What does Revelation 13:5 mean?

This verse depicts the Antichrist—the beast from the sea (Revelation 13:1)—as boastful and blasphemous. This is hardly a new approach: like evil dictators before him, the beast glories in his accomplishments. He is smug, and his ego extends to the heavens.

King Nebuchadnezzar displayed this attitude. He vented his pride by constructing a huge golden image on the plain of Dura. At the dedication of the image, he decreed that music be played and at its sound every person must fall down and worship the image or be cast into a burning fiery furnace (Daniel 3:1–7). Another time, as he walked on the roof of his palace, he gloated, "Is not this great Babylon, which I have built by my mighty power as a royal residence and for the glory of my majesty?" (Daniel 4:28–30).

While Nebuchadnezzar possessed overflowing pride at the beginning of the times of the Gentiles, the beast from the sea possesses overflowing pride at the end of the times of the Gentiles. The beast also commits blasphemy. He sees himself as God. Nevertheless, his reign will not last beyond three and a half years, according to this verse. Daniel 7:25 also notes that he is blasphemous but will reign for "a time, times, and half a time," which means one year, two years, and a half a year for three and a half in total.