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THE REVELATION OF JESUS CHRIST TO HIS SERVANT JOHN
The Unveiling of the Kingdom on Earth and in Heaven
Lesson 16
Sanctions of the Covenant Treaty Lawsuit Continued
Chapter 13
The Beast from the Sea and the Beast from the Land

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Almighty God,
Throughout salvation history, You have preserved Your faithful remnant to transmit the true faith to the next generation. You have preserved Your covenant faithful through the ravages of wars and natural disasters just as You protected the Exodus generation from the wrath of Satan in the form of the Egyptian army and the first-century AD Church from the Roman legions that attacked Judea. Help us, as parents, to fulfill our mission to raise our children as a new generation to have the perseverance of faith to stand committed to Jesus' Gospel of salvation and opposed to the secular world's perversion of His message and Your Word in Sacred Scripture. We pray in the name of God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

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The fourth beast is to be a fourth kingdom on earth, different from all other kingdoms. It will devour the whole world, trample it underfoot and crush it. As for the ten horns: from this kingdom will rise ten kings, and another after them; this one will be different from the previous ones and will bring down three kings; he will insult the Most High and torment the holy ones of the Most High. He will plan to alter the seasons and the Law, and the Saints will be handed over to him for a time, two times, and half a time.
Daniel 7:23-25

In the last chapter, Satan, the Dragon, spewed out his wrath like a great river, intending to destroy the New Covenant Church. But the Woman, symbolically the New Covenant Church, escaped into the desert where she was protected for a time, two times and half a time, a short time of tribulation and another reference to three and a half years, the length of time the Roman legions ravaged Judea until the destruction of Jerusalem (Rev 12:13-16). In the fourth century AD, Bishop Eusebius wrote that no Judean Christians were killed during the revolt because they obeyed Christ's commands (Mt 24:15-28), and because of a revelation, they escaped across the Jordan River into the desert of Perea (Church History, III.5.3). God's protection of the New Covenant Church in the desert is reminiscent of God's protection of the children of Israel and the Old Covenant Church in the Exodus out of Egypt and the Holy Family's escape from Herod the Great by traveling across the desert to Egypt:

• Deuteronomy 32:10-11 ~ In the desert, he finds him, in the howling expanses of the wastelands. He protects him, rears him, guards him as the pupil of his eye. Like an eagle watching its nest, hovering over its young, he spreads out his wings to hold him; he supports him on his pinions.
• Matthew 2:14-15 ~ So Joseph got up and, taking the child and his mother with him, left that night for Egypt, where he stayed until Herod was dead.

Revelation 12:18-13:10 ~ John's Vision of the Beast from the Sea
12:18 And I took my stand on the seashore. 13:1 Then I saw a beast emerge from the sea: it had seven heads and ten horns [ten horns and seven heads], with a coronet [diadema] on each of its ten horns, and its heads were marked with blasphemous titles. 2 I saw that the beast was like a leopard, with paws like a bear and a mouth like a lion, the dragon had handed over to it his own power and his throne and his immense authority. 3I saw I saw that one of its heads seemed to have had a fatal wound but that this deadly injury had healed and the whole world has marveled and followed the beast. 4 They prostrated themselves in front of the dragon because he had given the beast his authority, and they prostrated themselves in front of the beast, saying: "Who can compare with the beast? Who can fight against him?" 5 The beast was allowed to mouth its boasts and blasphemies and to be active for forty-two months; 6 and it mouthed its blasphemies against God, against his name, his heavenly Tent and all those who are sheltered there. 7 It was allowed to make war against the saints and conquer them, and given power over every race, people, language, and nation; 8 and all people of the world [and all who dwell on the land] will worship it, that is, everybody whose name has not been written down since the foundation of the world in the sacrificial Lamb's book of life. 9 Let anyone who can hear, listen. 10 Those for captivity to captivity; those for death by the sword to death by the sword. This is why the saints must have perseverance and faith.
[...] the Greek translation, IBGE, vol. IV, page 680-81, #1093 and Days of Vengeance, page 326.⁽¹⁾

According to the Greek text, Revelation 13:1 should read: ten horns and seven heads; on its horns were ten diadems. The New American translation is correct.

It is important to note that this is the reverse order of the description of the dragon in 12:3 that has seven heads and ten horns, with each of the seven heads crowned with a coronet. The point is that the sea beast is the mirror image of the dragon, but it is NOT the dragon. This difference is also apparent in the position of the diadems which are on the seven heads of the dragon (12:3) but on the ten horns of the sea beast (13:1), and the heads of the sea beast are marked with "blasphemous titles."

The New Jerusalem Bible translation does not render Revelation 13:1-2 correctly. The description of the beast in the Greek text reads: it had ten horns and seven heads; however, the NAB accurately translates the verse. Compare the differences with the description of the Dragon in Revelation 12:3. Compare the passages and translations (bold added for emphasis).

• Revelation 12:3 NJB: Then a second sign appeared in the sky: there was a huge red dragon with seven heads and ten horns, and each of the seven heads crowned with a coronet (Greek = diadema).
• Revelation 13:1-2 NJB: Then I saw a beast emerge from the sea: it had seven heads and ten horns, with a coronet (Greek = diadema) on each of its ten horns, and its heads were marked with blasphemous titles. I saw that the beast was like a leopard, with paws like a bear and a mouth like a lion.
• Revelation 13:1 NAB and Interlinear Greek-English Bible, vol. IV, page 680: Then I saw a beast come out of the sea with ten horns and seven heads; on its horns were ten diadems, and on its heads, blasphemous names.

Question: How was the beast in 12:3 different from the sea beast in 13:1?
Answer: The beast in 12:3 had seven heads and ten horns with a diadem on its seven heads, but the sea beast had ten horns and seven heads with diadems on its ten horns.

It seems a small difference that the NJB scholars who worked on this translation have reversed the horns and heads to match the description of the Dragon in 12:3, but in doing so, they have theologically disrupted the message. The message is that the beast is not the Dragon/Satan of 12:3. He is in the image of the Dragon, but he is not the Dragon/Satan! This difference will be significant in Revelation Chapter 17.

The blasphemous names are probably the divine titles claimed by the Roman emperors. John's vision combines features of the four beasts in Daniel 7:2-28. We will see that the seven heads represent seven Roman emperors and the crowned horns the rulers the Romans placed over their ten provinces, like King Herod Agrippa II in Judea, whose mercenaries joined with the Romans in attacking his Jewish countrymen.

The key to understanding the symbolism appears in the Book of the Prophet Daniel that begins with the Babylonians taking young Daniel captive in circa 605 BC (the last date in the Book of Daniel is probably circa 522 BC). In Chapter 2, he had a vision of four successive kingdoms followed by a fifth kingdom that was everlasting.

