The Second Beast

11 Then I saw another beast that rose out of the earth; it had two horns like a lamb and it spoke like a dragon.¹²It exercises all the authority of the first beast on its behalf, and it makes the earth and its inhabitants worship the first beast, whose mortal wound^* had been healed.¹³It performs great signs, even making fire come down from heaven to earth in the sight of all;¹⁴and by the signs that it is allowed to perform on behalf of the beast, it deceives the inhabitants of earth, telling them to make an image for the beast that had been wounded by the sword^* and yet lived;¹⁵and it was allowed to give breath^* to the image of the beast, so that the image of the beast could even speak and cause those who would not worship the image of the beast to be killed.¹⁶Also it causes all, both small and great, both rich and poor, both free and slave, to be marked on the right hand or the forehead,¹⁷so that no one can buy or sell who does not have the mark, that is, the name of the beast or the number of its name.¹⁸This calls for wisdom: let anyone with understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a person. Its number is six hundred and sixty-six.^*

Nigerian shopping mall: soft sell

This second beast, which looks like a lamb but speaks like a dragon is the Pax Romana, the seductive economic and political order which attracted different nations to the Empire. It is Rome operating as a brand, peddling propaganda and consumer goods, amazing barbarians with the skill of its technology (fire from heaven). The analysis of imperial power is particularly subtle in this section, noting the soft selling of Roman civilisation and the economic advantages of belonging to it. No-one who does not bear the mark of the beast can buy and sell. It’s a bit like membership of the European Community or any large exclusive trading group, but with just a hint of coercion: the mark of belonging is the mark of the beast which will reveal  its claws at any sign of opposition. “Nero Caesar” adds up to 666 in Greek letters and may be its original reference. 

car?

Of course this passage has spawned an incredible literature of interpretation and will doubtless continue to do so, in defiance of its plain meaning. Attempts to fit its interpretation into some ambitious supernatural narrative of the end of the world and the modern identity of the beast are not simply due to the high nuttiness coefficient of their authors, but also to a refusal to see the passage as a sophisticated critique of the dominant economic powers of our world, which sell themselves so successfully that no-one minds bearing the brand mark of the beast. Should they step out of line, however, they’ll be treated like Tibet, or Cuba or Iraq. Ultimately, those who do not worship the image of Russia or China or the USA or B.P. are disposable and sometimes their lives may have to be terminated with extreme prejudice. Many liberally minded people will see such occasional wars or killings as necessary and trivial accompaniments of civilisation. The prophet of Revelation sees them as signs of demonic possession.

That’s a socio-economic interpretation but it’s just as interesting to give a psychological interpretation, showing how domination of any kind expresses itself in seductive imagery, celebrity imagery for example, to persuade victims to worship the people who oppress them. The current investigation into the paedophiliac activities of the late Jimmy Savile provides one example of this mechanism. More pervasive is the constant use of sexual imagery by commercial interests to give to the most mundane of purchases an erotic charge: I no longer buy a car, I buy an orgasmatron.

By these and many other devices the Church of the Beast gathers willing and well-deceived worshippers.