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Echoes of Revelation
Revelation never quotes the Old Testament outright, yet no New Testament book refers to it more. See both texts side by side, why they don’t match, and what John does with them.
Revelation 13:7-8, authority over every tribe, and worship
The beast is given authority over every tribe, people and language and is worshiped, a parody of the son of man in Daniel 7:14, to whom authority is given and all peoples serve.
Revelation 13:7-8, in every translation this tool compares.
A copycat brand that steals a famous logo shows whom it wants to be mistaken for. In Daniel 7:14 the son of man is given authority, and all peoples, nations and languages serve him. John gives the beast the same rule over all peoples, and says everyone on earth will worship it. The beast takes the son of man's crown for itself. Beale calls it a parody.
Authority given to him, edothe auto exousia, and peoples, tribes and languages. The given authority matches the Greek of Daniel 7:14 and 7:6; the list of peoples matches the Greek of Daniel 7:14.
In Daniel the authority and the worship go to the son of man, and his kingdom never ends. John gives them to the beast, for a limited time. The same Greek word for given authority is used of Daniel's leopard in 7:6, and Beale thinks John noticed the irony already in Daniel.
The beast's rule is a mock version of the son of man's. Beale says readers should see it as a taunting prelude to Christ's victory. The beast's authority comes from the same God who will give the son of man the kingdom. The contrast is with 5:9, where the Lamb buys people from every tribe.
Not a true rival to Christ. The sources stress the beast's power is given and temporary.
Beale sets out the Greek of Daniel 7:14 beside Revelation 13:7b-8a and says the authorization clause is closer to the old Greek and the list of peoples closer to Theodotion. In his introduction he lists Daniel 7:14 in 13:7-8 among John's ironic uses. He also weighs Daniel 3:7, where all peoples worship the golden image, but holds that Daniel 7:14 is the strongest influence. The NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible links the verse to Daniel 3:7 and contrasts Daniel 7:14. The CSB Study Bible cross-references Daniel 7:6 and 14; the NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible cites Daniel 7:13-14. The grade is drawn here: the authorization clause and the people list together point to Daniel 7:14.
Heiser notes that the beasts imitate Christ, and that some of their language comes from Daniel 7's picture of the son of man being given the kingdom and an everlasting rule. To him it is illegitimate authority, a counterfeit.
Beale treats Daniel 7:14 as the main source. The NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible and the NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible point more to Daniel 3, the worship of Nebuchadnezzar's image. J. M. Ford, as Beale reports, sees Daniel 3:5-6 here.
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- G. K. Beale, The Book of Revelation (New International Greek Testament Commentary), comment on 13:7b-8a, and introduction, Inverted Uses
- NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible, note on Revelation 13:7
- CSB Study Bible, cross-references at Revelation 13:7
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, note on Revelation 13:7
- Septuagint, Daniel 7:14 and 7:6, Interlinear Greek-English Septuagint
- SBL Greek New Testament (MorphGNT), Revelation 13:7-8
- Michael S. Heiser, Revelation 13: The Two Beasts: From the Sea and the Earth, video lecture (Naked Bible Revelation series)
