Revelation 13-19 fulfilled in the late Second Century?

In my post on the Hadrianic date for Revelation I proposed that if you view the succession of Emperors as rebooting with Vespasian’s victory in the year of the Four Emperors then Hadrian can be viewed as the 6th.  That’s not my main view on the Seven Kings but it’s a good starting point for this theory.

The weakest link of that argument is I can’t think of a way to justify saying Antonius Pius’s reign was short.  It could be Lucius Aelius Caesar was the Seventh.

But the main reason I’m attracted to considering this timeframe for the fulfilment of Revelation is the figure of Alexander of Abonoteichus whose death is usually dated to 170 AD.

That historical figure is also sometimes called Alexander The False Prophet or Pseudophrophetes because I think that was the original name of the fictionalized biography of him written by Lucian of Samosata.  In that account he creates a cult for a god named Glycon who he represents as a rebirth of Asclepius and used stage magic trickery to make an Icon of Glycon appear to be moving and speaking.

So that combination of a person independently called by the title Pseusoprophetes while making a Statue appear to be alive is compelling to me. Pergamon, one of the cities housing one of the Seven Churches of Revelation, was also an important cult center for Aeslepius.

Alexander was clearly presenting himself in part as a Prophet of Apollo, Apollo under the Epithet Karneia was depicted as having two Ram’s Horns.  But the Voice or Tong of the Dragon could also be alluding to Python, the mythical serpent also tied to Prophets and Oracles of Apollo. 

This Alexander persecuted both Christians and Epicureans.

The Roman-Parthian War of 161-166 AD could be the War with the Kings of the East alluded to in Revelation 16 after the 6th Bowl is Poured Out.  The Antonine Plague connected to that War could also be relevant to the first bowl. It was during this War that Rome completely destroyed Seleucia on the Tigris, a city I’ve already shown was also called Babylon.

During this time Rome had Two Emperors, Marcus Aurelius is who history remembers more but Lucius Verus was his Co-Emperor till January of 169 and during that time Verus mostly handled affairs in The East.  Verus as the son of Lucius Aelius could be argued to be the rightful 8th King then in spite of those who reigned in between.

The dating of Alexander’s death to 170 seems to be a rough guess based on Lucian saying he was 70 when he died.  Lucian’s account does present a number of things as happening seemingly when Marcus Auerelius is sole Emperor already, but that could be a result of his fictionalization.

The Persecution of Christians in Southern France centered around Lyon and Vienne and how it ended is often dated to 177 but other dates are proposed as well.  Marcus Aruelius did not personally Persecute Christians at all, like all persecutions in the first two centuries of Church History the source of persecution was usually local mobs and authorities.  Marcus Aruleius ultimately intervened to end the persecution.

The Story of why, which may not have actually happened but if it did it’s interesting here, involved miraculous rainfall.  I’ve said before that the language of Heaven being opened in Revelation 19 is drawing on certain Hebrew Bible precedents and in contrast to what happened in Chapter 11 can refer to rainfall. The “armies in Heaven” refers to Citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven not actually people in a non non-Terrestrial location.  I have a prior post on Smyrna and The White Horseman where Lyon and Vienne are relevant as Daughter Churches of Smyrna.

But another candidate for The Beast is Avidius Cassius.  I mentioned him on this Blog before as a genealogical descendent of Augustus and the Seleucids and the Herodians and Hasmoneans, and in turn as an Ancestor of the Carolingians and thus all modern European Royalty. 

He was appointed a leading general for Rome during the Roman-Parthain War and was very successful “who is able to make war with him” and in 165 he led the sack of Seleucia.   In late 166 he was made the Imperial Legate of Syria and in 170 he was made Rector Orientis. 

In 175 Avidius Cassius became a usurper Emperor and for a brief time had the support of much of the East.  It started in Egypt but Antioch also became a key Capital. 

Valerian as The Beast of Revelation

Eusebius in his Church History Book VII Chapter 10 talks about the Valerian Persecution primarily using an older source named Dionysius.  And Dionysus quotes Revelation 13:5 as being about this persecution.

The Decian Persecution was the first truly Empire wide persecution of Christians, but it didn’t last nearly 42 months.  However the Decian Persecution did result in the Novatian Schism because it was the first time the Church had any significant Apostasy, making it possibly relevant to II Thessalonians 2.

This account of the Valerian Persecution also presents two possible False Prophet candidates.  First the leader of “the Magi from Egypt” who definitely sounds like a Pagan mystic of some kind in-spite of the translation misleadingly using the word “Synagogue”.  However another option is Macrianus who is likely the figure Wikipedia calls Macrianus Major who was placed in charge of the Economy under Valerian but was also a Military Commander according to the Historia Augusta.  Macarianus’s two sons could be who the second beast’s two horns represent.

The rider on the White Horse or Red Horse could be Shapur I’s invasion of Syria.  Or just the Red Horse with the White Horse being my Smyrna reading. 

The Debasement of the Denarius and other Imperial Currencies greatly escalated during the mid 3rd Century which could explain the Black Horse.

The Plague of Cyprian could be connected to the Chlorus Horse, or the first Bowl of Wrath.

