Year of the Five Emperors and the Beast of Revelation?

The Year of the Five Emperors is strictly speaking AD 193. 

Like many of my Revelation 13 theory, you should read what I wrote here first.

I started this train of thought focused on Pescennius Niger.

Let’s start by repurposing an aspect of my Vespasian model, where I started the count of the 7 Kings identified with the 7 heads with the first Emperor during the lifetime of who would wind up being the 8th King. Pescennius Niger was boring in AD 135 during the reign of Hadrian, coincidentally the same Emperor during whose reign I believe Revelation was written. Let’s say his adopted son Verus is briefly counted as the second king by Revelation even though most historians don’t consider him to have reigned, 3rd would be Antoninus Pius, 4th would be Lucius Verus, 5th would be Marcus Aurelius, 6th would be Commodus and 7th would be the short lived Pertinax (Didius Julianus was never recognized in the east just like Vitellius during the years of the 4 Emperors). And so Niger became arguably the 8th Emperor of his lifetime, there were seven Heads he had served under before reigning himself. 

Why Commodus is referred to as the Present King in Revelation 17 could be because of the AD 190 relevance I’m about to discuss. 

And you can also argue by connecting Matthew 27:25 to Exodus 20:5 & 34:7, Numbers 14:18, Deuteronomy 5:9 and the common theory that a generation is 40 years Biblically to argue that the final Judgment on Ancient Judea would be 160 years after the Crucifixion.  An AD 30 Crucifixion then leads us to AD 190 the same year Pescennius Niger was made governor of Syria according to some sources. I don’t like to bring up Matthew 27:25 because of how it’s weaponized by Antisemites, but in this context I'm making the point that any judgment ordained for Jews because that was fully fulfilled before the end of the 2nd Century and therefore cannot be used against Jews today. 

An administration of Syria that starts in 190 or 191 and ends in 194 can fit 42 months. 

According to the Wikipedia page for Syria Palestinia we don’t know who that province’s governor was between 186 and 198 so given the ancient precedent for this region being under the authority of the Governor of Syria, Niger could have basically been running things in Judea before he was even an Emperor.

The popular history of Revolts of the populations of followers of Abrahamic religions against Roman rule usually jumps from the Bar Kochba Revolt to the time of Constantius Gallus in the fourth century. But there are references to some sort of strife involving the Jews and Samaritan of Syria Palestina during the time of Pescennius Niger usually connected to the Year of the Five Emperors with a popular view being that the Samaritans were pro Niger and the Jews were pro Severus which does fit Serverus enacting somewhat pro Jewish policies later like allowing them to visit the Temple Mount once a year on the Ninth of Av (that wasn’t a thing before him).

The Tenth Legion station at Laijun/Megiddo is believed to have factored into that conflict. 

The Wikipedia page for AD 190 says Egypt suffered an Economic Collapse then which you could link to the Black Horse. 

The King of East could be the support Niger got from Mesopotamia kingdoms like Hatra.

There was a great fire in Rome in AD 192 in which libraries were destroyed. 

Aselluis Aemilanus who was proconsul of Asia could be a False Prophet candidate. Niger is known to have had sons but we don’t know their names. 

Niger not being recorded to have received any Pharaonic worship in Egypt is an issue for this theory however, based on the subtext I see in some aspects of Revelation 13 I do think The Beast is being framed as a Pharoah.  He was recognized as Emperor in Egypt, so some worship could have happened that we simply don’t have surviving records of. 

Making Septimius Severus the Seventh King would have poetry to it given that Septimius literally means Seventh, though that has the problem of his reign not being short. Some do read Revelation 17 as making most sense if the Eight and Seventh are the same somehow, maybe in Severus’s case that he’s the Seventh king at first and the Eight once he’s disposed of all the rivals. Severus was born during the reign of Antonius Pius, meaning the 2nd and 3rd emperors of his life were Verus and Aurelius, 4th was Commodus, 5th was Pertinax and 6th was Didius Julianus making himself the Seventh. 

Going back to the plausible importance of 190, it was that year Septimius Severus was first appointed Consul. 

