Revelationchapter 13
18 verses · John, by tradition · AD 95 or 96 · Revelation
Then I saw a beast with ten horns and seven heads rising out of the sea. There were ten royal crowns on its horns and blasphemous names on its heads.
Introduction
John, by tradition, Revelation, Revelation Overview.
The apostle John wrote to churches that lived under an empire which honoured its rulers as gods and tied public life to that honour. This chapter shows where such power comes from and what it asks of God's people. Its pictures come from Daniel's vision of beasts rising from the sea, which the first hearers could set beside their own rulers. Listen for how often the text says a power was given, and by whom. Listen also for the two calls spoken to the hearer, one to endurance and faith and one to wisdom. Read it as the chapter that tells the church what faithfulness will cost.
Context
- Who
- Christians for whom refusing to honor the emperor could cost them their trade, their standing, or their heads
- What
- A vision of a beast from the sea that receives the dragon's power and the world's worship, and of a second beast from the earth that enforces that worship with signs, an image and a mark.
- Where
- Written on the island of Patmos for the seven churches of Asia, with the vision set on the shore of the sea, where the first beast rises.
- When
- About AD 95 under the emperor Domitian, the date most often given, while others hold an earlier date under Nero, about AD 68.
- Why
- To show the church that the power demanding its worship serves the dragon and holds a limited term, and to call it to endurance, faith and wisdom.
Historical context
Emperor worship was not a fringe cult in Asia; it was the province's proudest institution. Cities competed for the honor of building an imperial temple, priesthoods of the imperial cult were prestigious local offices, and public festivals, games, and civic business ran through them. Pergamum, Smyrna, and Ephesus all held that honor.
Show the rest of the historical context, 5 more paragraphs
What Rome asked of an ordinary person was small and therefore lethal. Offer a pinch of incense, say the words, and go home. Refusing looked like disloyalty rather than devotion, which is why Roman officials found Christians baffling and dangerous. A letter from the governor Pliny to the emperor Trajan, written about twenty years after this book, describes him inventing a test on the spot because no procedure existed: invoke the gods, offer wine and incense before the emperor's image, and curse Christ.
The first beast is a composite of Daniel's four beasts, given its power and throne by the dragon. It has a head wounded to death that is healed, and the world wonders after it and asks who is able to make war with it.
The second beast looks like a lamb and speaks like a dragon and exists to make people worship the first, a picture of a religious apparatus serving a political power. It performs signs, sets up an image, and enforces a mark without which no one may buy or sell.
The economic squeeze was not imaginary. Trade guilds had patron gods and shared meals; markets, contracts, and civic life were laced with religious observance. Losing access to trade was a real penalty for a real refusal.
Then the famous number: 666, given as the number of a man, with an invitation to calculate it. Ancient languages used letters as numerals, so names had numeric values, and people played this game on walls and in graffiti. One long-standing proposal reads the Hebrew spelling of "Neron Caesar," which totals 666. Other readings have been offered for centuries. Nobody has proved one.
Significance
For the first readers this chapter renamed their world. The magnificent city, the beautiful temple, the reasonable civic request, all of it was one animal, and behind it stood the dragon of chapter 12.
Show the rest of the significance, 1 more paragraph
The chapter's own conclusion is not a strategy for winning. It is a call for "the patience and the faith of the saints," spoken to people who might be led into captivity or killed with the sword. Endurance, not escape, was the assignment.
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
A Beast Out of the Sea, and the Whole World Wonders
Revelation 13:1-2
a beast with ten horns: The beast joins in one body the leopard, the bear and the lion of Daniel 7, and the dragon gave the beast his power. The sea it rises from is gone for good in 21:1.
Revelation 13:1
“And I stood upon the sand of the sea - The sand upon the shore of the sea. That is, he seemed to stand there, and then had a vision of a beast rising out of the waters. The reason of this representation may, perhaps, have been that among the ancients the sea was regarded as the appropriate place for the origin of huge and terrible monsters (Prof. Stuart, in loco). This vision strongly resembles that in Dan 7:2 ff, where the prophet saw four beasts coming up in succession from the sea. See the notes on that place.”
