hotcoffee
New Member
Revelation 13:2 The beast I saw resembled a leopard, but had feet like those of a bear and a mouth like that of a lion. The dragon gave the beast his power and his throne and great authority.
OK.... I'm going to stop fighting it. At least 2 out of the 4 commentaries I am reading are commenting on the beast as Papal Rome. Since I'm just a reader and a Baptist at that.... I have very limited information about Papal Rome. So I'm confused.
One thing I see here is that the beast is fast like a leopard, able to kill and maul like a bear, and can tear a man's soul like a lion.
I see that the beast is given power and authority straight from the dragon, who we already know is Satan.
Most of the commentaries go back to the animals in Daniel 7.
Another commentary says "No other figure in the book of Revelation has captured readers' imaginations quite like the beast of chapter 13. " And I really agree with that statement. That's why I think we should study the chapter verse by verse and then summarize at the end.
A third commentary has a cool list of the head. "As the first scripture indicated a beast with seven heads, the other two, earlier empires was Syria and Egypt. To make the next scripture easy to understand, I will name the 6 again. They are Syria, Egypt, Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece and Rome. These are the 6 empires of the past."
And the fourth commentary says " "If the seven heads meant merely seven Roman emperors, one cannot understand why they alone should be mentioned in the original image of Satan, whereas it is perfectly intelligible if we suppose them to represent Satan's power on earth viewed collectively" [AUBERLEN]."
Like I said... I'm confused.... But one thing for sure, I wouldn't want to meet this thing on Seahorse Beach in Lusby!