Mesopotamian vassals of Parthia who had supported Niger fought a war with Septimius Severus in 195 and then Severus fought a War with Parthia in 196-197, during which Severus conquered Babylon. But he also at this time had to briefly conquer Rome itself to dispose of Clodius Albinus. 

Septimius Severus had two sons who had been alive since March of 189 but each less then 10 years till April 198, Caracala and Geta, both were made official Co-Emperors On January 28th 198, though Caracalla had been Caesar since 195 or 196. So that can be relevant to my theory about The Image of The Beast.

Despite Persecution of Christians happening under Septimius Severus reign Tertullian describes the Emperor himself as being well disposed towards Christians, he’s also remembered as being one of the more benevolent Emperors towards The Jews. So that could factor how my Baptism of The Beast premise fits Severus. 

A candidate for the Beast from the Earth in this Severus view could be his father in law Julius Bassianus the High Priest of Elagabal at Emesa (modern Homs Syria) and a descendant of the Seleucids.

But another could be Praetorian Prefect Gaius Fulvius Plautianus.

Gog cannot be identified with The Beast of Revelation 13-19

One thing that really baffles me is all the people who dismiss the significance of the actual names of Gog and Magog appearing in Revelation 20, but then treat the parallels between Ezekiel 39:17-21 and Revelation 19:17-21 as smoking gun proof they are describing the same battle. 

The language those passages share is also shared by other Hebrew Bible passages, Deuteronomy 28:26, Psalm 79, Jeremiah 7:31-33, 16:4, 19:7 and 34:20, 1 Samuel 17:44-46 and it was even earlier in Ezekiel in 29:5, the Pharaoh Oracles of Ezekiel 29-32 have other Parallels to The Beast of Revelation 13-19, like the “Great Dragon” and having a Mortal Head Wound. 

Revelation 19’s version leaves out the beasts of the Field in order to avoid category confusion with its symbolic beasts. What Revelation 19 and Ezekiel 39 share that the others don’t is the concept of someone announcing to the Fowls that this feast has been prepared for them. But in Revelation it’s an Angel literally standing in the Sun, while in Ezekiel it seems to be Ezekiel instructed to do this.

The Beast and the False Prophet are cast alive into the Lake of Fire while Gog is killed and buried. 

I have a different view from most people of what being cast alive into the Lake of Fire means, but it’s certainly not just a poetic way of saying he died, this is done in contrast to the armies who are killed.  I take the same position on any other prophecy about a villain seemingly being killed at the Parousia, they can't be The Beast either.  The King of Babylon in Isaiah 14 is Satan not a human ruler, who will be imprisoned in The Abyss for a thousand years then set lose. 

I view Ezekiel 38-39 as the same as Revelation 20:7-8. Chris White argued that view from a Futurist/Premillennial perspective, but for me that view is consistent with also viewing the end of Ezekiel 39, from verse 22 on, as probably about the Parousia like Joel Richardson does.

It’s one thing when someone who doesn’t think Ezekiel 38-39 happens in Revelation at all dismisses the use of those names in chapter 20 as just a comparison or whatever. But it’s bizarre to me when people who do want to identify it with something in Revelation are going to decide that mere poetic language for the aftermath of a battle is a more important identifier than what passage uses the exact same names. 

I shall now address some of the alleged inconsistencies first by repeating things I said as BibleNerd64 in a comment on a Joel Richardson Video, but adding stuff I didn’t there and hopefully improving how I say things.

Richardson made a big point in his debate with Gary DeMar about Ezekiel referring to Gog as the one Prophesized by all the Prophets, to me that language proves he is the final Human Enemy of Israel to be defeated, not someone defeated a thousand years previous to the final invasion of Israel.  John is one of those Prophets who foretold Gog by name.  

Revelation 20 is to me clearly quoting Ezekiel 38 and 39 in a way that says, "this is what that always was", same as Revelation 21-22 quoting Isaiah 65 and Ezekiel 40-48. I believe part of the purpose of Revelation is to explain how all prior Prophecies fit together. The names are not the only similarity, being destroyed by Fire from God is also a pretty explicit similarity. 

Any apparent inconsistencies need to be looked at the same as apparent inconsistencies between how The Gospels describe the Birth, Life, Ministry, Death, Burial and Resurrection of Jesus. Same for apparent inconsistencies between the Samuel-Kings and Chronicles parallel histories which actually provide a useful precedent here. 