1 more voice on this verseWhat preachers and commentators have said about this verse, in their own words.
Revelation 13:1
“This beast is a spiritually secular power, opposite to the kingdom of Christ. A power not merely spiritual or ecclesiastical, nor merely secular or political but a mixture of both. He is a secular prince; for a crown, yea, and a kingdom are ascribed to him.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament (1755)evangelical
like a leopard: Daniel 7 names the lion, the bear and the leopard in that order, and John names them in reverse, as one looking back. Adam Clarke ties the leopard to Greece.
Revelation 13:2
“And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard - This similitude of the beast to a leopard appears to be an allusion to the third beast of Daniel, which is well known to represent the empire of the Greeks.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Revelation 13:2
“Thus it represents comprehensively in one figure the world power (which in Daniel is represented by four) of all times and places, not merely of one period and one locality, viewed as opposed to God; just as the woman is the Church of all ages.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
appeared to be mortally wounded: Here the mortal wound was healed, and the whole world marveled and followed the beast. The healing imitates the Lamb slain and living in 5:6, and the world's wonder turns to worship in verse 4.
Revelation 13:3
“And I saw one of his heads, as it were wounded to death - The phrase “wounded to death” means properly that it received a mortal wound, that is, the wound would have been mortal if it had not been healed. A blow was struck that would be naturally fatal, but there was something that prevented the fatal result. John does not say, however, by whom the wound was inflicted, nor does he describe further the nature of the wound. He says that “one of the heads” - that is, one of the seven heads - was thus wounded.”
The world asks who is like the beast, turning Israel's praise of the LORD in Exodus 15:11 into praise of a counterfeit. Its strength is taken as grounds for worship, and verse 8 names those who refuse.
Revelation 13:4
“And they worshiped the dragon who gave authority to the beast. They claim to worship God, who gave authority to Christ.”
Bede · written before 735 · Commentary on Revelationpatristic
1 more voice on this verse
Revelation 13:4
“And they worshipped the dragon - Worshipping the dragon here evidently means the voluntary religious subjection of the members of the Latin Church to the revived western empire, because of the eminent part it has taken in the support of their faith. And they worshipped the beast - Not only the dragon or revived western empire was worshipped; the beast, the whole Latin empire, is a partaker in the adoration.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Revelation 13:5-6
The beast was given a mouth: The 42 months match the trampling of the holy city in 11:2 and the witnesses' 1,260 days in 11:3. The beast was given a mouth, the passive verb marking a power God permits, as with the little horn of Daniel 7:25.
The Berean text sets His tabernacle and those who dwell in heaven side by side as one thing. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown note that two old manuscripts omit the word and, so the dwellers are the tabernacle. They include believers on earth whose citizenship is in heaven.
Revelation 13:6
“A and C omit "and": "them that dwell (literally, 'tabernacle') in heaven," mean not only angels and the departed souls of the righteous, but believers on earth who have their citizenship in heaven, and whose true life is hidden from the Antichristian persecutor in the secret of God's tabernacle.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
to wage war against the saints: The verb for conquer is nikao, the word used of the saints' own overcoming in 2:7 and 12:11. Authority over every tribe and people and tongue and nation belongs to the Lamb in Daniel 7:14 and 5:9, so the beast's grant counterfeits his.
Revelation 13:7
“And it was given unto him - By the same power that taught him to blaspheme God and his church. See the notes on Rev 13:2, Rev 13:5. To make war with the saints - See this fully illustrated in the notes on the parallel passage in Dan 7:21, and at the end of that chapter, (f). And to overcome them - In those wars. This was abundantly fulfilled in the wars with the Waldenses, the Albigenses, and the other sincere followers of the Saviour in the time of the papal persecutions.”
from the foundation of the world: The Berean text joins from the foundation of the world to the writing of the names, as the nearly identical wording of 17:8 does. The older word order joins it to the Lamb who was slain, and 1 Peter 1:19-20 sets his sacrifice before the world began.
