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| Photo of Jon Tracy, by Jim Tracy |
1 And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy.
“Beast” denotes evil character. Nero had a very beastly character.
(Just a note, even those who claim to take Revelation literally don’t believe this is a flesh-and-blood monster coming up out of the Mediterranean like in a Godzilla movie. EVERYONE believes this beast is symbolic. Really, the difference is in just what parts you think are symbolic and which are literal.)
Remember that John told us in the beginning that this prophecy was about things “shortly come to pass” not things 2000 years down the road.
The sea is the great body of gentiles.
Horns = power, Rome had great power, one of the most powerful nations in history.
Rome sits upon seven hills, and had ten provinces by the time of the conquest of Jerusalem.
2 And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion: and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority.
Fast as a leopard, strong as a bear, cruel as a lion. Satan gave them the power to rule and conquer.
3 And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast.
“Wounded to death” means "One of the heads was slain (or butchered) to death." Nero committed suicide, then there was a fighting for the throne. Rome actually went through five emperors in two years. At one point there was actually two emperors (Vitellius and Vespasian) ruling at the same time while warring with each other. There were 3 civil wars and many foreign wars. There were natural disasters, murders, riots during this time. Many thought the empire dead, yet it revived with the conquest of Vespasian. (Tacitus, History 1:2-3)
4 And they worshiped the dragon which gave power unto the beast: and they worshiped the beast, saying, “Who is like unto the beast? Who is able to make war with him?”
The dragon is Satan. Rome was pagan; they worshiped many gods (demons of course).
The beast was Rome. No one was able to compete with them on the battlefield. This was the time of the Pax Romana- The Great Roman Peace, which lasted 206 years (27 BC to 180 AD), except for this one brief time of turmoil surrounding Nero's death.
5 And there was given unto him (the beast) a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies; and power was given unto him to continue forty and two months.
Rome did blaspheme God with their demands for everyone to worship the emperor. Nero’s persecution of the Christians lasted 42 months.
6 And he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme His name, and His tabernacle, and them that dwell in heaven.
Nero, specifically, was a madman. He hated the Christians and certainly did blaspheme. He was referred to by secular contemporaries as the savior, our lord, and a beast (due to his cruelty, to the point of even murdering his mother). He had his picture carved on coins with rays of sunlight radiating from his head- the symbol of the god Apollo.
We are the tabernacle of God, now, and we dwell in heavenly places when we worship God.
7 And it was given unto him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them: and power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations.
The persecution under Nero began in November 64 and continued to June 68 (3 ½ years), included the killing of Peter and Paul, and at one point everyone thought all Christians had been killed.
8 And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
“Earth” and “world” can mean empire, not just planet (especially since the word used here is NOT the Greek word for “all there is,” –cosmos, but the word that means land or country.) It was commanded that all the Roman Empire worship Nero, and they all did -except the Christians.
9 If any man have an ear, let him hear.
This may have been happening right as John is writing this. In fact, John was on Patmos BECAUSE he wouldn’t worship Nero.
10 He that leadeth into captivity shall go into captivity: he that killeth with the sword must be killed with the sword. Here is the patience and the faith of the saints.
Nero had many Christians killed with the sword. He committed suicide with a sword. In fact, the next four emperors died violently, either through murder or suicide.
11 And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon.
This second beast came out of the earth, not the sea. He came out of the Jewish nation, not the gentiles.
The Jews struck a deal with the Roman Empire; the Romans would call the synagogues “collages” to get around the prohibition of secret societies, and would not require open emperor worship, while the Jews gave sacrifices to pray for the emperor’s health every day. In fact, these sacrifices weren’t much different than the practices of the rest of the empire in emperor worship.
So, while Judaism looked like Christianity (the horns like a lamb) in claiming to be monotheistic, in practice it was closer to the paganism of Rome (spoke like the dragon/devil).
12 And he exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him, and causeth the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed.
The Jews chose Rome over Christ, using the power of the Empire to crucify Jesus and persecute His followers.
13 And he doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men,
The Jews appeared to be doing God’s work, even having a few miraculous victories against Rome.
14 And deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast; saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the (first) beast, which had the wound by a sword, and did live.
Rome should have died as an empire when Julius Caesar was murdered, and certainly when Nero died.
The Jewish sacrifices for the emperor were no different than the paganism that had made God mad at them throughout history.
15 And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed.
All who wouldn’t worship the emperor were killed.
16 And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads:
They had to know and act according to the will of Rome. This was not a physical, visible mark, but the “mark” of fellowship and commerce. The same imagery is used in chapters 7 and 14, declaring the Lamb marks those who believe in Him, and even in Deuteronomy 6:6,8 for the children of Israel.
17 And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.
You had to be part of the Roman Empire in order to buy and sell within the Roman Empire.
18 Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six.
In the Hebrew alphabet, letters and numbers are the same symbols (same in Rome, thus “Roman numerals.”) If you spell Nero’s name in Hebrew (Nrwn Qsr), you use the characters that added together equaled 666 (n=50, r=200, w=6, n=50, q=100, s=60, r=200). This would have been an easy, yet effective code for John to use to convey his message without the Roman soldiers guarding him knowing what he was really saying.
One support of this idea is that some manuscripts have had the number changed to 616. If you take the Greek spelling of Nero Caesar and translate it into Hebrew you get 666, but if you translate the Latin spelling you get 616. Evidently the earliest copyists made sure their Latin-speaking readers would still know it was Nero John was talking about.