Purpose
There are three beasts in Revelation with seven heads each. The article on the Seven-Headed Beasts identifies the three beasts as follows:
The Dragon (Rev 12:3) symbolizes the Roman Empire.
The Sea Beast (Rev 13:1) is another symbol for the 11th horn that grows out of the Roman Empire, which has been identified as the Church of the Roman Empire, which survived as a distinct organization after the Roman Empire fragmented and grew in power to become the Roman Church of the Middle Ages. (Read article)
The Scarlet Beast, on which the harlot sits (Rev 17:3), is not a specific organization but symbolizes the political governments of the world in general, always dominated by false religion (symbolized as Babylon).
Another article concluded that these three beasts are three of the seven heads. (These two articles should be read before the current one.) The purpose of the current article is to identify all seven heads.
The NASB translation of Revelation 17 explains the seven heads as seven mountains and seven consecutive kings:
“The seven heads are seven mountains
on which the woman sits,
and they are seven kings;
five have fallen, one is, the other has not yet come;
and when he comes, he must remain a little while”
(Rev 17:9-10).
Summary
Foundational Principles
(1) The seven heads exist one after the other.
(2) These heads are “kings,” but in Daniel, and therefore in Revelation, a king represents a kingdom or even an entire empire.
(3) Since each of the three beasts has exactly seven heads and ten horns, the three beasts share the same seven heads.
(4) The beasts do not exist apart from the seven heads. The beast is simply the sum of the seven heads, which are seven consecutive phases of Satan’s oppressive rule on Earth.
(5) Since the Book of Revelation builds on the Book of Daniel, the heads must be limited to the beasts in Daniel. The first kingdom, therefore, must be the ancient Babylonian Empire and not Assyria, as some suggest.
First Four Heads
Another article compares the beasts in Daniel 7 and Daniel 8 and identifies the four beasts of Daniel 7 as follows:
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- Babylonian Empire
- Medo-Persian Empire
- Greece
- Roman Empire (Read Article)
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Based on the principles above, these are the first four heads.
Previous articles confirm in another way that the Roman Empire is one of the heads. While one article identifies the Revelation’s Dragon as the Roman Empire, another article concludes that the beasts of Revelation are three of the seven heads. Therefore, the Roman Empire is one of the seven heads.
The Fifth Head
As stated, the article on the Seven-Headed Beasts identifies the Sea Beast as another symbol for the 11th horn that grows out of Daniel’s fourth kingdom. The 11th horn is the main anti-God power in both Daniel and Revelation. For that reason, and since it grew out of the Roman Empire, we count it as the fifth “kingdom” in Daniel 7 and the fifth head of Revelation’s beasts. The first five heads, therefore, are:
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- Babylonian Empire
- Medo-Persian Empire
- Greece
- Roman Empire
- The 11th horn that grows out of the Roman Empire, which has been identified as the Church of the Roman Empire (the Roman Church)
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Last Two Heads
According to Revelation 13:3-4, this fifth kingdom (symbolized as the Sea Beast) goes through three phases:
1. Alive – It exists for a time.
2. Dead – After receiving a deadly wound.
3. Alive – It recovers from the fatal wound.
Since Revelation 17:9 identifies the dead period as the sixth head, we have the following seven heads/kingdoms:
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- Babylonian Empires;
- Mede-Persian Empire;
- Greece;
- Roman Empire;
- The Roman Church survived after the Roman Empire fragmented;
- The Roman Church mortally wounded (Rev 13:3) / In the abyss (Rev 17:8);
- The Roman Church resurrected (Rev 13:4) – This is when the False Prophet arises “out of the earth” (Rev 13:11).
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– END OF SUMMARY –
The Seven Hills of Rome
In the NASB translation, the seven heads are the seven kings:
“The seven heads are seven mountains
on which the woman sits,
and they are seven kings (Rev 17:9-10).
In the Preterist interpretation—generally the view of Critical Scholars:
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- The seven heads are seven mountains, interpreted as the literal Seven Hills of Rome.
- The seven kings are not related to the seven mountains but symbolize seven literal Roman emperors.