Revelation 13:8
“The former is in the Greek more obvious and simple. "Whatsoever virtue was in the sacrifices, did operate through Messiah's death alone. As He was "the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world," so all atonements ever made were only effectual by His blood" [BISHOP PEARSON, Exposition of the Creed].”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Revelation 13:9-10
He who has an ear: , let him hear repeats the call of the seven letters inside the vision itself. Here is a call for the perseverance and faith of the saints names their answer to the beast's war on them in verse 7.
Revelation 13:9
“If any man have an ear, let him hear - See the notes on Rev 2:7. The idea here is, that what was here said respecting the “beast” was worthy of special attention, as it pertained to most important events in the history of the church.”
2 more voices on this verse
Revelation 13:9
“If any man have an ear, let him hear. And diligently attend to this mystical description of antichrist, as being matter of some difficulty to understand, as well as of great moment and importance, and seriously consider it, that he may know him, and his followers, and avoid them; See Gill on Rev 1:7.”
Revelation 13:9
“But, to come now to Moses, why, I wonder, did he merely at the time when Joshua was battling against Amalek, pray sitting with hands expanded, when, in circumstances so critical, he ought rather, surely, to have commended his prayer by knees bended, and hands beating his breast, and a face prostrate on the ground; except it was that there, where the name of the Lord Jesus was the theme of speech-destined as He was to enter the lists one day singly against the devil-the figure of the cross was also necessary, (that figure) through which Jesus was to win…”
Tertullian · written before 220 · An Answer to the Jewspatristic
the perseverance and faith of the saints: The Berean text follows manuscripts that make the saying echo Jeremiah 15:2, a word about what the saints must suffer. Older English versions read a warning to the persecutor. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown pair this call with 13:18, patience and faith against the first beast and wisdom against the second.
Revelation 13:10
“Here--"Herein": in bearing their appointed sufferings lies the patient endurance . . . of the saints. This is to be the motto and watchword of the elect during the period of the world kingdom. As the first beast is to be met by patience and faith (Re 13:10), the second beast must be opposed by true wisdom (Re 13:18).”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
The Second Beast, the Image, and the Mark
two horns like a lamb: This beast had two horns like a lamb, but spoke like a dragon. It is named the false prophet in 16:13, 19:20 and 20:10, and in verse 12 it directs worship to the first beast.
Revelation 13:11
“As the first beast was like the Lamb in being, as it were, wounded to death, so the second is like the Lamb in having two lamb-like horns (its essential difference from the Lamb is marked by its having TWO, but the Lamb SEVEN horns, Re 5:6). The former paganism of the world power, seeming to be wounded to death by Christianity, revives.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
1 more voice on this verse
Revelation 13:11
After this he likewise describes his armour-bearer, whom he also terms a false prophet: "He spake as a dragon, and exercised all the power of the first beast in his sight, and caused the earth, and those that dwell therein, to adore the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed. And he shall perform great wonders, so that he can even cause fire to descend from heaven upon the earth in the sight of men, and he shall lead the inhabitants of the earth astray."
Irenaeus · written before 202 · Against Heresies Book Vpatristic
to worship the first beast: The second beast exercised all the authority of the first beast and drew all worship to it, whose mortal wound had been healed. Its office inverts the Spirit's in John 16:14, who glorifies another, and the wound is named here for the third time.
Revelation 13:12
“And the words, "he exercised all the power of the first beast before him, and caused the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed," signify that, after the manner of the law of Augustus, by whom the empire of Rome was established, he too will rule and govern, sanctioning everything by it, and taking greater glory to himself.”
