Pastor David B. Curtis
Pastor David B. Curtis
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Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and said to me, "Come, I will show you the judgment of the great prostitute who is seated on many waters, with whom the kings of the earth have committed sexual immorality, and with the wine of whose sexual immorality the dwellers on earth have become drunk." And he carried me away in the Spirit into a wilderness, and I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast that was full of blasphemous names, and it had seven heads and ten horns…
I will tell you the mystery of the woman, and of the beast with seven heads and ten horns that carries her. The beast that you saw was, and is not, and is about to rise from the bottomless pit and go to destruction. And the dwellers on earth whose names have not been written in the book of life from the foundation of the world will marvel to see the beast, because it was and is not and is to come. This calls for a mind with wisdom: the seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman is seated; they are also seven kings, five of whom have fallen, one is, the other has not yet come, and when he does come he must remain only a little while. (Rev 17:1-3, 7-10 ESV)
Revelation is a favorite topic of so many, because so many see it as speaking of our future. David used an excellent quote from historian Philip Shaff on the topic of Revelation, where he said:
The literature of the Apocalypse, especially in English, is immense, but mostly impository rather than expository, and hence worthless or even mischievous, because its confounding and misleading. (Philip Shaff)
Most preachers and teachers already have a preconceived understanding of the book, and so they impose their understanding onto the story, rather than letting it tell the story itself, and now there exists so many fantasy interpretations and scenarios about the supposed future end times happenings they say are taught in the book of Revelation.
My purpose today is to narrow in on just one piece of the book, and dig into the historical aspect behind it. But first, I wish to lay some foundational points that I will simply state, but not go into any in-depth discussion of at this time. If these positions are new to any of the listeners out there, and abundance of free messages are on the church site to expound much more deeply into these areas.
I am stating them here so that, from the get-go, you know my position, and it will hopefully head off any questions that stem from them and my point being discussed.
First point, Revelation was written to reveal, not hide. It was not written in some super advanced code that required some type of theological gymnasts to decipher. The book clearly opens up by telling us:
The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show to his servants the things that must soon take place. He made it known by sending his angel to his servant John… Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear, and who keep what is written in it, for the time is near. (Rev 1:1, 3 ESV)
Two things we find in this opening line. One, it is being written to show, not hide; and two, these are things that must soon take place—soon to those the book was being written to—for the time is near, to them.
Second point, it was written to a specific crowd at a specific time in history, who were going thru specific situations, some of which are addressed in this letter to them.
John to the seven churches that are in Asia (Rev 1:4 ESV)
So, whatever is being said in this book, is being said to these seven literal churches, to show to them the things which must soon take place to them. Third point, I believe there is more than enough scholarly proof to show that this book was written pre-AD 70 and not a later date like many still attempt to teach.
It is this third point, which will be a core thrust of today's teaching. I am not seeking to deal specifically with the dating, but we will be discussing one of the main characters and a piece of the internal evidence which adds to the case for the early dating.
Today's topic may be considered a political message in some ways, so let's strap on our biblical analysis hat, and make analysis great again. In the verses that were read at the opening of the message, we are told this piece of information:
I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast that was full of blasphemous names, and it had seven heads and ten horns…I will tell you the mystery of the woman, and of the beast with seven heads and ten horns that carries her. … the seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman is seated; they are also seven kings, five of whom have fallen, one is, the other has not yet come, and when he does come he must remain only a little while. (Rev 17 ESV)
What we see here, is one of the clear time indicators for when this revelation was written, for at the time the book was given, the sixth of seven key kings was ruling. Five are gone, the sixth is, and the seventh will come but only remain a little while. Seven also represents mountains, and historically we know Rome was designated as the city on seven hills.
These points limit the topic to be dealing with seven kings of Rome. So, the goal is to identify who the seven kings of Rome are that are being discussed here. Which five have already fallen, which one still is in charge at the time of the book's writing, and who is the future (to the writing of the book) seventh one that is prophesied to only last a little while?
