The 8th Head of the 7-headed beast

Revelation 17.11 speaks of an 8^th head that is “of the seven.”

Nebuchadnezzar’s Image (Daniel 2), the beasts (Dan7), horns, ram, goat (Dan8), and the heads and body of the beast/ dragon (Revelation 12; 13; 17) represent authority, because authority is primary: it is what makes a king a king or a kingdom (or realm) a kingdom—king and kingdom are secondary while authority is primary.  If a “horn” is “uprooted,” or “broken,” then the authority is moved or destroyed.

The 7 heads of the dragon/ beast (seen in Revelation 12; 13; 17) represent those authorities (Kings and kingdoms) that particularly had a Mediterranean-world-dominion and that afflicted the manifested people of God of that Mediterranean world (symbolized in the rising up out of the sea).  Those authorities represented in the 7 heads are also represented in the divisions of Nebuchadnezzar’s (Neb’s) image (Dan2) and the 4 beasts (Dan7)—though there may be a difference between the 4th part of Neb's image and the 4th beast.

 

The 7 authorities include those represented in Neb’s Image and the 4 beasts.   There would have to be two that preceded Neb., being Egypt and Assyria.  Those two predecessors along with Babylon, Medo-Persia, and Greece, are the 5 heads that “have fallen” (Rev17), while Rome, the fourth division of Neb’s Image, is the 6^th head, which was in Apostle John’s time in the revelation he received.

 

The 7^th head is a future authority in the same Mediterranean-world location who will particularly persecute the manifested people of God (and resistant Jews and others), but maybe that persecution will be primarily during the 8^th-head-phase. Revelation 17.11 speaks of an 8^th head that is “of the seven,” but the beast does not have an 8^th head, so it must be that the 7^th head has a two-phase existence.

 

The authorities of Dan2 (Neb’s image) and the authorities of Dan7 (the 4 beasts) can speak of the same authorities (Neb’s head is the 1^st beast, Neb’s chest and arms are the 2^nd beast, and so on), however, and maybe, the 4^th beast goes beyond the 4^th part of Neb’s image to represent the 7^th and 8^th head of Revelation.  The representation of authorities as kings and kingdoms in their future roles would be a complicated thing to symbolize in a vision. 

 

Seeing the 7^th and 8^th heads as 2 phases seems to make the most sense to me. 

I believe the last two-phased head as the AntiChrist and his kingdom—phase one could be prior to and during the first half of the 70th Week, and phase two the second half of the Week.   

If the 4^th division of Neb’s image is Rome then wouldn’t the 4^th beast be Rome?    Dan7 could be a repeat of the same authorities of Dan2/ Neb’s image, but the 4th beast may represent the past and the future--it depends if the toes and feet of Neb's image are of the past or are the future (the "revived Roman Empire" view). 

 

The 7^th head authority will be for a “short time” (Rev17.10), like a PHASE ONE type of authority, during the first half of the Week, and maybe some time before it—this requires that the 7^th head can’t be an authority like the Ottoman Empire during its 400 years reign, unless it is included in the 6th head as a continuation of the Roman Empire.

 

PHASE TWO would be the 8th head in which the “beast” is revealed (the authority represented in an individual) and starts “great tribulation.”  The beast is that authority who will subdue 3 other authorities (3 of 10 horns) maybe in the first half of the “Week” (maybe near the end of the first half), and that accomplishment plus surviving a mortal head wound and being empowered by satan (the dragon) becomes the phase 2 / 8^th head.

 

The 7 headed Beast represents all these authorities, because of their common role in history, as the satanic empowered authorities in the Mediterranean world to persecute the manifested people of God.

The Stone that destroys Neb’s image takes all 4 authorities down, but does this mean all were in authority when it happens? Or maybe they all exist in some sense when it happens, or it just represents that all authorities will be subdued.

Some think the 4^th part of the image is represented in the 7^th head as a revived Roman Empire, because if the legs, feet and toes are the Roman Empire, and the Stone strikes it, when does it strike it, since the Roman Empire is no longer in existence?  The revived Roman Empire view sees the feet and toes as that future empire.  The fourth beast of Dan 7 would be both Rome and Rome revived--probably particularly in the 10 horns on that beast.  