1 Chronicles 21:1 describes Satan doing something that 2 Samuel 24:1 describes YHWH doing, Neo-Marcionites use that to try and prove YHWH is Satan but it's really just consistent with Job where God uses Satan to accomplish His purpose.  This is repeated when comparing Ezekiel 38-39 to Revelation 20, in one it's YHWH who inspires them to invade Israel and in the other it's Satan, the same apparent contradiction has the same resolution. 

I believe the phrase that is often translated "Gog and Magog" in Revelation 20 should be “Gog and his Magog”, according to how “kai ton” is used earlier elsewhere in Revelation it means “and his” or “and their” or "and the". Meaning yes Gog is also an individual in the text of Revelation 20, and Magog is his Tribe or Ethnos, though this reading could maybe still be consistent with Magog as the name of a region.

Salvation in New Testament theology is ultimately about the Bodily Resurrection of The Dead, that is the clear message of 1 Corinthians 15. No individual can be said to be fully completely Saved until they are risen from The Dead. Therefore All Israel cannot be said to be Saved until every Israelite who ever has or ever will live is Bodily Risen from The Dead. The end of Revelation 20 is when that happens.

Romans 11 also tells us that the Fullness of the Nations will be grafted into Israel first and then All Israel will be Saved, Magog and his allies are the last Gentile Nations to resist being grafted in. 

The Bible sometimes uses Hyperbole, Revelation 20's language does not mean every single nation with no exceptions. In The Bible the “ four corners of the earth” is an idiom for each of the cardinal directions, in this context it means these nations are coming at Israel from every direction, so it doesn’t mean as far away as they could possibly be either.  Gomer and Togarmah come from the North, Persia from the East, Cush from the South and Phut from the West. 

The biggest issue to Joel Richardson is his view that there is zero success for Gog and his Magog in Revelation 20 but they are very successful in Ezekiel 38-39. I honestly find his reading of these passages on that issue odd. 

Ezekiel 39 opens with a clarification, God brings Gog to the Mountains of Israel in order to break him there. That is the main takeaway. 

Revelation 20 is less detailed overall, so it focuses its Hyperbolic description on how the Invasion will fail, but it is also ultimately a failure in Ezekiel 38 and 39, they invaded the Land but nothing says they reached Jerusalem or Zion. 

It is implicit in Revelation 20 that they do invade Israel because they surround The City. The City is not the entire Land, if you want to be as literalist about this as futurists usually are. 

Ezekiel 38:7 is often overlooked, God is referring to Israel here and he uses words for "Congregation" in both noun and verb form, the Hebrew equivalent of Ecclesia.  That could correlate to the Camp of the Saints. 

The return from this final exile is The Resurrection of The Dead that happens at the end of Revelation 20.

In response to an assumption that the White Throne Judgment happens too immediately after Gog and Magog's destruction to fit the implied 7 years of clean up in Ezekiel 39, I would again recommend IP's video about Time in The Bible.

https://materialisteschatology.blogspot.com/2025/01/inspiringphilosphys-video-on-time-in.html

When Dispensationalists and other Evangelical Christian Zionists like Joel Richardson start talking about modern Israel being in "unbelief" is when it starts becoming clear why actual Jews are often uncomfortable with their support. 

I'm a Christian but one who believes in Universal Salvation and Inclusivism. I don’t think whether or not modern Israel is right with God has anything to do with whether they follow Jesus or not.  Everyone, both Christians and non Christians are judged based on our works, if anything those nominally Christian will be judged for their evil works even harsher.  I think even while currently dominated by a conservative party I don’t like that Israel is currently more right with God than most if not all Christian nations.

But it’s not just from a Christian perspective that modern Israel can be said to not be faithfully following the God of Israel who spoke through The Prophet Ezekiel. The Anti-Zionist Haredi and Religious Zionists of the most extreme form think the current State of Israel is too Secular and a true restoration of Biblical Israel requires just using The Torah as their Constitution. 

But as a Leftist, as a Gentile fan of the early Labor Zionists who views Moses Hess as the true Moses of Modern Israel, I would argue that modern Israel has slowly been betraying its divine mission as it’s been dominated for decades by the Likud Party. 

