Intro Lecture 2: An Applied Literary and Historical
Analysis: John, Revelation, The Beast, and Nero
Part I: Essential Question
A. How can converging sources of evidence (i.e.,
Literary/linguistic, historic, and archeological) be
useful to historians as they work to interpret
original source material?
And I beheld another beast coming out of the earth, and he had two horns like a lamb, and he
spoke as a dragon. And he exercised all the power of the first beast before him, and caused the
earth and those who dwelled there to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed.
And he did great wonders, so that he made fire come down from heaven on the earth in the
sight of men. And he deceived them that dwelled on the earth by means of those miracles which
he had power to do in the sight of the beast, saying to them that dwelled on earth that they
should make an image to the beast, which had the wound by the sword, and did live. And he
had the power to give life to the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both
speak, and cause those who should not worship the image of the beast to be killed. And he
caused all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right
hand or in their foreheads, that no man might buy or sell unless he has that mark, or the name
of the beast, or the number of his name. Here is wisdom—Let he who has understanding count
the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man, and his number is Six hundred
threescore and six (666). (Revelation 13:11-18)
Among the Semites-Chaldeans and Jews, there was at the time a kind of
magic based on the double meaning of letters...Hebrew letters were also
used as symbols for numbers...(and so) the diviners added up the value of
each letter of a name and sought by the sum to prophesy the future of the
one who bore the name by forming words or combinations of words of equal
value. Secret words and the like were also expressed in this language of
numbers. The art was given the Greek name gematriah, geometry...it was by
means of this mathematics that our number 666 appeared. It is a disguise
for the name of one of the first five Caesars...the solution was given by
Ferdinand Benary of Berlin (around 1836). The name is Nero. (Friedrich Engels, On the
History of early Christianity)
Certainly Nero Caesar suits the context well; the Beast or persecuting
world power might fitly be named after the Emperor who began the policy of
persecution, and was himself an incarnation of its worst characteristics…the legend (of Nero’s
return from the dead) was not without a counterpart in historical fact. When (Revelation) was
written, Nero in truth had returned in the person of Domitian.
(Henry Barclay Swete, The Apocolypse of St. John)
The (writer) invites his readers to count the name or number of the
beast; i.e., to calculate a name whose letters, numerically valued on the
fanciful principles of Gematria, would amount to 666. For John and his
readers the beast was primarily the foreign power which opposed the divine
kingdom, i.e., in this case, the Roman Empire...but the drift of the
present oracle is the further identification of the empire with one
emperor, or rather (verse 3) with one emperor in particular...a historic
personality...(a number) which answered to an individual...Nero
Caesar...The Neronic application would intensify and concentrate its
meaning for John's readers who were initiated. (The Expositor's Greek
Testament).
1) When discussing the New Testament book of
REVELATION during contemporary times, at least two
main themes consistently emerge; these are (a) that it is
mainly PROPHETIC in nature (i.e., the “beast”
referenced above is yet to come) and that (b) it is in part
elegantly coded PERSECUTION literature designed to
encourage late 1st century followers of Jesus who were
laboring under Roman persecution, especially those who
dreaded the possible return of their most infamous
persecutor, the Emperor NERO. Can HISTORY,
especially from the standpoint of LITERARY
EVIDENCE obtained through TEXTUAL ANALYSIS
along with a CHRONOLOGICAL LISTING of the
Roman Emperors, help us to understand what kinds of
QUESTIONS are important to ask here?
2) Let’s start with some basic history. As a result of the
ROMAN suppression of a Jewish rebellion and the siege
of JERUSALEM and the destruction of the TEMPLE
around 70 CE, the Hebrews once again experienced
extensive dispersion from their homeland. During the 6th
century BCE Jerusalem and the temple had also been
destroyed and the Jews in Jerusalem (i.e., the Kingdom of
JUDAH) were deported to BABYLON by King
NEBUCHADNEZZAR; this is known as the
BABYLONIAN CAPTIVITY or the Babylonian
Diaspora. The permanent διάσόρά of the northern
Kingdom of Israel had been carried out earlier by
ASSYRIA.
