Beast’s Dominion

Revelation includes several fourfold lists of the groups that are under the dominion of the Lamb. Four of these lists include ethnos , phule , glossa , and laos (5:9; 7:9; 11:9; 14:6), though in a slightly altered order each time. In addition, 10:11 includes laos , ethnos , and glossa , but instead of phule it has basileus . 17:15 has laos , ethnos , and glossa but includes ochlos rather than phule . Thus, four of the lists include the same four elements. It’s a 4 x 4 dominion, extending fourfold to the four corners of the earth. The other two replace phule with something else, a perhaps significant detail since phule is commonly used in the book for the tribes of Israel (5:5, 9; 7:4-8; 21:12).

The beast’s dominion parodies that of the Lamb, but it is only a partial dominion. That partiality is evident from the fact that the beast’s dominion is only over three categories – phule , glossa , and ethnos (13:7). There is one type of group that eludes the beast. His is an unstable dominion, 3 x 4 instead of 4 x 4.

Is there a reason why 13:7 specifically leaves out laos ? It might be the fact that laos is the term used to describe God’s own people (18:4; 21:3). Intriguingly, the first six times laos appears in the book, it’s embedded in a fourfold list. They are still among the other groups in 17:15, part of the waters where the harlot sits. But in 18:4, a heavenly voice commands “come out of her, my laos ,” and in 21:3, the people is God’s people, and God Himself their God. Laos has been separated from other terms for social groups, and that textual separation pictures the social separation from peoples, tongues, and tribes.