Then, in Chapter 7, Daniel wrote about a prophetic dream: 2 I have been seeing visions in the night. I saw that the four winds of heaven were stirring up the great Sea; 3 four great beasts emerged from the sea, each different from the others. 4 The first was like a lion with eagle's wings and, as I looked, its wings were torn off, and it was lifted off the ground and set standing on its feet like a human, and it was given a human heart. 5 And there before me was a second beast, like a bear, rearing up on one side, with three ribs in its mouth, between its teeth. "Up!" came the command "Eat quantities of flesh!" 6 After this I looked and there before me was another beast, like a leopard, and with four bird's wings on its flanks; it had four heads and was granted authority. 7 Next, in the visions of the night, I saw another vision: there before me was a fourth beast, fearful, terrifying, very strong; it had great iron teeth, and it ate its victims, crushed them, and trampled their remains underfoot. It was different from the previous beasts and had ten horns. 8 While I was looking at these horns, I saw another horn sprouting among them, a little one; three of the original horns were pulled out by the roots to make way for it, and in this horn I saw eyes like human eyes, and a mouth full of boasting. [...] 11 I went on watching: then, because of the noise made by the boastings of the horn, as I watched, the beast was put to death, and its body destroyed and committed to the flames. 12 The other beasts were deprived of their empire but received a lease of life for a season and a time (Dan 7:2-8, 11-12; see the study on the Book of Daniel Lesson 5).

The Book of Daniel gives more details concerning the kingdom of the Medes and Persians and the Greek Kingdom of Alexander the Great in Daniel 8:3-12, and the interpretation for this vision is in Daniel 8:15-27. Please read Daniel's vision of the Ram and the He-goat interpreted by Gabriel in 8:17-27. Especially note verse 17c where Gabriel says: "understand this: the vision shows the time of the End." Gabriel is not referring to the "end of the world" but the end of the period of great Tribulation resulting in the revolt of the Maccabees and independence for Judah. Throughout Biblical history there are several prophetic "Ends" where prophecy is fulfilled; included in those "ends" are the End or Last Days of the Old Covenant as prophesized later in Daniel Chapter 12, by Joel in the Book of Joel, by St. Peter in Acts 2, and the End after the Second Advent of Christ at the End of Time.

The vision of the four kingdoms in Daniel Chapter 7 is a retelling of Nebuchadnezzar's dream of four kingdoms in Chapter 2 as interpreted by Daniel in 2:31-45, identifying the same four kingdoms which will be followed by a fifth Kingdom that will shatter and absorb all the previous kingdoms and itself last forever (Dan 2:44). The fifth Kingdom is Christ's Kingdom of Heaven on earth, the New Covenant Catholic (universal) Church. Therefore, the fourth kingdom that precedes it has to be Rome. The Roman Empire, from Julius Caesar to Vespasian and the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem, had ten emperors; there were also ten Roman provinces and seven Judean vassal kings.

Daniel's beast with ten horns has to be the same as the one in Revelation Chapter 13:1. It is this kingdom, and one "horn" in particular, who will be guilty of making war on the holy ones and proving the stronger, until the coming of the One most Venerable who gave judgment in favor of the holy ones of the Most High, when the time came for the holy ones to assume kingship (Dan 7:22-23.) Then too, the fourth Kingdom is described as different from all other kingdoms. It will devour the whole world, trample it underfoot and crush it (Dan 7:23). Only Alexander the Great and the Romans conquered the known world of their time. Also notice the reference to "the final days" in Daniel 2:28, a reference to the "final days" of the Old Covenant and the end of the Tamid sacrifice in the Temple and not to "the end" of all time (Dan 12:4-13). It is the same "final days" as the Revelation time frame.

It is necessary to keep in mind that the Bible is God's revelation of His covenant extended to those who belong to Him. The Book of Jesus Christ's Apocalypse (unveiling or revealing) to John is a covenant document as well as a prophetic document, and as the prophecies of the Old Testament, its concern is not with making predictions of catastrophic world events; instead, its focus is ethical and redemptive. It was written by the Holy Spirit through human writers to witness to us what God has done to save His children and to glorify Himself through His Saints.

Therefore, when God speaks about the Babylonian Empire of the 6^th century BC or the Roman Empire of the 1^st century AD, His primary intent is not to record historical events for their own sake. Instead, His purpose is only to make the connection between those human forces and events concerning the history of redemption as it impacts upon His Covenant people. The most significant point about Rome for the inspired writer of Revelation is not its place as a powerful state but its use as a force of Satan to scatter and persecute the Saints of God. The Roman Empire of the 1^st century AD does not persecute God's Covenant people just because it is a pagan Roman state, but because of Satan's influence, it has become a "beast" in opposition to the covenant people of God. The Roman Empire, the beast from the sea, is not viewed in terms of its historical significance but solely in terms of 1) Almighty God and 2) His Church.

Warning: Any commentary of the Bible that does not refer to the Old and New Testament references given in the various passages of the book under study is only an interpretation of the commentator's imagination. St. Augustan wrote concerning the study of Holy Scripture: "the New (Testament) is hidden in the Old (Testament) and the Old(Testament) is fulfilled in the New (Testament)!"

God gave John a particular vantage point. Did you notice the similarity between the Greek textual wording of John taking his stand on the seashore and the Dragon taking his stand before the Woman in Revelation 12:4? It suggests that God has placed John in the forefront of the battle to be the first to see the "beast" emerging from the sea. This is, of course, more than just a geographic view; although with the Italian peninsula across the Mediterranean Sea from the coast of Israel (Judea), it may have seemed to John as though the Roman beast rose from the sea. But there is also the Biblical symbolism of the sea to take into account.

In the opening verses of Genesis, the sea is a place of chaos. After the Fall of man, this Biblical imagery continued, and the sea appears in Scripture as a symbol of the world in chaos following the rebellion of men and nations against God, especially as rebellious Gentile nations coming against Israel. For example Disaster: The thunder of vast hordes, a thunder-like the thunder of the seas, the roar of nations roaring like the roar of mighty floods, of nations roaring like the roar of ocean (Is 17:12), and The wicked, however, are like the restless sea that cannot be still, whose waters throw up mud and dirt. "No peace," says Yahweh, "for the wicked" (Is 57:20).

But there is even more at work here than the symbolism of the beast of the sea as a violent Gentile nation; in Scripture, "the sea" is always seen as a place of chaos. Consider Revelation 9:1-3 and 11 that identifies the angel of the Abyss as Satan and the description in Revelation 12:3 of the great red Dragon with seven heads and ten horns identified as Satan in verse 9, who is the same as the angel of the Abyss. Now, look at the description of the beast of the sea again. Satan is involved with the release of this beast. As long as humans are faithful to God, the demons are kept imprisoned in the Abyss, but when men apostatize and break God's holy covenant, the demons are released. However, as humankind repents and experiences restoration to communion with God, the demons are sent back into the Abyss (see Lk 8:26-33).

Question: Carefully compare the description of the Dragon in Revelation 12:2 with the beast of 13:1. What do you notice, and what is the symbolism? See Genesis 1:26, 3:15, and 5:6.
Answer: The beast of the sea is not identical to Satan (horns crowned instead of heads), but in every other way, he is the image of Satan, the great Dragon.