Hippolytus of Rome · written before 235 · Hippolytus Dogmatical and Historical Fragmentspatristic
1 more voice on this verse
Revelation 13:12
“Christ's three offices are thus perverted: the first beast is the false kingship; the harlot, the false priesthood; the second beast, the false prophet. The beast is the bodily, the false prophet the intellectual, the harlot the spiritual power of Antichristianity [AUBERLEN].”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Revelation 13:13-14
the second beast performed great signs: Elijah called fire from heaven in 1 Kings 18:38 and 2 Kings 1:10, and the same kind of sign marks the two witnesses in 11:5-6. Here it serves deception, and the image the beast commands recalls Nebuchadnezzar's image in Daniel 3.
Revelation 13:13
"And he shall make fire come down from heaven in the sight of men." Yes (as I also have said), in the sight of men. Magicians do these things, by the aid of the apostate angels, even to this day. He shall cause also that a golden image of Antichrist shall be placed in the temple at Jerusalem, and that the apostate angel should enter, and thence utter voices and oracles.
Victorinus of Pettau · written before 304 · Commentary on the Apocalypse of the Blessed Johnpatristic
make an image to the beast: Victorinus, writing on verse 13, expected a golden image of Antichrist set up in the temple at Jerusalem, with a fallen angel speaking from it. That joins the verse to Matthew 24:15. Albert Barnes reads the signs as pretended miracles, with 2 Thessalonians 2:9.
Revelation 13:14
“Saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast, which had the wound by a sword, and did live - The image of the beast must designate a person who represents in himself the whole power of the Latin empire, therefore it cannot be the emperor; for though he was, according to his own account, supremum caput Christianitatis, the supreme head of Christendom, yet he was only the chief of the Germanic confederation, and consequently was only sovereign of the principal power of the Latin empire.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Revelation 13:14
After this he likewise describes his armour-bearer, whom he also terms a false prophet: "He spake as a dragon, and exercised all the power of the first beast in his sight, and caused the earth, and those that dwell therein, to adore the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed. And he shall perform great wonders, so that he can even cause fire to descend from heaven upon the earth in the sight of men, and he shall lead the inhabitants of the earth astray."
Irenaeus · written before 202 · Irenaeus Against Heresies Book 5patristic
give breath to the image: The image receives breath and speaks, claiming the gift of life God gives in Genesis 2:7 and the worship reserved to him in Exodus 20:3-5. Refusal means death here, and verse 17 adds exclusion from buying and selling.
Revelation 13:15
“For this is what is meant by the prophet when he says, "He will give life unto the image, and the image of the beast will speak." For he will act with vigour again, and prove strong by reason of the laws established by him; and he will cause all those who will not worship the image of the beast to be put to death.”
Hippolytus of Rome · written before 235 · Hippolytus Dogmatical and Historical Fragmentspatristic
1 more voice on this verse
Revelation 13:15
“And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast - That is, that image of the beast would be naturally powerless, or would have no life in itself. The second beast, however, had power to impart life to it, so that it would be invested with authority, and would exercise that authority in the manner specified.”
Revelation 13:16-17
to receive a mark: The mark is required of all people small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, so that no one could buy or sell. It answers the seal on the foreheads of God's servants in 7:3 and 14:1.
Revelation 13:16
“And he caused all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark - To ascertain the meaning of the mark which the two-horned beast causes all orders and degrees of men in the Latin world to receive, we need only refer to Rev 14:11, where the mark imposed by the two-horned beast is called the mark of his name.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Revelation 13:16
“Contrast God's seal and name in the foreheads of His servants, Re 7:3; 22:4; and Ga 6:17, "I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus," that is, I am His soldier and servant. The mark in the right hand and forehead implies the prostration of bodily and intellectual powers to the beast's domination.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
no one could buy or sell: Bede and Jamieson, Fausset and Brown both read the mark, the name and the number as one sign under three names. Albert Barnes ties the control of buying and selling to the merchants of Babylon in 18:11 to 13. Worship and trade stand or fall together.
