Blasphemy

The beast of Revelation 13 initiates a double attack against the saints: first blasphemy, then he “makes war” on them (vv. 6-7).

The blasphemies are against God, but they are directed also at the name of God, His tabernacle, and those who dwell in heaven (v. 6). The dragon has attempted to drown the woman with what comes from his mouth (12:15), and that failed because the land “opened its mouth” to help (12:16). The beast is more successful in opening his mouth in blasphemies against God.

The blasphemies are described in parallel phrases that link blasphemy against God with blasphemy against the saints:

A. unto blasphemy

B. toward God

A’. To blaspheme

B’. His name

B”. and His tent

B”’. and those who pitch their tent in heaven.

We can scan that in various ways. For starters, the three things blasphemed are things associated with God’s house, His sanctuary. Yahweh’s “name” dwelt in the house (cf. Deuteronomy 12); the tent was His house; and those who tent in heaven are those who dwell in the heavenly house that is the sanctuary – that is, priests. This is blasphemy against the Name of God, who is the Son, and the Son’s dwelling place, the church.

We can also see this as a Trinitarian triad. Blasphemy is directed to God, that is, the Father. And it is directed also to the Son, who is the Name of the Father. The “tent” of God is the Spirit, the dwelling place of the Son and the Father, the One who spreads the wings of His tent over the the Father and Son, also over the church. Those who pitch their tent in heaven are the ones overspread by the wings of the Spirit, the new creation coming to birth under the hovering wings of God.

Because the saints are holy ones, it is possible to blaspheme them. Verbal attack, slander and innuendo and libel about the saints, are the cold phase of a war that eventually turns hot (v. 7). Slander comes first, but it’s not the end. Slander dehumanizes the saints, paints them as monsters. Then, of course, someone has to destroy the monsters.

And it doesn’t just happen in Revelation.