Brining in my prior post arguing the Image of The Beast is his Son.  That could be Gallienus who was a co-ruler during Valerian’s reign.

It is also known that at least some of the Martyrs during the Valerian Persecution were specifically Beheaded like Bishop Sixtus II of Rome on the 6th of August 258.

262 is the year Pergamon was sacked by Goths and destroyed in an Earthquake.  An argument can be made that in a local scale interpretation of Revelation the city of Pergamon is Babylon (derivative of the Rome as Babylon argument because Pergamon was Rome within Asia as the Seat of Imperial Worship). This was the end of Pergamon as it was known to the original audience of Revelation. 

The first ever Edict of Toleration directed mainly at ending a persecution of Christians was actually the Edict of Gallienus which ended this persecution.  Now there is some dispute about the exact time of that Edict, some sources like Eusebius made it sound like it was made immediately after Valerian was captured by the Persians, but it seems more likely that some time did pass. If the edict of Persecution was made in 258 then 42 months later would be in 261 or 262. 

That would in this model be the beginning of The Baptism of The Beast.

Vespasian as The Beast of Revelation

I'm a Post Millennial Partial Preterist and Semi-Historicist who still largely looks to much later then AD 74 for when I think Revelation 6-19 and the start of chapter 20 happened.

But I decided it would be fun to see if I could argue for a 70 AD Fulfillment of Revelation better than actual believers in that timeframe do.  And perhaps elements of how I make this argument could prove Typologically useful to us advocates of more niche forms of Preterism that are less focused on the 1st Century.

A lot of this draws on stuff I observed in this early post.

https://materialisteschatology.blogspot.com/2023/10/translation-issues-in-revelation-that.html

First of all I have come to take the language of Revelation 17:11 as saying that the 8th King is the Individual person The Beast passages are about even when still during the reigns of the first 7.  

Caesarea Maritima means Caesarea “by the sea”, and it was also a very sandy location.  It was always the Roman Provincial Capital of Judea and as such played an important role in the 66-73 AD War including as a location Vespasian used as a base of operations.  

The Seven Heads are further explained in Revelation 17 as being Seven Kings.  Roman Emperors didn’t like to admit they were Kings but we see in John 19:15 that Jews in Judea didn’t care about their semantics.  Why Kings would be represented as Heads is perhaps explained by the language of Bible Verses like 1 Corinthians 11:3, Ephesians 5:23 and Colossians 1:18 where Christ is The Head of The Church and God The Father is the Head of Christ, but there's also Hebrew Bible precedent for Kings as Heads in 1 Samuel 15:17 and Isaiah 7:8-9.  Your "Head" is a person who holds authority over you, hence why the 8th King which is The Beast isn’t an 8th Head.

Vitellius from the year of the 4 Emperors was never recognized in the East, the Roman Armies of the East chose Vespasian as soon as Otho was dead.  So for example when looking at the Archaeological record of the Roman Pharaohs we see that Vespasian was the 8th and the first 7 were Augustus, Tiberius, Calgiula, Claudius, Nero, Galba and Otho who did indeed have the shortest reign.  Vespasian was born during the reign of Augustus so each of those 7 had also personally been Vespasian’s Head.

I no longer believe the 6th King being associated with the present is meant to be a clue to when Revelation was written, rather for this theory I think it has to do with Revelation 17’s point in the narrative following the 7th Bowl of Wrath.  There was a major Earthquake during the reign of Galda which Suetonius refers to having been considered an Omen of his coming demise, that could be identified with the Earthquake of the 7th Bowl.  

On December 19th of AD 69 the major Temple to Jupiter in Rome was burned down during the war between Vitellius and the Armies fighting for Vespasian.  So one could see that as Revelation 18 in a Babylon=Rome reading.

Back to where we left off in chapter 13.  The 10 Horns, Leopard, Bear and Lion imagery are evoking Daniel 7.  Daniel 7 was primarily fulfilled by Intertestamental History, Revelation is picking up later with a Rome that has annexed most of the Greek Empire and portions of Babylon and Persia.  The 10 Horns we also know represent lesser kings allied with the Beast, these are likely various local Client Kings and Tribal Leaders who assisted Vespasian in the Conquest of Judea like Antiochus IV Epiphanes of Commagene.

The Mortal Wound being Healed could have multiple meanings.  Vespasian did suffer a serious wound during the Siege of Yodfat that Josephus makes a big deal out of.  But it’s seemingly associated with one of the specific Seven Heads, most of them died violently but Vespasian presented himself as the Heir of Otho.

For Revelation 13:5 the YLT says “Make War” where the KJV says “Continue” and I think that is more accurate to the Greek.  This is about the Authority Vespasian was given to carry out the War against Judea.  There are two ways we could count the 42 months, we could begin them with when Vespasian was first formally placed in charge of the Campaign on September 22nd 66 AD ending it in March of 70 AD.  In April of 70 the War continued but now with Vespasian fully established as sole Emperor and his son the one actively carrying out the Campaign in Judea.  Or we could say the 42 months started when Vespasian actually arrived in Judea seemingly in Spring of 67 then continued to September of 70 AD when the Siege of Jerusalem was fully completed.