3) Many early followers of Jesus in Jerusalem were likewise
displaced at this time; John the Apostle fled to ASIA
MINOR (probably to Ephesus) and played a very
significant role in establishing and maintaining the early
churches there.
4) He exercised his APOSTOLIC authority through visiting
these churches and writing letters (EPISTLES) to them.
He was known as or elder (our word for
elder, PRESBYTER, derives from this Greek word, hence
the word PRESBYTERIAN, i.e., the religion of the
elders); by the second generation of Christians,
 was already being used to refer to the first
generation of Christians, or the men of the early days. As
quite possibly the only survivor of that first generation—
that is, of those persons who had actually lived during
Jesus’ time—John became o or “the elder,”
and this probably accounts for why letters of such
briefness JOHN’S TWO EPISTLES are considered
sufficiently important to include in the NEW
TESTAMENT.
5) John was EXILED to the island of PATMOS. Patmos, a
volcanic island located in the Aegean about 50 miles south
of Ephesus, was a penal colony; a Byzantine chronicler
referred to it as deserted and uncultivated, covered with an
made impassable by thorns and shrubs, and by reason of its
aridity completely barren.
6) According to Greek tradition, the reason for his exile was
as follows: after his arrival in Asia Minor, stories of John
performing miracles reached the Roman emperor and
great persecutor of Christians DOMITIAN, and so John
was called to ROME. Here his power was tested in front
of the emperor by making him drink from a cup filled
with the same POISON which had just killed a criminal;
John remained unharmed. John then raised a girl who
had supposedly been killed by an evil spirit. Domitian,
impressed by what he had witnessed, decided not to KILL
John but instead to BANISH him to PATMOS.
7) John’s offense was that, like many other CHRISTIANS,
he threatened the PAX DEORUM (the Peace of the Gods).
This was the worship of the traditional Roman Gods
which was the glue that held Roman Society together.
Rome was extremely TOLERANT of the religions of the
people whom they conquered--provided that, once they
became part of the ROMAN EMPIRE, such cultures also
paid homage and made sacrifice to the traditional
ROMAN GODS. Christianity was a NEW religion whose
followers REFUSED to honor/sacrifice to these
traditional Gods of Rome, and so Christians were viewed
as threatening the very fabric of Roman society and thus
became easy targets for PERSECUTION.
8) John remained at PATMOS until AFTER the emperor’s
death. The precise duration of John’s exile is
UNKNOWN, but while there it is said that he converted
many of the inhabitants to Christianity. Christian
tradition also suggests that it was in a grotto on Patmos
that John wrote the FOURTH CANONICAL GOSPEL
and, likewise by TRADITION, received the visions that
he documented in the book of Revelation, the last book of
the New Testament Canon, thus placing the authorship of
this text around the end of the first century (i.e., circa 96
CE) during a timeframe corresponding with the
persecution of Christians by DOMITIAN.
9) An alternative tradition argues for an earlier date for
Revelation’s authorship (c. 68-69 CE) that would
correspond roughly to the time of NERO (54-68 CE) who
was likewise a great persecutor of Christians; likewise
this tradition holds that and that the individual signified
by the infamous “666” is NERO.
10)
First, let’s look at the LITERARY evidence; here
the concept of GEMATRIA becomes central (see the
Engels quote at the beginning of this handout!). Many
ancient cultures possessed written alphabets but NOT
separate characters for NUMBERS, and so LETTERS
also represented numeric values (see chart for both
Hebrew and Greek numerology!). Thus, it became possible
to represent NAMES by using NUMBERS; you can still
do this with your own name today! Now, let’s see how, by
using Hebrew Gematria, NERO is the numerological
equivalent of 666 (please refer to your tables now).
11)
This conclusion casts additional light on another
section from Revelation that has been used to date this
text to the time of NERO instead of DOMITIAN—
chapter 17: 10-11—that can assist us with dating this
book more precisely: And there are seven kings: five are
fallen, and one is, and the other is not yet come; and when
he cometh, he must continue a short space. And the beast
that was, and is not, even he is the eighth, and is of the
seven, and goeth into perdition.