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In this interpretation, therefore, the heads and kings are different things. The KJV and NKJV translations of Revelation 17:9-10 do give this impression:
“The seven heads are seven mountains,
on which the woman sitteth.
And there are seven kings” (KJV).
“The seven heads are seven mountains
on which the woman sits.
There are also seven kings.” (NKJV).
However, the words “there” and “also” in these translations do not exist in the Greek. The NASB translation is, therefore, preferred. In the NASB, the heads do not exist all at the same time but one after the other:
“The seven heads are seven mountains
on which the woman sits,
and they are seven kings;
five have fallen, one is, the other has not yet come”
(Rev 17:9-10).
This means that the heads/mountains/kings cannot be the the seven hills of Rome, for these hills all exist at the same time.
Mountains are Kingdoms.
Our verse says: “The seven heads are seven mountains.” That the mountains symbolize kingdoms can be supported by noting that the Bible often uses mountains as symbols for kingdoms and their kings (Isaiah 2:2-3; Jeremiah 17:3; 31:23; 51:24, 25; Ezekiel 17:22-23; Zech. 4:7). In Habakkuk 3:6, the mountains are the nations that God scattered.
The stone in Daniel 2 becomes a great mountain (Dan 2:34-35). This is explained as “a kingdom which will never be destroyed” (Dan 2:44). Also:
“In the last days the mountain of the house of the LORD will be established as the chief of the mountains, And will be raised above the hills, And all the nations will stream to it” (Isa 2:2 NASB).
The seven heads, the seven mountains, and the seven kings, therefore, all refer to the same seven things.
Principles to Identify the Seven Heads
Kings are Empires.
As discussed in a previous article, in prophetic symbolism, the term “king” represents a “kingdom” or even a world empire, consisting of many kingdoms.
ONE AFTER THE OTHER
Revelation 17:10 (quoted above) explains the seven heads as seven kings (kingdoms) that reign one after the other.
THE SAME SEVEN EMPIRES
Since each of the three beasts has exactly seven heads and ten horns, the three beasts share the same seven heads, pointing to the same seven world empires.
THE BEAST IS THE SUM OF THE SEVEN HEADS.
As also discussed in a previous article, apart from the seven heads, there is no beast. It is only the heads that exist. The beast is simply the sum of the heads. Conversely, the seven heads are seven consecutive phases of Satan’s oppressive rule. Everywhere that Revelation says that a beast does something, it is one of the heads (kings) that are doing it.
ONLY FROM DANIEL
Many interpreters find heads by looking at empires that precede the ancient Babylonian Empire. It is proposed here that such a procedure is inconsistent with the principle that Revelation is built on Daniel. According to this principle, ONE SHOULD NOT LOOK OUTSIDE DANIEL for the interpretation of the heads.
This approach is confirmed by the fact that the beasts of Revelation all have 7 heads and 10 horns, while the beasts in Daniel 7 also have, IN TOTAL, 7 heads and 10 horns. This implies a close relationship between the beasts of Daniel and Revelation. The beasts in Revelation are a continuation of the beasts in Daniel.
That, however, does not mean that the seven heads of the beast in Revelation are the same as the seven heads in Daniel 7. For example, Daniel’s third empire (Greece) had four heads (Dan 7:6). If the seven heads of Revelation’s beast were the same as the seven heads of the beasts of Daniel 7, then the third to sixth heads would be the four Grecian empires, which existed simultaneously. This would be inconsistent with Revelation 17:10 which indicates that the sixth head follows in time after the fifth.
The First Five Head
The First Four
Based on the principle that we should identify the heads from the beasts in Daniel, the first kingdom must be the ancient Babylonian Empire and not Assyria. Then, based on the principles above, the four beasts in Daniel 7 are the first four heads. They are:
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- Babylonian Empire
- Medo-Persian Empire
- Greece
- Roman Empire (See the article on Daniel 7)
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The Dragon
Revelation 12:9 identifies the dragon, which is one of the three beasts with seven heads (Rev 12), as Satan. However, that is in the context of the war in heaven. When it stands before the woman, ready to devour Christ as soon as He is born, it has seven heads (Rev 12:3-4). That means that, in that context, it is an earthly power. It then must be the Roman Empire, for that empire ruled when Jesus was born.