And since we know at the time of the book being written, John was exiled for his testimony of Jesus, and apparently, he and those being written to, were under great tribulation at that time in history. As he puts it:
I, John, your brother and partner in the tribulation and the kingdom and the patient endurance that are in Jesus, was on the island called Patmos on account of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus. (Rev 1:9 ESV)
Let's us briefly examine the historical kings of Rome to see where we are in the timeline at the time of the books writing. Here are the kings of Rome:
We see, starting from the first Caesar of Rome, that Nero would be the sixth. But what about this future seventh one, you ask? You know, the one that the book says was to come but only for a little while. That will surely be a tell-tale point to determine if we're in the right spot with this counting. Well, after the suicide of Nero in 68, the next king to appear was Galba, and guess what? He reigned just seven months before being murdered in January of 69.
So, based on this, we can conclude that Nero Caesar is the one being spoken of here in the book of Revelation. Going further, I will briefly discuss why this Nero is also the beast mentioned in Rev 13:18, whose number is six-hundred and sixty-six.
This calls for wisdom: let the one who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man, and his number is 666. (Rev 13:18 ESV)
This point has been proclaimed many times from this pulpit, so I will simply give a brief run down on this number. The first glaring point to note, it is a number of a man. Many today speak of the beast, and use 666 as representing some kind of horned devil or demon, or even Satan himself. While yet others go around finding political leaders whose first middle and last names all have six characters, as if this number is three individual sixes, and not the single number six-hundred and sixty-six.
Plus, the already established fact that this book is written to John's contemporaries, telling them things which will shortly take place to them, means that whoever the beast is, he is a current figure in John's lifetime. Someone that his current audience will most likely not have a difficult time in deciphering this number riddle.
While in many other places in Revelation, the beasts represent various leaders, or more specifically kingdoms under leaders, it is in this instance that we are clearly told this beast is a man, whose name you can calculate and figure out by this number.
Most people in the modern church misunderstand the purpose of numbers like this, and are oblivious to the ancient history and practice at that time, of this type of numbering. In ancient times, letters served as both a way to build words, but they also worked as numbers. Most everyone here is most likely familiar with Roman numerals, where an "I" represents one, a "V" represents five, etc.
Similarly, In the Greek and Hebrew letters had similar numeric values, where the values of the letters followed the order of the alphabet. The first nine letters represented the values of one through nine, the next nine letters for tens (ten, twenty, thirty, etc.), and the remaining letters represented the values for hundreds.
Because of this ancient way that the alphabet serves a dual function, it was very common for riddles and writings to employ the use of numbers to disguise the real answer. Modern scholars refer to this as the art of cryptogram, but in ancient Jewish cultures, it was referred to as gimatriya.
Names could be numerically presented to cover the original name, and it would need deciphered. Archeologists have discovered ancient examples of this practice. For instance, on a wall in Pompeii, they found the writing "I love her whose number is 545." Kind of a fun way to write it to where the person whose name it is would most likely understand, but others would be left guessing.
This type of number for name usage is found throughout other ancient writings too. The Jewish Rabbis of old used it, as it is found in the Babylonia Talmud and other Rabbinic writings. Other ancient Christian writings, like the Sibylline Oracles used it also, where they also used this to indicate various Roman emperors, including Nero.
All of this to say, when John employs this function here in chapter 13, he was doing do because it was already a common practice in his day. To them at that time, it was not an alien concept like it is to us in the thousands of years since.
Because of this misunderstanding and ignorance of its historic function, we have seen so many contemporary attempts, as mentioned before, to use this number six hundred and sixty-six, not as a single large number, but have instead, looked at it as if it were three individual sixes which must be used to identify a political leader.