The beast is not Satan, but he is the son or "seed" of Satan, created in Satan's image as humanity before the fall, and faithful believers in a state of grace are in the image of God (Gen 1:27). It is Satan who gives the beast his power and authority. He is Satan's seed. The Roman Empire of the 1^st century AD was a chaotic and rebellious unity of men and women in opposition to God and a perfect candidate for the beast of 13:1.

Question: What do horns symbolize in Scripture? See 1 Kings 22:11; Zechariah 1:18-21; Psalms 75:10.
Answer: Power.

Question: Turn to Revelation 17:9-11. What are we told the seven heads and the ten horns represent? See the Chart in the handout of the Roman Emperors and the Roman Provinces.
Answer: The seven heads are seven (Roman) Emperors, and the ten horns are ten kings of minor power (rulers of the Roman provinces).

We will be using the chart for the next several chapters. The key to the ten horns of limited power but under the authority of the beast perfectly fit the historical ten Roman provinces and their rulers of the 1^st century AD.

and its heads were marked with blasphemous titles.
Satan often parodies God's plan, like humankind created in the image of God and the beast in the image of Satan. There may also be a connection to the sacerdotal plate the high priests wore on their miters that declared they stood before the people and God in liturgical worship in the image of redeemed humankind and were "Sacred/consecrated to Yahweh" (see Ex 28:36-38). Ironically, in parody, the beast displays on his heads, not the sacred name but blasphemous names which may be the Roman emperors who claimed to be gods; for example, the Roman Emperor Domitian insisted on being addressed as Dominus et Deus noster" = "Our-lord and our god").

Question: What does "blasphemy" mean?
Answer: Blasphemy is claiming to be God or claiming for oneself what belongs to God.

According to the authority of the Roman Empire, Roman Emperors or "Caesars" (they assumed Julius Caesar's name as a title) were gods. The Roman Senate granted each Emperor from the time of Julius Caesar's deification after his assassination, either the title Augustus or Sebastos, meaning "one to be worshiped" and "one to be glorified." You may recall that Julius Caesar's grandnephew, Octavian, was granted the title Augustus Caesar and was the Emperor who ruled the Roman world when Jesus was born. Many temples throughout the Roman Empire were erected to these deified Roman rulers, especially in Asia Minor, as we discussed in Revelation Chapters 2-3. These Roman Emperors took for themselves the title "Son of god" above their images on their coinage, and they expected to receive worship in the ten Roman provinces as an act of obedience and loyalty to Rome and its authority.

Emperor Nero (died 68AD) even erected a 120-foot statue of himself to be worshiped. It was for this reason that St. Paul called Nero the man of sin and the son of destruction who opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the Temple of God displaying himself as being God (2 Thess 2:3-4). It was Nero's plan, before his suicide in AD 68, to erect a statue of himself for worship in the Holy of Holies in Jerusalem. Christians across the Roman Empire suffered persecution because they refused to take part in the worship of the Roman Emperor.

2 I saw that the beast was like a leopard, with paws like a bear and a mouth like a lion: the dragon had handed over to it his own power and his throne and his immense authority.
Question: What do these three animals have in common?
Answer: They are all predators.

In this verse, the Roman Empire is the image of a ferocious animal under the curse (of Satan). The Empire is a predator empowered with satanic powers who kills without mercy. There is also a direct reference to Daniel's vision of the three animal/ kingdoms in Daniel Chapter 7, but in reverse order, when Daniel receives the vision of the rise of Babylon, Persia, and Alexander the Great's Greek Empire. In this case, Rome is to be a composite animal indicating it has the worse traits of all three previous Empires and then, historically, Rome did conquer all the lands that were part of those former kingdoms.

Rome is Daniel's fourth beast, the one who rules just before God established His glorious fifth Kingdom, the Church: Behold a fourth beast, dreadful and terrifying and extremely strong (Dan 7:7) ... The fourth beast is to be a fourth kingdom on earth, different from all other kingdoms. It will devour the whole world, trample it underfoot and crush it (Dan 7:23). The Roman Empire took possession of and expanded the territories of all the previous great regional empires. It conquered the known world!

Question: Is the beast of the sea merely an Empire or also a human being?
Answer: The beast is also human.

Biblically a ruler and his empire are considered to be as one: the Babylonian king, Nebuchadnezzar, was Babylon. The Roman Empire was embodied and represented in the person of the reigning Emperor. A Roman maxim stated that "Caesar is Rome and Rome is Caesar" isn't just a Biblical concept but a 1^st Century AD historical concept.

No Roman Emperor so typified a "beast" as Nero Claudius Caesar Drusus Germanicus, who was born in AD 37 and came to the throne at the age of 17 after his mother murdered his stepfather, Emperor Claudius. The three previous Roman emperors died violent deaths before he became emperor: Tiberius was smothered, Caligula was cut down by his Praetorian guard, and Nero's mother Agrippina poisoned her husband and Nero's stepfather, Claudius. Before his suicide at the age of 30, this bisexual degenerate whose greatest pleasure came from watching people suffer the most horrifying tortures and dressing up as a wild beast attacked and rape both female and male prisoners. He murdered his mother, kicked his pregnant wife to death, ordered the murders of both Sts. Paul and Peter, and celebrated his garden parties by tying Christian men, women, and children to stakes, smearing their bodies with pitch and burning them as lighting for the evening's festivities. It was Nero who began the persecution of the Church by the Roman Empire. This animalistic, sadistic pervert was worshiped as a god by the Roman world and made this super-power the moral cesspool of humanity. Who better to typify the beast?

3 I saw that one of its heads seemed to have had a fatal wound but that this deadly injury had healed, and the whole world had marveled and followed the beast. 4 They prostrated themselves in front of the dragon because he had given the beast his authority; and they prostrated themselves in front of the beast, saying: "Who can compare with the beast? Who can fight against him?"
Significantly, this fatal wound is mentioned three times in verses 3, 12, and 14. Most commentators assume that John is referring to the Nero redivivus myth. The noble and equestrian classes, who saw his insanity first-hand, hated Nero, but the Roman masses loved him because he generously gave free beer, bread, and the excitement of the struggle between life and death in the admission-free gladiatorial games. The popular masses saw Nero as one of them and worshiped him as a god. Believing him to be a god, most common Romans believed after his suicide that he would resurrect and bring vengeance to his enemies. I think it ridiculous to assume that John would allude to pagan superstition. He would have condemned such thinking concerning this "seed of Satan." Nero committed suicide by having a servant help him stab himself in the throat, but the ancients may have considered the throat part of the head

Other scholars have suggested that the wound of the beast may refer to anarchy in the Roman Empire in the year AD 69 following Nero's death. Historians refer to it as the year of the Four Emperors because three Romans came to the imperial throne in rapid succession only to die violent deaths, leaving the once vital Roman Empire "wounded" in utter chaos with the "head" of the Empire, the position of emperor, imperiled to the point of death. It wasn't until Emperor Vespasian successfully took leadership of the Empire that the "near-fatal wound" of the Empire seemed healed, and the monster returned to life. Another theory is that Nero was the last of the family line of Julius Caesar, and his death could have led to the fatal end of Imperial Rome. While the previous two theories are plausible explanations, it is essential to turn instead to sacred Scripture for the answer because the mention of the head wound three times is a sign that this event is theological and symbolic, not literal.

