Spoke 13
Inner Wheel of Revelation
The Beast from the Sea
And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise
up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns
ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy. And the beast which
I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear,
and his mouth as the mouth of a lion: and the dragon gave him his power,
and his seat, and great authority.
Revelation 13:1f
In Hebrew, the simplest way to write the phrase out of the sea is as a
single word  (miyam), formed from
 (yam, sea) prefixed with Thirteenth Letter
 Mem signifying Mayim (Water). This is an example of the
Mem Prefix which is how the prepositions from,
of, or out of are indicated in Hebrew. Examples of the word "miyam" can be found in the
Hebrew text of 1 Kings 18:44, Isa 24:14, and Isa 63:11. The meaning of the Mem Prefix manifests in the unique reference
to the two beasts that emmerge out of the sea and the earth found only in Revelation 13 (see below).
Miyam (out of the sea) differs
from the name of the Thirteenth Letter  (Mem, Water),
only in pronunciation; the spellings are identical. To find this phrase in the opening
verse of Revelation 13 is just as striking as finding
Revelation 4 opening with the name of the Fourth Letter Dalet (Door).
The correlation with the Hebrew alphabet is perfect and exact. The profound relation
between Mem and the idea of Water is further discussed in the Spoke 13 article
called A Fountain of Living Waters.
Two Beasts OUT OF the Sea and Earth.
And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise
up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns
ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy. ....................Revelation 13:1
And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two
horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon.
Revelation 13:11
Images of a beast rising "out of" the sea or the earth are unique to Revelation 13. This is an example of
a perfect correspondence between the content of a chapter of Revelation and the exact grammatical function
of the corresponding Hebrew letter. We also have an extremely significant integration of the content of Revelation 13 and
the Book of Habakkuk on Spoke 13 of the Bible Wheel, as we shall presently see.
Revelation 13 and Habakkuk (Spoke 13, Cycle 2)
There is also a deep integration of the theme of Revelation 13 with elements
from Spoke 13 of the Bible Wheel. Searching then entire Bible for all verses
that mention a leopard in the context of sand yields exactly two
verses: Revelation 13.1-2 (quoted above) and Habakkuk 1.8-9.
I begin the quote from verse 5 for context:
Behold ye among the heathen, and regard, and wonder marvellously:
for I
will work a work in your days, which ye will not believe, though it be told you.
For, lo, I raise up the Chaldeans, that bitter and hasty nation, which shall march
through the breadth of the land, to possess the dwellingplaces that are not
theirs. They are terrible and dreadful: their judgment and their dignity shall
proceed of themselves. Their horses also are swifter than the leopards, and
are more fierce than the evening wolves: and their horsemen shall spread
themselves, and their horsemen shall come from far; they shall fly as the eagle
that hasteth to eat. They shall come all for violence: their faces shall sup
up as the east wind, and they shall gather the captivity as the sand. And they
shall scoff at the kings, and the princes shall be a scorn unto them: they
shall deride every strong hold; for they shall heap dust, and take it. Then
shall his mind change, and he shall pass over, and offend, imputing this
his power unto his god.
This yields a first order projective KeyLink between the Inner Wheel of Revelation
and the Bible Wheel1:
 | KeyLink: Leopard, Sand | PRevelation( 131, 1 )  PBible( 132, 1 ) |
At first glance, it might appear this link is a "mere coincidence" since the words
leopard and sand are not central to the themes found in Revelation 13 and
Habakkuk.
But this view is quickly dispelled when we read the highlighted phrase in the
quote from Habakkuk:
Then
shall his mind change, and he shall pass over, and offend, imputing this
his power unto his god.
This correlates with the primary event in Revelation 13:
And the beast which
I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear,
and his mouth as the mouth of a lion: and the dragon gave him his power,
and his seat, and great authority.
Searching the
entire KJV for the words (imput*/gave, "his power") [Verify] yields exactly two verses,
Habakkuk 1.11 and Revelation 13.2, both quoted above. We have another KeyLink, the
content of which explicitly links the common theme:
| KeyLink: The Beast is Given Power | | PRevelation( 131, 1 ) PBible( 132, 1 ) |
Alternately, we could have searched for all verses that use the word "power" within
a few verses of "leopard". This search selects the same two verses. This shows
how strong the links are between Revelation 13 and Habakkuk:
| KeyLink: Leopard, Power | | PRevelation( 131, 1 ) PBible( 132, 1 ) |
Continuing in Revelation 13.3 we read the description of the Beast that arose aout of the sea:
And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly
wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast. And they worshipped
the dragon which gave power unto the beast: and they worshipped the beast, saying,
Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him?