Maybe at this point, you ask "why all the mystery, why couldn't John just tell us instead of playing these number games?" Well, think about the situation. John is in exile, basically in prison. Anything he writes like this, has to go through the normal government mail services. Just like in modern jails, all mail is read by the powers in charge.
If John were to write clearly, and name names clearly, not only would his mail most likely be destroyed in transit, but the people named, would be alerted to the discussion and plans being written about. In order to there therefore get the message to the audience, it had to be encrypted.
We've already seen that Nero is the sixth leader per Rev. 17, so is it really surprise to find him mentioned again here? Nero's name in Hebrew is spelled Nrwn Qsr—pronounced Neron Kaiser, and this has been found in archeological finds as well as lexicons on the Talmud, and when calculated out, it adds up to precisely six-hundred and sixty-six.
Some Bible marginal notes may point out how some manuscripts read the number to be six-hundred and sixteen. Why would this be? Scholars go back and forth on reasoning here, but one way to explain it is the use of language between John and later copyists of his writing.
John was a Jew, and would have used Hebrew or Aramaic in his naming, and that would equate out to the 666. However, as the book started circulating and reaching those not as fluent in the Hebrew languages, it most likely was changed to 616 because that would be the precise numerical value of Nero Caesar when spelled in Hebrew by transliterating it from the more common Latin spelling.
In both cases, to difference language speaking audiences, the names still calculated out for Nero. As stated by Greek scholar Bruce Metzger:
Perhaps the change was intentional, seeing that the Greek form Neron Caesar written in Hebrew characters (nrwn qrs) is equivalent to 666, whereas the Latin form Nero Caesar (nrw qsr) is equivalent to 616. (Bruce Metzger, Textual Commentary)
My goal this morning is not to conclusively prove any of these points, but simply to state them as the foundation of truth upon which I am basing the rest of the message. Greater men before me have done large, extensive works on all of these points, covering the pros and cons on these positions more exhaustively.
My purpose this morning, is to look at this man, this beast, Nero himself in a little more detail. Sadly, so many modern Christian are totally oblivious of the historical setting and characters related to those first century Christians who wrote and lived through the Scripture writing era. Aside from the few who are mentioned by name and deed within the Scripture directly, little else in typically known by church goers about the history during and shortly following that time.
What does history reveal to us about this infamous political figure? As noted a moment ago, Nero reigned for fourteen years, from AD 54 to 68. That makes him the Caesar in charge during the majority of the writing of the New Testament Scripture. The persecutions and attacks on Christianity in those early years, came from two fronts; the government, as well as the Jewish leaders of the day.
Let's start with Nero's parents. His father came from a family that had many generations of distinction in Roman nobility. The family name was Brazenbeard, a name that was assigned a questionable origin story behind it.
They say the tradition tells how a prophet appeared to one of the family ancestors, foretelling extraordinary events to occur in the future, and the prophet touched the beard of the ancestor, and it turned to brass as a testimony of the divine authority of the message, giving the family the name Brazenbeard.
At the time of Nero's birth, the family was one of the higher ranked families of distinction. Though like most other prominent Roman families, was extremely extravagant and corrupt. Nero's father was a particularly bad person, accused of the worst of crimes, and his wife, Agrippina was as wicked as he was.
Agrippina actually had a higher rank and station than her husband did in Roman society. She was the sister of an emperor, her brother being the infamous Caligula, who was reigning at the time of Nero's birth. However, being his brother did not make her life one of happiness.
Caligula was such a horrible person, that anyone, even those related to him, lived in continual fear of his over-the-top cruelty to any and all people who might catch his attention and be deemed worthy of punishment. He was also quite hateful towards those of the Jewish religion. Emperor worship was common, and they claimed themselves to be deity most often.