Vespasian was in Alexandria when he was proclaimed Emperor, and as such was the only Roman Pharoah ever consecrated by proper Egyptian Ceremonies, much of which symbolically Deified him.

Verse 7 of chapter 13 repeats language from chapter 11 verse 7.  If you watch Historia civillis YouTube video on The Roman Triumph and then read Josephus’s description of Titus and Vespasian’s Triumph in celebration of Conquering Judea in AD 71 from Wars of The Jews Book 7 Chapter 5 Section 5, the possibility that Revelation 11:7-10 could be describing that Triumph with the Two Witnesses representing executed leaders of the Jewish Revolt will be become quite compelling.

Revelation 13:10 is about Captivity which is obviously relevant to 70 AD.

The Beast out of The Earth called elsewhere The False Prophet I think could have been Tiberius Julius Alexander.  Many have argued “out of the Earth” in contrast to “out of the Sea” implies a Jewish background for the second Beast as opposed to the Gentile background of the First, and Alexander fits that even though he was considered an Apostate.  He had formerly been a Governor of Judea but was Prefect of Egypt when this War started and was vital to Vespasian becoming Emperor due to the control that position gave him over the Empire’s Food Supply.  And he was involved in that Ceremonial Deification of Vespasian as Pharaoh as well which did include performing False Miracles.

When the Image of The Beast is introduced in verse 14 many translations wrongly say the Image was “made”, but the Greek doesn’t use a word for "create" here, it should read that they "Set Up the Image", meaning the Image could be something that already existed.

In Genesis 5:3 Seth is called the Image and Likeness of Adam as his son.  Multiple New Testament passages further connect Jesus as the Image of God to Him being The Son of God, like Romans 8:29 and Colossians 1:15.  So there is Biblical Precedent for a person’s Image being their Son.

The Image of The Beast in this model would be Titus the Son of Vespasian who had the same full name and was also elevated by Tiberius Julius Alexander who joined him in the Conquest of Judea where he was proclaimed Imperator after destroying Jerusalem.

I've already proven that 666 cannot be Nero.

That leads us to the matter of Jerusalem as Babylon.  The arguments for it are well known but in the past my issue with holding that view at the same time as The Beast being Rome was that I misunderstood Revelation 17 as implying Babylon held power over The Beast, but I now know the text doesn’t describe her as Riding the Beast.  Berenice in her affair with Titus seems frankly like a good personification of the Harlot.  The word “kill” isn’t actually used in Revelation 17 or 18 (and with Jezebel in chapter 2 only her children are killed), the City is destroyed by the people represented by The Harlot still live on to, in my view, eventually become the Bride of chapter 19 and Lamb’s Wife of Chapter 21.

Revelation 17 also strictly speaking says the Ten Horns hate Babylon and destroy her with fire not the Beast himself.  This could be relevant to how Vespasian was in Rome when the final Siege happened but also Titus himself did not want to Destroy the Temple, his troops and allies got out of control.   Josephus in Wars of The Jews Book VII Chapter 1 Section 2 says it was the Tenth Legion Titus left to guard Jerusalem. Then section 3 describes Titus giving Crowns to those who performed great exploits in The War.   

The Tenth Legion plays an important role throughout the War actually being for a time stationed on the Mount of Olives probably close to where either the modern Church of All Nations or Dominus Flevit is and then were vital to the conquest of Masada..  This Legio X Fretensis remained stationed in Jerusalem till it again played a vital role in putting down the Bar Kochba Revolt and seems to have still been based in Jerusalem (now officially named Aelia Capitolina) till Diocletian moved them to Aqaba.  This Legion's symbols included a Bull and a Boar the former of which is definitively a horned animal and the latter is sometimes considered one too.  For some of this war the commander of the Tenth Legion was Trajan the father of the future Roman Emperor of the same name. 

The Tenth and Fifth Legion which both used a Bull as one of their symbols were previously in Alexandria and so came to Judea by Sea entering the province via Caesarea Marittima. However Legio XV Apoolinari was already in Asia and came by land, it's symbols were likely symbols of Apollo which could have included Apollo Karneia which is Apollo with two Ram Horns. Titus was the commander of Legio XV till his Father became Emperor.

Another take on the Ten Horns could be that the height of the War involved 6 Roman Legions, XII, V, X, XV, III Cyrenaica and XII both of the last tow being Alexandria based, plus 4 armies from allied Client Kings, Antiochus IV Epiphanes of Commagene, Sohaemus of Emesa, Herod Agrippa II and Malichus of Nabataea.  Thus arguably ten armies. 

The place called Armageddon in Revelation 16 is probably the Jezreel Valley twice called the Valley of Megiddo.  It is not in Revelation the site of a Battle but a gathering place of armies and so would most likely refer to the role of Scythiololis (Beth-Shean in The Hebrew Bible) in Titus's Campaign.  

The Great City being divided into thirds could be an allusion to how according to Josephus Jerusalem became divided between the three "Tyrants".

I have also considered that because of how the word “Wilderness” is used in Revelation this final destruction of Babylon refers to the fall of Masada.  Which was also carried out by the Tenth Legion. 