The Labor Zionists can be described as Secular in their Political Vision, but so were the Revisionist Zionists and Maximalists, the Right Wing of the early Zionist movement. In fact I would argue that both Yitshak Ben-Zvi and David Ben-Gurion were personally more religious than either Ze’ev Jaboninsky or the Stern Gang or even Menachem Begin. Begin was more religious than Jabotinsky only in that he adopted Edmund Burke’s view on a society needing a religion to function. 

No I don't think the Iran War is likely to have any Biblical Prophetic Significance.

 Incase anyone felt that needed clarification. 

As far as my opinion of the War just check out my Tumblr. 

https://kuudere-hime.tumblr.com/tagged/Free%20Iran

https://kuudere-hime.tumblr.com/tagged/Isolationism

New 70 Weeks Model

This is very different from what I’ve argued for in the past.  It is a model that makes the 70 weeks end during the First Jewish-Roman War, but not like what I’ve seen any Preterist argue for before. 

I was reading Daniel 9:24 as it is in the KJV, and realized that the text isn’t as unclear about how to distinguish the Seven Weeks from the 62 Weeks as I’d long thought. A plain reading of the text does support it saying this “Anointed Prince” translated “Messiah The Prince” comes at the End of the Seven Weeks and start of the 62 weeks.

It’s our Christian bias to want that Prince to be Jesus that has blinded us to that reading. 

And that distinction weakens my past argument for beginning the 70 weeks with the Decree of Artaxerxes second year from Nehemiah 2. But I still don’t believe it can refer to the Cyrus Decree.  

This theory starts with my argument for changing who we assume each Darius and Artaxerxes mentioned in Ezra-Nehemiah are on my other blog.

https://solascripturachristianliberty.blogspot.com/2025/09/ezra-nehemiah-chronology.html

Instead the key phrase in Daniel 9 that defines the Decree is to “Build Jerusalem”, in the traditional Canonical Scripture that is only in Daniel 9.  But my Ezra-Nehemiah argument made use of 1 Esdras, a Greek alternate account of Ezra, and in the 4th chapter of that text “Build Jerusalem” is associated with the decree that Darius issues in the second year of his reign, a Darius who I now view as Darius II.

Nisan of the second year of Darius II could be 422 BC.  Seven Weeks or 49 years later is 373 BC the Nisan of which can be argued to be part of the 32nd year of Artaxerxes II.  Which is significant because of Nehemiah 5:14 and 13:6. In this argument Nehemiah is the Anointed Prince of Daniel 9:25. 

So when is 483 years from 422 BC and 434 years from 373 BC?  That would be AD 62.

What typically reads “Messiah shall be cut off” or “Anointed one shall be destroyed” has been argued should be translated “the anointing shall be cut off”. 

Josephus Wars of The Jews Book 6 Chapter 5 Section 3 includes an account of supernatural signs that preceded The Temple’s destruction, the timeline of when these happened have different interpretations. But one interpretation does put the events said to happen in Nisan four years before the War started in AD 66, thus AD 62.  And the meaning of those signs can be interpreted to represent the Anointing of The Temple being Cut Off. 

This ends the 70th Week in March or April of AD 69, why then rather than 70? Well that’s when Simon Bar Giora entered Jerusalem. Josephus in Wars of The Jews Book 4 Chapter 9 introduces Giora in section 6 and his taking of Jerusalem happens in section 10-12. I think a compelling argument for that being the end of the 70 weeks can be made, the physical destruction of The Temple Building is a symbolic epilogue. 

I was myself quite surprised how well this all lined up. 

Update: Alternatives.

Alternatively one could argue for viewing the Nisan the second year of Darius II's reign as 421 BC based on a different way of reckoning things moving the end of the 70th week to Adar of AD 70. Or since the 70 Weeks are essentially 10 Jubilees actually starting the weeks in the following Tishri making the 70 weeks end in Elul of AD 70 which at the end of Wars of The Jews Book 6 is defined as when the destruction of The Temple and Jerusalem is completed. 

But the issue with that alternative is I don't know how to make the other alignments work as well.