Rev 13:3 The riddle: How is a part the whole? How can the wound be apparent, but the healing real?

[Alfred Persson]

³ And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast.
 ⁴ And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast: and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him? (Rev 13:3-4 KJV)
 
A riddle: Only one of the "heads of it" (κεφαλῶν feminine αὐτοῦ neuter) "looked like" (ὡς) it was wounded to death, but "it" (αὐτοῦ neuter referring to the Beast θηρίου neuter) was healed. Later the "Beast" is wounded and healed or "did live" (Rev. 13:12, 14). However, its logically impossible the "part of the whole" is "the whole" simultaneously. Moreover, the wound is in appearance only, so how can the healing be real?
 
Just as the true picture emerges if Jigsaw pieces aren't forced to fit, so also the truth resolves apparent contradictions without violence to the details. As the wound is apparent, it cannot refer to an actual wound as in the much later Nero redivinus myth. As the wounded head is not healed this cannot depict a phony resurrection of the Antichrist Beast.  Moreover, the angel interpreted the Head/king as alive in John's day (Rev. 17:10), but the Beast is healed when its Mouth speaks in the final 42 months of the end time week.
 
The details imply the answer to the riddle as these exist harmoniously in the truth being revealed:

 
In the Greek, the word for “wound” is plēgē, which everywhere in Revelation means “plague,” in fact, a divinely inflicted judgment (9:18, 20; 11:6; 15:1ff.; 16:9, 21; 18:4, 8; 21:9; 22:18)... In 13:14 we find that the beast has the plague of the “sword” (machaira)... Elsewhere in Revelation the “sword” (machaira, or rhomphaia) (1) symbolically refers to the divine judgment of the Messiah (1:16; 2:12, 16; 19:15, 21); (2) is the sword of the rider on the red horse and equals divine judgment (6:4, 8); and (3) is a sword used as a weapon against the saints of God (13:10). We are, then, nearer to John’s mind if we see the sword, not as referring to an emperor’s death, but as the symbol of God’s wrath that in some event had struck a death blow to the authority of the beast (and the dragon), yet which had been deceptively covered up or restored (for a probable antecedent, see Isa 27:1).-Johnson, A. F. (1981). Revelation. In F. E. Gaebelein (Ed.), The Expositor’s Bible Commentary: Hebrews through Revelation (Vol. 12, p. 526). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House.
 
The Roman Empire of John's day was plagued by the divine gospel of Christ, Christianity apparently slew the Beast when it accepted the Word of God, thus the head was slain by the divine Sword of the Lord" (Eph 6:17; Heb 4:12 cp. Rev. 11:5). However, the conversion was in appearance only for the Head returns in the modern version of ancient Rome. As this Beast is empowered by the Dragon and given his authority, the satanic healing is real, not in appearance only. As casting Christianity down is a victory over God, the Dragon takes his place as the object of worship, so also the Beast Kingdom. (Rev. 13:4).

 

As neither the return of Israel nor the resurrection of Christ created such wonder in the whole world, the cause of the world's wonder must lie in the manifestation of the Dragon's power in the Beast:

 
"Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, (2 Thess. 2:9 KJV)
 
This Beast rises up at mid-week, for 42 months its blasphemous "mouth" will rage against God. Just before this time, the restraint of the mystery of lawlessness is taken out of the way---the divine decree Satan's angels couldn't interact physically with humans on earth as they did in Genesis 6. In Rev. 9:1 a star free falls from heaven symbolizing the heavenly restraint being taken out of the way, allowing spiritual wickedness above and demon locusts from beneath invade the earth. For five months demon locust spirits infest the air humans breathe, tormenting and terrorizing reluctant followers of the Antichrist as he transforms into the Beast (Rev. 9:1-10). The rest of mankind are astonished by the appearance of the Nephilim disguised as a friendly extra-terrestrial race. All under the command of the Dragon, who appears physically and stands with his Son of Destruction the Beast and the False prophet (Rev. 16:13-14)---that is the meaning of the flying frogs, miracle working spiritism coupled with a ufo deception deceiving the entire world they can fight against God and win: "Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him?" (Rev. 13:4 KJV)
 
The great falling away against all called God or worshiped has begun (2 Thess. 2:4), times and Law (Dan. 7:25) have apparently changed; all former religions are now obsolete. In their place, the Beast offers worship to the Dragon, the God of fortresses (Dan. 11:38) whose flying wings of abomination (Dan. 9:27 NKJ) rain down fire (Rev. 13:13) upon all who oppose the Beast.

Edited September 14, 2015 by Alfred Persson

[Last Daze]

I tend to generally agree with what you have laid out there.  It doesn't make sense to me that the mortal head wound is in reference to a person.

The seven heads represent seven natural kingdoms brought about by specific "princes" or evil angels e.g. the prince of Persia, prince of Greece and are referred to as mountains in Rev 17.  The seven heads also represent the resulting office of king that manifests in the natural realm and through which the ungodly agenda of the prince overseers is carried out.

The seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman sits, and they are seven kings; five have fallen, one is, the other has not yet come.  Rev 17:9-10

Satan is the one shown with the seven heads with crowns on them indicating that ultimately its his power and authority being exercised through them.  The beast with seven heads has crowns on his horns.  His appearance in Daniel 7 as the fourth beast has no mention of seven heads.  Where did the beast from the sea in Rev 13 get the seven heads?  I think it symbolically reflects the fact that Satan gave to the beast his power, throne, and great authority.  I say all that to say this, the mortal head wound is an attack on the kingdom/authority of the "other horn" that comes up among the ten, the false prophet.

Who is it that attacks the "other horn" so that it is perceived to be the death of his kingdom/authority, the head wound?  It's the three horns that come against him that he rips out by the roots.  That can be seen in Daniel 7 where the "other horn" first appears as a little one.  After he defeats the three that come against him, he is seen as more stout or larger than the others.  The way he defeated the three brought his kingdom/authority back from the brink of certain death and "healed" it or restored it.  I correlate that to the signs and wonders he performs, the calling down of fire among them.

One thing is for sure.  Strange things and supernatural phenomena will be on display.

[WilliamL]

The Beast is the spirit-king of Nimrod's Babylon, which Babylon was the origin of all pagan empires and pagan religions that came after the Flood. There are to be seven such empires (which all persecute God's people), the seven heads of the Beast of Rev. 13 and 17:

1 Egypt  2 Assyria  3 Chaldean Babylon  4 Medo-Persia  5 Greece  6 Rome.

Rev. 17:9 The seven heads... 10 ...are seven [spirit-]kings/kingdoms. Five have fallen, one is, and the other has not yet come. And when he comes, he must continue a short time.

"One is": present tense at the time the angel was explaining this to the Apostle John. Therefore, the sixth head, the "one is" of the first century AD, was clearly Rome.

Rev. 13:3 And I saw one of his heads as if it had been mortally wounded, and his deadly wound was healed. And all the world marveled and followed the beast.

This mortal wound took place when the city of Rome was conquered in the latter 400s AD. However, the empire survived in the eastern capital of the empire, Constantinople, and the empire was later revived in the west under the title Holy Roman Empire. This was the healing of the deadly wound.

Some people believe that the Roman Empire/sixth head came to an end in 1806, during the reign of Napoleon, when the last Holy Roman Emperor dissolved it. It was then succeeded by the Anglo-American seventh head. Others believe that Anglo-Americanism is just another form of Romanism, because it derives many of its laws from the Roman code of laws; and there still will come a short-lived seventh empire before the Beast arises to establish the eighth and final one:

Rev. 17:11 “The beast that was, and is not, is himself also the eighth, and is of the seven, and is going to perdition."