“I” or “He,” in Revelation 13:1

Question:

Why is there a difference of opinion on Revelation 13:1? My Bible reads, “I stood upon the sand,” etc., but some quote, “He [the dragon] stood upon the sand,” etc. Please explain.

Answer:

The question is whether the character is the dragon standing in the seashore rather than the prophet John. Proponents for the former state that this distinction is supported by the oldest and most reliable Greek manuscripts, which use the word “he” instead of “I.” Furthermore, in the original text, there is no interruption or break between this passage and the preceding chapter, suggesting a seamless connection in the narrative. They believe those points prove that the dragon is the one standing on the seashore.

However, if we consider that the book of Revelation begins with Christ’s command for John to write “what thou seest” “in a book” (Revelation 1:11), we can conclude that the visions primarily reflect John’s perspective. Using one of the arguments made by proponents of the “dragon on the seashore” interpretation, there is no interruption or break between the chapters. As such, and focusing solely on chapters twelve and thirteen for brevity, we can see the following:

1. John hears “a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night” (Revelation 12:10).
2. John sees a beast “like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion: and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority.” Furthermore, he sees “one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast” (Revelation 13:2, 3).
3. John observes, “another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon” (Revelation 13:11).

In every case, it is John who sees these visions and records what he has witnessed. Therefore, it is consistent to say that it was the prophet John, not the dragon, who “stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea” (Revelation 13:1); the dragon was not the witness. John would be standing where the prophet Daniel stood in his vision when he beheld “the four winds of the heaven” striving “upon the great sea. And four great beasts” coming “up from the sea, diverse one from another.” (Daniel 7:2-3). Both prophets would, therefore, be positioned on the prophetic seashore, an area between the symbolic sea and earth (the dry land), observing the kingdoms of prophecy as they rose to power.

Let’s keep it as written in the KJV. In that case, we are in complete agreement with Revelation 1:1-2 which states, “The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him, to shew unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass; and he sent and signified it by his angel unto his servant John: Who bare record of the word of God, and of the testimony of Jesus Christ, and of all things that he saw.”