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Grace & Peace: Revelation 83

Douglas Wilson on

“At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore” (Ps. 16:11).

“And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name. Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six” (Rev. 13:16–18).
In order to understand this (often misconstrued) section of Revelation, we must (literally) return to our ABCs. In English, we use Roman letters and Arabic numerals. When we want to spell a number out, we write three. When we want to use a symbol for it, we write 3. We are so used to this system that we hardly ever even reflect on it. It is a very good system, if I may say so.

But Hebrew, Greek and Latin did not work this way. They did not use Arabic symbols for their numbers, but rather used the letters of their own alphabets for both phonetic sounds and for numbers. Thus, in Greek, the first letter alpha (corresponding to our letter a) made its particular vowel sound, but it also represented the numerical value of 1. I trust you are all still with me. This system was common in the ancient world, and is called gematria.

If English had an analogous system, it would be easy to compute the numerical value of our names. For example, my name is Douglas. All we would have to do is add the value of the numbers up: D (4), O (60), U (300), G (7), L (30), A (1), and S (100). The number of my name would therefore be 502. And while this strikes us as odd and contrived (because we don’t do it), it was very common in the ancient world. Greg Bahnsen once pointed out that graffiti at Pompeii has been found that said, “I love her whose number is 542.” There are not enough digits there for it to be her phone number. And the Roman historian Seutonius pointed out (about Nero) that some doggerel poetry was circulating in Rome that pointed out the numerical value of “Nero,” and “murdered his mother” were the same. This was pertinent because Nero had murdered his mother. And because we are talking about a particular intellectual skill set, someone once figured out that if you rearrange the letters of Presbyterians you can spell out Britney Spears. There are always people like this, and so we can be grateful that gematria died out before Facebook was invented.

Now mark this. John knew the name of the person he was thinking of, and he also believed that any reasonably clever member of the churches in Asia would be able to figure it out also. Let the one “with understanding” calculate the identity of the beast. It would be odd in the extreme if young Demetrius of Ephesus stayed up late the night after Revelation was read to their church, and in the morning asked his father who Henry Kissinger might be.

The system John was inviting them to use would have been obvious to them all. But it couldn’t have been too obvious, or else the officials censoring the mail leaving Patmos would have found out that John was writing seditious letters to his churches. The land beast that represented Rome is destroyed in this book. And so John was inviting the readers to transliterate the Greek name Nero Caesar into Hebrew, which the censors would not pick up on. In Hebrew, it would have been Nrwn Qsr. Once the vowel markings were added, as commentator Larry Ball points out, it would have been pronounced as Neron Kaiser.

So what is the numerical value of Nrwn Qsr? As it happens, it is 50 + 200 + 6 + 50+ 100 + 60 + 200 = 666. Nero was the head of the beast who was ruling at the time this revelation was given, and it seems to me that his identity as the sixth head of the seven-headed beast is secure.

It is worth mentioning that in the original, there is nothing like 666 or six six six. The value is found in the sum, in the total. The number given is six hundred and sixty six.

One additional comment should be made about the mark of the beast. The persecution included shutting believers off from the means of sustaining life, using economic chokepoints. You were not allowed to buy or sell unless you were willing to take the mark, or the name, or the number of the name onto your right hand or forehead. This is a diabolical parody of God’s requirement for faithful Jews, who were to bind the law of God on their hand and on their forehead.

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Grace & Peace: Revelation 82

Douglas Wilson on

“At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore” (Ps. 16:11).

“And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon. And he exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him, and causeth the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed. And he doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men, And deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast; saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast, which had the wound by a sword, and did live. And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed” (Rev. 13:11–15).

We have identified the beast from the sea—a great and threatening beast—with the Roman Empire. Its seven heads are seven hills, and its seven heads are also seven kings—the sixth one, Nero, reigning at the time the Revelation was given.

But we now come to a lesser beast, a beast who arises from the land. This beast does not look terrifying the same way the sea beast does because it looks like a lamb. But it speaks like a dragon, showing that it is just as evil as the sea beast, and like the dragon Satan behind the sea beast.

In order to ascertain the identity of the land beast, we have to piece together a few clues. The first is that John identifies this land beast with the false prophet to come later.

“And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet” (Rev. 16:13).

“And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone” (Rev. 19:20).

“And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever” (Rev. 20:10).

So the land beast is described as a religious figure (a prophet), but one who gives a blessing to those who would worship the sea beast, Rome. There is obviously a cozy relationship with Rome. This beast also has the power of working signs and wonders. This beast comes up out of the earth—the word for this is ge, which should be best understood here as the land, meaning the land of Israel. Putting all this together, I take the land beast as representing the priesthood of apostate Israel, with the high priest as a likely representative.

