Vincent's Word Studies, by Marvin R. Vincent, [1886], at sacred-texts.com
Revelation Chapter 13
Beast (θηρίον)
Properly rendered. See remarks on ζῶα living creatures, Rev 4:6.
Rise up (ἀναβαῖνον)
Rev., better, coming up, thus giving the force of the participle.
Ten horns
Compare Dan 7:7.
Crowns (διαδήματα)
Compare Rev 12:3. See on Rev 2:10.
The name (ὄνομα)
Read ὀνόματα names. On each head a name.
A leopard (παρδάλει)
The ancients do not seem to have distinguished between the leopard, the panther, and the ounce. The word stands for either. Leopard is leo-pard, the lion-pard, which was supposed to be a mongrel between a panther and a lioness. Compare Dan 7:6.
Bear
Compare Dan 7:5.
Lion
Compare Dan 7:4.
I saw (εἶδον)
Omitted in the best texts.
Wounded (ἐφαγμένην)
Lit., slain. See on Rev 5:6. The Rev. smitten is questionable. The word occurs eight times in Revelation, and in seven of these it must be rendered slain or slaughtered. Professor Milligan rightly observes that the statement is the counterpart of that in Rev 5:6, where we read of the lamb as though it had been slaughtered. In both cases there had been actual death, and in both revival. The one is a mocking counterpart of the other.
Deadly wound (πληγὴ τοῦ θανάτου)
Lit., stroke of death. Rev., death-stroke.
After the beast (ὀπίσω τοῦ θηρίου)
A pregnant construction for wondered at and followed after.
Which gave (ὁς ἔδωκεν)
The correct reading is ὅτι "because he gave."
Who is like unto the beast?
A parody on a similar ascription to God. See Isa 40:18, Isa 40:25; Isa 46:5; Psa 113:5; Mic 7:18; Jer 49:19. Compare Rev 18:18.
To continue forty and two months (ποιῆσαι μῆνας τεσσεράκοντα δύο)
Lit., to make forty and two months. Similarly, Act 15:33, ποιήσαντες χρόνον having tarried a space; lit., having made a time. See on continued there a year, Jam 4:13. The best expositors, however, render ποιῆσαι absolutely, to work, and the following accusative as the accusative of duration, "during forty and two months." Rev., margin to do his works during, etc. See Dan 11:28.
In blasphemy (εἰς βλασφημίαν)
Read βλασφημίας blasphemies. Rev., giving the force of εἰς more correctly, "for blasphemies."
And them that dwell in heaven (καὶ τοὺς ἐν τῷ οὐρανῷ σκηνοῦντας)
The best texts omit καὶ and, making the following words in apposition with ὄνομα and σκηνὴν name and tabernacle. Thus the literal sense would be to blaspheme the name and tabernacle which dwell in heaven. "The meaning is to enhance the enormity of the blasphemy by bringing out the lofty nature of God's holy name and dwelling-place" (Alford). The word dwell is, literally, tabernacle. See on Rev 12:12.
The saints (τῶν ἁγίων)
See on Act 26:10.
All kindreds (πᾶσαν φυλὴν)
Rev., more literally and correctly, every tribe. See on Rev 1:7; see on Rev 5:9. After tribe insert καὶ λαὸν and people. See on Pe1 2:9.
Nation (ἔθνος)
See on Pe1 2:9.
From the foundation of the world
These words may be construed with slain or with written. In favor of the latter is Rev 18:8; of the former, Pe1 1:19, Pe1 1:20. Alford, pertinently as I think, urges the position of the words in favor of the connection with slain, and says that had it not been for the apparent difficulty of the sense thus conveyed, no one would have thought of going so far back as to hath been written for a connection. Render, as Rev., the lamb that hath been slain from the foundation of the world. Καταβολή foundation is literally a throwing or laying down, from καταβάλλω to throw down; hence a laying down of a foundation.
He that leadeth into captivity shall go into captivity (εἴ τις αἰχμαλωσίαν συνάγει, εἰς αἰχμαλωσίαν ὑπάγει)
Lit., if any one assemble captivity (i.e., bring together captives) into captivity he goeth away. The best texts insert εἰς into before the first captivity, and omit assemble, thus reading if any man is for captivity into captivity he goeth. So Rev. See on dispersion, Joh 7:35. Compare Jer 15:2; Jer 43:11. The persecutors of the Church shall suffer that which they inflict on the saints.
Sword (μαχαὶρῃ)
See on Rev 6:4.
Here
In the thought that God judgeth in the earth.
An image to the beast (εἰκόνα τῷ θηρίῳ)
Εἰκών is a figure or likeness. Thus Mat 22:20, of the likeness of Caesar on the coin. Rom 1:24, an image of men, birds, beasts, etc. Col 3:10, "the image of Him that created him;" i.e., the moral likeness of renewed men to God. Christ is called the image of God (Col 1:15; Co2 4:4). Besides the idea of likeness, the word involves the idea of representation, though not of perfect representation. Thus, man is said to be the image of God (Co1 11:7). In this it resembles χαρακτήρ image in Heb 1:3. Caesar's image on the coin, the reflection of the sun in the water (Plato, "Phaedo," 99); and the statue or image of the beast in this passage, are εἰκών.
