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shines, except by the rays of the Pope, as was seen when the Pope hacl his See at Avignon : on this account few perceive that Rome is distinct from the Pope. But the position of each will be changed : the woman will reign, the beast will carry her. Then indeed the difference will present itself to the eyes of all.
Obs. 16. The beast is a body , in the first and second portion of his duration : in the third , he is an individual. — Two great errors have long existed, one of which regards the seventh head only of the beast as the Papacy of many ages ; the other regards the whole beast with his seven heads as an individual antichrist. On the con- trary, the beast with seven heads is the Papacy of many ages : the seventh head is the Man of Sin, who is called by many Antichrist. The beast is a body , from ch. xiii. 1, to ch. xvii. 7. He is a body and an individual , ch. xvii. 8-11, according to different periods. He is an. individual , from ch. xvii. 12, to ch. xix. 20. These things, as I hope, are. distinct and easy. The Divine of Halle indeed says, that the beast is first a body , and then afterwards an individual ; but he treats it in ch. xiii. as an individual , and in ch. xvii. as a body . It is plain, of what character this is. I have not quoted the things, which are noticed in the Epicrisis, pp. 387, 388, as the sentiments of others (as D. Lange understands it), although Bibera at least in- cludes the whole duration of the beast in the 3^ years ; but as a discordant consequence, which would result from the opinion that confines the beast with its body itself within the limits of 3 J years. For with the rising of the beast out of the sea begins the series of seven heads (as we have shown in Obs. 5), which far exceeds 3J years, especially since it is only to the last head or king that a short space (xvii. 10) of continuance is attributed. x
Obs. 17. That individual is the seventh head of the beast ; or the other king after the five and the one ; he himself the eighth , and also of the seven (xvii. 10, 11). — He is of the seven heads or kings, in so far as he is the Pope : but he himself is the eighth, or the beast it- self, and not merely a head, not in so far as he is the Pope, but in so far as he introduces from the bottomless pit wickedness of a new and altogether peculiar character. A similitude will explain the matter : A tree of seven branches, of which six are somewhat slender and the seventh very thick, still continues a tree, if the six are cut off, and the seventh remains. Comp. Erkl. Ojfenb. p. 885. But he is said to be the eighth, before he is said to be of the seven ; because he will not enact the part of the Pope — sooner than he will the Man of Sin. My German Exegesis, together with the parentheses of D.
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