Josephus tells of how Caligula attempted to place his image in the Temple in Jerusalem even. Some commentators see this to be that which Paul speaks of in 2 Thessalonians:
Let no one deceive you in any way. For that day will not come, unless the rebellion comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction, who opposes and exalts himself against every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, proclaiming himself to be God. (2Th 2:3-4 ESV)
They say the original Greek wording here for "so that" followed by "to sit" actually is an intent of purpose, not a purpose accomplished. Meaning, this verse is not saying he actually does take the seat in the temple, but simply that he intends to take the seat. Per the historian Philo, he tells us:
So great was the caprice (sudden change of mind) of Caius [Caligula] in his conduct toward all, and especially toward the nation of the Jews. The latter he so bitterly hated that he appropriated to himself their places of worship in the other cities, and beginning with Alexandria he filled them with images and statues of himself. (Philo, Legatio as Caium 43, as cited by Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History 2:6:2)
One time, Agrippina did incur her brother's displeasure, but was fortunate enough to escape with her life. She was banished from Rome by him, but when Caligula's life came to a sudden end by his assassination, she was not only released from her bondage, but ended up being raised to a higher eminence than she had previously enjoyed.
During all of this time, young Nero was growing to be an active and intelligent, but indulgent and ungoverned boy. His father had died when he was about three years old, but many agree this was probably for the better for Nero. His father was an extremely cruel, coarse and unprincipled man. There are many stories of his cruel behavior.
One time he was riding through the village on his chariot, and he purposefully drove right over a young boy, killing him immediately. Another time, he killed a servant simply for not drinking as much as he had been ordered to drink. He defrauded all who he dealt with, and he treated his wife with great cruelty.
When Agrippina was banished, Nero did not go with her, but remained behind under the care of his aunt Lepida. His time with her was a time of almost total neglect and obscurity. Even though he came from a high and noble family, he spent those years in poverty and disgrace.
Not only was his education neglected, but any attention to moral character traits was likewise ignored, and considering his surroundings, was influenced most negatively. After his mother's return, he was restored to a place of luxury in the capital. He was a handsome and popular boy growing up.
There are many stories of his pre-teen and teen life, and the accomplishments, and favoritism that was given to him in his life. He was honored quite often among his peers, and often given special treatment due to his position.
As mentioned, Agripina was the brother of the emperor Caligula. Their uncle, was Claudius, and it was he who became emperor after the assassination of Caligula. At the time, he was about fifty years of age, and was universally ridiculed and viewed with contempt due to his great mental and personal inferiority.
As he was ill-formed at his birth, and openly despised by his own mother as an "unfinished little monster," and was an extremely unfortunate person in all ways. It is said that his appearance was repulsive, his movement was clumsy, his manners were awkward, his voice was disagreeable, and his had a speech impediment.
While outwardly despised by most all, inwardly he was not as dull of mind as people made him out to be. He applied himself in his studies, and he spent much time with the nobles in his nephew's court. He was married several times, and at the time of Caligula's death, he was with his third wife Valeria Messalina, his cousin.
They had a daughter named Octavia, and a son Britannicus, both were a few years younger than Nero. When Caligula died, and Agripina was recalled to her life of luxury in the palace, that did not sit well Claudius' wife Messalina. She hated Agrippina and considered her a rival and enemy. She was never able to convince her husband to remove such favoritism from Agrippina his niece.
Messalina was a very immoral and wicked woman, and often gave himself up to criminal indulgences and pleasures of every kind. For a while, she did these things in secret, but as the years went by, she became more openly bold about them.
She possessed a great control over her husbands and could easily deceive and induce him to do many things. She could persuade to give favor to some, and to degrade and destroy others. She was deceptive and cunning in her ways. Over time, she openly began a relationship with another man.
Eventually even having an open public wedding, though legally a mock one, to this man in spite of her still being married to Claudius. Long story short, Claudius was made aware, tracked down her new husband, who was condemned and killed, and then later, Messalina was likewise cut down.
After that, Agrippina married her uncle, emperor Claudius, and convinced Claudius to adopt Nero as his son. She then had his son, Britannicus sent away and shut up in seclusion under the guise of a tender regard for his health, which kept him forever in the background, setting Nero up as direct succession.
