Charles Ellicott Commentary Revelation 13:3

"And [I saw] one of his heads as though it had been smitten unto death; and his death-stroke was healed: and the whole earth wondered after the beast;" — Revelation 13:3 (ASV)

And I saw . . .—Translate, And (I saw) one from among his heads as if having been slain [The expression is the same as that applied to the Lamb in Revelation 5:6: the wound marks are there when the vision rises] to death; and the stroke of his death was healed. When the wild beast rose from the sea, the seer saw the deadly wound on the head: the wound was really to death; the beast that had waged war against the true kingdom of righteousness and faith has received his death-blow.

This is the historical point from which the vision starts. This being the case, the death-blow is the one that has just been dealt: the seed of the woman has bruised the serpent’s head. The blow that casts down the dragon inflicts a deadly wound upon the wild beast, which is his agent. When Christ overthrew the wicked one, He gave the death-blow to the world-power—to all systems founded on passion, self-sufficiency, or inhumanity. But the death-blow is apparently healed.

What is this, if not telling the Church of Christ that the fruits of Christ’s victory will not be seen without delay? The world-power is smitten to death, but the actual death does not follow immediately. The power of evil, contrary to all expectation, rises with new vigor. This revived power showed itself, with more or less force, in the way that the spirit of the wild beast broke forth when Christianity seemed to have put fetters on the Roman Empire.