We have an example of this in how the religious leaders of the Jews treated Jesus.

“Then gathered the chief priests and the Pharisees a council, and said, What do we? for this man doeth many miracles. If we let him thus alone, all men will believe on him: and the Romans shall come and take away both our place and nation” (John 11:47–48).

And Caiaphas, being high priest that year, spoke for them all when he said that Jesus must die for the nation (John 11:49).

But what about the signs and sorcery? We have indications of that kind of behavior among the Jews also.

“But there was a certain man, called Simon, which beforetime in the same city used sorcery, and bewitched the people of Samaria, giving out that himself was some great one” (Acts 8:9).

“And when they had gone through the isle unto Paphos, they found a certain sorcerer, a false prophet, a Jew, whose name was Bar-jesus” (Acts 13:6).

Some of them even tried to use the name of Jesus as though it were a charm.

“Then certain of the vagabond Jews, exorcists, took upon them to call over them which had evil spirits the name of the Lord Jesus, saying, We adjure you by Jesus whom Paul preacheth” (Acts 19:13).

The Jewish rebels who finally brought about the destruction of Jerusalem were a very different group from the Jewish quislings who worked hand in glove together with Rome. Satan was behind Rome, and these men were prostate before Rome, making them a synagogue of Satan. They were, as Jesus once put it, of their father the devil (John 8:44). The Jewish leadership at this time was demonic.

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Grace & Peace: Revelation 81

Douglas Wilson on

“At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore” (Ps. 16:11).

“And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies; and power was given unto him to continue forty and two months. And he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme his name, and his tabernacle, and them that dwell in heaven. And it was given unto him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them: and power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations. And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. If any man have an ear, let him hear. He that leadeth into captivity shall go into captivity: he that killeth with the sword must be killed with the sword. Here is the patience and the faith of the saints” (Rev. 13:5–10).

So we are continuing to observe John’s description of the beast from the sea, which is generally Rome, and specifically Nero. In this passage we have another clue that helps fix this identity. The emperors were nothing if not blasphemous. The practice of overt emperor worship had taken root during the time of Augustus, and the practice ranged from allowed to mandatory. When they took the throne, they assumed blasphemous names for themselves. Sebastos was one such name, and it meant “one to be worshiped.” Emperors were called dives or Deus—in short, God.

The saints are being warned here that the persecution that will rain down on them will be severe—it is described as making war on them. But they are also encouraged by the fact that the severe persecution will be comparatively short. The beast was on a chain, and God was only going to let him off the chain for a mere 42 months. We are told several times that the beast only had the power he did because it was granted to him. “And there was given unto him . . .” “and power was given unto him.” Despite the blasphemous claims, the power of the beast did not originate with him. He had it from Satan, and Satan was bounded by the will of God.

As it happened, the first Roman persecution of the church began under Nero, and it lasted for 42 months. After the great fire in Rome, when suspicion fell on Nero for starting it, he responded by scapegoating the Christians. That persecution was fierce, and according to Tacitus, it included Christians being treated with pitch, and then set up as torches for a dinner party Nero was hosting. This persecution began in 64 A.D. and ended in 68 A.D. when Nero was forced to commit suicide—forty two months later.

The power to war against the saints was a power that included rule over all “kindreds, tongues, and nations.” The inhabitants of the earth, if their names were not in the Book of Life, would give themselves to him in worship. It is striking that the Book of Life is described as belonging to the Lamb, and the Lamb is described as having been slain from the foundation of the world.

The saints are encouraged with the words Jesus was accustomed to use—if a man has ears to hear, then he should do so. They are also encouraged to endure, knowing that the God of justice sees what their persecutor is doing. There is no need for them to take up the sword in self-defense. The one who leads into captivity will be led into captivity, and the one who kills with the sword will die by the sword—just as Nero was vicious in his cruelty to others, so at the end he was forced to fall on his own sword.

This is the patience and faith of the saints. Hold on, John tells them.

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Grace & Peace: Revelation 80

Douglas Wilson on

“At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore” (Ps. 16:11)

And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy. And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion: and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority. And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast. And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast: and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him?” (Rev. 13:1–4).

At the beginning of this next chapter, we have the introduction of the great beast from the sea. This is one area where most commentators agree—a remarkable feat given the nature of this book. This beast is best understood as representing the Roman Empire, for some of the following reasons:

The sea represents the Gentile nations generally (Is. 17:12; 60:5). In Daniel 7:1-7, we are given a description of four beasts, representing successive empires. The fourth in that series was the Roman Empire, and the description of the beast here largely matches the description given by Daniel. At the same time, certain features of the earlier beasts from Daniel are incorporated by John into his description of Rome, making Rome here something of a culmination beast. For example, the image of leopard, lion and bear are used by Daniel for the earlier empires, but by John here they are incorporated into Rome. And when in one instance Paul was delivered from the power of Rome, he described it as being delivered from a lion (2 Tim. 4:17).