Five years after the marriage of Agrippina and Claudius, Nero was married to Claudius' daughter Octavia. Nero was around sixteen years old, and Octavia was but eleven years old. About a year after that marriage, emperor Claudius suddenly became ill. Nero's mother was very pleased as this meant Nero would immediately succeed him.
There is more to the story than we have time to consider now, but during the time of sickness, Claudius started bringing his son Britannicus back into the picture to be his successor, which led ultimately to Agrippina poisoning her husband before he could complete his plans. Upon his death, she quickly announced her own son's succession before the smoke cleared and people could dispute it much.
Nero was young, and inexperienced, which led to his being but a figure head leader, while the real power and decision making came from his mother. She was the puppet master; she wanted the power and wanted him to have little to do with the duties of his office; he was but the public face of authority.
She gave the functions of the government to be fulfilled by officers of various grades that she had appointed, and that were dependent upon her to sustain, and thus were more easily controlled to submit to her. All of this was fine with Nero for a while, but it did not take too long before he grew tired of her domination of him, and conflict between them arose.
Early in his reign, Nero had tutors who did much to hide his evil from the public eye, but eventually he broke free of their constraints to be publicly revealed for what he really is. Roman historians have this to say about him and his doings:
Other murders were meant to follow. But the emperor's tutors, Sextus Afranius Burrus and Lucius Annaeus Seneca prevented them….They collaborated in controlling the emperor's perilous adolescence; their policy was to direct his deviations from virtue into licensed channels of indulgence" (Tacitus, Annals 13)
Although at first his acts of wantonness, lust, extravagance, avarice and cruelty were gradual and secret…yet even then their nature was such that no one doubted that they were defects in character and not due to his time of life (Suetonius, Nero 26)
Gradually Nero's vice gained the upper hand; he no longer tried to laugh them off, or hide, or deny them, but openly broke into more serious crime (Nero 27, cp 6)
After this, no consideration of selection or moderation restrained Nero from murdering anyone he pleased, on whatever pretext (Nero 37)
Nero had two close friends around his same age, and the three of them engaged in many evil and immoral indulgences together. Over time, when conflict arose between Nero and his mother, his friends had begun driving the wedge between them further, explaining how his mother wasn't out for his well-being, but simply to secure her place of power and control.
Eventually, the division grew, and Agrippina decided to bring her son down a few notches, by threatening to tell the truth about how they lied and put Brittanicus away, the rightful son and heir of Claudius'. She would expose it all and reverse all that she had done to give Nero the power she had.
She never went thru with it, and things calmed, but the thought was out there and stayed in Nero's mind. One thing led to another, and eventually Nero decided to have Britannicus poisoned, using the same poison creator that his mother had use to make the poison for Claudius, and that put the threat totally behind him. Brittanicus was fourteen years old.
The relationship between mother and son never was fully recovered, and in the end Nero found the only solution was to hire some assassins to remove his mother, which they did in a most quick but totally destructive and bloody way.
While Nero had some initial relief, he quickly became remorseful and suffered greatly in mind over his monstrous act. The entire night was a scene of horror and frenzy as no one could console him.
One of the last divisive issues between Nero and his mother, was over his having desired to divorce his wife Octavia, and marry his lover. With his mother gone, he continued down that path, putting his wife away, and marrying Poppaea.
Shortly after, Octavia was banished from the city, but alas, even that was not enough, and they ultimately had false charges placed against her, and she was sentence to death and executed.
This major event, the murder of his mother Agrippina, the adulterous marriage with Poppaea, and the subsequent murder of his wife Octavia, now being complete, are to be regarded as one single, though complicated crime.
While Nero was originally greatly remorseful and suffered horribly for a while, being overwhelmed by his actions, he eventually was relieved by plunging himself into every kind of indulgence and excess, in the end, hardening himself so completely, that for the remainder of his life, he committed more and more great abominable deeds without any remorse.