Question: Who is the great enemy prophesized to receive a head wound? See Genesis 3:15 and Daniel's list of the five succeeding kingdoms in 2:44-45. In the historical fulfillment of Daniel's prophecy, the fourth kingdom is Rome, and the fifth, everlasting Kingdom, is Jesus' Kingdom of the Church. See Gen 3:15 and Dan 2:44-45.
Answer: The Serpent/Satan. Christ crushed the head of Satan in his Resurrection and Ascension. The prophet Daniel had prophesied that in the days of the fourth kingdom, the stone of the fifth kingdom would crush the satanic empires and replace them (Dan 2:44-45).

With Christ's Resurrection and Ascension and the spread of the Gospel across the Roman world, and Satan's head receives a mortal wound, but he isn't finished. There are still those who worship him and are motivated by his evil influence. Although the Gospel had spread everywhere, so had heresy and apostasy. Under the persecution of the Romans and the Jews, many Christians had begun to abandon the New Covenant faith (1 Tim 1:3-7, 19-20; 4:1-3; 6:20-21; 2 Tim 2:16-18; 3:1-9, 13; 4:10, 14-16; Titus 1:10-16; 1 Jn 2:18-19). The reaction to Caesar's apparent victory over the Church (Rev 11:7-10) was awe that generated worship of the beast. Old Covenant Israel sided with Caesar and the Empire against Christ and His Church.

5 The beast was allowed to mouth its boasts and blasphemies and to be active for forty-two months; 6 and it mouthed its blasphemies against God, against His name, His heavenly Tent and all those who are sheltered there.
Once again, the 42 months or 3 and 1/2 years is a limited time of persecution, not the like 42 generations while God's people waited for the coming of the Messiah (see Mt Chapter 1 and the 42 generations from Abraham to Jesus). The three and a half is a broken seven and a symbolic figure in prophetic language, signifying a time of persecution when the enemies of God are in power or when judgment is "poured out" like blood against the altar of sacrifice, on the wicked (see Rev 12:15; Dan 7:25; 8:7), a presented in a chiastic pattern in Revelation 11:2, 3, 9, 11; 12:6, and 13:5. It is another indication of the critical and symbolic nature of these specific times. Forty-two months (each of an ideal 30 days) equal 1,260 days or 3 ½ years. See the chiastic (reverse) pattern of these times:

• A-1. Rev 11:2 — 42 months
  • B-1. Rev 11:3 — 1,260 days
    • C-1 Rev 11:9 — 3 ½ days
    • C-2 Rev 11:11 — 3 ½ days
  • B-2. Rev 12:6 — 1,260 days
• A-2. Rev 13:5 — 42 months

Question: Against whom did the beast mouth its blasphemies?
Answer:

1. Against God,
2. His name/baptized believers who bear His name,
3. against the heavenly Sanctuary, and
4. the angels and saints

7 It was allowed to make war against the Saints and conquer them and given power over every race, people, language and nation; 8 and all people of the world those [who dwell on the land] will worship it, that is, everybody whose name has not been written down since the foundation of the world in the sacrificial Lamb's book of life. Let anyone who can hear listen."
Notice the use of the impersonal passive "it," referring to the beast in verses 6 and 7, which implies that it is God who permits the beast four temporal privileges:

1. a mouth which blasphemes (verse 5)
2. conquest of the holy ones (verse 7)
3. authority for 42 months (verse 5)
4. power over all people (verse 9)

Question: In his exercise of the fourth privilege in verse 9, over whom does the beast wield its power and influence? Count your answer. Why is that number significant?
Answer: Authority over:

1. every race,
2. people,
3. language, and
4. nation

The significance of the number four is that it is the Biblical number that represents the earth. His authority is over the four-fold/four corners of the world!

There is a historical connection between the symbolic number of forty-two months in verse 5 and the persecution of Christians under Emperor Nero. The state-sanctioned murder of Christians in Rome began after the great fire of Rome when Nero convinced the Roman Senate to condemn Christians as the arsonists in November of AD 64. At that time, persecution of Christians spread across the Empire and lasted until Nero's suicide in June of 68. Christian persecution in Rome lasted forty-two months or three and a half years.

This passage is a reference to Daniel 7:6-27 and the fourth beast in verse 21: This was the horn I had watched making war on the holy ones and proving the stronger, until the coming of the One most venerable who gave judgment in favor of the holy ones of the Most High, when the time came for the holy one to assume kingship and verse 25: He will insult the Most High and torment the holy ones of the Most High. He will plan to alter the seasons and the Law, and the Saints will be handed over to him for a time, two times and a half a time. It is another reference to the forty-two-month period of suffering.

Question: What comparison can you make between the power of the beast, the power of Daniel's fourth kingdom, and the influence of the Roman Empire? See Mt 4:8-8, Jn 12:31; Dan 10:13, 20.
Answer: The Roman Empire ruled "all the (known) kingdoms of the earth" from England to Egypt and from Portugal to the Parthians. However, it is, in fact, Satan who rules through the Romans.

His authority was "legal" in a way because Adam had, after all, abdicated the throne and his divine sonship, but Satan's rule was illegitimate as well. The Fathers of the Church declare that the Second Adam, Jesus Christ, won back the world from Satan's dominion by just and lawful means and reclaimed the inheritance of Adam. St. Irenaeus (m. AD 202) wrote: "The all-powerful Word of God, who never fails in justice, acted justly even in dealing with the Spirit of Rebellion. For it was by persuasion, not by force, that He redeemed His own property" (Against Heresies v.i.1). And St Augustan added in the fifth century: "Christ demonstrated justice by his death, he promised power by his resurrection. ...First justice conquered the devil, then power; justice, because he had no sin and was most unjustly put to death by the devil; power because he lived again, after death, never to die thereafter" (On the Trinity, xiii.18).

We shouldn't miss the importance of Revelation 13:8: and all the people of the world [all those who dwell on the land] will worship it. It is the same formula phrase that appears twelve times in the Book of Revelation, and four times in this Chapter in verses 8, 12, and 14 [twice] that recalls the four seven-fold curses of the Covenant Lawsuit (Lev 26:18-42). In Greek, the phrase reads: and those who dwell on the Land will worship it.

Question: In Biblical symbolism, to what does the phrase those who dwell on the Land refer? Hint: see the discussion of Chapter 3:10. The twelve references to this phrase are in Revelation 3:10; 6:10; 8:13; 11:10 [twice]; 13:8, 12, 14 [twice]; 14:6; 17:2, &8.
Answer: John uses the phrase those who dwell on the Land twelve times in Revelation, once for each of the twelve tribes of Israel, referring to apostate Israel.

