What Does Revelation 13:14 Mean?
And he sends wandering those who settle upon the earth through the signs which are given to him to do before the face of the beast, saying to those who settle upon the earth, to make an image to the beast, which has the blow of the sword and lives.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
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.THE KEY
The signs do more than persuade the crowd; they turn the deceived into makers of the beast’s image.
THE MEANING
Deception moves from perception into participation: a display persuades, then the hearer is drawn into making an image that represents the beast. The verse speaks now wherever extraordinary signs and confident speech converge to shape what receives allegiance. Even an image that seems to carry life can belong to that persuasion.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that an impressive sign proves the authority behind it deserves trust; here, signs serve the work of deception.
THE ROOT
πλανάω
planaō
GROWS FROM
πλαν-
plan-
To wander or stray; to lead or cause someone to wander.
“sends wandering” in this verse is planaō. Here deception is pictured as displacement: the crowd is led off course by a persuasive display. Those led astray do not remain spectators; the message turns them into makers of an image that gives the beast a visible likeness.
ALSO GROWS
planē: Wandering, error, or deception.
πλάνη
It makes deception a movement away from the path, not only the acceptance of a false idea.
planētēs: Wanderer; the source of the English word “planet.”
πλανήτης
Its sense of wandering makes the root’s image concrete: the deceived are led off course.
σημεῖα
sēmeia
GROWS FROM
σημ-
sēm-
A mark or sign that points to something.
The Greek word rendered “miracles” names signs: events that point beyond themselves. The verse shows the contest over what a sign means, as displayed power points the crowd toward making the beast’s image.
ALSO GROWS
sēma: A sign or mark.
σῆμα
It underscores that a sign carries meaning beyond the event itself.
sēmainō: To signal, indicate, or signify.
σημαίνω
The signs in the verse do not stand alone; they direct attention toward an image.
ποιήσωσιν
poiēsōsin
GROWS FROM
ποι-
poi-
To do, make, or bring about.
“make” in this verse is poiēsōsin. The verb shifts the hearers from seeing signs to producing an image. The deception takes form through their own making, so the crowd becomes part of what the speech announces.
ALSO GROWS
poiētēs: A maker or poet.
ποιητής
The word family places the act of making in the hands of the hearers.
poiēma: A thing made or a work.
ποίημα
The image is the made thing that gives the beast a visible form.
THE PATTERN
A sign’s persuasive force does not prove that the direction it points is trustworthy.
And the sign or the wonder comes to pass, of which he spoke to you, saying, Let us walk after other gods, which you have not known, and let us serve them;For false anointed ones will rise, and false prophets, and they will give great signs and wonders, so that, if it were possible, even the picked-out ones are led off the path.whose arrival is according to the working of the Adversary, with all strength and signs and lying wonders.THE THREAD
And the great dragon is thrown down, that ancient serpent, called the Slanderer and the Adversary, who leads the whole inhabited world astray. He is flung into the earth, and his messengers are thrown down with him.Both verses draw on the Greek verb πλανάω (planaō, “to lead astray, cause to wander”): 12:9 names the deceived scope as the whole world, while 13:14 reveals how the redirection culminates in people making an image. The shared root links wandering from the path to allegiance embodied in what the people create.
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