Attempting to Understand 666 in its Context Part II

In the last post, we began looking at the enigmatic “666″ of Revelation 13.18 by looking at the it’s context within the purpose of John’s writing of the Revelation. I briefly went through why the number, which stands for the name of a man, would have known to the original audience, first century historical churches that were suffering persecution. John was writing to these churches to show them what would soon happen, in order to give them hope.

In order to determine what Revelation 13.18 would have meant to the original audience, we must look at the whole of chapter 13 to get more of the context, since it sheds a bit more light on the ‘beast.’ Actually, in the 13th chapter, there are two beasts mentioned. Because the beast of 13.18 refers back to the first beast, we need to get some understanding of the treatment John gives the first and second beast, and their interaction. The first beast appears at the beginning of the chapter:

“And I saw a beast rising out of the sea, with ten horns and seven heads, with ten diadems on its horns and blasphemous names on its heads” Revelation 13.1

In Revelation 17, an angel is interpreting some of John’s vision, including that of the beast with ten horns and seven heads.

“⁹This calls for a mind with wisdom: the seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman is seated; ¹⁰they are also seven kings, five of whom have fallen, one is, the other has not yet come, and when he does come he must remain only a little while. ¹¹As for the beast that was and is not, it is an eighth but it belongs to the seven, and it goes to destruction. ¹²And the ten horns that you saw are ten kings who have not yet received royal power, but they are to receive authority as kings for one hour, together with the beast.” Revelation 17.9-12

Here, the angel tells John specifically what the seven heads represent, and is imagery for two things: seven mountains and seven kings. He also gives John the interpretation of the ten horns: they are ten kings who have not yet received power, but will along with the beast. This interpretation gives us a lot of information. The first bit of information given is that the seven heads represent seven hills. In both ancient Pagan and Christian writings, the city of Rome is widely recognized and mentioned according to the seven hills upon which it sits. This is also the common interpretation of the seven mountains mentioned here by many New Testament scholars. This would not only be recognized by the original audience, but would fit their contemporary scene because the Roman Empire was the source of much of the persecution. Again, John was written to be understood, and this would not have been missed by his audience, which was under Roman rule at the time.

There is a second meaning behind the heads however: “they are also seven kings, five of whom have fallen, one is, the other has not yet come, and when he does come he must remain only a little while.” First of all, the fact that they are kings tells us that there is a political underlying to the beast. As a side note, if we can identify the “king who is,” this would go a long way in the debate over the date of writing Revelation. We will consider it here, because it also plays into the identity of the beast. If we take the seven hills to be Rome (as it makes the best sense), we can assume that the kings that the heads represent are Roman emperors. We know that Caesars were also called kings by many, as is evident in the Gospels, “we have no king but caesar!” was the cry by the Jewish leaders before Jesus was crucified. Josephus, a Jewish historian contemporary with John, lists the emperors of Rome starting with Julius Caesar. This list is also affirmed in later Roman histories such as that by Suetonius (Lives of the Twelve Caesars) and Dio Cassius (Roman History 5). The list is given as follows (given to the sixth): Julius, Augustus, Tiberius, Caius, Claudius, and Nero. John has said that five had died (Julius, Augustus, Tiberius, Caius, and Claudius) and that one now is (Nero). Nero was the Caesar who was reigning at the time of John’s writing (for a more thorough defense of dating the book of Revelation to a Neronic reign, see Ken Gentry’s book, The Fall of Jerusalem.) Nero will prove to be important in our discussion (how’s that for foreshadowing). The seventh “king” is one who “must remain only a little while.” After the suicide of Nero in AD 68, Galba took the throne as the seventh and true to John’s prophecy, his reign only lasted 6 months.

Back to Revelation 13, we see that the beast “rises out of the sea” (Revelation 13.1). If we understand the political element of the beast (which is not just conjuncture, but information given to John by an angel interpreting his visions) as Rome, this verse makes sense, as the Rome lays across the Mediterranean Sea from Israel.

But if the first beast is the Roman Empire, why does Revelation 13.18 say that it is a man? Commentators have long shown that the imagery of the beast out of the sea switches between the generic and the particular. The generic referent is the Roman Empire, the particular referent is the person who embodies the Empire. This person is most likely that 6th emperor who is alive at the time of John’s writing, Nero.

“⁵And the beast was given a mouth uttering haughty and blasphemous words, and it was allowed to exercise authority for forty-two months. ⁶It opened its mouth to utter blasphemies against God, blaspheming his name and his dwelling, that is, those who dwell in heaven. ⁷Also it was allowed to make war on the saints and to conquer them.” Revelation 13.5-7

The ways in which the Caesar’s blasphemed are well documented, so I will not spend time on that here. The two things I want to call attention to are the span of 42 months and the making war with the saints. Nero’s persecution of Christians began in AD 64, and was the first such persecution. This fact is recorded by Church father Eusebius, “Nero was the first of the emperors who showed himself an enemy of the divine religion.” This was the persecution that killed both Paul and Peter, and ended in June of 68– 42 months later. This fulfillment of prophecy lends much to the idea that the first beast is the Roman Empire in general, and Nero in particular.

Before moving into a discussion of the second beast, there is one small thing I should also mention. In verse 10, we have the saying “if anyone is to be slain with the sword, with the sword must he be slain.” That Nero both slew with the sword, and committed suicide by sword are also well attested. According to Kenneth Gentry, “Tertullian credits ‘Nero’s cruel sword’ as providing the martyr’s blood as seed for the church. He urges his Roman readers to ‘Consult your histories; you will there find that Nero was the first who assailed with the imperial sword the Christian sect.’” The evidence continues to mount.

With this, John gives a call to his readers, “for the endurance and faith of the saints” (verse 11), before continuing on to the second beast. And so shall we.

Next: the beast from the land.