In the Greek Old Testament (the version used at the time of Christ and by the early Church), it is a common prophetic expression for rebellious, idolatrous Israel about to be destroyed and driven from the Promised Land (Jer 1:14; 10:18; Ez 7:7; 36:17; Hos 4:1, 3; Joel 2, 14; Zeph 1:18; etc.), and based on its original usage in the Historical Books of the Bible for rebellious, idolatrous pagans about to be destroyed and driven from the Land (Num 32:17; 33:52, 55; Josh 7:9; 9:24; Judg 1:32; 2 Sam 5:6; 1 Chron 11:4; 22:18; Neh 9:24). In other words, when this phrase appears for the covenant people, it means Israel has become a nation of pagans and is about to be destroyed, exiled, and supplanted by a new kingdom, the Church.

In the first-century context, God condemns the Old Covenant people of Judea for Emperor-worship and in becoming followers of Satan by being opposed to God's divine plan in the Redeemer-Messiah. There are several examples in the New Testament and in the historical record that indicates Judea and the priestly authority put Rome before God.

1. Every day in the Temple in Jerusalem, the priests sacrificed a bull for the Roman Emperor.
2. In conspiring to kill Jesus, the chief priests and the Pharisees meet to discuss what to do: If we let him go on in this way, everybody will believe in him, and the Romans will come and suppress the Holy Place and our nation. One of them, Caiaphas, the high priest that year said, "You do not seem to have grasped the situation at all; you fail to see that it is to your advantage that one man should die for the people, rather than that the whole nation should perish" (Jn 11:48-50).
3. On Passion Friday, the Jews of Jerusalem protested when Roman governor Pilate wrote: "Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews" on the plague that would hang on the cross. They cried out: "We have no king but Caesar!" (Jn 19:15). When faced with a choice between Christ and Caesar, they chose Caesar, and in doing so, they chose Satan.
4. In the Book of Acts and John's letters to the Seven Churches of Revelation, Jesus mentions that Jews continually persecuted Christian communities and tried to use the Roman authority in their persecution.

Question: In John's letters to the Seven Churches, what does Jesus call the communities of Jews who persecute Christians? See Rev 2:9 and 3:9.
Answer: He calls them "Synagogues of Satan."

8b everybody whose name has not been written down since the foundation of the world in the sacrificial Lambs book of life. Let anyone who can hear listen.
Question: This is the second reference in Revelation to the Lamb's Book of Life. Where was the first reference? See Rev 3:5-6.
Answer: Jesus, in His letter to the Church at Sardis: anyone who proves victorious will be dressed, like these, in white robes; I shall not blot that name out of the Book of Life, but acknowledge it in the presence of my Father and His angels. Let anyone who can hear listen to what the Spirit is saying to the churches.

The Book is life appears seven times in the Book of Revelation: Rev 3:5; 13:8; 17:8; 20:12 [twice]; 20:15; & 21:27. Other references to the Book of Life are in Exodus 32:32-33; Psalms 69:28; 139:16; Isaiah 4:3; Daniel 7:10; 12:1; Luke 10:20; and Philippians 4:3.

9 Let anyone who can hear listen: 10 Those for captivity to captivity; those for death by the sword to death by the sword. This is why the Saints must have perseverance and faith.
Revelation 3:6, where the same phrase repeats in Revelation 13:9, but it also stresses the importance of the message in Revelation 13:10.

Jesus used the phrase: Let anyone who has ears, listen! three times in the Gospel of Matthew in 11:15; 13:9; and 43. The other references to this phrase appear in Deuteronomy 16:16-18, Matthew 17:5, Mark 9:7, and Luke 9:35. That makes seven times! In the Deuteronomy passage, God tells the Children of Israel that the Messiah will come from among their people, and he will be THE Prophet of God. Then the passage ends with Yahweh's admonition: "Listen to Him!" In the Gospels, Listen to Him! is the message the Apostles hear God the Father call out from heaven at the Mount of Transfiguration experience: and suddenly from the cloud there came a voice which said, "This is my Son, the Beloved; he enjoys my favor. Listen to him!" (Mt 17:5, repeated in Mk 9:7; Lk 9:35).

Verse 10 is a reference to Jeremiah's prophecy of the destruction of Jerusalem in 587/6BC and the great Tribulation that would befall the inhabitants: Yahweh says this: those for the plague, to the plague; those for the sword, to the sword; those for famine, to famine; those for captivity, to captivity! (Jer 15:2). In language reminiscent of Jesus' warning to the women of Jerusalem in Luke 23:28-31, Jeremiah continues to describe the coming destruction of the Land (Jer 15:5-9), and John makes this connection to warn of the coming judgment on 1^st century AD apostate Jews who have joined with the beast in persecuting Christians. The wicked cannot escape; their destiny is for famine, captivity, and the sword!

This prophecy was historically fulfilled with the fall of Jerusalem on the 9^th of Ab 586 BC to the Babylonian Empire and a second time on the 9^th of Ab AD 70 with the fall of Jerusalem to the Roman Empire. Some of the inhabitants of Jerusalem died from the plague, some from famine and some by the Roman sword. The rest were taken captive and sold into slavery.

Through this terrible ordeal, and others like it, the Saints must have faith; it is part of God's plan, and He and they (the Church) will ultimately be victorious. What is the end of Old Covenant Israel is a beginning for the New Covenant Church.

Revelation 13:11-17 ~ The Beast from the Land (the False Prophet)
11 Then I saw a second beast, emerging from the ground [land]; it had two horns like a lamb, but made a noise like a dragon. 12 This second beast exercised all the power of the first beast, on its behalf making the world and all its people [making those who dwell on the land] worship the first beast, whose deadly injury had healed. 13 And it worked great miracles [signs = semeion], even to calling down fire from heaven onto the earth [land] while people watched. 14 Through the miracles [signs] which it was allowed to do on behalf of the first beast, it was able to lead astray the people of the world [those who dwell on the land] and persuade them [those dwelling on the land] to put up a statue in honor of the beast that had been wounded by the sword and still lived. 15 It was allowed to breathe life into this statue so that the statue of the beast was able to speak and to have anyone who refused to worship the statue of the beast put to death. 16 It compelled everyone, small and great alike, rich and poor, slave and citizen, to be branded on the right hand or on the forehead, 17 and made it illegal for anyone to buy or sell anything unless he had been branded with the name of the beast or with the number of its name. 18 There is need for shrewdness here: anyone clever may interpret the number of the beast: it is the number of a human being, the number 666.
[...] Greek text; # 1093 = ge/land and # 4592 = semeion/signs, IBGE, vol. IV, page 691.
On the Greek text, the phrase, "those dwelling on the land" appears four times in this chapter: 13:8, 12, and twice in verse 14.
In the Old Testament, there are several references to sea beasts and a land beast. These animals often appear symbolically to represent the evil powers of Satan. The sea beasts are Leviathan (Ps 74:13-14; 104:26; Job 41:1-34; Is 27:1; as Egypt in Ps 74:13-14), Tannin (Dragon= Ps 91:13), and Rahab (Job 26:12-12, Is 51:9-10; & often used as a symbol for Egypt's wars against God people in Ps 87:4; 89:10; Is 30:7). The Bible relates each of these monsters to the Serpent, who is the deceitful and cunning enemy of God's people since Eden.