The main issue is that I can't figure out how to make Vespasian or this False Prophet candidate fit my Baptism of The Beast premise, we are still far from Rome's Christianization.

Update August 28th 2025: But I've been thinking about it and since The Beast is a collective symbol first and an individual only secondarily it may not require Vespasian or Titus themselves ever converting to Christianity but perhaps be fulfilled by the evidence that members of their family did later, Titus Flavius Clemens Consuls AD 95 and Flavia Domitilla.  Some have even argued for Clemens being the same person as the Clement who is considered an early Bishop of Rome and Author of First Clement. 

We indeed don't know anything about the life of Tiberius Julius Alexander after AD 70, so he could have become a Christian and maybe even be the same as the Alexander who was Bishop of Rome in the early 2nd Century, he's have to live to be about 100 for that to work but it's not impossible.

Update February 2026: The Baptism in The Lake of Fire of the Beast is a process rather then a single event, processes that started in the first century and still aren't complete.

What The beast from The Sea represents as a Collective is the least disputed, it's Rome.  The Beast from The Earth could represent the people of the Land of Israel or the near east more Broadly.

Heraclius as The Beast out of The Sea

I've already laid some ground work for this in a few prior posts that were mostly meant to potentially support more then one model but end on a connection to Heraclius (The Seven Kings, Pergamon, Roma, The Image being a Son).  Here I shall break things down more firmly.

I am of a few different minds about the issue of the Four horseman, I often learns towards a very Historicist understanding of them with all of Revelation 6 corresponding to the beginnings of sorrows of Matthew 24 and thus referring to conditions that start before 70 AD but apply still even today.  I will be considering in the future the arguments against viewing the Horsemen as villains.  But for this post I shall focus on arguing they can refer to the Sassanian Conquests of the early 7th Century.

The rider on The White Horse, the Conqueror, would be The Persian Shah Khosrow II.

The Red Horseman would be his general Shahin Vahmanzedegan who penetrated all the way to just outside Constantinople in 614 AD.

The rider on the Black Horse would be Shahralanoyzan the Persian military Governor of Egypt which position gave him a lot of Economic Power with Egypt having been a main source of the Roman Empire's Bread.

Death and Hades of course can't be identified with human figures.

There are strong arguments others have already made for The Two Witnesses being Jewish leaders (probably not Christians), paralleling Zerubbabel and Jeshua in Zechariah.  In this context they would be Nehemiah Ben Hushiel and Benjamin of Tiberias.

In Revelation 13 the Beast is described as like a Leopard, it is identified with the Third Beast of Daniel 7 more directly then any other.  The Reign of Heraclius is considered by many historians the key turning point in the Eastern Roman Empire becoming more Greek then Roman.

I think Hosea 13:7-8 is also a factor in understanding how Revelation 13 and Daniel 7 relate. The feet of the Bear are associated with violence and thus military force, I think they represent the Persian Generals who eventually defected to Heraclius, Shahrbaraz and Kardarigan.

We know from Daniel 7 the Mouth of a Lion must represent some connection to Mesopotamia.  But in 2 Timothy 2:17 the mouth of the lion is associated with Martyrdom.  There was a city called Martyropolis that was important to Byzantine Mesopotamia.

As far as the mortal wound goes, Heraclius was in some sources literally wounded at the battle of Nineveh in 627.  But symbolically I think it mainly refers to how the loses the Empire suffered in 610-614 seemed like something it would not be able to recover from, until it did under Heraclius's campaigns of the 620s.

622 was the beginning of Heraclius's counter offensive "who is able to make war with him", and I think the 42 months he Made War specially begin with his invasion in June of 524 and ends with the major victory at Nineveh in December of 627.  

The Beast out of Earth aka The False Prophet would be Sergius Patriarch of Constantinople, the highest ranking religious leader in the empire who also held pollical and military authority at times.

My Roma post ends with how The Beast destroying Babylon fits Babylon as Rome.  But if you view Babylon as Jerusalem then in the Spring of 630 AD Heraclius did betray and massacre the Jews of Jerusalem (and possibly Miaphysite Christians as well).  And if you want Babylon to still be an east of the Euphrates center of Paganism then that fits Takht-e Soleymān in 624 or Dastgerd in 627. 

One could also see the Woman of Revelation 17 as representing the Oriental Orthodox Church which wielded power in Persia at this time partly through the influence of Gabriel of Sinjar and Queen Shirin.

The Fast of Heraclius is a Coptic Tradition that comes from Heraclius supposedly desiring to repent of the massacre of the Jews in 630 so that could fit my Baptism of The Beast premise. 

666 cannot be Nero

It frustrates me how that is the one secular scholarship orthodoxy about Revelation only extreme Pre-Millennialists ever seem to question.  Even if I became a full on Atheist viewing Revelation as Prophecy written after the fact I would still reject 666 being Nero.

The name identified by the number 666 can’t be Nero because that’s based on Aramaic/Hebrew Gematria and Revelation is in Greek with this number clearly echoing 888 as the Isopsephy value of Iesous.  (The 616 variant echoes 818 for Iesus a variant of Iesous.)

Nero in Greek has an Omega in it so Nero can never work, the same goes for trying to make Nero fit the 616 variant.  

