And the dragon stood on the shore
of the sea.
And I saw a beast coming out of the
sea. He had ten horns and seven heads, with ten crowns on his horns, and on
each head a blasphemous name. The beast I saw resembled a leopard, but had feet
like those of a bear and a mouth like that of a lion. The dragon gave the beast
his power and his throne and great authority. One of the heads of the beast
seemed to have had a fatal wound, but the fatal wound had been healed. The
whole world was astonished and followed the beast. Revelation 13:1-3
The Beast in John's vision
appears to have a fatal wound but it recovers.
What is this fatal wound?
Some believe that it is the
future antichrist who will be shot then resurrect to the amazement of people
who will follow him. That clearly is not
in the text. The beast is a kingdom not
a person.
"He gave me this
explanation: ‘The fourth beast is a fourth kingdom that will appear on earth.
It will be different from all the other kingdoms and will devour the whole
earth, trampling it down and crushing it.
Daniel 7:23
Daniel 7 details a fourth beast
with 10 horns, just like Revelation.
It's clear Daniel was receiving the vision in the 6th Century to
understand the authority structure of the world in the present and coming
days. The first beast represented Babylon,
the second Persia, then Greece and finally Rome. Since Daniel's fourth beast is Rome and it
received a "fatal wound" that would have been healed, this means that
Rome faltered and appeared dead, but got back up on its feet. Did that happen?
Rome was attacked many times when
it ruled, but it overcame and remained in power for hundreds of years. The Roman leadership under Nero teetered
because of his mental condition. After
Nero, leadership went through three quick changes in the heads of state with
three emperors killed in 69 AD.
Vespasian finally resurrected Roman sovereignty.
So the Beast's "fatal
wound" was a questionable time in Rome's history when it appeared the
country would fall apart, but it didn't.