Revelation 13:17
“And--So A, B, and Vulgate read. C, IRENÆUS, 316, Coptic, and Syriac omit it. might buy--Greek, "may be able to buy." the mark, or the name--Greek, "the mark (namely), the name of the beast." The mark may be, as in the case of the sealing of the saints in the forehead, not a visible mark, but symbolical of allegiance.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
1 more voice on this verse
Revelation 13:17
“And that no man might buy or sell - That is, this mighty power would claim jurisdiction over the traffic of the world, and endeavor to make it tributary to its own purposes. Compare Rev 18:11-13, Rev 18:17-19. This is represented by saying that no one might “buy or sell” except by its permission; and it is clear that where this power exists of determining who may “buy and sell,” there is absolute control over the wealth of the world.”
that number is 666: The call to calculate the number of the beast, the number of a man, rests on gematria, reading the letters of a name as numbers. One common Hebrew spelling of Nero Caesar sums to 666.
Revelation 13:18
“Let him that hath understanding - Which is a gift of God, subservient to that wisdom. Count the number of the wild beast - Surely none can be blamed for attempting to obey this command. For it is the number of a man - A number of such years as are common among men.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament (1755)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Revelation 13:18
“And there is therefore in this beast, when he comes, a recapitulation made of all sorts of iniquity and of every deceit, in order that all apostate power, flowing into and being shut up in him, may be sent into the furnace of fire. Fittingly, therefore, shall his name possess the number six hundred and sixty-six, since he sums up in his own person all the commixture of wickedness which took place previous to the deluge, due to the apostasy of the angels.”
Irenaeus · written before 202 · Against Heresies 5.29.2patristic
How this psalm is built
The form: A vision of two beasts built on Daniel 7, the first gathering Daniel's four beasts into one figure, as Jamieson, Fausset & Brown classes it.
The patterns in this chapter
| Device | What it does | Where to see it |
|---|---|---|
| The two beasts | The first beast rises from the sea and the second from the earth, and each is drawn as a copy of the Lamb. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown note that the first is like the Lamb in its wound to death and the second in its lamb-like horns. The second beast has two horns where the Lamb of 5:6 has seven.Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, on Revelation 13:11. | Revelation 13:1, Revelation 13:3, Revelation 13:11 |
| What the beast was given | The chapter says again and again that the beasts were given what they hold: a mouth and authority in verse 5, war on the saints and rule over every nation in verse 7, signs in verse 14 and breath for the image in verse 15. The site's exposition note on 13:5 to 6 reads the repeated passive as a sovereignty that stays God's. Albert Barnes reads the giver as the power that taught the beast to blaspheme. | Revelation 13:5, Revelation 13:7, Revelation 13:14, Revelation 13:15 |
| Two calls to the hearer | Twice the vision stops to speak to the one who hears it. Verses 9 and 10 call for the perseverance and faith of the saints, and verse 18 calls for wisdom. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown pair the two: the first beast is met by patience and faith and the second by true wisdom.Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, on Revelation 13:10. | Revelation 13:9, Revelation 13:10, Revelation 13:18 |
| The three false offices | Jamieson, Fausset and Brown, following Auberlen, read the beasts and the harlot of chapter 17 as a counterfeit of Christ's three offices. The first beast is the false kingship, the harlot the false priesthood and the second beast the false prophet. The site's exposition note on 13:11 draws the same counterfeit with the dragon in the place of the Father.Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, on Revelation 13:12. | Revelation 13:11, Revelation 13:12 |
Where the imagery comes from
12 more paragraphs on the patterns
Albert Barnes notes that the vision strongly resembles Daniel 7:2, where four beasts come up in turn from the sea (Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on Revelation 13:1). Adam Clarke ties the leopard to Daniel's third beast, the empire of the Greeks (Commentary on the Bible, on Revelation 13:2). Jamieson, Fausset and Brown hear Exodus 15:11 in the cry Who is like the beast, language kept for God (Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, on Revelation 13:4). The site's exposition note on 13:13 to 14 sets the image beside the image of Daniel 3, worshipped on pain of death.
