Unfulfilled Revelation › Figures

Beast from the Earth / False Prophet

Second beast with two lamb-like horns, speaks as a dragon; performs signs; makes image of the first Beast; enforces the mark.

Key Greek Terms

θηρίον (therion, G2342); ψευδοπροφήτης (pseudoprophetes, G5578); σημεῖα (semeia, G4592)

Linked Verses (9)

Matthew 24:24 source
KJV

For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect.

KJV

And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon.

KJV

And he exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him, and causeth the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed.

KJV

And he doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men,

KJV

And deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast; saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast, which had the wound by a sword, and did live.

KJV

And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed.

KJV

And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads:

KJV

And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.

KJV

Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six.

Church Fathers

Irenaeus (Against Heresies V.28-30) reads the second beast as the counterfeit prophet of the Antichrist, a religious figure whose role is to direct worship toward the first beast. Hippolytus (On the Antichrist 49) develops this further, identifying the false prophet as a satanic parody of the two witnesses. Victorinus (on Revelation 13:11) treats him as an end-times figure rather than an institution. Augustine follows the patristic consensus of a personal false prophet but resists detailed speculation.