The Land beast is the Behemoth, described in Job 40:15-24 and 63:2. Don't let anyone tell you the Bible doesn't mention dinosaurs. Read to Job's description of the Behemoth: But look at Behemoth, my creature, just as you are! He feeds on greenstuff like the ox, but what strength he has in his loins, what power in his stomach muscles! His tail is as stiff [thick] as a cedar, the sinews of his thighs are tightly knit. His bones are bronze tubes, his frame, like forged iron (Job 40:10 (15)-13(18). The New Jerusalem Bible translation notes say this is a hippo or an elephant, but they have little, scrawny tails not tails as thick as a cedar tree. Is it possible that this huge land animal is a dinosaur, possibly a brachiosaurus (formerly known as brontosaurus) and the last of its species? The description is very similar to what we know about this huge beast from pre-history and unlike any living species that we know of from John's time or ours.

The book of Job has prepared us for John's vision of the beasts. Job 40:15-24 tells us of the land beast Behemoth and the sea beast Leviathan in Job 41:1-34. It is an interesting reversal of imagery in Revelation. In the Greek Septuagint translation, the Greek word for the Hebrew Behemoth is Therion. It is the same word St. John uses for the beasts in Revelation (land and sea beasts). The Greek text uses the term drakon for the sea beast Leviathan, often mistranslated as "dragon." John uses the Greek word drakon for the great red dragon in Revelation Chapter12 in verses 3, 4, 7, 8, 9, 13, 16, and 17, and in Chapter 13, he uses it four times in verses 1, 2, 4, and 11. The dragon will appear again in Revelation 16:13 and 20:2 for a total of fourteen times in the entire book. Job sees the land beast, the sea beast, and then God (Job 42), but what John sees is the demonic reverse of Job's vision:

The image of the beast is a continuation of the satanic counterfeit: the demonic reversal of God's order. Just as the Son of God is the Image of the Father (Jn 1:18; Col 1:15), so the Church as been redemptively re-created as the Image of the Son: He decided beforehand who were the ones destined to be molded to the pattern of his Son (Rom 8:29), and in Colossians 3:10 ~ and you have put on a new self which will progress toward true knowledge the more it is renewed in the image of its Creator. But Israel, which was to have been a kingdom of priests to the nations of the earth, has surrendered her position to Leviathan and the beast (Satan). Instead of placing a godly imprint on every people and culture, Israel, in rejecting Christ, has been remade into the image of the pagan state; instead of becoming a prophet nation of God, Israel has become a prophet nation of Satan and a false witness against Christ. The Dragon is the antitheses of God, but the sea and land beasts are the antitheses of the Lamb and the authority of the Church:

11 Then I saw a second beast, emerging from the ground [land]; it has two horns like a lamb but made a noise like a dragon. 12 This second beast exercised all the power of the first beast, on its behalf making the world and its people worship the first beast, whose deadly injury had healed.
The land beast is a parody of the Lamb of God, with two horns like a lamb, but just as the beast from the sea was in the image of the Dragon, so this creature is the image of the beast from the sea and is coming up from within Israel/Judea.

Question: What is the identity of the land beast, and where does it get its power? See Rev 16:13; 19:20 and 20:10.
Answer: He is the false prophet.

The Jewish leaders, symbolized by the beast from the land of Judea, joined forces with the beast of Rome in an attempt to destroy the New Covenant Kingdom of the Church (Acts 4:24-28; 12:1-3; 13:8; 14:5; 17:5-8; 18:12-13; 21:11; 24:1-9; 25:2-3, 9, 24). Therefore, the land beast (second beast) exercised all the power of the first beast (the sea beast), becoming its agent just as the sea beast is the agent of the Dragon. The second beast is a false prophet who stands before the beast as its servant, but the true prophet lives in the presence of God, taking His orders and doing His will.

Did you notice that the Lamb has two witnesses/prophets, and the Dragon has two beasts? The false prophet is what Jesus had warned would take place in the last days of Judea and the Old Covenant: And Jesus answered them, "Take care that no one deceives you, because many will come using my name and saying, I am the Christ,' and they will deceive many" (Mt 24:5) and also saying, "Many false prophets will arise; they will deceive many" (Mt 24:11). It is important to remember that false prophecy is not a pagan culture phenomenon but is instead a heresy that appears only within the covenant context. It is an imitation of divine prophecy and operates to deceive God's covenant people and to work in opposition to His true prophets. Even Moses warned that false prophets would arise from among the Covenant people performing signs and wonders in Deuteronomy 13:1-5 ~ If a prophet or dreamer of dreams arises among you, offering you some sign or wonder, and the sign or wonder comes about; and if he then says to you, Let us follow other gods (hitherto unknown to you) and serve them,' you must not listen to that prophet's words or to that dreamer's dreams. Yahweh your God is testing you to know if you love Yahweh your God. In this passage, Moses goes on to give God's judgment that if any town of Israel rejects God, it must be placed under the "curse of destruction" and face utterly destroyed. It is the same curse placed on Jerusalem for the rejection of Jesus the Messiah.

Question: Why does the creature in verse 11 have the appearance of a lamb? What is it in reality? See Mt 7:15.
Answer: Jesus warned His disciples in Matthew 7:15, "Beware of the false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravening wolves." It is a reference to the false prophet's claim of messiahship. It is not a lamb; it is a Wolf.

Question: Revelation 13:11 says this beast speaks like a dragon. How does the dragon speak? See Gen 3:1-6; 2 Cor 11:13; Jn 8:44; Rev 12:9-10.
Answer: He uses deceptive, subtle, and seductive speech to draw God's people away from the faith and into his trap. He is also a liar, a slanderer, and a blasphemer (Jn 8:44; Rev 12:10).

The book of Acts is full of examples of Satanic false witnesses and the persecution of the New Covenant Church.

In Chapter 13, there are several comparisons between the Dragon's land beast and sea beast/false prophet and Jesus' two faithful witnesses/prophets in Revelation Chapter 11. This contrast animates the idea of conflict between good and evil, and between God and Satan.

Question: If the first beast is the Roman Empire, who is the second beast who works in cooperation with the first?
Answer: The second beast is the apostate Jews who rejected the Messiah and worked to use Roman authority to destroy Jesus and his disciples. The first beast from the sea (Rome) is the agent of the Dragon (Satan), and the second beast is the agent of the first beast.

The term "all authority" makes the second beast the agent of the first beast. Its identity is made clear by John's statement, repeated in verse 14, that those who dwell on the land, which is a symbolic formula for the people of Israel, exercise power on its behalf or literally in his presence and even worship the first beast who head wound had healed.

