Justinian and The Little Horn

 A few 2nd/Early 3rd Century AD Church Writers predicted that the Millennium would begin about 500 AD [Strandberg, Todd; James, Terry (June 2003). Are You Rapture Ready. New York City: Dutton.].  But this post shall be more about Daniel 7 then Revelation.

The basis for Irenaeus, Hippolytus of Rome and Julius Africanus predicting around 500 AD was that for reasons based on Septuagint chronology they felt the time of Christ was 5500 years from Creation and that the Seventh Millennium would begin about 500 years later.  So I’m going to allow a range here.  It’s interesting that all three had passed away before 250 AD and so were not making predictions based on a bias for wanting it to happen in their lifetimes.

The earliest possible date for The Birth of Jesus is 25 BC, 500 years from which would be 476 AD, I've come to favor 12 or 11 BC which bring us to 489 AD, but more popular dates are about 5-4  or 3-2 BC which takes us to the 490s AD.  From here on the start date is already AD so just put a 5 in-front of it to get the end date.

I place The Crucifixion, Resurrection and Pentecost in the Spring of 30 AD.  Others have proposed dates all over the time Pilate was Governor (26-36 AD).  The latest possible date is 37 AD, which year is also when I place the end of the 70 Weeks of Daniel so definitely an important year.  But there is also room to argue the history of the First Advent isn’t fully done till we reach the end of the narrative of Acts (62-64 AD), or the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD in the midst of the Jewish Revolt that spanned from 66-73 AD.

So what was the End Time scenario predicted by our 500 AD date setters?  Irenaeus and Hippolytus wrote in depth on Bible Prophecy more then any other Pre-Nicene writers.  Their model predicted that the Roman Empire would collapse, than 10 Kingdoms would arise in its place, and then after that would come The Little Horn commonly identified with The Antichrist. 

This was a pretty standard view of Bible Prophecy prior to Nicaea.  But when Constantine happened things changed, many started thinking Rome’s fall wasn’t something to look forward to anymore, and so Statist Post-Millennial interpretations rose in popularity, and then the Last Roman Emperor tradition developed, which turned the one who would restore Rome after it’s collapse into a Hero rather then a Villain.

So it’s Ironic that even though the Church stopped believing in what those early Eschatology teachers predicted, what they predicted at least partially did happen pretty much exactly when they predicted it would.  Basically everything but The Second Coming itself.

476 AD is one of the dates commonly cited as when the Western Empire fell, along with 480 and 488 AD. 

Much of the 500s were dominated by the reign of Justinian, an emperor popular with History YouTubers like Extra Credits.  Seventh Day Adventists and other Protestant Historicists have a long history of viewing Daniel 7 as being fulfilled in the time of Justinian, with the 10 Horns being the Barbarian Kingdoms that rose to power in the West as Rome Fell.  I’m going to link to a Playlist that is mostly videos an Atheist YouTuber called NumberOneSon made critiquing various SDA teachers on what they get wrong about Justinian’s history.
History Versus Playlist.  Note, There is at least one video on the Playlist not about this subject.
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL95E6667F8E19F8B0

His critiques are mostly correct. (He does confuse Monophysite and Miasphyte theology by calling Theodora a Monophysite, she was a Miasphyte and so did believe Jesus was both Fully Human and Fully Divine, and it was only Miasyphtes not proper Monophysites Justinian wanted to make peace with, but that confusion is common.)  However the details these SDAs get wrong don’t change that, yes, what happened then looks an awful lot like what Daniel 7 predicted as it was interpreted by pre-Nicene Christians.

I'm willing to consider the Prophetic use of the round number 10 a detail that doesn’t need to be fulfilled exactly literally.  You can say that’s convenient, but I say it’s just the nature of the number 10.  But still there are ways to justify making it exactly 10 kingdoms if you wanted to. And I lean towards viewing the three Kingdoms Justinian uprooted as being the Vandals, Alans and Ostrogoths.  I know the Alans and Vandals are technically viewed as being the same kingdom by this point, but I still think it's valid to view them as separate in the context of fulfilling this prophecy.

