Sunday 4 October27th Sunday in Ordinary TimeLiturgical colour: green

Bible / Revelation (Apocalypse)

Revelation (Apocalypse) 13

Douay-Rheims Bible, Challoner revision (1749–1752), the traditional Catholic English Bible, translated from the Latin Vulgate. If you read a modern Bible, this is the same Scripture in older English; some names are spelled differently (Cesarea for Caesarea, Apocalypse for Revelation). About this translation

1 And I saw a beast coming up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns: and upon his horns, ten diadems: and upon his heads, names of blasphemy.

2 And the beast which I saw was like to 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 own strength and great power. Fathers

3 And I saw one of his heads as it were slain to death: and his death’s wound was healed. And all the earth was in admiration after the beast.

4 And they adored the dragon which gave power to the beast. And they adored the beast, saying: Who is like to the beast? And who shall be able to fight with him?

5 And there was given to him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies: and power was given to him to do, two and forty months.

6 And he opened his mouth unto blasphemies against God, to blaspheme his name and his tabernacle and them that dwell in heaven.

7 And it was given unto him to make war with the saints and to overcome them. And power was given him over every tribe and people and tongue and nation.

8 And all that dwell upon the earth adored him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb which was slain from the beginning of the world. CCC

9 If any man have an ear, let him hear.

10 He that shall lead into captivity shall go into captivity: he that shall kill by the sword must be killed by the sword. Here is the patience and the faith of the saints.

11 And I saw another beast coming up out of the earth: and he had two horns, like a lamb: and he spoke as a dragon. Fathers

12 And he executed all the power of the former beast in his sight. And he caused the earth and them that dwell therein to adore the first beast, whose wound to death was healed.

13 And he did great signs, so that he made also fire to come down from heaven unto the earth, in the sight of men.

14 And he seduced them that dwell on the earth, for the signs which were given him to do in the sight of the beast: saying to them that dwell on the earth that they should make the image of the beast which had the wound by the sword and lived. Fathers

15 And it was given him to give life to the image of the beast: and that the image of the beast should speak: and should cause that whosoever will not adore the image of the beast should be slain.

16 And he shall make all, both little and great, rich and poor, freemen and bondmen, to have a character in their right hand or on their foreheads:

17 And that no man might buy or sell, but he that hath the character, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.

18 Here is wisdom. He that hath understanding, let him count the number of the beast. For it is the number of a man: and the number of him is six hundred sixty-six.

This chapter in the Catechism and the early Church

Where the Catechism of the Catholic Church cites these verses (from its footnotes on vatican.va), and where the earliest Church Fathers quote them (Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 1, public domain). Short quotes only; follow the links for the full text.

  1. Read the Fathers
    • “Here is the endurance and the faith of the saints.”

      Quoted in Against Heresies, Book V, St. Irenaeus of Lyons (c. AD 180), Chapter XXVIII. Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 1

  2. Read the Catechism
    • CCC 677 “The Church will enter the glory of the kingdom only through this final Passover, when she will follow her Lord in his…”
  3. Read the Fathers
    • “And he shall perform great wonders, so that he can even cause fire to descend from heaven upon the earth in the sight of men, and he shall lead the inhabitants of the earth astray.”

      Quoted in Against Heresies, Book V, St. Irenaeus of Lyons (c. AD 180), Chapter XXVIII. Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 1

  4. Read the Fathers
    • “… put] in the forehead and in the right hand, that no one may be able to buy or sell, unless he who has the mark of the name of the beast or the number of his name; and the number is six hundred and sixty-six,”

      Quoted in Against Heresies, Book V, St. Irenaeus of Lyons (c. AD 180), Chapter XXVIII. Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 1

A modern English Catholic translation will be added once its publisher grants permission.