Revelation 16:13Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

By mentioning the three unclean spirits that came out of the three, he shows that he is speaking separately of the devil as the serpent, of the antichrist as the beast, and of the false prophet as distinct from them.

From them, he says, come three evil spirits, frog-like in their poison, uncleanness, defilement, and inclination toward impure pleasures.

At the command of the devil, the antichrist, and the false prophet, signified here under the image of mouths, they will show men false signs and wonders, as we shall see later.

Frogs are unclean not only because of their obvious coarseness, but also because of the place where they live.

Since they are considered native inhabitants of the waters, they not only cannot endure ebb tide and drought, but even in the water they wallow in mud and filth.

Men are like frogs when they are not ashamed to wallow there in sins and crimes, while others renounce them through repentance and baptism.

Some turn to God and repent because they were proud, licentious, given to drunkenness, and greedy. Yet afterward they continue to follow these sins, reasoning within themselves: now I do what I want, and later I shall repent like the one who renounced them and truly repented.

Then suddenly his last day comes, and the confession of faith disappears, while the curse remains.

Such are those who wish to imitate others not in good, but in evil. Like frogs, they remain and thrash about in the mud from which others have been delivered.

John calls the devil, the chief of evil, the dragon. By the false prophet he means either someone else who prophesies by the power of the devil, or the Antichrist himself.

But if he is speaking precisely of the Antichrist, concerning whom it was said above that he will be slain by the Spirit of the Lord (cf. 2 Thess 2:8), and who here, while still alive, sends demons out of his mouth, the reader need not be surprised.

For what is depicted is a vision, and the Evangelist often depicts what is earlier in time as later, and conversely what is later as earlier.

He compares the demons to frogs because they take pleasure in human filth and mire.

The slack and careless existence of sinners is more pleasing to demons than the patient and strict life of the righteous. For demons are exceedingly envious and rejoice in the death of the living.

Because of the various sufferings caused by all the troubles and vices they inflict, evil spirits are said to have different qualities.

Thus the Lord rightly says somewhere in the Gospel: “deaf and dumb spirit” (Mk 9:25), and elsewhere: “unclean spirit” (Lk 9:42). In one place the prophet says: “A spirit of fornication has led them astray” (Hos 4:12).

This spirit brings captives down to the commission of unclean deeds for no other reason than this.

For the same reason John mentions here all three unclean spirits. He wishes to indicate that the one body of the devil is composed of its customary differences.

The author mentions those spirits that possess stronger authority. First he presents the devil in the image of the dragon, then the beast, who is the Antichrist with his followers.

The frog is taken as an image of the evil spirit: an earthbound and twilight creature, giving off a poisonous slime that causes painful irritation at the touch.

These spirits will show men false signs and wonders, by which they will arm those who believe them for war against God.

"Three unclean spirits like frogs coming forth." This recalls the incident when the Egyptian sorcerers, by their sorceries, brought frogs up from the earth.