Revelation 13 — Greek text and reception
Each card preserves the Greek reading and its textual and reception notes. This source provides a Greek study edition; Hebrew counterparts and Hebrew–Greek classifications are not supplied.
Chapter 13
The beast from the sea
Verse 13:1
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
And I saw a beast coming up from the sea, having ten horns and seven heads, and upon its horns ten diadems, and upon its heads names of blasphemy.
Textual & Reception Notes
Textual [G]: Ten diadems rest on the horns, unlike the dragon's seven on its heads in 12:3. Blasphemous names are plural in the selected text.
Reception: R056 (Victorinus tradition; scope 13:1–2).
Verse 13:2
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
And the beast I saw was like a leopard, and its feet like a bear’s, and its mouth like a lion’s mouth. And the dragon gave it his power and his throne and great authority.
Textual & Reception Notes
Textual [G]: Leopard, bear and lion contribute distinct features to one beast. Its power, throne and authority come expressly from the dragon.
Reception: R056 (Victorinus tradition; scope 13:1–2); R084 (John Bunyan; scope 9:11,13:2).
Verse 13:3
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
And one of its heads was as slaughtered to death, and its wound of death was healed. And the whole earth marveled after the beast,
Textual & Reception Notes
Textual [G]: One head appears as slaughtered to death; its death wound is healed. The comparison and healing are retained without assigning a named emperor.
Reception: No passage-specific reception verified in this review.
Verse 13:4
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
and they worshiped the dragon because he gave authority to the beast, and they worshiped the beast, saying, “Who is like the beast, and who is able to wage war with it?”
Textual & Reception Notes
Textual [G]: Worship reaches both dragon and beast because of delegated authority. The rhetorical questions voice the worshipers' admiration, not the narrator's endorsement.
Reception: No passage-specific reception verified in this review.
Verse 13:5
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
And a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies was given to it, and authority to act for forty-two months was given to it.
Textual & Reception Notes
Textual [G]: The beast receives both its boastful mouth and a limited period to act. Forty-two months remains stated without conversion into a historical dating scheme.
Reception: No passage-specific reception verified in this review.
Verse 13:6
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
And it opened its mouth in blasphemies against God, to blaspheme His name and His tent, those dwelling in heaven.
Textual & Reception Notes
Textual [G]: His tent, those dwelling in heaven preserves the explanatory apposition without adding an and not present between them.
Reception: No passage-specific reception verified in this review.
Verse 13:7
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
And it was given to it to make war with the saints and conquer them, and authority was given to it over every tribe and people and tongue and nation.
Textual & Reception Notes
Textual [G]: Permission to conquer saints is explicit despite their ultimate victory elsewhere. Every tribe, people, tongue and nation describes the authority's breadth.
Reception: No passage-specific reception verified in this review.
Verse 13:8
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
And all those dwelling upon the earth will worship it, each whose name has not been written in the book of life of the Lamb slaughtered from the foundation of the world.
Textual & Reception Notes
Textual [G]: From the foundation of the world is here attached to slaughtered, following its nearest phrase. Attachment to written is another major interpretation, supported by the similar wording at 17:8; specialist review remains open. Each makes the source’s singular whose relation intelligible after the plural all.
Reception: No passage-specific reception verified in this review.
Verse 13:9
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
If anyone has an ear, let him hear.
Textual & Reception Notes
Textual [G]: The hearing appeal appears without the Church formula of chapters 2–3. It introduces the endurance saying rather than naming a new speaker.
Reception: No passage-specific reception verified in this review.
Verse 13:10
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
If anyone is for captivity, into captivity he goes; if anyone is to be killed by a sword, by a sword he must be killed. Here is the endurance and the faith of the saints.
Textual & Reception Notes
Textual [G]: The sword clause is passive, to be killed, not the active whoever kills. Must makes the elliptical infinitive construction intelligible without reversing its voice.
Reception: No passage-specific reception verified in this review.
The beast from the earth
Verse 13:11
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
And I saw another beast coming up from the earth, and it had two horns like a lamb, and spoke like a dragon.
Textual & Reception Notes
Textual [G]: Another beast rises from earth, with lamb-like horns but dragon-like speech. The contrast concerns appearance and voice, not identity with the Lamb.
Reception: R057 (Victorinus tradition; scope 13:11,13:13–17).
Verse 13:12
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
And it exercises all the authority of the first beast before it, and makes the earth and those dwelling in it worship the first beast, whose wound of death was healed.
Textual & Reception Notes
Textual [G]: The second beast acts before the first and directs worship toward it. The healed death wound identifies the first beast already seen.
Reception: No passage-specific reception verified in this review.
Verse 13:13
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
And it performs great signs, so that it even makes fire come down from heaven to the earth before people.
Textual & Reception Notes
Textual [G]: Great signs include fire descending in public view. The text describes their deceptive setting without treating signs as automatic proof of divine approval.
Reception: R057 (Victorinus tradition; scope 13:11,13:13–17).
Verse 13:14
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
And it deceives those dwelling upon the earth because of the signs it was given to perform before the beast, telling those dwelling upon the earth to make an image for the beast that has the sword wound and lived.
Textual & Reception Notes
Textual [G]: The beast's image is made at the second beast's instruction. Signs explain the deception, and the sword wound recalls the first beast's recovery.
Reception: R057 (Victorinus tradition; scope 13:11,13:13–17).
Verse 13:15
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
And it was given to it to give breath to the beast’s image, so that the beast’s image might both speak and cause as many as would not worship the beast’s image to be killed.
Textual & Reception Notes
Textual [G]: Breath renders pneuma in the animation of the image, not the Holy Spirit.
Reception: R057 (Victorinus tradition; scope 13:11,13:13–17).
Verse 13:16
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
And it causes all—the small and the great, and the rich and the poor, and the free and the slaves—to be given a mark upon their right hand or upon their forehead,
Textual & Reception Notes
Textual [G]: The source has a plural they should give them a mark with no named giver; the English passive preserves the action without naming an extra agent.
Reception: R057 (Victorinus tradition; scope 13:11,13:13–17).
Verse 13:17
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
so that no one may be able to buy or sell except the one having the mark, the name of the beast or the number of its name.
Textual & Reception Notes
Textual [G]: Buying and selling depend on bearing the mark, explained by the beast's name or its number. The source does not name a modern payment system.
Reception: R057 (Victorinus tradition; scope 13:11,13:13–17).
Verse 13:18
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
Here is wisdom. Let the one who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is a human number, and its number is six hundred sixty-six.
Textual & Reception Notes
Textual [G]: The number is spelled out as six hundred sixty-six. A human number can also mean a man’s number. No current person, technology, or institution is identified.
Reception: R058 (Victorinus tradition; scope 13:18); R068 (Irenaeus; scope 13:18).