He later killed his wife Poppaea in a fit or rage, kicking her harshly which brough on a premature and unnatural sickness. He afterward ordered his son to be drowned in the sea by his slaves while he was fishing, simply because he learned that the boy, while playing with other children, had acted out a part as if he were an emperor.
He killed his general and early tutor Burrus by poison, telling him it was a remedy for the swelling in his throat that he had been suffering from. The list goes on and on at the relatives and officers of the state that he destroyed for various means for the slightest things.
For the most part he totally neglected his stately duties, and simply saw the vast power and resources as a means for his complete gratification of his own pleasures.
Some evenings, after much drinking and debauchery, he would go out, in disguise, into the streets later at night to mingle with the vilest men and women in town in brawling and rioting. They would attack any peaceful people they may run across in the streets, treating them as if they had made some resistance, beating them and throwing them into canals or open sewers.
One of the times, he himself nearly lost his life, as a Roman senator fought back after Nero insulted the man's wife as they were walking. He would often go in disguise, rile the people up and encourage uncontrolled partying. If these events could be pushed to become violent, he would mingle into the group and throw stones and other material among the people.
The amount of money he spent on extravagances, is beyond calculation. He obtained immense wealth through fines, confiscations, and extortions of all kinds. He rarely to never used any of the money for the public enterprises of the state, rarely engaging in any foreign wars, and seldom attempting any useful construction in the city.
He used his great wealth to show off and to devote himself to more and more physical gratifications. He had elaborate feasts, he had grand processions, journeys of pleasure, many villas, gardens, and furnishings, and spending much on his favorite people of pleasure, both male and female. He went fishing with a golden net, drawn by silken cords of a rich scarlet color.
One of the most remarkable of events which occurred during his reign, is the event known as the burning of Rome. It was a great destructive fire which laid waste to a large part of the city. It is commonly believed that these were directly the work of Nero during a time of his reckless and willful depravity, though there is no positive proof that the fires were set by his orders.
However, historians at that time have written of the testimony stating that confidential servants of Nero were seen after the fires began, going from house to house with combustibles and torches, spreading the flames. Nero himself did not come back to town until the fires had been raging for many days.
Some say he used the fires to clear portions of land he wished to expand his palace into, while other say he wished to destroy a large part in order to immortalize his name by rebuilding it in a new and more magnificent form. When he came to town, the fires were at their height.
It was a horrible scene of indescribable terror and distress. Thousands of people had been burned to death or crushed beneath fallen buildings. The streets were filled with debris, furniture and other goods, burnt and broken. Masses of men were nearly exhausted with fatigue from the days of toiling in hopeless attempts to control the flames and save what they could of their property.
Women were everywhere, wild from terror and despair, roaming the city, looking for their children, some moaning loudly in anguish and other piercing the air with loud and frantic cries. Nero stood entertained by the scene, as if it were a great dramatic performance.
He proceeded to the theater, where he took his place on the stage and amused himself there by singing and playing a well-known composition on the subject of the burning of Troy. Well, at least that is the rumor that passed around town stirring the people up with indignation against the inhuman monster emperor.
Finally, Nero decided he had gone too far, and began making efforts to relieve the people. He had numerous tents erected on the parade grounds for temporary shelter, and brought in fresh supplies of corn to reduce famine. Too little too late to save his character.
The people attributed all their miseries of this horrible calamity to this monstrous, malicious man, who became the object of universal curses and loathing.
Emperor worship was still alive and well under Nero. The Roman dramatist and statesman Seneca convinces Nero that he is destined to become the very revelation of the divine Augustus and of the god Apollo. On copper coins struck in Rome, Nero's image appears as Apollo playing the lyre, his head radiating the light of the sun.
