One of the heads of the sea beast is “slain” (Revelation 13) and then healed. It is an obvious parody of death and resurrection. Everyone in Revelation follows a slain-and-healed beast; it’s just a choice of which one.
The Lamb is the one slain (5:6, 9, 12), slain long before the beast appeared, slain before the foundation of the world. And the saints share in that slaying (cf. 6:9; 18:24). The lamb is not slain to deliver the saints from being slain, but to give them a share in the Lamb’s slaying.
And the saints are slain, like the Lamb, by the beast whose head is slain and healed. The parodically slain beast slays the saints and gives them a share in the slaying of the Lamb.
YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE
The Church in the Age of Therapy
In 1966, Philip Rieff wrote in The Triumph of the Therapeutic that “Religious man was born to…
Canada’s Deadliest Blind Spot
On September 20, the Daily Mail ran a story with the provocative headline, “Our 83-year-old Christian grandmother…
The Faithful Joy of Dolly Parton and Fulton Sheen
Dolly Parton and Fulton Sheen seem to have had little in common. She favored rhinestones; he wore…
