Re-Reading Revelation, Lecture # 18: The Cosmic Conflict from A to Z. Part II-2. The Dragon Acts

The Sea Beast (13:1-10) has a wound. The Earth Beast (13:11-18) looks like a lamb. Its lamb-likeness is another feature of imitation--imitation of the most important figure in Revelation, the Lamb that was killed with violence (5:6). And now symbols of imitation flood the text: lamb, "fire from heaven," "breath," "speech," mark, and "number." Most of these terms have parallels in the Old Testament, and these parallels make them even bigger. The tendency is ominous: the Sea Beast works hard to deceive those who live on the earth and, if deception fails, to use coercion. The story of the Sea Beast ends with the number "six hundred and sixty-six" (13:18). We are called to "calculate the number." Can it be done?