Question: How is this in direct contrast to a true prophet of God?
Answer: A true prophet stands in God's presence, worships God, and has God's divine authority.

The reference to the beast's recovery from his "wound" here and in verse 14 is a contrast with Christ. It is a counterfeit resurrection of a counterfeit son. Its revival is presented as the reason for worshipping the beast just as Christian worship is ultimately founded on the Resurrection as Christ as proof of His Messianic character. The continuation of the power of Rome and Jesus' seemingly inability to conquer Rome since the Romans executed Him was proof to apostate Judea that Christ was not the true Messiah.

13 And it worked great miracles [signs], even to calling down fire from heaven onto the earth while people watched. 14 Through the miracles [signs] which it was allowed to do on behalf of the first beast, it was able to lead astray the people of the world [those who dwell on the land] and persuade them [those dwelling on the land] to put up a statue in honor of the beast that had been wounded by the sword and still lived.
In Matthew 24:24, Jesus warned that "false christs and false prophets will arise and provide great signs and portents, enough to deceive even the elect."
The Book of Acts has several examples of false prophets working miracles; see Acts 8:9-24 and 13:6-11. 19:13-15. The false prophet even performed "great signs" in the service of the Empire of the sea beast. Unlike the powerless prophets of Baal (1 Kng 18:20-40), this false Elijah even makes fire come down from Heaven and deceives those who dwell on the land of Judea. The Book of Acts records several examples of miracle-working Jewish false prophets who came into conflict with the Church (cf. Acts 8:9-24) and worked with Roman officials (cf. Acts 13:6-11), even using Jesus' name in their incantations (Acts 19:13-16, as Jesus foretold in Mt 7:22-23).

Question: The Jews even became guilty of idolatry.What does the word idolatry mean in its broader sense?
Answer: It means making anything more important than God.

To the Jews, pleasing the Roman state had become more important than pleasing God. Joseph Caiaphas, the High Priest, even said Jesus must die so as not to upset the balance of power with the Roman state Then the chief priests and Pharisees called a meeting, "Here is this man working all these signs," they said, "and what actions are we taking? If we let him go on in this way, everybody will believe in him and the Romans will come and suppress the Holy Place and our nation" (Jn 11:47-48).

15 It was allowed to breathe life into this statue so that the statue of the beast was able to speak and to have anyone who refused to worship the statue of the beast put to death. 16 It compelled everyone, small and great alike, rich and poor, slave and citizen, to be branded on the right hand or on the forehead, 17 and made it illegal for anyone to buy or sell anything unless he had been branded with the name of the beast or with the number of its name."
The statue is an image of the sea beast, and the second beast/false prophet uses its demonic power to breathe life into it so that the image might speak.
Question: When God created the first man in His image, how did he bring Adam to life? See Gen 2:7-8.
Answer: God breathed on Adam to give him life.

Question: What was the next thing Adam did in Genesis 2:19-20?
Answer: Adam speaks, naming and defining the creation in terms of God's mandate.

Verses 15-17 are the parallel between the false prophet's creation and God's creation. The only other time God breathed on men was when Jesus breathed on the Apostles after the Resurrection in John 20:22 ~ He breathed on them and said: "Receive the Holy Spirit."

Question: Who was compelled to worship the beast or receive a branding? How many classifications of society does verse 16 mention?
Answer: Everyone. Six classifications of society. It is the Biblical number of humankind, created on the 6^th day.

Question: What charges did the Jewish court bring to the Roman authority against Jesus? For what reason was Jesus put to death? See Jn 19:12-15.
Answer: The Jewish court was enforcing submission to the Roman Emperor: the sea beast. The charge against Jesus was that He was a rival to the authority of Caesar (John 19:12-15). Jesus claimed to be the "Son of God" (Jn 19:7), and Caesar claimed to be the "son of god." There could only be one "son of god."

Question: Who did the Jews chose? Jn 19:15-16.
Answer: The Jewish chief priests chose Caesar.

The Jewish charge against Jesus was blasphemy (Mt 26:65-66), but the charge they presented to the Romans was that Jesus claimed for Himself what belonged to Caesar (Jn 19:12) and, therefore, the accusation was treason against the Empire, and the punishment was death.

Question: Were there others put to death for refusing to worship the sea beast/Rome?
Answer: Stephen, Peter, James, Paul, and all the other Apostles (except John) and many other Christians.

There were also organized economic boycotts against those who refused to submit to Caesar as Lord. Burning incense to the Emperor was required. When one fulfilled the requirement, a stamp was placed on the worshipper's hand to signify he had fulfilled his duty to his emperor and the Roman State. The "mark of the beast" in verse 17 is a Satanic parody. The New Jerusalem translation uses the word "branded," but other translations use the word "marked." The same Greek word (charagma) indicating the "mark of the beast" appears seven times in Revelation (13:16, 17; 14:9, 11; 16:2; 19:20; and 20:4). It is a symbolic sign, not a literal one, but it does have a historical fulfillment.

Question: What is the reference to this mark related to the righteousness who belong to God? See Rev 3:12; 7:2-4; 14:1.
Answer: It is the Satanic parody of the "seal of the Living God" on the foreheads and hands of the righteous.

The "seal of God" is the mark of complete obedience to the Covenant in thought and deed in Deuteronomy 6:6-8. It is the "mark" of blessing and protection in Ezekiel 9:4-6, and the sign that one is consecrated to Yahweh as the high priest in Exodus 28:26. It is also the "seal" of the 144,000 as mark out for warriors in God's plan of redemption. Apostate Judea and its capital of Jerusalem have rejected Jesus the Messiah and is "marked" with the seal of her union to Rome. She chose to serve the pagan state and to persecute and kill those who sought salvation in Christ. Israel/Judea has surrendered herself to a Satanic power (the Dragon), to a beast made in Satan's image (the sea beast) and has herself become the land beast who in the image of the sea beast (Rome) exercised his power over God's people. As the angel of God marked the foreheads of the righteous for protection in Revelation 7:3, so the beast's angel/messenger stamped the wicked with its own branding mark of evil. The leaders of Israel worked to enforce worship, not of the true God, as in the Christian churches, but of the Synagogue itself. In His letter to the church at Smyrna, Jesus told them He knew of their suffering from the slander of the people who falsely claim to be Jews but are really members of the Synagogue of Satan.

18 There is need for shrewdness here: anyone cleaver may interpret the number of the beast: it is the number of a human being, the number 666.
For a Jew, this number was a fearful symbol. The Old Testament image that would immediately connect with Jews or Messianic Jews would be the fall of King Solomon, Israel's greatest ruler, as he led his people into apostasy (see 1 Kng 10:14). We'll discuss those passages at the end of this section.

