The Last Pharoah of Egypt

 Ezekiel 30:13

"Thus saith the Lord YHWH; I will also destroy the idols, and I will cause their images to cease out of Noph; and there shall be no more a prince of the land of Egypt: and I will put a fear in the land of Egypt."

I've seen some say this means "native prince" and apply it to Nectembo II but nativness isn't innate to what Ezekiel says here at all.  Most would say the last Pharoah of Egypt was Cleopatra but that's not true either.

The Roman Emperors starting with Augustus were recognized as Pharaohs in Egypt.  The history of this practice is documented on the Roman Pharoah Wikipedia page.

So in fact the last Pharoah was Maximinus Daza, who was also the last real Pagan Emperor.  (Julian The Apostate was really a Neoplatonist not a follower of classical Paganism).  So this verse associating the last Prince of Egypt with the end of Egyptian Idolatry lines up perfectly.

Maximinus Daza definitely fulfils Bible Prophecy in that sense.  But what about viewing the Last Roman Pharoah as also The Beast of Revelation 13?

Daza was the last real Roman Persecutor of Christianity, Julian didn't try to kill anyone for being Christian and Eusebius's claims that Maxentius and Licnius persecuted Christians are not considered credible by modern historians and pretty firmly contradicted by Lactantius, it was pure propaganda to make Constantine look like more of a savior then he actually was..  Most of the Persecution was happening in The East where Licnius's victory over Daza was much more of a direct deliverance then anything Constantine did.

Since during the Crisis of the Third Century and other times of internal division like the Tetrarchy not every Emperor has confirmed Pharaonic worship,  it may be notable here that all the major Roman Persecutors of Christianity do, Decian, Valerian, Diocletian, Galerius and finally Daza as the last.

Ezekiel 29-32 is a collection of different prophecies about Egypt, every time Ezekiel says "the Word of the LORD came unto me" that's the start of a new Prophecy.  So they are thematically connected but could also each have a different focus  In the Egypt section the verses where that phrase appears are.

29:1

29:17

30:1

30:20

31:1

32:1

32:17

The phrase "Great Dragon" appears in Scripture only twice, Ezekiel 29:3 in reference to Pharoah and Revelation 12 in reference to Satan.  In this part Pharoah could refer not to the actual Human Ruler but be identifying Satan with one of the Egyptian Deities associated with the office of Pharoah, the one most likely to be described as a dragon would be Sobek the protector of Pharoah who was depicted as a Crocodile.  In some versions of the myth it is also Sobek who heals Osiris after he is murdered by Set.

Speaking of healing, Ezekiel 30:24 speaks of Pharoah being deadly wounded by a sword.  So possibly one of the Bible Prophecies that Revelation 13 has in mind. 

Ezekiel 32:2 says Pharoah is as a whale in the seas, the word translated whale being the same word usually translated dragon.  The Pharoah of the Exodus was last seen being drowned with his army in the Red Sea.

Interestingly the Targum Johnathan on Isaiah 27 interprets it's first verse as being about Pharoah.

Many of the Plagues in Revelation seem like grander repeats of the Plagues of the Exodus, giving good thematic reason to view The Beast as Pharoah.

Now I above besmirched Eusebius as an historical source a bit, but he's still useful when we know and keep in mind what his biases were.  And he certainly had direct knowledge of affairs in The East that Lactantius did not.  Meanwhile his bias regarding Revelation was that he wanted it removed from the Canon and felt it was the work of a heretic.  So it would not serve his interests to describe any contemporary history in a way that makes it sound like it's fulfilling Revelation.

So it's fascinating then how his account of the reign of Maximinus Daza in Church History Book IX reads like someone's fictionalization of how they think Revelation will be fulfilled even though it never quotes Revelation directly or any other Bible Prophecy.  In chapters 2 and 3 Daza has a False Prophet (seemingly named Theotecnus but googling that name usually brings up Saints with the name) who sets up a Statue in Antioch and performed false miracles.  He talks about there being Famine, Pestilence and War in chapter 8.

Antioch being a center of much of this fits the Beast being like a Leopard, the Greek Empire of Daniel 7.  

And for me Image of the Beast being his Son thesis Maximinus did have a son who was 8 when he died.  But I don't know of any evidence that he was ever made Caesar and thus subject to Imperial Worship.  However Maximinus was the Son by Adoption (his Biological father is unknown) and maternal nephew of Galerius meaning you could make him the Image to Galerius's Beast.

But Daza also repented and issued a decree in favor of Christians before his death in chapter 10 fitting my Baptism of The Beast thesis.

Most of my posts on this blog so far have focused on later Emperors, but again I'm not 100% decided and so am considering different theories.