revelation 17, ten horns of the beast

revelation 17, mystery babylon the great
revelation 17, seven heads of the beast

“The ten horns which you saw are ten kings who have received no kingdom as yet, but they receive authority for one hour as kings with the beast. These are of one mind, and they will give their power and authority to the beast. These will make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb will overcome them, for He is Lord of lords and King of kings; and those who are with Him are called, chosen, and faithful.” Rev 17:12-14

The seven- headed, ten horned beast of both Revelation and Daniel are the same:

“After this I saw in the night visions, and behold, a fourth beast, dreadful and terrible, exceedingly strong. It had huge iron teeth; it was devouring, breaking in pieces, and trampling the residue with its feet. It was different from all the beasts that were before it, and it had ten horns. I was considering the horns, and there was another horn, a little one, coming up among them, before whom three of the first horns were plucked out by the roots. And there, in this horn, were eyes like the eyes of a man, and a mouth speaking pompous words. Dan 7:7-8

Later in the chapter, the angel explains the fourth beast with ten horns:

The fourth beast shall be
A fourth kingdom on earth,
Which shall be different from all other kingdoms,
And shall devour the whole earth,
Trample it and break it in pieces.
The ten horns are ten kings
Who shall arise from this kingdom.
And another shall rise after them;
He shall be different from the first ones,
And shall subdue three kings.
He shall speak pompous words against the Most High,
Shall persecute the saints of the Most High,
And shall intend to change times and law.
Then the saints shall be given into his hand
For a time and times and half a time. Dan 7:23-25

I believe the ten horns that both Daniel and John saw are the same ten horns. The detail that we know about them, includes:

1) The horns represent ten kings who were not yet at the time of John’s vision (96 AD). We saw last time that a head was a kingdom or form of government, but a horn is a king; a specific individual.

2) They will arise from the fourth beast, the Roman beast; they will be so acknowledged as king of the Romans.

3) They will rule with the beast, i.e., I believe this means, they will rule an empire covering much of the territory ruled by the ancient Roman empire. They will subdue kings before them (perhaps not always by war, but possibly sometimes by defeating other claimants to the crown), and rule as king of kings and lord of lords, as the Babylonians, Persians, and Greeks did.

4) They will make war with the Lamb, i.e., they will persecute the saints of God, the two witnesses.

5) An eleventh horn rises up among the ten horns, a little one (perhaps this means this horn rules a much smaller territory than the other ten), before whom three horns are plucked up. This eleventh horn is the horn that utters blasphemies, persecutes the saints, seeks to change times and law.

Given this detail, we might be able to identify some or most of these ten horns from history …

revelation 17, ten horns of the beast, part two
revelation 17, ten horns of the beast, part three
revelation 17, ten horns of the beast, part four
revelation 17, ten horns of the beast, part five

Return to revelation index of studies

Christine’s book The Revelation of Jesus Christ Revealed, based on these studies but greatly expanded, is now available at Revelation Revealed Online. You may also be interested in reading the Book Extras and joining in on the Discussion.