12)
There is strong scholarly consensus that the seven
kings referred to here are ROMAN EMPERORS. In such
a list we DO NOT typically begin with Julius Caesar who
ruled at the very end of the ROMAN REPUBLIC, but
rather with his adopted son, OCTAVIAN (CAESAR
AUGUSTUS), whose rise to power in 31 BCE following
his defeat of the combined forces of MARC ANTONY
and CLEOPATRA at the Battle of ACTIUM marked the
beginning of the Roman IMPERIAL Period (i.e., the
period of the emperors during which imperium—the
power to command—was invested essentially in a single
individual).
13)
And so, if at the time of the writing of Revelation
five (kings) are fallen, then by reconstructing the
chronological listing of the respective periods of rule of
the first five Roman Emperors, we should be able to date
the writing of this text! (1) Caesar Augustus 31 BCE-14
CE; (2) Tiberius 14-37 CE; (3) Gnaius Caesar (Caligula)
37-41 CE; (4) Claudius 41-54 CE; (5) Nero Caesar (54-68
CE); (6) Galba (68-69 CE)—the one who is or the one who
rules still. Hence, five—not SIX or MORE kings have
fallen, and so by this reasoning the text was written not
during the late 90’s CE but rather during the 68-69 CE
timeframe.
14)
Hold on a second! What’s thirty years or so within
the context of ancient history? Why is it important that
this text may have been written thirty years EARLIER
than what has traditionally been believed? Here, it is
actually very important. Shortly after Nero committed
suicide, rumors began circulating that he actually hadn’t
died, but had escaped to PERSIA, and would soon be at
the head of a vast ARMY and reclaim the Roman crown-hence And the beast that was (The emperor Nero based as
we have seen on Gematria), and is not (because he is
presumably dead), even he is the eighth (his rule will be
restored), and is of the seven (he was among the group of
the first seven emperors). Fueling this speculation was the
appearance of an IMPOSTER on an island (Kithnos)
near Patmos claiming to be Nero.
15)
The eighth emperor in the sequence is actually the
same DOMITIAN of the time of John. Domitian, as we
have seen, was likewise a terrible persecutor of
Christians, and so those who support a LATER (i.e., 96
CE) authorship of Revelation argue that, since John was
living under Domitian’s rule, he could only refer to him
INDIRECTLY as “a beast” in the same sense as Nero.
Consider the observations of Swete (1906) The eighth in
the series of Emperors is Domitian. But in what sense could
he be described as the Beast, or “one of the seven”? The
mystery reaches its climax here…a more promising key
may be found in the circumstances of the age to which
(Revelation) belongs. “One of the seven” had left a
reputation which even in the last years of the century made
his name a terror. Nero was the very impersonation of the
beast, the head which seemed to gather into itself all the
worst qualities of the body politic. Nero was gone for a time,
but would return as an eighth…a reincarnation of the
beast, a revived Nero though not in the sense which popular
rumor attached to the phrase. Even pagan writers
recognized the resemblance between Nero and
Domitian…Nero is supposed by some to stand for
Domitian. With St. John living under Domitian and unable
to refer to him by name, Domitian takes Nero’s title…as
late as the beginning of the third century the name of Nero
stuck to Domitian at least in Christian circles (The
Apocalypse of John, p. 218).
16)
And so, given this input from
LITERARY/LINGUISTIC, HISTORIC, and
ARCHEOLOGICAL sources, what kinds of questions
now make sense to ask? For example, is it possible that
the full text of the Book of Revelation wasn’t FINISHED
until the time of DOMITIAN, but that John’s revelation
regarding the “beast” was received during the time of
Nero? What about the interpretation that the Beast itself
is the ROMAN EMPIRE, and both NERO and
DOMITION are literary manifestations of that larger
beast? What else can you think of—and, most critically,
can you now approach the development of your questions
with a greater degree of insight than you previously
possessed?
The science of Linguistics allows us to crack the code of the 666
reference as portrayed in the Literary source of the Book of
Revelation.
Coinage from Nero’s Era provides Archeological evidence for the
spelling of his name (i.e., nomenclature).