Also I believe in some aspects of Historicism but don’t accept any Day=Year arguments and therefore won't turn around and make this about Napoleon and The Roman Question.

But the big difference between what I’m considering possible here and the SDAs is I don’t make the Little Horn into The Pope.  Instead I think the Little Horn is basically the Eastern Empire.

Some Prophecy teachers will try to say the Ten Toes need to be 5 on each Leg, thus 5 for the Eastern Empire.  The problem is in the context of Daniel 7 the Eastern Empire is the land of the first three Beasts (mainly the Leopard).  Making it the Eastern Empire can make the Little Horn of Daniel 7 the same as the Little Horn of Daniel 8 without rejecting that the Fourth Beast is Rome.  I believe the Daniel 8 Little Horn can be viewed as the Seleucid Empire as a whole (and the Ptolemaic Kingdom is the horn it grew out of) and not just any individual ruler of it.  The legacy of the Seleucid Empire, both genealogically and culturally, was absorbed into the Eastern Roman Empire.  If the Eastern Empire had a Capital prior to Constantinople being founded it was Antioch, that’s where Germanicus operated from when he was placed in charge of the East.  And it remained important after, with Constantius Gallus operating there when he was the number 2 man in the Empire, and the Bishop of Antioch was always one of the top Bishops in the Imperial Church.

So when the Eastern Empire is uprooting certain Barbarian Kingdoms during the 6th Century AD, that could be the Little Horn uprooting three of the ten.  Also in Daniel 7 the "Little Horn" is never directly called a King, that could be relevant here since in Justinian's time the Roman Emperors were still officially claiming they weren't kings.

And because I've considered more complicated nuanced views of how Daniel and Revelation relate to each other, the 3 uprooted horns may not be permanently uprooted, or since 10 is a symbolic number they get replaced once the Little Horn's role is over.  

The Eight King of Revelation 17 can be viewed as different from the Little Horn, the Little Horn uproots three horns, but the Eight King is someone the Ten Horns more willingly give their power to.  Maybe you can still make that the Papacy, but then comes the other problems traditional Historicism has. 

As far as chancing Times and Laws does, Justinian's reworking of the Roman Law Code is the basis for must of European Law to this day.  And in 537 he made an adjustment to how the Calendar worked as well.

I only really wanted to argue for Daniel 7 here, but theoretically if you want to add Revelation to this scenario....

The Harlot could perhaps be viewed as Misphysite Christianity/The Oriental Orthodox which Justinian was trying to reconcile the Roman Church with.  Perhaps symbolically personified in Theodora herself (who could also be viewed as a Jezebel figure), a literal Harlot who was a Miaphysite who Justinian married, and was specifically converted while in Egypt.  And maybe John of Ephesus could be the False Prophet, or Jacob Baradaeus.  Before any Miasphyte gets too offended, it is part of my view of Revelation that the Harlot is the same Woman who becomes The Bride in chapter 19.

A lot of other interesting history was going on then as well. 

The Fifth Ecumenical Council was in 553 AD.  Some Protestant Denominations consider that the first one that went wrong.  I view it as an early milestone is the suppression of the doctrine of Universal Salvation even though it does not directly condemn it, just certain people who taught it for other reasons, Theodore of Mopsuestia for his association with Nestorianism, and Origen for his Pre-existence doctrine.  It’d be interesting if someone could argue for a chronology for the Book of Acts that places the Jerusalem Council in 53 AD.

Clovis I reigned from 481-511 AD.  516 is the Annales Cambriae date for Badon, and 537 is it’s date for Camlann where Arthur and Medraut fell.  542 is also a popular date for the death of Arthur.  Beowulf is said to have lived in the 500s as well.  Liberius was another interesting figure from this time period.