Searching the entire Bible for all verses that speak of wounding a head yields
but five verses. One is from Revelation 13.3 and another is found in
Habakkuk 3.13:
Thou wentest forth for the salvation of thy people, even for salvation
with thine anointed; thou woundedst the head out of the house of the wicked,
by discovering the foundation unto the neck. Thou didst strike through with his
staves the head of his villages: they came out as a whirlwind to scatter me:
their rejoicing was as to devour the poor secretly. Thou didst walk through the
sea with thine horses, through the heap of great waters.
Note the reference to the Mayim themes of the sea and great waters. We have
therefore a strong Thematic (but not Key) Link between Revelation 13
and Habakkuk:
| Thematic Link: The Wounded Head | | Revelation 13Habakkuk |
After this beast is wounded, he gives his power to another beast that arises
from the earth, (Revelation 13.11f):
And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two
horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon. And he exerciseth all the power of
the first beast before him, and causeth the earth and them which dwell therein
to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed. And he doeth great
wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight
of men, And deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those
miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast; 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. And he had power to give life
[Greek: breath] unto the
image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak,
and cause that
as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed.
The word translated as "life" in this verse is pneuma, usually translated as spirit,
breath, or wind.
It corresponds to the Hebrew ruach which appears in conjuction
with an idolatrous image that speaks lies in Habakkuk 2.18f:
What profiteth the graven image that the maker thereof hath graven it;
the molten image, and a teacher of lies, that the maker of his
work trusteth
therein, to make dumb idols? Woe unto him that saith to the wood, Awake;
to the dumb stone, Arise, it shall teach! Behold, it is laid over with gold
and silver, and there is no breath at all in the midst of it.
Searching the entire KJV for all verses contain the words breath or life and speak or
teach within one verse of "image" yields exactly to passages, both quoted
above. We have another KeyLink:
| KeyLink: The Image of the Beast Speaks Lies! | | Revelation 13Habakkuk |
Alternately, we could search for all verses containing the words image and
deceive or lie
within one verse of breath or life. This search set also selects only these two passages,
so we have another KeyLink between Revelation 13 and Habakkuk.
The fact that the same verses are selected using two different search strings
shows how deeply related these passages really are.
We have therefore, a direct reference to the name and symbolic meaning of
the Thirteen Letter, five KeyLinks
and a significant Thematic Link uniting the content of Revelation
13 with Spoke 13 of the Bible Wheel. Truly, there is no end to the wonder of God's
Wisdom! I pray for the soon arrival of the day that ..."
... the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea.
Habakkuk 2.14
1) This KeyLink is unique to the KJV/NKJV because the other
versions
render Habakkuk 1.11 as follows:
- NIV: Then they sweep past like the wind and go on—
guilty men, whose own strength is their god.
- NRSV:Then they sweep by like the wind; they transgress and become guilty;
their own might is their god!
- RSV: Then they sweep by like the wind and go on,
guilty men, whose own might is their god!
- ASV: Then shall he sweep by as a wind, and shall pass over, and be guilty, even he whose might is his god.
- NASV: Then they will sweep through like the wind and pass on.
But they will be held guilty, They whose strength is their god
The element that breaks the KeyLink in these other translations is
the rendering of these Hebrew words:  .
The literal rendering would be "zo (this) koachu (his power) l'elohu (unto his god)."
This also agrees with the JPS translation of the Tanach: "For they ascribe their might
to their god." But just because this is literally correct, it is not necessarily
the best translation. The alternative choice above is allowable, though not necessarily
better.
The significant fact seems to be that though there is warrant for
either translation,
only the KJV/NKJV/Tanach translation fits with the integrated theme that unites
Revelation 13 and and Habakkuk. This is typical. In the vast majority of variations
between the KJV and the modern translations, the KJV exhibits
KeyLinks which are lost in the others. A prime example is seen the the KeyLink
phrase "the Everlasting God" which fully manifests only in the KJV/NKJV, as discussed
in the Topic Links and KeyLinks.
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Beast from the Sea