There is a kind of preterist-futurist view of the stone becoming a mountain in Dan 2, being that this is like the parable of leaven hidden in the meal in which the kingdom of God starts small with the first coming of Christ and will eventually fill the earth at the second coming. It began during the time of the Roman Empire and will grow slowly and have full authority at the second coming of Christ.  I question this view, but it would seem require that part of the fourth part of the image would have to be a Revived Roman Empire, since the fourth part of the image must exist when the stone finally becomes a mountain.  If the preterist-type view is correct, then the fourth beast in Dan 7 has to represent two stages of the Roman Empire as would the 4th part of Neb's image. The 4th beast has 10 horns that seem to correspond with the 10 horns of the beast in Revelation 13 and 17, but there is no direct correspondence with the fourth part of Neb's image, unless the toes and feet are it, but nothing is said about the number of the toes.  

 

The little horn of Dan7 subdues (uproots) 3 authorities of 10 (horns). That little horn is separate from the 10 horns, and the 10 join him in phase 2. 

 

That little horn could be foreshadowed by the little horn of Dan8:   Antiochus IV is in view primarily in Dan8, the revelation seems to go beyond him, and how exactly do we understand the reference that says the vision refers “to the time of the end?” Dan 8.17 makes reference to the “indignation.” Is this revelation concerning the time of the end of the last days or a particular “indignation?” God was “exceedingly angry with the nations at ease” during the Babylonian captivity, as Zech 1.15 refers.  Is the indignation concerning the activity of the little Horn, being Antiochus IV and his abomination of desolation activity?

 

  Dan8 reveals that the little horn is connected to a latter stage of the male goat authority (“Javan” as Greece, the 3^rd beast of Dan7), after he is defeated and 4 separate authorities (horns) spring from him—being 4 families/ authorities after Alexander the Great (this would seem to tie in with the 4 heads of the third beast of Dan7).  Could the revealed origin of this little horn (Antiochus IV) indicate the origins of the little horn of the 4^th beast of Dan7?  The prophecy seems to go beyond Antiochus IV, and he surely typifies the antichrist/ beast that will arise who will also commit the “abomination of desolation” and persecute the saints of God. 

 

So the 8^th head is phase two of the 7^th head of the beast, the 7^th head is a future Mediterranean-world authority, but it’s really  the 8^th  that takes on that role when it subdues the 3 horns.  

The 8^th head is the  individual that was foreshadowed in the exploits of Antiochus IV.   That individual will be the 7^th head that has a mortal head wound, but will rise again to be the 8^th head--the beast “who was, and is not, and will ascend out of the bottomless pit.”

The 8^th head of the 7-headed beast in Revelation is phase two of the 7^th head.  The heads are Mediterranean-world authorities of particular significance, and all those authorities have come and went except the 7^th one.  When the 7^th one comes, it will be for a short while, for it will transition into a second phase, which makes it the 8^th head, though it is of the 7^th (Revelation 17.9-11).  This second phase (8^th head) is that authority that is manifested in the one who will be “the beast” (popularly called “The AntiChrist”) of Revelation chapter 13, and his kingdom will execute his laws to impose a very restrictive economic system and to persecute to the death those who oppose it, especially Christians, and Jews, and anyone in opposition. 

This 8^th head (authority) phase, I believe, is represented at least in the little horn and the ten horns of the fourth beast in Daniel 7.  

Daniel 7 presents 3 other beasts that have body parts seen in the beast of Revelation 13; this may be no different than that beast having heads which represent the authorities of the past--the body parts and heads are all part of this creature that represents the Mediterranean world authorities that persecuted the people of God. 

The 8^th head is after the transition from the 7^th head—a short lived authority of a lesser nature--after the “little horn” of Daniel 7 subdues 3 authorities of 10 (the 10 horns) and resurrects from a mortal head wound (Revelation 13.3-4; 17.8, 10-13).   The 8^th head is that authority which the “little horn” will have, and it will be the realm that executes his laws on the earth.