Rome was known as the city of seven hills, and additional information gleaned later (from Rev. 17: 9-11) tells us that the seven heads of the beast were doubly symbolic. They represented seven kings, and they also represented seven hills. Rome was known in the ancient world as the city of seven hills, and just as we recognize the Big Easy as New Orleans, or the Windy City as Chicago, so the first century readers would have known instantly that we were talking about Rome.

The fact that the seven heads were seven kings also helps us date the book using internal evidence. Beginning with Julius Caesar, Rome had seven emperors during this period. They were Julius Caesar, Augustus, Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius, and Nero, followed by Galba who reigned a “short while,” meaning just a few months. These heads, we are told, were crowned with blasphemy, and it is striking that Caesar worship began in the reign of Augustus, and was particularly intense in Asia Minor—where this book was addressed.

This also helps us understand the head wound that the beast suffered, but then recovered from miraculously. So John tells us that five emperors “were,” meaning that the sixth “is.” Nero was forced to commit suicide in 68 A.D. and that plunged Rome into anarchy and turmoil. It was remarkable that Rome survived at all, and it is also noteworthy that all this happened at the same time that Roman armies were besieging Jerusalem. This is internal evidence that Revelation was given during the reign of Nero, sometime before the destruction of Jerusalem.

After Nero’s death, three emperors ruled within the space of one year—Galba, Otho, and Vitellius. The empire was entirely destabilized. Vespasian was the general who was fighting against Jerusalem, and so he turned things over to his son Titus, returned to Rome and restored order. The Temple of Jupiter on the Capitoline Hill was burned in 69 A.D. in the fighting of their civil war. It really was a narrow go.

We should also keep in mind the fact that Satan was the spiritual authority behind Rome. It says several times in this text that the beast obtained its power from the dragon—just as principalities and powers backed the ancient empires of the Old Testament, this was also true of Rome, with Satan as the spiritual force behind the throne—“gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority.” The scarlet color of the beast matches the dragon, not to mention the number of heads and the number of horns (Rev. 12:3; 17:3). So the beast from the sea represents the persecuting power of unbelieving political authority, embodied at that time in Rome.

This is an important anchor point for interpreting the rest of the book. If the beast from the sea is Rome, it helps us understand what some of the other symbols must be.

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Grace & Peace: Revelation 79

Douglas Wilson on

“At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore” (Ps. 16:11)

“And when the dragon saw that he was cast unto the earth, he persecuted the woman which brought forth the man child. And to the woman were given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness, into her place, where she is nourished for a time, and times, and half a time, from the face of the serpent. And the serpent cast out of his mouth water as a flood after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away of the flood. And the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed up the flood which the dragon cast out of his mouth. And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.”
Revelation 12:13-17

Remember the theme of this entire book. God is in the process of divorcing the Old Jerusalem and preparing a bride for His Son in the New Jerusalem. This passage should be understood in the context of the build up to the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D.

The dragon, identified as Satan earlier, and also described in this same passage as a serpent, is furious with the woman who gave birth to the “man child.” The faithful remnant of Israel had brought forth the Messiah, and when the devil was thrown down to earth, he persecuted the Judean church. They had been prepared for this by the Lord’s solemn warning.

“When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand:) Then let them which be in Judaea flee into the mountains” (Matt. 24:15–16).

When the armies of Rome come, you are to go. And this is precisely what the Judean church did—seeking refuge in Pella in 66 A.D. She is there protected for three and a half years (a time, times, and half a time). A flood of wrath comes, but the earth absorbs it—as unbelieving Jewry absorbed the wrath that missed the Christians.

All of this is Exodus imagery—the believers who escaped from the demolition of Jerusalem were spared in just the same way that the Jews were delivered from Pharaoh. “Ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bare you on eagles’ wings, and brought you unto myself” (Ex. 19:4; cf. Dt.32:11-12). God took them out of Egypt on the wings of an eagle, and He brought these faithful Christians out of Judea on the wings of an eagle also. This also helps to identify the corrupt establishment in Jerusalem with Egypt itself. They had become the enemies of God. We saw this identification of Jerusalem with Egypt in the previous chapter, and here it continues. “And their dead bodies shall lie in the street of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified” (Rev. 11:8).

The dragon continued in its fury. Not able to kill the woman, he turns to make war on the remainder of her offspring (in this case, it is likely we are talking about the Gentile church). These are plainly identified as believers—they keep the commandments of God, and they have the testimony of Jesus Christ.

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