Revelation 13:3,4

‘And I saw one of his heads which seemed as though it had been smitten unto death, and its death stroke was healed, and the whole earth wondered after the beast, and they worshipped the monster because he gave his authority to the beast, and they worshipped the beast saying, “Who is like the beast, and who is able to make war with him?”.'

The mention of one of the heads demonstrates that in this chapter it is the heads which are prominent. This smitten head probably refers to the illness that brought Caligula near to death, but from which he recovered seemingly miraculously. The ‘as though it had been smitten to death' may be seeing his illness as caused by the ‘two-edged sword' of the Son of Man (Revelation 1:16).

Through his seemingly mortal illness Christ is seen as reminding Caligula of his mortality but he ignores the warning. The Eastern part of the Empire, which only saw the Emperors at a distance and took their divinity seriously (it was this part of the Empire e.g. Pergamum (Revelation 2:13), which most enthusiastically enforced Emperor worship), may well have amplified rumours about this event which Caligula no doubt used to further belief in his divinity. This, or some other well known event, had clearly given impetus to such Imperial claims. As the rumours circulated they would no doubt grow in intensity. The purpose of John in stating it is to show that Rome is anti-Christ (setting itself up as a rival of Christ), claiming divinity and mimicking the death and resurrection of Christ.

When the religion of Rome was enforced, twofold worship was in view, the worship of the Emperor and the worship of Roma (Rome) itself, both demanding sacrifices and thus seen by Christians as devil worship (1 Corinthians 10:20). And thus it continued from emperor to emperor. The question about who could ‘compare with the beast' echoes the view taken by the people of the Empire of the all-conquering legions, ‘who is like Rome?'. ‘Who is like the beast' also contrasts with the meaning of the name of the Archangel Michael, ‘who is like God?'.