THE Two BEASTS (Chapter 13) The vision of chapter twelve dramatized the enmity of the dragon for the woman--the church of Christ--and his determination in wrath to expand his war on the rest of the woman’ s seed to the whole of the Roman empire. It was for this reason that chapter thirteen begins with John’ s vision of the dragon placing himself on sands of the sea for the purpose of extending his war against the woman, whose seed was destined to destroy him, and in fury he had turned upon “ the rest of her seed” in persecuting them to extinction. (1) The composite beast of the sea--13:1-2. 1. And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea--13:1. Until this stage of vision the dragon’ s activities had been confined to Palestine, but now a beast rises out of the sea as the instrument by which to implement and to execute his diabolical plans. He summoned aid from Rome. The beast had seven heads and ten horns, and was the symbol of the great power of Rome. The ten horns represented the ten divisions of the Roman empire, the emperor of which was seated on a throne situated on the seven hills of Rome, the universal symbol of the imperial city.