The Aramaic from of Nero's name is not likely to have ever even been known to these Greek communities in Asia Minor.  Acts 2 confirms that even the Jews living outside Judea only spoke the local Gentile Languages. 

It is also verified by Chapter 39 of Suetonius Life of Nero that the Isopsephy associated with the name of Nero was 1005.

And Nero didn't persecute Christians.

If the 616 variant is correct (which I consider unlikely) that probably points to Theos Caesar and/or Dios Caesar which were used for the Deified Roman Emperors in the Eastern Provinces, but in that context it doesn’t apply to only one.  

Revelation 13:1 and 17:3 do seem to imply the Blasphemous Name associated with this Beast is on each of the heads and not merely an individual name.

Some even question the practice of using Isopsephy/Gematria entirely and suggest like other symbols in Revelation the key is its Hebrew Bible precedent.  666 as a number has two notable appearances, being associated with Solomon in 1 Kings 10:14 and 2 Chronicles 9:13 but also with Nebuchadnezzar's Image in Daniel 3.  

I am no longer concerned with proving it can be applied to anyone's individual name, if it were that simple it wouldn't require "wisdom".  I'll still look into some from time to time, but it's not my main view of this Mystery.

Ἰαπετός or Iapetos commonly rendered in English as Iapetus but sometimes Japetus was a Titan of Greek Mythology, but it's also documented that the name was viewed as a form of Japheth by Ancient Jews and Christians in the Greek speaking world by texts like the Sibylline Oracles..

The spelling has a Greek Isopsephy value of Six Hundred and Sixty Six.
Iota=10, Alpha=1, Pi=80, Epsilon=5, Tau=300, Omicron=70, Sigma=200.

10+1=11+80=91+5=96+300=396+70=466+200=666
10+1+80+5+300+70+200=666.

It being a seven letter word means there could've been a letter on each of the Seven Heads in John's Vision.

Genesis 9 foretells Japheth to dwell in the Tents of Shem, symbolizing becoming religiously Semitic.  The most undisputed to identity sons and grandsons of Japheth in Genesis 10 were either in modern Turkey and/or the Classical Greek world, and each disputed one has been placed there by at least one theory.  The languages that can be traced back to Japheth are probably the Indo-European family and other languages connected to Europe but also the languages of Georgia who I identify with Meshech and Tubal.

The last three of the seven Pre-Republic Kings of Rome were Etruscans, a people who can be argued to descend from Tiras.  However the Romans proper through their claimed descent from Troy go back to Ashkenaz son of Gomer after whom Lake Ascanius was named, and the name Ascanius shows up a few times in the traditional genealogy of Aeneas.  Josephus mysteriously says the descendants of Ashkenaz were the Reginians, that could be a reference to Rhegium a location in Italy Aeneas was depicted as stopping at on the way to Rome, or maybe also the Regnii a Brythonic tribe in specifically the part of Brittan Josephus's patron Vespasian had been stationed at Noviomagus Reginorum (Chichester). The Britons would eventually claim to share Rome's descent from Aeneas.

Of course another Genesis 10 name I could identify with Troy is Elishah which I think is the Hebrew form of Hittie Wilusa and Greek Illus. And Chapter 18 of the Historia Bottonium identifies Dardanus as a son of Elishah.  

Lake Ascanius is an important part of Bithynia and thus places that became the Capitals of The Eastern Empire/Byzantium, Nicomedia, Chalcedon, Nicaea, and Byzantium/Constanople.

The extent to which any of those claims of ancestry are true doesn't really matter, that the belief itself existed is enough for it to have symbolic value in interpreting a book like Revelation.

The fact that Japheth has Seven Sons could be seen as connected to the Seven Heads. He also had exactly Seven Grandsons which is perhaps more relevant when using Daniel 7 to interpret the Seven Heads.  

So an identification with Japheth works as an identification with Greco-Roman Empires, and Religiously with Chalcedonian Christianity but perhaps the Eastern Orthodox in particular is strongly justified.

But who Iapetos is in Greek Mythology also has parallels to The Beast of Revelation.  He is depicted as imprisoned in Tartus which could explain the ascending out of the Abyss imagery. The etymology of the named has bene interpreted to mean "to wound" or "to pierce" which could be an ironic mirror to The Beast being wounded.  In some sources the wife of Iapetos was named Asia, a name the Ancient Greeks and Romans associated primarily with Asia Minor and thus the immediate context of Revelation.

And Iapetos is associated with Humanity through his Sons thus echoing the number 6 being associated with Humankind in The Bible via Adam's creation on the 6th Day. 

Update: Latinus/Latinos.

While this name is usually spelled in Greek in a way that adds up to 661, the Λατεῖνος(Lateinos) form is attested in the Greek transliteration of the Roman name Marcus Pomponius Latinus in a now lost record of dedications to Isis and Sarapis found in Ephesus and dating to the mid second century. A very good place to be viewed to viewed as relevant to Revelation.

This two would chiefly be to identify Roman, the Latin speaking Empire, not any individual. 

