Hello again, Jeremy
@ForgeFlower ,
As regards your question on Rev 13:3 and the mortal wound of one of the heads of the beast:
Two of my favorite commentators, William Hendricksen, in his
More than Conquerors, and Dennis E. Johnson, in
Triumph of the Lamb, both view the wound as speaking of the death of Nero and the death of the hostile-to-Christians Roman Empire, but Vespasian's solidifying the empire once again, so that it seemed that the Roman dragon had recovered, is what is spoken of.
However, I see Greg Beale's view as more cogent, plus, in his commentary he critiques the Nero / Rome view. Beale holds that the mortal wound of the beast's head was effected by the death and resurrection of Christ. I quote at some length his take, so it makes sense. (This is from his larger commentary, not the shorter one, as the former is far more detailed and superior, in my view) :
Revelation 13:3 John now sees the beast with a wound on one of his heads. God must be the unmentioned agent of the beast’s “wound” (ἡ πληγή), since everywhere else in Revelation πληγή (usually rendered “plague”) is a punishment inflicted by God (so eleven occurrences and the cognate verb in 8:12). Such a wound on the head of the grand nemesis of God’s people reflects Gen. 3:15, especially when seen together with Rev. 12:17 (see the comments there with respect to Targ. Neof. Gen. 3:15).198 13:14 will add that it was a sword (μάχαιρη) that struck the beast’s head, recalling Isa. 27:1: “In that day God will bring the sword (τὴν μάχαιραν), the holy and great and mighty [sword] on the dragon, the fleeing serpent, on the dragon, the crooked serpent. He will destroy the dragon that is in the sea” (cf. Job 40:19). That Isa. 27:1 has been echoed already in 12:3, 9 points further to the conclusion reached in the comments there that the beast’s “death stroke” came through Christ’s death and resurrection in initial fulfillment of Isaiah 27 (see on 12:7-12). Ps. 74:13 (“You broke the heads of the sea monsters in the waters, you crushed the heads of the sea monster”) and Hab. 3:8-15 (“Was your anger, O LORD … against the sea? … You went forth for the salvation of your people, to save your anointed. You will cast death on the heads of the lawless ones…. You cut asunder the heads of princes”) may also be echoed here. Though these passages refer to the exodus victory, they also appeal more widely to all of God’s victories over the adversaries of his people, and could be applied easily to Christ’s redemptive victory.
Elsewhere in Revelation a “sword” often signifies Jesus’ judgment of his enemies in the present (1:16; 2:12, 16) and future (19:15, 21), though the word in these instances is ῥομϕαία, not μάχαιρα as in 13:14.199 Similarly, Jesus is also the one who wields the sword that strikes the beast in 13:14. One of the heads of the beast is depicted as “slain” because of Christ’s death and resurrection, as 12:5, 10-12 together with 1:5 and 5:9 bear out (see on 12:10-12, where NT parallels are cited affirming that Christ’s death and resurrection defeated the devil). This means that the defeat in mind here is more likely the victory over the devil at the cross than some punishment of an evil historical figure (Nero or someone else; see below). The effects of this defeat are carried on by the faithfulness of Christ’s followers (so 12:11, 17; Rom. 16:17-20). Whenever believers withstand persecution, deception, and compromise, the devil and his agents are seen as continuing to be defeated, just as at the end of World War II the Allies subsequently carried on the victory decisively accomplished on D-Day (as in 12:11; Rom. 16:17-20).
The wound appeared to be fatal, and, indeed, it really was. Nevertheless, the devil’s continued activity through his agents makes it appear to John as though he has overcome the mortal blow dealt him at Christ’s death and resurrection. Despite defeat, the devil and his forces continue to exist. “One of the heads” of the beast appeared “slain unto death,” but “his death wound was healed” (θανάτου in ἡ πληγὴ τοῦ θανάτου being a descriptive genitive). The conditional translation of ὡς ἐσϕαγμένην in virtually all English versions (e.g., NASB and Moffatt: “as if it had been slain”; KJV and Douay: “as it were wounded”; RSV and NIV: “seemed to have a mortal wound”; likewise NEB, NRSV, and JB) is misleading and makes it appear as if the beast only looked slain but was not. “As slain” is a much better translation. The phrase is an intended parody of the Lamb in 5:6, where the almost identical ἑστηϰός ὡς ἐσϕαγμένην is to be translated as “standing as slain” (see on 5:6). Both there and here a real death or defeat is portrayed. ὡς, as elsewhere throughout the Apocalypse, is part of John’s visionary style in introducing something that he has seen (4:6; 8:8; 9:7; 15:2; 19:6);200 it is John’s attempt to give an approximate description in earthly terms of what he has seen in a heavenly vision.
Just as Christ’s resurrection does not imply that his death was only apparent, neither does the beast’s recovery nullify the very real deathblow. As with Jesus’ death and resurrection, the beast has been dealt a fatal stroke and is said to have overcome it. The beast’s recovery is mentioned again in 13:12 and emphasized in 13:14, which enforces the parallelism with the Lamb in 5:6 by alluding to the beast’s recovery as a resurrection: ϰαὶ ἔζησεν (“and he lived”), the same phrase employed to describe Jesus’ resurrection in 2:8 (cf. also 1:18; ϰαὶ ἔζησαν is used of the resurrection of the saints in 20:4).
But there is a difference between the Lamb’s recovery and that of the beast. The Lamb really did conquer the defeat of death by resurrection, but the beast’s continued existence is not a reversal of his actual defeat. We have seen that the devil’s defeat entailed his loss of authority to accuse saints and condemn them to spiritual perdition (see on 12:7-12). Though he and the beasts are repeatedly mentioned as having “authority” in ch. 13, they have no authority over the saints and no authority but what God gives them.
Nevertheless, the dragon and the beast deceptively cover up the fact that their authority has been removed. 12:10-12 has shown that, after the dragon is defeated, he is permitted “a little time” still to express his anger over the defeat, but it will avail nothing toward reversing the situation. 13:3ff. pictures the same situation. 17:8 likewise notes that the beast’s apparent “rising” from death is only ultimately so that he should be destroyed: “the beast that you saw was and is not and is about to ascend from the abyss and goes to destruction.” The World War II metaphor is especially appropriate here: Christ’s defeat of the devil was like D-Day and the subsequent existence of the devil (and his servant beast) like the subsequent resistance of the Germans to the Allies’ inevitable advance. The beast’s wicked activities in vv 4-8 are not limited to some future tribulation after the first century, but stretches from Christ’s death and resurrection all the way to his final coming again.201
Possibly the beast’s resuscitation partly reflects the suicide of Nero in 68 A.D. followed by a year of civil war, in which the future of the Roman state was in question.202 It may have appeared that the beast was slain with Nero’s death, since it brought a dramatic decrease in the persecution of Christians. Vespasian solidified the empire once again, so that it seemed that the Roman dragon had recovered. The strength of the apparent recovery was bolstered by rumors that Nero had not really died but was hiding, perhaps somewhere in Parthia, and would attempt to regain his rule once again.203
Beale, G. K., The Book of Revelation (The New International Greek Testament Commentary)