Early in his reign, around AD 55, the senate erects a huge statue of Nero in Rome's Temple of Mars. The status is the same size as that of Mars in his own Temple. Inscriptions found in Ephesus reveal that the people actually did worship him, calling him "Almighty God" and "Savior." There are references to Nero as "God and Savior" inscriptions found at Salamis, Cyprus.
As Nero's megalomania increased, the tendency to worship him as ruler of the world became stronger, and his features appeared on the colossus of the sun near the Golden House. Nero even deified his child by Poppaea as well as Poppaea herself after their deaths.
When it comes to the imperial development of the emperor cult, Caligula and Nero were two that "abandoned all reserve" when it came to promoting emperor worship. They were the only two Julio-Claudians who were direct descendants of Augustus that demanded divine honor while they were still alive.
In AD 67, Nero went to Greece, where he remained for more than a year. Historian Athur Weigall reveals that:
Soon Nero was actually deified by the Greeks as 'Zeus, Our Liberator.' On the altar of Zeus in the chief temple of the city, they inscribed the words 'to Zeus, our Liberator' namely Nero, for even and ever; in the temple of Apollo they set up his statue, and they called him 'The Sun, illuminating the Hellenes,' and 'the one and only lover of the Greeks of all time.' (Arthus Weigall, Nero: Emperor of Rome)
Whereas Caligula hated the Jews, by the time of Nero, Christianity was the new and growing group to start coming out of the Jewish religion, and they opposed all types of man worship, making them of course opposed to emperor worship. Nero was apparently the first to persecute and kill the followers of this "new" faith.
Church father Tertullian, writing a hundred years or more after Nero passed, quotes the archives of Rome to defend how Nero persecuted the Church:
And if a heretic wishes his confidence to rest upon a public record, the archives of the empire will speak, as would the stones of Jerusalem. We read the lives of the Caesars: At Rome Nero was the first who stained with blood the rising faith." (Tertullian, Scorpion's Sting, 15)
Nero tried using bribery with money or with lavish gifts, and even through offerings to appease the gods, but he was unable to shake the accusations of his being the cause of the city burning, so he turned the finger elsewhere. We are told by the historian Tacitus:
So to dispel the report, he substituted as the guilty persons and inflicted unheard of punishments on those who, detested for their abominable crimes, were vulgarly called Christians. (Tacitus, Annals)
This new breed of faith was getting attacked and persecuted from both sides. The Jewish leadership despised them as an attack on their own religion, and the government despised them as well. Their tribulation was indeed great, but sadly, would become even more so for some, within a couple years. Tacitus goes on regarding the Christians being accused of the city fire:
So those who first confessed were hurried to the trial, and then, on their showing, an immense number were involved in the same fate, not so much on the charge of incendiaries as from hatred of the human race.
And their death was aggravated with mockeries, insomuch that, wrapped in the hides of wild beasts, they were torn to pieces by dogs, or fastened to crosses to be set on fire, that when the darkness fell they might be burned to illuminate the night. Nero had offered his own gardens for the spectacle, and exhibited a circus show, mingling with the crowd, himself dressed as a charioteer or riding in a chariot.
When it came about that, though the victims were guilty and deserved the most exemplary punishment, a sense of pity was aroused by the felling that they were sacrificed not on the altar of public interest, but to satisfy the cruelty of one man. (Tacitus, Annals)
Roman historian Suetonius had this to say:
During his reign many abuses were severely punished and put down…Punishment was inflicted on the Christians, a class of men given to a new and mischievous superstition. (Suetonius, Nero 16)
One part I find most interesting, is what the historian Tacitus says about these days. Remember, this is a secular historian, not a Christian supporter, and he tells of things that were being said and happening in those days:
As the year ended omens of impending misfortune were widely rumored—unprecedented frequent lightning; a comet (atoned for by Nero, as usual, by aristocratic blood); two-headed offspring of men and beasts, thrown into the street or discovered among the offerings to those deities to whom pregnant women victims are sacrificed. (Annals 15)
It just seems interesting to me, that even among these people, they were receiving messages and signs from their "gods" of a coming problem. The end of the age was upon them, and their destruction was at the door, just as promised in Scripture in places like Matthew 24, Revelation 13, and 2 Thessalonians 2.
