Creatures, Living Things, and Beasts

Three of the fifteen questions recorded in Doctrine and Covenants 77 are about four “beasts” described by John in Revelation 4:6-9:

In the midst of the throne, and round about the throne, were four beasts full of eyes before and behind.

And the first beast was like a lion, and the second beast like a calf, and the third beast had a face as a man, and the fourth beast was like a flying eagle.

And the four beasts had each of them six wings about him; and they were full of eyes within…

And when those beasts give glory and honour and thanks to him that sat on the throne, who liveth for ever and ever.

In modern English, the word “beast” has strong negative overtones. It’s hard to visualize four beasts worshipping God. But in the 1380s, when John Wycliffe produced his translation of the Bible, the word “beest” had a more neutral meaning, and he used it to translate a Greek word that simply means “living thing.”

Three different Greek words used by John will help to explain his meaning more clearly:

1. ktisma (κτίσμα) – Anything created by God, whether living or not. In the King James Version, this is translated “creature.” (See Revelation 5:13; Revelation 8:9.)
2. zóon (ζῷον) – Living thing. This is the word used in Revelation 4:6-9. It appears as “beast” in the King James Version, but most other English translations render it as “living creature.”
3. thérion (θηρίον) – Wild beast. This is the word John uses to describe the evil creature with seven heads which makes war with the saints. Confusingly, this word is also translated “beast” in the King James Version. (See Revelation 13:1.)

So it’s easier to understand John’s vision and Joseph Smith’s questions and answers if we replace the word “beast” with “living thing.” Here, for example, is the first question with that replacement:

Q. What are we to understand by the four [living things], spoken of in [John 4:6]?
A. They are figurative expressions, used by the Revelator, John, in describing heaven, the paradise of God, the happiness of man, and of [living things], and of creeping things, and of the fowls of the air; that which is spiritual being in the likeness of that which is temporal; and that which is temporal in the likeness of that which is spiritual; the spirit of man in the likeness of his person, as also the spirit of the [living thing], and every other creature which God has created.

Doctrine and Covenants 77:2

Interestingly, in the Book of Mormon, the word “creature” nearly always refers specifically to people. (See for example 2 Nephi 9:21, Mormon 9:22.) We are not only “creatures” because God created us, but we can become “new creatures,” transformed into something better by the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ (Mosiah 27:25-26).

Out of 36 appearances of the word “beasts” in the Book of Mormon, nearly half (17) are qualified by the word “wild” (sometimes even “wild and ferocious” or “wild and ravenous”). Mormon compared his own people to “wild beasts” as he described their atrocities in a letter to his son Moroni (Moroni 9:10).

But other references to (non-violent) beasts remind us of the goodness of God and the wonder of His creations. When Lehi and his family arrived in their promised land, they found “beasts in the forests of every kind, both the cow and the ox, and the ass and the horse, and the goat and the wild goat” (1 Nephi 18:25). The Jaredites carried beasts with them in their barges on their nearly one-year voyage to the same promised land (Ether 6:4). During times of prosperity, they made “tools with which they did work their beasts” (Ether 9:26).

Last Saturday morning, I listened to Doctrine and Covenants 77 as I ran on a greenway near my home. I could hear the birds joyfully chirping as I listened to the Lord’s description of “beasts…in the enjoyment of their eternal felicity” (Doctrine and Covenants 77:3). I appreciated the reminder in this week’s Come, Follow Me lesson that “God’s creations [can] help [us] feel His love.”

Today, I will thank God for His creations, including all living things. I will remember that the wonders of nature are expressions of His love for me and that all types of creatures will one day praise Him and find eternal joy.