As you will remember, we discussed the concept of "Rome is Caesar and Caesar is Rome," meaning that a ruler and his empire are one and the same. John clearly shows us this connection in the riddle of the number of the beast. In the ancient world, there was no separate set of symbols representing number value. Letters of the alphabet carried numerical value. The 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet had number values just as the 24 letters of the Greek alphabet each had a number equivalent. But as for the Romans, only six letters carried number value: 1 = the letter I, 5 = the letter V, 10 = the letter X, 50 = the letter L, 100 = the letter C, and 500 = the letter D. Contrary to popular belief there was no single letter value for 1000. That number was represented by back to back Ds that resembled the letter M.

John warns us that to solve this puzzle takes shrewdness and cleverness! The Roman Emperor Nero Caesar had two common spellings for his name in the first century. One form was Nero Kesar, but the Hebrew spelling is Neron Kesar. The alternate spellings are significant because some ancient MSS (manuscripts) instead of using the number 666 have the number 616. In 13:18, John doesn't write out the number, he uses the Greek symbolic letters 600, 60, and 6, but he expects his readers to add up the value of the name in Hebrew, this is why it takes shrewdness. If you add up the letter values in Greek, Neron Caesar (Neron Kaisar) adds up to 666. Neron Kaisar = Nrwn Q(K)sr in Hebrew, which used no vowels, was the linguistically correct Hebrew form and appears in the Jewish Talmud, in the writings of the first century AD community at Qumran near the Dead Sea, and other rabbinical writings. No Jew would ever have thought of Nero except as rsq nwrn (Hebrew is read left to right). But Nero Caesar (rsq nwr), the other spelling (alternate spellings were very common), adds up to 616, which is precisely the variant reading in a few New Testament Revelation manuscripts for the number of the beast.⁽²⁾

8 is the number signifying salvation; Jesus' gematria is a trinity of 8s.

The gematria is strong evidence for the beast representing the depraved Roman Emperor Nero. It also cannot be overlooked that all the earliest Catholic Christian commentators on the Book of Revelation from St. Irenaeus Bishop of Lyon in the 2^nd century to St. Victorinus Bishop of Pettau, martyred in AD 302, Commodian in the 4^th century, Adreaeus in the 5^th, and St. Beatus in the 8^th centuries connect Nero and Rome with the number of the beast.

Question: Why is 6 the number of man and the beast? Gen 1:24-26.
Answer: 6 is the number of man and the beasts because they were both created on the 6^th day of Creation.

There's a connection to Christ and man here. Can you guess what it is? You'll find the answer in bold type as the lesson continues.

But if Nero is the beast, isn't Rome also the beast. After all, isn't this an illustration of the saying which was common during the world domination of the Roman Empire Caesar is Rome and Rome is Caesar? If you add up the value of the numbers used by Rome for counting, what is the value of those numbers?

The Gematria of Roman Numerals
(The symbol for 1,000 was two Ds = 500 back to back; the archaic Latin alphabet lacked an "M" symbol: 𐌀𐌁𐌂𐌃𐌄𐌅𐌆𐌇𐌉𐌊𐌋𐌌𐌍𐌏𐌐𐌒𐌓𐌔𐌕V𐌖𐌗)

666 is a trinity of 6s never to be a 7. 6 is the number of mankind, especially as humanity in rebellion against God. Goliath was 6 cubits and a span (see 1 Sam 17:4). King Nebuchadnezzar erected a statue of himself for worship. It was 60 cubits high and 6 cubits across (Dan 3:1)

The answer, of course, is 666: The number of the beast. Then too, Caesar claimed to be God. The word god in Greek is theos. Kaisar Theos (Caesar god) is 616, also the alternate number in some manuscripts:

If you are interested in numbers, you may like to know that the square of 6 (6x6) is 36, and the triangular of 36 is 666. Triangulation is a method of computation that was popular in the ancient world and was very familiar to people in the first century AD. It is too complicated to explain here, but the different computations of the triangulation of 666 will yield both the numbers 3 1/2 and 1260, which are numbers you will recognize from John's prophecy of the time the beast is powerful and able to inflict suffering on the Saints.

Another interesting aspect of this very mysterious number, 666, is that John wrote out the symbols. He didn't spell out the number. Therefore, the first number was the same first initial double letter (in Greek) as the title of the Messiah, Christos: X = CH. The last letter which looks like an s in Greek was the first double-letter (st) of the word Cross = stauros, and between the two stood the symbol of the Serpent. The whole formed a triple repetition of 6, the number of the creation of humankind, and the number of the day of Jesus' crucifixion (Friday is the 6^th day of the week with Saturday, the Sabbath, the 7^th). Jesus died for humanity on the day man was created. His crucifixion was on the sixth day, which is Friday. Jesus' resurrection was on the 8^th day (or the day after the 7^th day, which is the first day of the week, and the first day of the old creation), which became the first day of the new creation. The gematria for Jesus (Iesous) in Greek, the language of the New Testament, is 888. Eight is the number of salvation and redemption. Jesus is a trinity of 8s. John's point in 13:18 is that the beast, Nero, is only a trinity of 6s and will never be the perfection of a 7 or the triple salvation of the number of Jesus that is 888.

Question: Can you find anywhere else in Scripture that mentions the number 666? See 1 Kng 10:14 and 1 Chron 9:13, the only two places mentioned in the Bible
Answer. Both passages record that King Solomon received 666 talents of gold in one year.

Solomon is both a Biblical type for Christ and the beast. The number 666 marks both the height of his reign and the beginning of his fall away from God into apostasy. Solomon falls from his position of favor with God as he breaks the three laws of godly kingship as recorded in Deuteronomy 17:16-17:

1. the law against multiplying gold (1 Kng 10:14-25)
2. the law against multiplying horses (1 Kng 10:26-29)
3. the law against multiplying wives (1 Kng 11:1-8)

As already mentioned, for a Jew, the number 666 was a fearful sign of apostasy and the mark of both a king and his kingdom that failed live in the image of God and so had fallen to the image of Satan.

John's message is that, at his most powerful, Satan, the great red Dragon, is just a 6, or a series of 6s. He will never be a perfect seven. His evil plans for the world and the downfall of humanity will never find fulfillment. The Church will overcome and be victorious through Jesus, the 888, who conquered on the 8^th Day! Praise and glory to the King of kings!

Endnote:
1. The Greek word stephanos, crown/crowns, appears in Rev 2:10; 3:11; 4:4, 10; 6:2; 9:7; 12:1 and 14:14. While the Greek word diadema, diadem/crown (translated "coronet" in the NJB), appears three times in Rev 12:3; 13:1; and 19:12.

2. Archaeologists discovered the nrwn-qsr rendering in Hebrew of Nero's name as Neron Caesar on a document among the Dead Sea Scrolls at Qumran dating to the first century AD (Alfred McBride, The Second Coming of Jesus, page 109).

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Michal Hunt, Copyright © 2000, revised 2020 Agape Bible Study. Permissions All Rights Reserved.

Catechism references for this lesson (* indicates Scripture quoted or paraphrased in the citation):
Rev 13-14 (CCC 2113*); 13:8 (CCC 677)

Dan 7:10 (CCC 378*); 12:1-13 (CCC 992*)