Caesarea Maritima in the first verse of Revelation 13

"And I stood upon the sand of the sea"

Caesarea Maritima means Caesarea “by the sea”, and it was also a very sandy location, Josephus's account of Herod building the city in Antiquities of The Jews 15:9:6 talks a lot about Seas and Sand.

My hunch that Caesarea Maritima is in mind here probably doesn't actually affect interpreting anything else much at all, but I find it a fascinating theory for how Revelation works Poetically.

The City was a Roman Colony in Judea, it generally had no Jewish Population and was entirely Pagan until a Gentile Christian community first formed there and probably was still majority Pagan till sometime between Constantine and Theodosius.

It was usually where the Roman Governor resided (Pilate was in Jerusalem during Passover to keep an eye on things during the pilgrimage festival) even after Hadrian made Jerusalem itself a Roman Colony and still even after Christianization, even after Chalcedon finally made the Bishop of Jerusalem outrank Caesarea in the Church Hierarchy.

Naturally it played an important role as a Roman Military base of operation during the 66-73 Roman-Jewish War, and probably also in the Bar-Kochba Revolt though we know less of the details about that war.

Eusebius account of the Martyrs of Palestine during the Diocletian Persecution shows that Caesarea Maritima was the stage for most of that persecution in Palestine, they are called ____ of Caesarea because of where they were Martyred more so then where they were originally from.

Certain Bishops of Caesarea became key theological leaders of Arianism during the reigns of the Arian Emperors, Acacius and Euzoius.

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.  And maybe he could even by the Cruel Lord of Isaiah 19.

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 my 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 himself 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.

Pergamon and The Beast

All of Revelation is framed as a message to the Seven Churches not just chapter 2 and 3, the Vision that is 4:1-22:5 often repeats ideas from those two chapters.

And one interesting thing about Pergamon is how it seems specifically to be tied to the topic of The Beasts of Revelation 13 and 19.

Pergamon is described as being where Satan's Seat is (Thronos is the Greek word from which comes the English word Throne).  Later in chapter 13 verse 2 The Dragon (who is identified with Satan in chapter 12) gives his Seat to The Beast (and it's mentioned again in chapter 16 after the 6th bowl) and in the next verse is talk of the mortal wound that was healed.

The popular view on what specific location in Pergamon was called Satan's Seat is the Altar of Zeus built by Eumenes II King of Pergamon in the second century BC.  But the context is the persecution of Christians which in 1st and 2nd century Asia Minor was always for refusing to take part in the Imperial Cult, which Pergamon was the center of in the Roman Province of Asia.

I've read a lot on the theory that Pergamon is the actual site of Troy (really Ilion/Ilium more specifically which can be interpreted as a technically separate nearby city).  I was ultimately unconvinced of the theory because archeologically the city wasn't built till the 8th century BC after the very date for the Fall of Troy one of these books used, 811 BC.  However what I did become convinced of is that many locals of Pergamon in Classical Antiquity believed they were Troy.  And a core foundation of why was the name Pergamos being used of a citadel on the highest peak of Ilium in the Illiad.  

Pergamos is the spelling for Pergamon used by Xenophon in Anabasis and also by the KJV which followed Tyndale.  Why Tyndale used this spelling when the Textus Receptus used Pergamon is not something I've been able to find out by Googling.  Point is it is a form of the name that existed.

In some passages this Pergamos Citadel has the Seat or Thronos of Apollo the seeming Patron Deity of Ilium.

Homer, Iliad 7.17 ff :
"Now as the goddess grey-eyed Athene [on Olympos] was aware of these two [the Trojan princes Hektor (Hector) and Paris] destroying the men of Argos in the strong encounter, she went down in a flash of speed from the peaks of Olympos to sacred Ilion, where Apollon stirred forth to meet her from his seat on Pergamos, where he planned that the Trojans should conquer. These two then encountered each other beside the oak tree, and speaking first the son of Zeus, lord Apollon, addressed her : ‘What can be your desire this time, o daughter of great Zeus, that you came down from Olympos at the urge of your mighty spirit? To give the Danaans victory in battle, turning it back? .

And also Pergamos is where Apollo heals the mortal wound of Aeneas.

Homer, Iliad 5. 445 ff (trans. Lattimore) (Greek epic C8th B.C.) :
"Apollon caught [the wounded] Aineias (Aeneas) now and away from the onslaught [of the battle], and set him in the sacred keep of Pergamos (Pergamus) where was built his own temple. There Artemis of the showering arrows and Leto within the great and secret chamber healed his wound and cared for him."

Aeneas is the Trojan Hero who would later be claimed to have founded Rome, or some other Latin civilization that spawned Rome, Livy and Virgil would depict a son of Aeneas as fathering the Gens Julii specifically.  So with all the other reasons for viewing The Beast as Rome or a Roman Emperor this imagery fits poetically.

Pergamon first became a center of the Imperial Cult under Augustus who was a big fan of Apollo making his Birthday September 23rd a Holiday for Apollo, Suetonius biography of Augustus records that at some point Augustus was claimed to have been the Son of Apollo. Virgil's writings also play into Augustus's desire to be associated with Apollo.  So a place where Apollo was worshiped in Pergamon probably became the center of the Imperial Cult.  But later Trajan and Hadrian preferred to be associated with Zeus, so I think the Trajenum was built over the same place where Augustus and Apollo were worshiped previously.