Where it sits in the book
The site's exposition note on 12:17 reads the two beasts as the dragon's instruments in his war on the woman's children. The beast from the Abyss that killed the witnesses at 11:7 is described in full here, as the note on 11:7 to 8 holds. Irenaeus calls the second beast the armour-bearer of the first and a false prophet (Against Heresies Book V), and the book gives him that title at 16:13, 19:20 and 20:10. Adam Clarke reads the mark by 14:11, where it is called the mark of his name (Commentary on the Bible, on Revelation 13:16).
The debated concept: the beast and its wounded head
Irenaeus holds that the beast, when he comes, sums up in himself every sort of iniquity and deceit, one last ruler (Against Heresies 5.29.2). Hippolytus reads the second beast as ruling after the manner of the law of Augustus (Hippolytus Dogmatical and Historical Fragments, on Revelation 13:12). The site's exposition note on 13:1 to 2 reads the beast as the man of sin of 2 Thessalonians 2:3 to 4 and the little horn of Daniel 7:8. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown take the beast as the world power of all times and places, as the woman is the church of all ages (on Revelation 13:2).
John Wesley reads the beast as a power both spiritual and secular set against the kingdom of Christ, and Albert Barnes applies the war on the saints to the papal persecutions of the Waldenses and Albigenses (on Revelation 13:1 and 13:7). The objection to that reading is the beast's fixed term of forty-two months, which it has to stretch into centuries. The objection to a reading set at the end is its distance from the first hearers, and 1 John 2:18 answers it, since many antichrists had already come. The site's note on 13:3 names two readings of the wound, a ruler's death and revival or an empire revived.
The debated concept: the mark and the number
Adam Clarke notes that letters served as numbers before Arabic figures, so a name can be counted (Commentary on the Bible, on Revelation 13:18). Irenaeus reads 666 as all the wickedness before the flood summed up in one person (Against Heresies 5.29.2). John Wesley reads it as a number of years (Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament, on Revelation 13:18). Jamieson, Fausset and Brown hold that the mark may be a sign of allegiance, like the seal on the saints' foreheads (on Revelation 13:17). Bede holds the mark, the name and the number to be one (Commentary on Revelation, on Revelation 13:17).
Where the rest of the New Testament touches it
The site's exposition note on 13:1 to 2 reads the beast with 2 Thessalonians 2:3 to 4, and Albert Barnes reads the signs of the second beast with 2 Thessalonians 2:9 (Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on Revelation 13:13). Bede joins the Lamb who was slain to 1 Peter 1:19 to 20, the Lamb foreordained before the foundation of the world and revealed in these last times (Commentary on Revelation, on Revelation 13:8). Jamieson, Fausset and Brown set the mark against the seal of God in 7:3 and 22:4 and against the marks of Jesus that Paul bore on his body in Galatians 6:17 (on Revelation 13:16).
The numbers
The 42 months of verse 5 are the term already named for the trampled city at 11:2. Primasius counts them as three years and six months, which in the earlier chapters stood for the present age and here for the severity of the final persecution (Commentary on the Apocalypse 13:5-6). Jamieson, Fausset and Brown set the two horns of the second beast against the seven horns of the Lamb at 5:6 (on Revelation 13:11). The seven heads and ten horns carry over from the dragon of 12:3.
Keep studying
Studies14
Words12
Subjects1
Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the New Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The form and classifications
Irenaeus, Against Heresies Book V, on Revelation 13:11; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, on Revelation 13:2 and John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament, on Revelation 13:1.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes; Bede, Commentary on Revelation; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the New Testament; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Victorinus of Pettau, Commentary on the Apocalypse of the Blessed John.