Justinian built the Nea Ekklesia of the Theotokos where some think the Second Temple may have stood, it was completed in 543 AD.  Procopius described it in terms that echoed the Biblical Description of Solomon’s Temple.  The very name of the Church was an attack on the Nestorians who Justinian wanted to scapegoat for the Church Divisions he was trying to fix, which also factored into the bad decisions made at the Fifth Ecumenical Council.  Today the site of that Church is partly covered by the Deir Al Zeitoun (Church of The Holy Archangels) an Armenian Orthodox Church, the Armenian Church is Miaphysite making them the same Christology as Theodora.

This era also had several Samaritan Revolts against the Eastern Empire.  First the Justa revolt during the reign of Zeno (474-491 AD), this first revolt is the one that most seems like an echo of the Hasmonean revolt.  Then the brief 495 AD revolt which was lead by a Woman interestingly.  495 was also the year the Jewish Exilarch Mar-Zutra II began a revolt against the Sassanid Empire that lasted seven years to 502 AD.

Also contemporary with this time period was King Kaleb of Axum and Dhu Nuwas of the Himyarite Kingdom in Yemen.  And in the wake of their war the brief reign of Abraha.

And here is an interesting article on seemingly Apocalyptic stuff that happened in 535-536.

The Ben Sabar revolt then broke out in 529 and lasted till 531 AD, during the reign of Justinian.  Damage done to Jerusalem then is partly why his construction projects in Jerusalem happened, including the Church mentioned above.  Another revolt during Justinian’s reign happened in 556 AD.  During the reign of Justin II one last Samaritan revolt broke out in 572 or 573 AD.

From 541-42 AD was what is often considered the first outbreak of what is today known as The Plague.

The Lazic War could be what the 6th Bowl is about.

Twice during Justinian's Reign the city of Rome in Italy was sacked by the Ostrogoths in 546 and 549-50, they had formally been Foederati of the Eastern Empire ruling Rome on their behalf.  And Revelation 17 strictly speaking attributed the destroying of Babylon to the 10 Horns not the Beast directly.

And if the Millennial Kingdom is in this context the Nestorian Church, it's schism in 1552/1553 could be viewed as when The Millennium ended and Sulieman The Magnificat's campaigns against Christian Europe as Gog and Magog.   But it can also be interesting to look at the Miaphysite Nubian Kingdoms which became Christian during and soon after the era of Justinian and managed to resist being conquered by Islam until about a thousand years later.

Update November 6th 2024: Earthquakes.

While Earthquakes are by no means super rare, Revelation records what at face value are 5 separate Earthquakes, and looking at known historical Earthquakes 5 significant ones happening within the Roman Empire during a single generation only seems to occur once, during the time of Justinian.

The Antioch Earthquakes of 526 and 528 I would identify with the 6th and 7th Seal Earthquakes in this model.

Next is the 533 Constrainable Earthquake which is that one that happens soon after the killing of the Witnesses.  In the context of the Two Witnesses as Israelite Rebel leaders thesis this could be a delayed execution of the leaders of the Samaritan Revolt lead by Julianus Ben Sabar in 529-31.  

Next is the 551 Beirut Earthquake to identify with the Seventh Trumpet, it effected much of Lebanon.

Finally the 557 Constrainable Earthquake is the Seventh Bowl Earthquake.

Other more minor Earthquakes also happened, but those are the big 5.

The first and last are described the most significantly in Revelation and in this context are the most significant historically,  Each of the 3 in between are neglected by some lists.

But also just going through them Chronologically the two that primarily effect Constantinople are also the two the text says effect the Great City.

But those patterns were weakened a big when I learned of the 542 Sea of Mamara Earthquake and the 554 Anatolian Earthquake.

BTW I'm even limiting myself to Earthquakes specifically felt in Asia Minor even if that's not where the epicenter was.

Revelation only uses the word Earthquake 5 times but more could be alluded, a Mountain falling into the Sea in chapter 8 could allude to an Earthquake related landslide.  And the 40 days of Smoke in chapter 9 could be a Volcanic Eruption perhaps like the one in 536.

Of course I do also lean towards of Revelation 6 that places it's event possibly in a significantly earlier time period then 13-19.

It's also possible given my developing views on Revelation 11 that the Earthquake associated with the Witnesses is the same event as the Seventh Bowl Earthquake.