Revelation 13:14

Revelation 13:14. And he deceiveth, etc. The word ‘deceiveth' again leads us to the thought of false teaching (Matthew 24:24, etc.).

Saying to them that dwell on the earth that they should make an image to the beast which hath the stroke of the sword, and rose to life. The difficult expression ‘image of the beast' occurs ten times in the Apocalypse, Revelation 13:14-15 (thrice), Revelation 14:9; Revelation 14:11; Revelation 15:2; Revelation 16:2; Revelation 19:20; Revelation 20:4. It is to be explained by the help of Genesis 1:26; Romans 8:29; 1Co 11:7; 1 Corinthians 15:49; Colossians 1:15; Colossians 3:10; Hebrews 1:3, Comparing these passages, the thought of the Seer appears to be as follows First, we have God, the Son the true ‘image' of God, and man ‘renewed' in the Son ‘after the image of Him that created him.' Secondly, we have the first beast or the world-power in all the ungodliness of its spirit, that spirit supposed to be incarnated in its ‘image,' and men so created after that image that they may be said to be ‘of their father the devil' (John 8:44). The second beast or the false prophet will then stand in the same relation to the first beast and men as that in which Christ the true prophet stands to God and men. It may indeed be said that, were this view correct, we ought to read that men are made after the image of the beast, whereas what is really said is that they ‘make' the image. But, according to the constant teaching of St. John, men who are made make. They love the darkness; they choose the evil; their will is active not passive in the matter. There is no ground for the idea that in the image made to the beast we have an allusion to those statues of the Roman Emperors which some of the basest of them set up for worship. ‘Image' in its Scripture sense expresses something living. It would be far more natural to seek the ‘image' in the Emperors themselves.