The word also involves the idea of manifestation. Thus, Col 1:15, where, in the image there is an implied contrast with the invisible God. Hence Philo applied the term to the Logos. See on Joh 1:1.
The word played an important part in the Arian controversy, in which the distinction was sharply emphasized between εἰκών image as assuming a prototype, and therefore as properly representing the relation of the Son to the Father, and ὁμοίωμα likeness, as implying mere similitude, and not embodying the essential verity of the prototype. The image involves the likeness, but the likeness does not involve the image. The latter may imply only an accidental resemblance, while the former is a veritable representation. Christ is therefore the εἰκών of God.
The image of the beast occurs ten times in Revelation; four times in this chapter, and in Rev 14:9, Rev 14:11; Rev 15:2; Rev 16:2; Rev 19:20; Rev 20:4.
Speak
This is supposed by some to refer to the tricks of pagan priests in making pictures and statues appear to speak.
A mark (χάραγμα)
The word occurs frequently in Revelation, and only once elsewhere (Act 17:29) on which see note. Commentators find illustrations in the brand set upon slaves by their masters, or upon soldiers by their monarchs, and in the branding of slaves attached to certain temples. Herodotus describes a temple to Hercules at the Canopic mouth of the Nile, and says: "If a slave runs away from his master, and taking sanctuary at this shrine gives himself up to the God, and receives certain sacred marks upon his person, whosoever his master may be, he cannot lay hand on him" (ii., 113). In the treatise "concerning the Syrian goddess" falsely attributed to Lucian, it is said of the slaves of the temple, "all are branded, some upon the wrist and some upon the neck." Paul, in Gal 6:17, applies the word for these brands, στίγματα, to the marks of Christ's service which he bears in his body. In 3 Macc. 2:29, we read that Ptolemy Philopator required all the Jews of Alexandria to be registered among the common people; and that those who were thus registered were to be marked (χαράσεσθαι) on their persons by the ivy-leaf symbol of Dionysus (Bacchus). In Lev 19:28, the Israelites are forbidden to make cuttings in their flesh for the dead and to print marks (γράμματα στικτὰ) upon themselves.
The number
The method of mystic numbering obtained alike among pagan Greeks, Gnostics, Christian Fathers, and Jewish Cabbalists. Jupiter was invoked under the number 717 contained in the letters Ἡ ἉΡΧΗ the beginning. The Gnostics affixed to their gems and amulets the mystic word ἀβρασαξ or ἀβραξας, under the idea of some virtue attaching to its number, 365, as being that of the days of the solar cycle. Barnabas and Clement of Alexandria speak of the virtue of the number 318 as being that of IHT, the common abbreviation for Jesus crucified. In the pseudo-Sybilline verses, written by Christians, about the end probably of the second century, are found versified enigmas giving the number and requiring the name. The translation of one of these on the word Jesus is as follows: "He will come upon earth clothed with flesh like mortal men. His name contains four vowels and two consonants: two of the former being sounded together. And I will declare the entire number. For the name will exhibit to incredulous men eight units, eight tens, and eight hundreds."
Here is wisdom
Directing attention to the challenge which follows.
Count (ψηφισάτω)
See on Luk 14:28.
The number of a man
It is counted as men usually count. Compare Rev 21:17, and a man's pen, Isa 8:1. Some explain, a symbolical number denoting a person.
Six hundred threescore and six (χ. ξ. ς')
Each letter represents a component of the whole number: χ = 600; ξ = 60; ς' = 6. In the earlier MSS: it is written in full, ἑξακόσιοι ἑξήκοντα ἐξ. The method of reading generally adopted is that known as the Ghematria of the Rabbins, or in Greek, ἰσοψηφία numerical equality, which assigns each letter of a name its usual numerical value, and gives the sum of such numbers as the equivalent of the name. Thus, in the Epistle of Barnabas, we are told that the name Ἱησοῦς Jesus is expressed by the number 888. Ι = 10; η = 8; σ = 200; ο = 70; υ = 400; σ = 200. The majority of the commentators use the Greek alphabet in computation; others, however, employ the Hebrew; while a third class employ the Roman numerals.
The interpretations of this number form a jungle from which escape is apparently hopeless. Reuss says: "This famous number has been made to yield almost all the historical names of the past eighteen centuries: Titus, Vespasian, and Simon Gioras; Julian the Apostate and Genseric; Mahomet and Luther; Benedict IX. and Louis XV.; Napoleon I. and the Duke of Reichstadt; and it would not be difficult, on the same principles, to read in it one another's names." Some of the favorite names are Λατεῖνος, Latinus, describing the common character of the rulers of the former pagan Roman Empire: Nero Caesar; Diocletian; χς' the name of Christ abridged, and ξ the emblem of the serpent, so that the sublimated sense is the Messiah of Satan.