In all this context it's easy then to see in the message to Pergamon the figure of The Beast typologically represented by Balac and The False Prophet by Balaam.

But Satan's Seat isn't the only connection.

Revelation 2:16 says "Repent; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth." That sword being a reference back to verse 12 which was referencing back to Revelation 1:16 the sharp two-edged sword.  The Context in 2:16 is referring to specifically those in Pergamon who followed the Doctrine of Balaam and/or the Nicolaitans from the prior verses.

So when Revelation 19:21 says referring to the Beast's armies after he and the False Prophet are cast alive into the Lake of Fire, "And the remnant were slain with the sword of him that sat upon the horse, which sword proceeded out of his mouth" it is I think meant to be an echo of 2:16.  The Beast's armies may be Christians.

Even after Nicaea it took awhile for most of the actual armies of the Roman Empire to become mostly Christians, discussions of Julian The Apostate's reign frequently talk about how most of the army were still Pagans.  The Edict of Thessalonica and Augustine's Just War Principal were the key turning points.

The Greek word for Stone in the White Stone reference isn't Petros or Petras, it is Psephos a word that in the Greek mind was associated with Voting and Democracy.  The only other time the New Testament uses it is Acts 26:10 where the KJV translates it "voice" the context is Paul saying how he voted.  Usually Psephos were used for secret ballots and so that's what the Name no one knows but the person who has it is probably alluding to.

On my other Blog I've already talked about why The Bible is actually Anti-Monarchy.  Eric Nelson's The Hebrew Republic contains a good discussion of the history of Judeo-Christian debates about Deuteronomy 17, and he revisits the subject in Royalist Revolution in the chapter on Thomas Paine's Common Sense (despite the title he does acknowledge Paine was authentically anti-Royalist).

I further hold the view that every appearance of Moloch/Molech in The Hebrew Bible should be translated The King and Milcom as Kings.

The relevance here is that Kingship is a Man being worshiped as God whether the Christians engaging in it want to admit that or not.

I have come to agree with the common Historicist reading of II Thessalonians 2, that The Temple of God there is The Church like every other time the Paulian Epistles speak of The Temple of God.  But I still don't agree with the Day=Year theory.  And I also don't make it about just The Pope specifically, it's all Episcopal Polity and all Christian Monarchies.

Many (though not all) Christian Emperors also persecuted believers of The Biblical God who didn't follow the right denomination.  Jews, Nazarenes, Ebionites, Montanists, Novatians, Donatists, Pelegians and Nestorians had it difficult no matter which sect had The Emperor.  Until 380 it was mainly the Arian Emperors persecuting others, but after that the Nicenes became the intolerant ones.  And the Chalcedonian Emperors' attitudes towards the Oriental Orthodox were complicated.

In 262 AD during the Crisis of the Third Century the City of Pergamon was hit by an Earthquake and then sacked by the Goths, this really was the end of the City of Pergamon as it was known to the Author and original Audience of Revelation, (Ephesus experienced similar disasters in the same year but they were able to recover while Pergamon was not).  This is when the Library of Pergamon would have been finally destroyed if it was still operating at all, same with the Library of Celsus in Ephesus.

I have a personal hunch that I can't prove that the Church of Pergamon after this moved to Nicomedia and other cities of Bithynia (like Nicaea, Chalcedon and Byzantium) and that during Late Antiquity the Bithynian Churches were the heirs of the Pergamon of Revelation.  They then became the clerical heart first of Arian Christianity, then of Chalcedonianism within Nicene Christianity and of Greek Orthodoxy within Chalcedonian Christianity.

You do not have to think one of those sects was more Doctrinally Correct then Chalcedonian Christianity to view this interpretation of Revelation to be correct, I am writing this as a Chalcedonian.  You simply have to believe it was wrong and evil for Christians to persecute other religions at all and doing so to fellow Christians becomes a continuation of Imperial Persecution.

This can apply to a number of Christian Roman Emperors from Theodosius to Justinian down though all the Greek Emperors.  But once again I want to draw attention to Heraclius in the 7th Century AD who was the first Roman since 509 BC to openly call himself King.  Then he and Sergius did the Monenergism/Monothelitism project which created more internal strife within The Church.

The Image of The Beast could be his Son

At the end of my post on Translation Issues that could be important, I showed that the Image of The Beast is not necessarily something created then, that "make" in the KJV should be translated "set up" or "established" or something like that.

In Genesis 5:3 Seth is called the Image and Likeness of Adam because he is Adam's Son.

The first reference to the concept of an Image in The Bible is Genesis 1:26-27 where Adam is created in The Image and Likeness of God.  In Luke 3:38 Adam is called a Son of God.  

Derived from that all Human Beings are also The Image of God as we see in Genesis 9:6.  All Humans are called the Offspring of God in the Sermon on Mars's Hill in Acts 17:28.  Believers specifically as Children of God is vital to John 1 and 1st John and comes up elsewhere, as an Evangelical Universalist I believe the nonbelievers are only temporarily estranged from the family.