Based on the principle that the beasts of Revelation are heads, this confirms that the Roman Empire is one of the seven heads.
The Sea Beast
The beast that comes out of the sea, with its seven heads (Rev 13:1) inherits its characteristics from four other animals:
And the beast which I saw was like a leopard,
and his feet were like those of a bear,
and his mouth like the mouth of a lion.
And the dragon gave him his power and his throne and great authority. (Rev 13:2 NASB)
The leopard, bear, and lion are explicitly the first three animals in Daniel 7 (Dan 7:3-5). Daniel 7 does not say what kind of animal the fourth is but describes it as “dreadful and terrifying and extremely strong” (Dan 7:7). However, for the following reasons, Revelation’s “dragon” is the fourth beast in Daniel 7:
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- It is mentioned together with the first three beasts of Daniel 7.
- The description of the fourth beast in Daniel 7 (“dreadful and terrifying and extremely strong”) sounds like a dragon.
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The Sea Beast, therefore, inherits something from each of the four beasts in Daniel. For that reason, as argued in the article on The Seven-Headed Beasts of Revelation, the Sea Beast is the same as the 11th horn that grows out of Daniel’s fourth empire (the Roman Empire). These are two different symbols for the same power; the Antichrist. Since it is the main anti-God power in both Daniel and Revelation, and we must regard it as a separate kingdom. Furthermore, since the beasts of Revelation are heads of the beast, the 11th horn (the sea beast) is the fifth head.
The Last of the Seven Heads
Revelation 13 mentions something about the Sea Beast which Daniel does not say about the 11th horn, namely that this beast receives a deadly (Rev 13:3), but recovers from that wound to become Satan’s primary agent on earth. It is the mark of this beast which people will receive in the end-time (Rev 13:16). The deadly wound implies three phases:
1. ALIVE – It exists for a time before receiving the wound.
2. DEAD – After receiving the deadly wound.
3. ALIVE – After it recovers from the fatal wound.
Revelation 17 identifies the wound as the sixth head:
Revelation 17:8-10 explains both the seven heads and the beast in terms of the past, the present, and the future:
PAST | PRESENT | FUTURE | |
BEAST | WAS | IS NOT / IN ABYSS |
COME UP FROM ABYSS |
HEADS | FIVE WAS | ONE IS | OTHER HAS NOT YET COME |
The sixth head is the ‘present’ head, but at ‘present’ the beast is in the Abyss, for it is “about to come up out of the abyss” (v8). The Abyss-period is, therefore, the 6th head.
It is quite unusual for the powers that oppose God to go through a period of incapacity. It is therefore likely that the period of incapacity in Revelation 13 (the period of death) is the same as the period of incapacity in Revelation 17 (the “is not” or Abyss-period).
We can prove this, for the following two verses describe what will happen AFTER the beast in Revelation 13 recovers from the deadly wound and after the beast in Revelation 17 comes out of the abyss:
“All who dwell on the earth will worship him, everyone whose name has not been written from the foundation of the world in the book of life” (Rev 13:8).
“Those who dwell on the earth, whose name has not been written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, will wonder when they see the beast” (Rev 17:8).
The similarity of these two verses implies that they refer to the same event, which means that the DEAD-period in Revelation 13 is the same as the Abyss-period in Revelation 17, which is the sixth head.
Conclusion
The foregoing results in the following seven heads:
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- Babylonian Empires
- Medo-Persian Empire
- Greece
- Roman Empire
- 11th horn arose from the Roman Empire
- 11th horn mortally wounded (Rev 13:3) / in abyss (Rev 17:8) / in wilderness (Rev 17:3)
- 11th horn resurrected in the end-time (Rev 13:4) — The time of the False Prophet and Image of the Beast
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The Time Perspective
Time Perspective in Revelation 17
Revelation 17 describes things that were, things that are, and things that will be. In this context, the sixth head of the beast presently “is” (Rev 17:9-10). The conclusion above means that the ‘present time’ in Revelation 17 is a long time after Christ’s ascension.
