks like a lamb and speaks like the dragon. It is the false prophet, and its work is to turn the world's eyes to the first beast.
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- Texts
- Revelation 13:11–12; 16:13; 19:20; 20:10; Matthew 7:15–16; 24:24; 1 John 4:1
- Figure
- The beast from the earth, the false prophet
- Authority
- Scripture
What the text shows
"Then I saw another beast come up out of the earth; it had two horns like a lamb's but spoke like a dragon. It wielded all the authority of the first beast in its sight and made the earth and its inhabitants worship the first beast, whose mortal wound had been healed" (Revelation 13:11–12).
The first beast rose from the sea; this one rises from the earth. It has no crowns and no blasphemous names. What it has is an appearance and a voice: it looks like a lamb, and it speaks like the dragon. It holds no authority of its own; it wields the first beast's, "in its sight," and spends it on one work: turning the world to worship the first beast.
Like a lamb
In Revelation the Lamb is Christ, "a Lamb that seemed to have been slain," with seven horns, the fullness of power (Revelation 5:6). The second beast has two horns "like a lamb's": the look of meekness, of harmlessness, even of Christ, without his power or his wounds. Christ warned of exactly this: "Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing, but underneath are ravenous wolves. By their fruits you will know them" (Matthew 7:15–16).
Spoke like a dragon
The dragon is "the ancient serpent, who is called the Devil and Satan, who deceived the whole world" (Revelation 12:9). His first words in Scripture were a question that twisted God's word (Genesis 3:1). To speak like the dragon is to deceive: to make what serves the dragon sound reasonable, good, even holy. The beast is known not by its appearance but by its voice.
The false prophet
Revelation never calls this figure "the beast" again. From chapter 16 on it is "the false prophet" (Revelation 16:13; 19:20; 20:10), who performs signs to lead astray those who take the mark (19:20), and who shares the first beast's end. Christ foretold "false messiahs and false prophets" who would perform signs "so great as to deceive, if that were possible, even the elect" (Matthew 24:24).
First fulfillment
The NABRE note says the second beast "is described in terms of the false prophets" who "accompany the false messiahs (the first beast)," and that in John's day "Christians had either to worship the emperor and his image or to suffer martyrdom." In the province of Asia that worship was organized and promoted by local elites and the priesthood of the imperial cult, who served Rome's power with religious honor A theologian.
The Fathers
St. Irenaeus calls the second beast the first beast's "armour-bearer, whom he also terms a false prophet," who works wonders by magic, not by the power of God, to lead the inhabitants of the earth astray (Against Heresies V.28.2) A Father or Doctor. St. Hippolytus reads the lamb-like horns as a counterfeit of the Son of God, and the dragon's voice as the mark of a deceiver who is "not truthful" (On Christ and Antichrist 49) A Father or Doctor. The Fathers agree that the last enemy will have a herald who lends him a religious face Fathers in agreement.
The Church Church teaching
The final trial will take the form of "a religious deception offering men an apparent solution to their problems at the price of apostasy from the truth" (CCC 675). The false prophet is that deception given a voice: power dressed as meekness, and the dragon's purposes spoken as if they were good.
Where interpreters differ Disputed
- The priesthood of the imperial cult: the first meaning for John's readers, emphasized in modern commentary.
- One man at the end, the Antichrist's herald: St. Irenaeus and most of the Fathers.
- Religious leaders who serve worldly power: a reading found in many ages, applied to any who bless a tyrant in God's name.
- Propaganda and persuasion in the service of power: some modern readers, who see the false prophet's voice in whatever makes the first beast attractive.
The Church has not decided.
The response asked of us
"Beloved, do not trust every spirit but test the spirits to see whether they belong to God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world" (1 John 4:1). Do not judge by the horns but by the voice, and by the fruit. Christ's sheep know his voice, and "will not follow a stranger" (John 10:4–5).
Sources
- Revelation 5, 12, 13, 16 and 19, Matthew 7 and 24, 1 John 4 and John 10, New American Bible Revised Edition, with notes: Revelation 13
- St. Irenaeus, Against Heresies V.28: New Advent
- St. Hippolytus, On Christ and Antichrist 49: New Advent
- Catechism of the Catholic Church 675