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Read the Bible

Biblia Karoli Gaspar

Jelenések 13:14

És elhiteti a földnek lakosait a jelekkel, a melyek adatának néki, hogy cselekedje a fenevad elõtt; azt mondván a föld lakosainak, hogy csinálják meg a fenevadnak képét, a ki fegyverrel megsebesíttetett vala, de megelevenedett.

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Nave's Topical Bible - Miracles;   Vision;   Scofield Reference Index - Antichrist;   The Topic Concordance - Empires/world Powers;   Torrey's Topical Textbook - Miracles through Evil Agents;   Miraculous Gifts of the Holy Spirit;  

Dictionaries:

- American Tract Society Bible Dictionary - Miracle;   Bridgeway Bible Dictionary - Apocalyptic literature;   Miracles;   Signs;   Charles Buck Theological Dictionary - Antichrist;   Order;   Fausset Bible Dictionary - Antichrist;   Divination;   Idol;   Meshach;   Miracles;   Nebuchadnezzar;   Zechariah, the Book of;   Holman Bible Dictionary - Emperor Worship;   Miracles, Signs, Wonders;   Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible - Antichrist;   Spiritual Gifts;   Thessalonians, Second Epistle to the;   Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament - Antichrist ;   Ascension of Isaiah;   Beast;   Enoch Book of;   Eschatology;   Hour (Figurative);   Image;   Miracles;   Plague;   Morrish Bible Dictionary - Abomination of Desolation;   Antichrist;   Dwellers on Earth;   Miracles;   Prophets, the;   Roman Empire;   Thessalonians, Epistles to the;   People's Dictionary of the Bible - Antichrist;  

Encyclopedias:

- International Standard Bible Encyclopedia - Antichrist;   Eschatology of the New Testament;   Mean;   Miracle;   Revelation of John:;  

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

deceiveth: Revelation 12:9, Revelation 18:23, Revelation 19:20, Revelation 20:3, Revelation 20:10, 2 Kings 22:20, *marg. Job 12:16, Isaiah 44:20, Ezekiel 14:9, 2 Thessalonians 2:9-12

dwell: Revelation 13:3, Revelation 13:8

they: Revelation 13:3, Revelation 13:4, Revelation 13:11, Revelation 13:12, Revelation 13:15, Revelation 14:9, Revelation 14:11, Revelation 15:2, Revelation 16:2, Revelation 19:20, Revelation 20:4, 2 Kings 20:7, Ezekiel 8:10, Ezekiel 16:17, Daniel 11:36, 2 Thessalonians 2:4

Reciprocal: Genesis 3:5 - as gods Exodus 8:7 - General Exodus 20:4 - General Leviticus 26:1 - Ye shall Deuteronomy 11:16 - your heart Deuteronomy 13:2 - General Deuteronomy 13:3 - proveth Deuteronomy 13:6 - entice 1 Kings 22:22 - a lying spirit 2 Chronicles 18:21 - General Proverbs 12:26 - but Jeremiah 10:5 - speak Jeremiah 29:8 - Let Ezekiel 34:4 - but with Daniel 3:7 - all the people Matthew 13:25 - enemy Matthew 13:39 - enemy Matthew 24:24 - and shall Mark 13:22 - if it Luke 17:1 - It is John 8:44 - When Acts 8:9 - used Romans 8:39 - depth 2 Corinthians 11:15 - his Galatians 1:7 - pervert Galatians 3:1 - who Ephesians 2:2 - the prince Colossians 2:18 - no 1 Timothy 4:1 - seducing 2 Timothy 2:16 - for 2 Timothy 3:13 - evil Titus 3:3 - deceived James 3:6 - a world 2 Peter 2:1 - even 2 Peter 2:2 - many 1 John 5:21 - keep 2 John 1:7 - who Revelation 2:24 - the depths Revelation 11:10 - dwell Revelation 16:14 - working

Gill's Notes on the Bible

And deceiveth them that dwell on the earth,.... The Complutensian edition, and two of Stephens's copies, read "mine", instead of "them"; creatures of God, and professors of Christ, carnal and unregenerate men; not the elect of God, and true believers in Christ, these cannot be deceived by the signs and wonders of false Christs and false prophets; antichrist's deceivableness of unrighteousness only operates in them that perish:

by [the means of] those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast; the secular power of the Papacy encouraging, confirming, and giving a sanction to those lying miracles, and obliging all to believe them, and come into the things, doctrines, or practices, they are designed to promote:

saying to them that dwell on the earth: the apostate church, or the carnal inhabitants of the empire: ordering and commanding them

that they should make an image to the beast which had the wound by a sword, and did live; meaning the Roman empire, which had received a deadly wound in its sixth head, the emperors, by the sword of the Goths, Huns, c. but now revived in its seventh head, the pope of Rome, to whom the ten kings gave their kingdoms: the image made to this beast some understand of the translation of the empire to Charles the great, and his successors the emperors, by the pope of Rome, he ordaining so many electors to chose a king of the Romans, and elect an emperor when one was wanting and this was an image to the first beast, a shadow, an appearance of the Roman empire, and but a shadow; for the power of inaugurating and crowning these emperors, and of setting up and deposing them when the pope pleased, lie reserved to himself: but rather this designs the image worship, or the worshipping of idols of gold and silver, of wood and stone, which he caused the inhabitants of the earth to make, and give adoration to; or else the whole Papal religion, and the Papacy itself, for the beast, and the image of the beast, are all along in this book afterwards mentioned together as being the same,

Revelation 14:9, which is an image of the Gentile religion, in their high priest, priests, temples, idols, offerings, garments, worshipping of angels, and saints departed, with a numerous train of rites and ceremonies, borrowed from the old Pagan religion; hence the Papists are called Gentiles, Revelation 11:2, the Roman empire, represented by these two beasts, and this image, had now one head, the pope, as before an emperor, and a religion in it much resembling its ancient one; but, before that was set up, this image was in being.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

And deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles - Nothing could possibly be more descriptive of the papacy than this. It has been kept up by deception and delusion, and its pretended miracles have been, and are to this day, the means by which this is done. Anyone in the slightest degree acquainted with the pretended miracles practiced at Rome, will see the propriety of this description as applied to the papacy. The main fact here stated, that the papacy would endeavor to sustain itself by pretended miracles, is confirmed by an incidental remark of Mr. Gibbon, when speaking of the pontificate of Gregory the Great; he says: “The credulity or the prudence of Gregory was always disposed to confirm the truths of religion by the evidence of ghosts, miracles, and resurrections” (Decline and Fall, 3:210). Even within a month of the time that I am writing (October 5, 1850), intelligence has been received in this country of extraordinary privileges conferred on some city in Italy, because the eyes of a picture of the Virgin in that city have miraculously moved - greatly to the “confirmation of the faithful.”

Such things are constantly occurring; and it is by these that the supremacy of the papacy has been and is sustained. The Breviary teems with examples of miracles performed by the saints. For instance: Francis Xavier turned a sufficient quantity of salt water into fresh to save the lives of five hundred travelers who were dying of thirst, enough being left to allow a large exportation to different parts of the world, where it performed astonishing cures. Raymond de Pennafort laid his cloak on the sea, and sailed from Majorca to Barcelona, a distance of a hundred and sixty miles, in six hours. Juliana lay on her death-bed; her stomach rejected all solid food, and in consequence she was prevented from receiving the eucharist. In compliance with her earnest solicitations, the consecrated wafer was laid on her breast; the priest prayed; the wafer vanished, and Juliana expired. Many pages might be filled with accounts of modern miracles of the most ridiculous description, yet believed by Roman Catholics - the undoubted means by which papal Rome “deceives the world,” and keeps up its ascendency in this age. See Forsyth’s Italy, ii. pp. 154-157; Rome in the Nineteenth Century, i. p. 40, 86, ii. p. 356, 3, pp. 193-201; Lady Morgan’s Italy, ii. p. 306, iii. p. 189; Graham’s Three Months’ Residence, etc., p. 241.

Saying to them that dwell on the earth - That is, as far as its influence would extend. This implies that there would be authority, and that this authority would be exercised to secure this object.

That they should make an image to the beast - That is, something that would represent the beast, and that might be an object of worship. The word rendered “image” - εἰκών eikōn - means properly:

(a)An image, effigy, figure, as an idol, image, or figure;

(b)A likeness, resemblance, similitude.

Here the meaning would seem to be that, in order to secure the acknowledgment of the beast, and the homage to be rendered to him, there was something like a statue made, or that John saw in vision such a representation - that is, that a state of things existed as if such a statue were made, and people were constrained to acknowledge this. All that is stated here would be fulfilled if the old Roman civil power should become to a large extent dead, or cease to exert its influence over people, and if then the papal spiritual power should cause a form of domination to exist strongly resembling the former in its general character and extent, and if it should secure this result - that the world would acknowledge its sway or render it homage as it did to the old Roman government. This would receive its fulfillment if it be supposed that the first “beast” represented the ancient Roman civil power as such; that this died away - as if the head had received a fatal wound; that it was again revived under the influence of the papacy; and that, under that influence, a civil government, strongly resembling the old Roman dominion, was caused to exist, depending for its vital energy on the papacy, and, in its turn, lending its aid to support the papacy.

All this in fact occurred in the decline of the Roman power after the time of Constantine, and its final apparent extinction, as if “wounded to death,” in the exile of the last of the emperors, the son of Orestes, who assumed the names of Romulus and Augustus, names which were corrupted, the former by the Greeks into Momyllus, and the latter by the Latins “into the contemptible diminutive Augustulus.” See Gibbon 2:381. Under him the empire ceased, until it was revived in the days of Charlemagne. In the empire which then sprung up, and which owed much of its influence to the sustaining aid of the papacy, we discern the “image” of the former Roman power; the prolongation of the Roman ascendency over the world. On the exile of the feeble son of Orestes (476 a.d.), the government passed into the hands of Odoacer, “the first barbarian who reigned in Italy” (Gibbon); and then the authority was divided among the sovereignties which sprang up after the conquests of the barbarians, until the “empire” was again restored in the time and the person of Charlemagne. See Gibbon, iii. 344ff.

Which had the wound by a sword, and did live - Which had a wound that was naturally fatal. but whose fatal consequences were prevented by the intervention of another power. See the notes on Revelation 13:3. That is, according to the explanation given above, the Roman imperial power was “wounded with a fatal wound” by the invasions of the northern hordes - the sword of the conquerors. Its power, however, was restored by the papacy, giving life to what resembled essentially the Roman civil jurisdiction - the “image” of the former beast; and that power, thus restored, asserted its dominion again, as the prolonged Roman dominion - the fourth kingdom of Daniel (see the notes on Daniel 7:19 ff) - over the world.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Revelation 13:14. Saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast, which had the wound by a sword, and did live. — The image of the beast must designate a person who represents in himself the whole power of the Latin empire, therefore it cannot be the emperor; for though he was, according to his own account, supremum caput Christianitatis, the supreme head of Christendom, yet he was only the chief of the Germanic confederation, and consequently was only sovereign of the principal power of the Latin empire. The image of the beast must be the supreme ruler of the Latin empire, and as it is through the influence of the false prophet that this image is made for the first beast, this great chief must be an ecclesiastic. Who this is has been ably shown by Bishop Newton in his comment on the following verse.


 
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