Paul calls Jesus The Image of God in 2 Corinthians 4:4.  And Jesus as The Son of God is vital to New Testament Theology.

So every time a living person is called the Image of someone else it's someone who they are the Son of in some sense.  So the question then is can The Image of The Beast be understood as that rather then a normal Statue or Coin or whatever most people are usually thinking of?

The main objection would be that if the Image is just a person why is it being able to speak and kill people treated as something attributed to the second beast?  And why isn't the Image also punished in the Lake of Fire?

Well both those questions could have the same answer, the Son in question isn't an adult yet, the actions legally attributed to them are really as a puppet ruler and thus they aren't actually morally culpable for any of it.

Naturally for an interpretation like this the fact that people will assume a Statue at first is intentional, this is why it takes "Wisdom" to understand what's going on here, don't jump to conclusions.  Consider how the only time the Greek word for "mark" is used elsewhere in the New Testament it's in Acts 17:9 it refers to Graven Images in a way that equates it with the Hebrew word translated "Graven" throughout the Hebrew Bible, that creates a further thematic connection to idolatry but it's also a reversal, now it's the worshipers being graven.

When I first devised most of this interpretation I jumped to applying it to Titus son of Vespasian in the context of 70 AD Preterism.  But that last piece of the puzzle, it being a child ruler, wouldn't fit Titus.

There are a number of examples of Roman Emperors making their still underage son Co-Emperor in some fashion.

Heraclius the Roman Emperor from 610-641 AD had a son named Heraclius Constantine who was born in 612.  In 622 when Heraclius left to lead his counter offensive against Persia his young son was named Regent in his place but the real power was wielded by Sergius the Patriarch of Constantinople.  He had also been formally Co-Emperor since 613 basically and thus was also proclaimed Baselios when Heraclius was in 629.  Turning 17 that year he might have been an Adult by some modern legal standards but the Biblically adulthood is 20 at the youngest.

The set up language could apply Adopted songs.  I believe Revelation was written during the reign of Hadrian, he was an Adopted son of the prior Emperor and had an Adopted son.

But in my desire to interpret the Beast as ultimately a collective symbol and not merely an individual, I could consider how one of the Emperor's titles was Pater Patriae which meant Father of The Fatherland.  If The Emperor was The Beast then the Rome itself was his Son and Image, after all his literal image was on the Money and Standards borne the Army.  I actually this title is the main reason behind Jesus saying "call no man father".

Translation issues in Revelation that could be important.

They involve the Subject of The Beast and comes from chapters 13 and 17.

In Revelation 13:5 the KJV says The Beast will "continue" 42 month.  That reading being my default understanding of the verse had lead me to interpreting it as saying the end of the 42 months must be when the Beast is defeated in Revelation 19 and they begin when the Mortal Wound is healed.  Since the meaning of "Continue" in my mind meant his life and reign being prolonged past the point when it should have ended.

But I recently checked the Young's Literal Translation and it says that The Beast was given authority to "make war" for 42 months.  Now this is not actually a perfectly hyper literal word for word translation because the Greek word for War isn't in the verse, but it is elsewhere in the chapter and associated with The Beast in other chapters.  For example in both Revelation 11:7 and 13:7 the phrase "make war" appears, and in both the word for "make" is the Greek word translated "Continue" in 13:5, in fact the same word is translated lots of other ways as well.

I think the "make war" appearances are actually best translated "wage war".  In 13:7 the waging of war is defined as something The beast is given power or authority to do.  And 13:4 was also about the Beast's prowess in warfare. So it makes sense that what The beast "makes" or "wages" in those other verses is what is probably the context of verse 5.

The next is not a criticism of the KJV, but more the way we casually talk about Revelation 17 that may not even be supported by any actual translation.  And that is how we often refer to the Woman as Riding the Beast.  The Language the text uses is that The Beast is carrying the Woman.  And this difference is significant in terms of who can be presumed to have the agency in this situation.

The third is perhaps not a matter of a single word.  But I'd argued on my prior now retired Blog once that I think the Miracles or Wonders that the later part Revelation 13 attributes to the Second Beast are meant to be believed by those being deceived to be performed by the First Beast.  But I didn't much try to support that with anything in the actual text of Revelation 13 but from inferences drawn by other prophecies I then assumed to be about the same persons.  I'm now more skeptical of a lot of those assumptions about what passages are and aren't about the "Antichrist", but instead have been thinking about what it means that the miracles are performed "in the sight" of The Beast, or "before the beast" in the YLT.

Such language exists in The Hebrew often about the relationship between The LORD and His Prophets or Anointed Ones.  In those contexts it's about how what the Agents of God are able to do what they do because of Power or Authority given to them by God or Jesus.  The natural perversion of that would be a False Prophet attributing his miracles to the person he's seeking to deceive the world into thinking is a god.

However another issue near here is about the Image of The Beast.  The KJV says that the Second Beast convinced the people to "make" an Image of the Beast but other translations say something like "set up" which I think is more accurate looking at the Greek verb itself.  The issue is the "make" translation had at times lead me to think the Image is something that didn't exist already prior to this, but the Greek is actually NOT using a word for create. So it could be referring to doing something with an Image that was already there, or existed somewhere else.