Nero was a beast of a man, and hated by most all. Historian Suetonius speaks of Nero's "cruelty of disposition" evidenced at an early age. He compelled hundreds of innocents and well to do leaders and men in his army, to fight and die in his arena for his mere pleasure. He was known to enjoy homosexual rape and torture. He ruthlessly kills his parents, brother, wife, aunt and many other close to him.
Tacitus tells of Nero's "cruel nature" and how he "put to death so many men." Roman naturalist Pliny the Elder described Nero as "the destroyer of the human race" and the "poison of the world." Apollonius of Tyana, a contemporary of Nero, even directly refers to Nero as a "beast."
In my travels, which have been wider than ever man yet accomplished, I have seen many, many wild beasts in Arabia and India; but this beast, that is commonly called a Tyrant, I know not how many heads it has, nor it if be crooked of claw, and armed with horrible fangs…And of wild beasts you cannot say that they were ever known to eat their own mother, but Nero has gorged himself on this diet. (Philostratus, Life of Apollonius)
Revelation 13 tells of the beast making war with the saints, and even speaks of the forty-two months. The Neronic persecution initiated in AD 64 and lasting approximately forty-two months, is the first ever Roman assault on Christianity. Historians note:
Nero was the first of the emperors who showed himself an enemy of the divine religion. Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History 2:25:3)
He first attempted to abolish the name of Christians. (Sulpicius Severus, Sacred History 2:28)
Foremost in the rank of those emperors, on whom the church looks back with horror as her persecutors, stands Nero, a prince whose conduct towards the Christians admits of no palliation, but was to the last degree unprincipled and inhuman. The dreadful persecution which took place by order of this tyrant, commenced at Rome about the middle of November, in the year of our Lord 64…This dreadful persecution ceased but with the death of Nero. The empire, it is well known, was not delivered from the tyranny of this monster until the year 68, when he put an end to his own life. (John L. von Mosheim, History of Christianity in the First Three Centuries)
Eventually, there is a great insurrection, with many of Nero's leaders and soldiers turning on the emperor. As he got word of this, he was quite afraid. He gave thought to all types of ways he might get out of this mess, and he spent much time in terror during this time as he tried to scheme for an answer to this dilemma.
Ultimately, he sought to escape to a near by town to hid until he might resolve the situation. By morning, he heard the soldiers approaching, and as they stood outside the door, he convinced one of the men with him, to use the dagger to end his life, which was done with great reluctance.
At this moment the door was suddenly opened, and the soldiers that had arrived came in… The centurion who commanded these men, advanced into the room and looked at the fallen emperor, as he lay on the floor, weltering in his blood. He had been commanded to bring the prisoner to the city, if possible, alive; and he ordered the soldiers to come to the dying man and try to staunch his wounds and save him. But it was too late. Nero stared at them as they advanced to take hold of him with a wild and frightful expression on his face, which shocked all who saw him, and in the midst of his agony of terror, he sank down and died. (Jacob Abbot, Nero)
Nero dies on June 8, AD 68, a few days shy of forty-two months after initiating the persecution. Another connection that makes Nero the prime candidate for the beast whose number is six-hundred and sixty-six.
Much more could have been brought into this discussion to connect these events to the prophecies and discussions in the letters and epistles of the Apostles. But this morning was more of a simple introductory historical look at the events that took place during the lifetime of those first century Christians and the tribulation they went through.
If you wish to get more details, here are a few of the books I recommend and accessed during this study. There are surely many more, but this will get you started.
Makers of History: Nero – Jacob Abbott
Perilous Times: A Study in Eschatological Evil – Kenneth Gentry