King James Version · Under Rome
Revelation 13
Touch any underlined name to see who or where it is. Tap a verse number to see where it is taken up elsewhere.
And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten , and upon his ten , and upon his heads the name of blasphemy. And which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his as the of a lion: and the dragon gave him his , and his seat, and great . And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to ; and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after . And they the dragon which gave unto : and they , saying, Who is like unto ? who is able to make war with him? And there was given unto him a speaking great things and blasphemies; and was given unto him to continue forty and two months. And he opened his in blasphemy against , to blaspheme his name, and his , and them that in . And it was given unto him to make war with , and to overcome them: and was given him over all kindreds, and , and nations. And all that upon the earth shall him, whose names are not written in the of slain from the foundation of the world. If any man have an ear, let him hear. He that leadeth into shall go into : he that killeth with must be killed with . Here is the and the of . And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two like , and he spake as a dragon. And he exerciseth all the of the first beast before him, and causeth the earth and them which therein to the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed. And he doeth great wonders, so that he maketh come down from on the earth in the sight of men, And deceiveth them that on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had to do in the sight of ; saying to them that on the earth, that they should make an to , which had the wound by a , and did live. And he had to give life unto the of , that the of should both speak, and cause that as many as would not the of should be killed. And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and , free and bond, to receive a mark in their , or in their foreheads: And that no man might buy or sell, he that had the mark, or the name of , or the number of his name. Here is . Let him that hath understanding count the number of : for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six.
The 1611 translation, public domain. Its original printing included the Apocrypha, which is why the deuterocanonical books can be read here. Notes and cards are EKLI’s own.
The world at this moment · Under Rome, 63 BC to AD 100 ›
Judea as a client kingdom and then a province. Roads, garrisons, taxes, crucifixion, and a common Greek language that let a message travel the empire faster than any before it.
- Rome
- The republic tears itself apart in civil war and comes out as an empire under Augustus. What follows is two centuries of relative peace across the whole Mediterranean, enforced by legions and paid for by taxes, with safe roads and safe sea lanes. Every one of Paul's journeys depends on that.
- Judea
- Governed first through Herod the Great, a client king of enormous ability and enormous brutality who rebuilds the temple into one of the wonders of the ancient world, then directly by Roman prefects. Crucifixion is the standard penalty for sedition and is used often and publicly.
- The wider world
- Greek is spoken from Spain to Syria, which means a letter written in Corinth can be read in Rome without translation. Jewish communities already exist in most major cities, which is where the first Christian preaching lands. Mystery religions, imperial cult, and philosophy all compete in the same marketplace.
- Further afield
- The Han dynasty rules China and trades silk westward along routes that touch the Roman world at second hand. In Britain the Roman conquest begins within a decade of the crucifixion.