However, verses 9-10 are part of the angel’s explanation to John, and some scholars hold that while the visions can describe any time, the time perspective of the explanations in Daniel and Revelation must always be the prophet’s time. Otherwise, the prophet would not understand. In this view, the sixth head exists in John’s time and is the Roman Empire.
However:
It is one of the plague angels, who John saw in their vision, who explained these things to John (Rev 17:1). Therefore, the explanation is part of the vision.
We see this also in Rev 21, where the same plague angel both speaks to John and shows him things in vision. (Rev 21:9-10) This shows again that the angel’s words of explanation are part of the vision. The sharp distinction between visions and explanations does not seem to hold.
Therefore, when the angel took John to “a wilderness” (17:3), he took him to a different time. We see this also in Rev 21, where the angel carried John to a different place (a great and high mountain) to show him the holy city, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God (Rev 21:10). Since the holy city comes down at the end of the Millennium (Rev 21:1, 2), this also shows that moving John to a different place means moving him to a different time.
Furthermore, if the sixth head existed in John’s time, then that head should be the Roman Empire. Then it would be difficult to identify five previous heads and still stay within the kingdoms listed by Daniel. To go outside of Daniel seems wrong.
Lastly, the argument assumes that John understood his visions. That would be impossible. It is only with the hindsight of history that we are able to understand these visions. Furthermore, Daniel’s prophecies would only be understood in the end time (Dan 12:9, 4). Since Revelation’s visions are based on Daniel’s, Revelation would also only be understood in the end-time.
Other instances of ‘present times’
The article on the fifth seal has concluded that other parts of Revelation also have a ‘present time’ with events in the past and events in the future. In all instances, this time perspective is much later than John’s time:
In the fifth seal, the souls under the altar receive their white robes after many Christians have already been slaughtered but before many more will be killed (Rev 6:9-11). This point in time, when they receive their robes, is much later than John’s time, for it is part of the fifth seal, and the seals began after Christ’s ascension.
In the sealing, while four angels have been holding back the four winds of destruction, a fifth angel comes from heaven with the seal of the living God. And while the four angels continue to keep the four winds in check, the fifth angel seals God’s 144,000 (Rev 7:1-4)
In the trumpets, John has to eat a little book and “prophesy again” (Rev 10:11), implying that he also prophesied before he received the book. Since this is part of the sixth trumpet, and since the trumpets also begin at the Cross, the little book comes down out of heaven (Rev 10:1) much later than John’s time.
These examples are not explanations but imply that the entire Revelation was written from a specific time perspective.
The Time of the End
The article on the fifth seal concluded further that the time perspective in all these instances is the beginning of Daniel’s “time of the end,” when Daniel’s prophecies will be understood (Dan 12:4, 9). In other words, both the seal of God (Rev 7:1) and the little book (Rev 10:1) come down from heaven in the End Time, resulting in the sealing of the 144000 (Rev 7:1-8), prophesying (Rev 10:11), and the final phase of persecution (Rev 6:11).
It is further proposed that the entire book of Revelation is presented to us from the time perspective of the beginning of “the time of the end,” including the time when the beast “is about to come up out of the abyss” (Rev 17:8).
Articles on Revelation
INTRODUCTORY
Why is the title of this website Revelation BY Jesus Christ?
Are events described in chronological sequence?
Is a consistently literal interpretation appropriate?
Does Revelation present Jesus as God?
God’s throne – the center of the universe.
BABYLON
Babylon; the mother of harlots
Babylon’s merchants are her false prophets.
Babylon is not the reconstructed ancient city of Babylon.
How does Babylon relate to the beast?
SEVEN-HEADED BEASTS
The Seven-Headed Beasts of Revelation
The three beasts are three of the seven heads.
The Seven Heads Identified
REVELATION 13
13:1-2 – The Beast relates to Daniel 7.
13:3-4 – The fatal wound
The identity of the beast
SEVEN SEALS
Introduction to the Seven Seals – What book is this?
Seven seals explained
Does the seventh seal include the seven trumpets?
SEVEN PLAGUES
The Plagues of Revelation – 16 articles
For further reading, Jon Paulien’s commentary is recommended. For general discussions of theology, I recommend Graham Maxwell, who you will find on the Pineknoll website.