Chapter 11 tells of two chosen witnesses who prophesied for 1,260 days, after which they were destroyed by " the beast that ascends out of the abyss ." However, after three and a half days, the prophets will ascend to heaven. An earthquake will begin, 7,000 human names will perish, the seventh trumpet will sound, and the Liturgy of the Elders will continue, falling prostrate before God and asking for Judgment: " And the temple of God was opened in heaven, and the ark of His covenant was seen in His temple. And there were lightnings, and voices, and thunderings, and an earthquake, and great hail " (11:19).
The Woman appears, clothed in the sun, with the moon at her feet and a crown of twelve stars on her head. She is confronted by a red dragon-devil with ten horns on his seven heads crowned with diadems, who desires to destroy the Woman and the Child. But " war broke out in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon fought and his angels, but they prevailed not, neither was their place found any more in heaven. So the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, who deceives the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him " (12:7–9).
In the 12th chapter of Revelation, the devil appears (goes back to the ancient Greek διάβολος , Latin diaboulus - slanderer, accuser - arose during the translation into Greek from the Hebrew ha - satan "Satan"), appearing in the form of a many-headed dragon, for the faces of the unclean are countless. In the Middle Ages, the devil was the most common name for the supreme spirit of evil, but other designations of the infernal pantheon could also serve as his nomination: Lucifer, Beelzebub, Leviathan, Satan, the dragon, and others. The name Lucifer— " Daystar" in the Synodal translation — is taken from the Old Testament (chapter 14 of the Book of the Prophet Isaiah, translated into the Vulgate), which tells of the "son of the morning" who trampled heaven, desired to be equal to God, became proud, and was therefore cast down to hell, into the depths of the underworld. The image of the Fallen One was further contaminated with the "anointed cherub" (from the Book of Ezekiel), seduced by his own beauty and expelled from Eden— to form a single negative character. The Devil acquired another of his many names — Lucifer: once radiant and beautiful, but later disfigured by the patina of pride, an angel fallen into Tartarus — the prince of darkness. However, until the late Middle Ages, the name Lucifer was not popular; it caused a great deal of controversy between the word's negative semantics and its positive etymology (Latin: lucifer) . - the bearer of light, which was associated with Jesus), so in the early centuries preference was given to Satan and the devil.
In his vision, John continues to behold another apocalyptic monster given power over humanity: "And I saw a beast coming up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns. On his horns were ten diadems, and on his heads were the names of blasphemy. The beast was like a leopard; his feet were like a bear's, and his mouth like a lion's mouth. And the dragon gave him his power and his throne and great authority." John saw that one of his heads seemed mortally wounded, but this mortal wound was healed.
" And all the earth marveled, following the beast; and they worshiped the dragon, which gave authority to the beast. And they worshiped the beast, saying, 'Who is like the beast? And who is able to make war with him?' And a mouth was given to him speaking great things and blasphemies " (13:1–5).
The thirteenth chapter gives an image of the third beast: “ I saw another beast coming up out of the earth, and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spoke like a dragon. He exercises all the authority of the first beast in his presence, and causes the whole earth and those who dwell on it to worship the first beast. And he deceives those who dwell on the earth because of the signs which he was granted to do in the presence of the beast, telling those who dwell on the earth to make an image to the beast who had the wound by the sword and lived. And he was granted the power to give breath to the image of the beast, so that the image of the beast would both speak and cause everyone who would not worship the image of the beast to be killed. And he causes all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hand or on their foreheads; and that no one might buy or sell except one who had the mark or the name of the beast or the number of his name. Here is wisdom. Let him who has understanding count the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred and sixty-six " (13:11–18).
It's quite difficult to understand the three demonic beasts presented in chapters 12 and 13 of Revelation. Is the author of these nightmarish visions merely depicting the many faces of Satan and evil in the universe? Or does each of these beasts have a specific semantic meaning? At the very least, their descriptions vary. They appear in the text sequentially, seemingly taking over from one another in their ungodly and destructive activities.
The first beast—the red dragon—pursues the woman clothed with the sun, thirsting to devour her child. The dragon's seven heads, each with ten horns, are crowned with seven diadems, and its tail draws a third of the stars from heaven to earth. This " old serpent, called the devil and Satan, " is cast down from heaven to earth along with all his angels of darkness. It's not hard to see an analogy here with the Old Testament's casting down of Lucifer.
The second beast, emerging from the sea, is described in somewhat greater detail. It has the same number of heads and horns as the first beast, but the number of its crowns has increased from seven to ten. The dragon transfers its power, throne, and authority to it. The second beast resembles a leopard, a bear, and a lion all at once. The resemblance to these three animals alludes to the Old Testament symbolic representation of three powerful ancient empires: Greece (leopard; Daniel 7:6), Medo-Persia (bear; Daniel 7:3), and Babylon (lion; Daniel 7:4). Another interpretation holds that the leopard represents the cunning of the Antichrist, the bear his stubbornness, and the lion his arrogance and greedy ambition.
The third beast comes out of the earth. It has two horns like a lamb, speaks like a dragon, and compels people to worship the beast from the sea. The third beast clearly continues the dark work of the first two beasts, drawing ever closer to people. It is this beast that deceives those living on earth with miracles, for example, by bringing down fire from heaven and also by inflicting on the right hand or forehead of those deceived the mark of the devil, the number of the beast—666. The warning about this two-horned figure as a false prophet and false Christ performing pseudo-miracles extends from the 13th chapter of Revelation, from the 13th chapter of Deuteronomy (Deut. 13:2), as well as from the Gospel of Matthew (Matthew 24:24).
All three apocalyptic beasts follow one another in the order of their appearance in the text. They are largely identical, yet they also have significant differences that should inform the reader. What is that?
In the 20th century, with the ever-increasing democratization of society and the unprecedented opportunity to profess almost any views, the algorithm for depicting and describing the evil, dark, satanic, and diabolical was especially clearly, distinctly and distinctly exposed, organized not only and not so much as an alternative, as distinct from the divine, but as a direct mirror opposite to the latter, as a travesty, desecrated likeness of God or a distorted The identity of Christ. A telling example is one of the nine commandments of Anton Szandor LaVey's The Satanic Bible, which states: " Satan represents vengeance, and does not turn the other cheek !" Such antitheses or reversals in the representation of evil always produce a certain effect, and therefore have been appropriated as a cinematic device. For example, in Roman Polanski's Rosemary's Baby , the main character, whose name clearly evokes the Virgin Mary, is destined to bear and give birth to the devil's offspring—the Antichrist.
Returning to the three apocalyptic beasts, we can now assume with a fair degree of certainty that they represent a perverted model of the divine trinity: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The dragon-like first beast is called the " old serpent " and was cast down from heaven to earth. Its entire image, echoing both the serpent-tempter of Eden and the rebellious Lucifer, is constructed as a blasphemous rival to the Old Testament Sabaoth, as a contrast to God the Father. The second beast—the Antichrist—is depicted as a travesty of God the Son: his healed mortal wound alludes to the resurrection of Christ. In contrast to the Son of Man, he speaks blasphemously and calls for worship not of God the Father, but of the dragon—his terrifying double. The third beast is the successor of the first two and an inseparable part of the devil's trinity: on the one hand, he is a false prophet, like a preacher who introduces the word of God to the masses and recruits followers, and on the other hand, he is like the Holy Spirit, since it is he who “ was given the power to put spirit into the image of the beast ” (Rev. 13:15).
