Mark 5 · The beast from the sea
Boasting and Blasphemy
The beast is given a mouth. It boasts of itself, and then it turns its words against God, his name, his dwelling, and those who dwell in heaven.
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- Texts
- Revelation 13:1, 5–6; Daniel 7:8, 11, 20, 25; 2 Thessalonians 2:4
- Figure
- The beast from the sea
- Authority
- Scripture
What the text shows
The beast rises with blasphemous names on its heads (Revelation 13:1). It "was given a mouth uttering proud boasts and blasphemies," and it opened that mouth "to utter blasphemies against God, blaspheming his name and his dwelling and those who dwell in heaven" (Revelation 13:5–6).
The mouth is "given," like everything else the beast has. And the words move in a line: first proud boasts about itself, then blasphemy against God, then against his name, his dwelling, and the saints and angels who dwell with him. Self-exaltation is where it begins; contempt for God is where it ends.
The mouth of Daniel's little horn
John is drawing on Daniel. Among the ten horns of Daniel's fourth beast a little horn springs up, with eyes like human eyes and "a mouth that spoke arrogantly" (Daniel 7:8, 20). It speaks against the Most High and wears down his holy ones (Daniel 7:25), and Daniel watches "from the first of the arrogant words" until the beast is slain (Daniel 7:11). St. Paul describes the man of lawlessness the same way: he opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god and object of worship (2 Thess 2:4).
First fulfillment
The NABRE note identifies Daniel's little horn as Antiochus IV, the Seleucid king who took the surname Epiphanes, "God made manifest," entered the Temple and spoke with great arrogance (1 Maccabees 1:21–24; Daniel 11:36). For John's first readers, the blasphemous names on the beast's heads are commonly read as the divine titles the Roman emperors took or were given, such as divus (divine) and, under Domitian, dominus et deus, "lord and god" A theologian.
The Fathers
St. Irenaeus reads Daniel's arrogant horn and Paul's man of lawlessness as one figure: the one to come will set aside all idols and present himself as the only one to be worshiped as God (Against Heresies V.25.1–3) A Father or Doctor. St. Jerome, commenting on Daniel 7:8, insists that the horn is a man, not the devil or a demon, though Satan will dwell in him wholly (Commentary on Daniel, on 7:8) A Father or Doctor. The Fathers agree that the boasting of the last enemy ends in a claim to divine honor Fathers in agreement.
The Church Church teaching
Blasphemy is uttering against God, inwardly or outwardly, words of hatred, reproach or defiance; it extends to words against the Church, the saints and sacred things (CCC 2148). The Catechism names the final deception as a pseudo-messianism by which man glorifies himself in place of God and of his Messiah come in the flesh (CCC 675). The beast's mouth is that self-glorification spoken aloud.
Where interpreters differ Disputed
- The words of one man at the end: St. Irenaeus, St. Jerome, and most of the Fathers.
- The proud claims of the empire and its cult: the first meaning for John's readers, emphasized in modern commentary.
- A spirit present in every age: the "many antichrists" whose words deny the Father and the Son (1 John 2:18, 22).
These readings can stand together. The Church has not decided which the text intends at the end.
The response asked of us
Against a mouth that boasts and blasphemes, the holy ones bless the name of God (Psalm 113:2–3) and keep the second commandment: "You shall not invoke the name of the LORD, your God, in vain" (Exodus 20:7; CCC 2142–2149). Daniel's horn speaks "until the beast was slain" (Daniel 7:11). Its words have an end; the praise of God does not.
Sources
- Revelation 13 and Daniel 7, New American Bible Revised Edition, with notes: Revelation 13; Daniel 7
- St. Irenaeus, Against Heresies V.25: New Advent
- St. Jerome, Commentary on Daniel, on 7:8 (to be checked against the edition cited before publication)
- Catechism of the Catholic Church 675, 2142–2149