Mark 6 · Both beasts
Worship Demanded
The whole earth bows to the beast, and through it to the dragon. A second beast makes sure of it, with an image that speaks and a sentence of death for those who will not bow.
✓ Reviewed by Fr. John How this site is made
- Texts
- Revelation 13:4, 8, 12, 14–15; 14:9–11; Daniel 3:1–18; 2 Thessalonians 2:4
- Figures
- The beast from the sea, and the beast from the earth who serves it
- Authority
- Scripture
What the text shows
The worship comes in three steps.
- It is given. "They worshiped the dragon because it gave its authority to the beast; they also worshiped the beast and said, 'Who can compare with the beast or who can fight against it?'" (Revelation 13:4). Worship of the beast is worship of the dragon behind it (mark 1).
- It is universal, with an exception. "All the inhabitants of the earth will worship it," all whose names were not written in the book of life that belongs to the Lamb who was slain (Revelation 13:8).
- It is enforced. The second beast makes the earth and its inhabitants worship the first beast (Revelation 13:12). It deceives them with signs, has them make an image for the beast, and is permitted to breathe life into the image, so that the image can speak and have anyone who does not worship it put to death (Revelation 13:14–15).
The world's question, "Who can compare with the beast?", is the NABRE note's "perhaps a deliberate parody" of the name Michael, which means "Who is like God?" (Revelation 12:7). The beast takes the praise that belongs to God alone (Exodus 15:11).
The golden statue of Daniel 3
The NABRE cross-reference for Revelation 13:15 points to Daniel 3. Nebuchadnezzar set up a golden statue and commanded every people, nation and language to fall down before it: "Whoever does not fall down and worship shall be instantly cast into a white-hot furnace" (Daniel 3:5–6). John's image of the beast follows that pattern: a ruler's image, a whole world commanded to bow, and death for those who refuse.
First fulfillment
The NABRE note on 13:4 reads the worship of the beast as an "allusion to emperor worship, which Domitian insisted upon and ruthlessly enforced." The province of Asia, where John's seven churches stood, was a center of the imperial cult; Pergamum is the city "where Satan's throne is," and there Antipas was put to death (Revelation 2:13).
A few years after Revelation was written, Pliny the Younger, governor of Bithynia, described to the emperor Trajan how he tested people accused of being Christians (Pliny, Letters 10.96, about A.D. 112) A theologian. Those who would offer incense and wine before the emperor's image and curse Christ were released. Those who persisted were executed. Scripture's image of the beast was, for John's first readers, a test they could be put to.
The Fathers
St. Irenaeus reads the mark as the end of the beast's career: the one to come sets aside all idols so that he alone is worshiped, and takes his seat in the temple "showing himself as if he were God" (Against Heresies V.25.1; 2 Thessalonians 2:4). The false prophet, his armor-bearer, makes the image speak and has those who will not adore it slain (V.28.2) A Father or Doctor. St. Cyril of Jerusalem (Catechetical Lecture 15.15) and St. Hippolytus (On Christ and Antichrist 56) agree that the last enemy will demand divine worship and persecute those who refuse Fathers in agreement.
The Church Church teaching
Adoration belongs to God alone (CCC 2096–2097). Idolatry is not only pagan worship: man commits idolatry "whenever he honors and reveres a creature in place of God," whether gods or demons, or power, pleasure, race, ancestors, the state or money (CCC 2113). The same paragraph recalls the many martyrs who died rather than worship "the Beast," refusing even to pretend to. The final deception is a pseudo-messianism by which man glorifies himself in place of God (CCC 675).
Where interpreters differ Disputed
- The cult of the emperor: the first meaning for John's readers, emphasized in modern commentary and in the NABRE notes.
- Divine worship demanded by one man at the end: St. Irenaeus, St. Cyril and St. Hippolytus.
- Any power that claims the honor due to God: a state, a party, an ideology or a leader made absolute (CCC 2113).
- The image itself: a statue, as in Daniel 3; or, for some modern readers, any made thing that seems to speak and to command, from propaganda to technology.
These readings can stand together. The Church has not decided which the text intends at the end.
The response asked of us
The angel's call answers the beast's: "Fear God and give him glory... Worship him who made heaven and earth and sea and springs of water" (Revelation 14:7). The three young men in Babylon trusted God to save them, and added, "But even if he will not... we will not serve your god or worship the golden statue which you set up" (Daniel 3:18). Those who would not worship the beast or its image come to life and reign with Christ (Revelation 20:4).
Sources
- Revelation 13–14 and Daniel 3, New American Bible Revised Edition, with notes: Revelation 13; Revelation 14; Daniel 3
- St. Irenaeus, Against Heresies V.25 and V.28: V.25; V.28 (New Advent)
- St. Cyril of Jerusalem, Catechetical Lecture 15.15; St. Hippolytus, On Christ and Antichrist 56 (to be checked against the editions cited before publication)
- Pliny the Younger, Letters 10.96: translation, Georgetown University
- Catechism of the Catholic Church 675, 2096–2097, 2113