COMMENTARY ON REVELATION 17:10-11
IDENTIFYING THE BEAST (ANTICHRIST)
Revelation 17:10-11
(9b)… and they are seven kings [past Roman Emperors] (10) Five are fallen, one is, and the other is not yet come: and when he is come, he must remain a short time. (11) And the beast which was and is not: the same also is the eighth, and is of the seven, and goeth into destruction. (Rev. 17:10-11, DRCB)
(10) At sila’y pitong hari [past Roman Emperors]; ang lima ay nanga buwal, ang isa’y narito, ang isa ay hindi pa dumarating; at pagdating niya ay dapat magtagal na sangdaling panahon. (11) At ang hayop na naging siya, at wala na, ay siya ring ikawalo at siya’y sa pito at siya’y patungo sa kapahamakan. (Rev. 17:10-11, TCB)
(10) And there are seven kings [past Roman Emperors]: five are fallen, and one is, and the other is not yet come; and when he cometh, he must continue a short space. (11) And the beast that was, and is not, even he is the eighth, and is of the seven, and goeth into perdition. (Rev. 17:10-11, KJB)
Please note in in verse 10..."And there are seven kings: five are fallen, and one is . . . ."
The words "one is" means that one of the seven kings was living in the same time that Apostle John wrote the Book of Revelation from the Isle of Patmos. The king who was living at that time was the Roman Emperor Domitian. -- It was Domitian who exiled Apostle John to the Isle of Patmos in around 94 AD. according to following quote...
[BEGIN QUOTE} - During the Roman period, Patmos was known as part of the Sporades islands, a group of remote islands used for exiling (banishing) people that were somehow considered threats to the Roman Empire.
Late in the first century, the Apostle John was living in Ephesus preaching the Gospel, teaching the Scriptures, and helping lead the church. Historians also maintain that he wrote his Gospel and three epistles in Ephesus, and was pretty outspoken against pagan worship there. This didn’t sit well with the Roman Emperor Domitian. Roman historians such as Pliny described Domitian as a violent madman who persecuted Christians. Domitian was also a believer in prophetic omens, and he was one of the few emperors who insisted on calling himself a god during his reign. In about 86 AD, a temple to Domitian was built in Ephesus. At the same time, the people of Ephesus were forced to worship and make sacrifices to Domitian, practices that would have certainly been denounced by John. John’s opposition to emperor worship, in addition to his continued preaching of the Gospel, ultimately reached the ear of Domitian and prompted him to take action. In 94 AD, the 14th year of the reign of Emperor Domitian, the elderly John the Apostle was exiled to the island of Patmos. [END QUOTE] [1]
In view of the fact that a 'Roman Emperor' was king (ruler) over the entire Roman Empire during the time Apostle John wrote the Book of Revelation, we know that the "kings" to whom Apostle John is giving reference to in Revelation 7:10-11, are all Roman Emperors...five are fallen, one is, [Domitian] one is yet to come and one of the seven is the Antichrist.
Many Bible expositors have mistakenly identified the "kings" in Revelation 17:10-11 as "kingdoms" which is not possible for two reasons . . .
(1) Apostle John uses the pronoun "HE" three different times --twice in verse 10 and once in verse 11 ... "HE" can not be a "kingdom", it has to be interpreted as a person...a "king".
(2) In Revelation 17:10, Apostle John uses the Greek word ‘basileus’ for "king"... and not the Greek word ‘basileia’ for "kingdom".
The following is a list of TWELVE ROMAN EMPERORS who lived during the First Century AD:
Augustus (27 BC – 14 AD)
Tiberius (14 AD – 37 AD)
Caligula (37 – 41)
Claudius (41 – 54)
Nero (54 – 68)
Galba (68 – 69)
Otho (68 – 69)
Vitellius (68 – 69)
Vespasian (69 – 79)
Titus (79 – 81)
Domitian (81 – 96)
Nerva (96 – 98)
In Revelation 17:10. Apostle John reveals that of these 12 Roman Emperors ..."five are fallen". -- The following quote helps to make clear the Greek word for "fallen" used by Apostle John in Revelation 17:10 . . .
[BEGIN QUOTE] - First, we need to scrutinize the Greek word translated “fallen” in Revelation 17:10. The Greek word is pipto. In the broadest sense it means to perish, to come to an end, to cease. But it also conveys a more specific meaning; that of being thrust down, to be removed from power by death at the hand of another. In the immediate context of Revelation 17:10, the angel could certainly have been referring to five kings who had been killed (removed or toppled from power) by someone else, as opposed to a natural death. [END QUOTE] [2]
[BEGIN QUOTE] - Pipto - pip'-to
1. to be thrust down
2. removed from power by death
[ END QUOTE] [3]
So, let us look now at how many of the twelve listed Roman Emperors have “died at the hands of another person”. . .
Augustus Natural Death
Tiberius Natural Death
Caligula Death at Hands of Another
Claudius Death at Hands of Another
Nero Death at Hands of Another
Galba Death at Hands of Another
Otho Suicide Death
Vitellius Death at Hands of Another
Vespasian Natural Death
Titus Natural Death
Domitian Alive while Apostle John lived
Nerva Brief two year reign
THE FIVE “FALLEN” EMPERORS IN REVELATION 17:10-11
Caligula: Dead - Assassinated by the Praetorian Guard.
Claudius: Dead - Murdered by his wife, Agrippina
Nero: Dead - Killed by his servant Epaphroditos after
attempted suicide
Gaba: Dead - Murdered in favor of Otho assuming the
throne.
Vitellius: Dead - Assassinated by Roman soldiers. [4]
Now please note again in Revelation 17:11…”And the beast that was, and is not, even he is the eighth, and is of the seven,
What is this verse of Scripture (17:11) saying to us? . . . It is saying one of the five dead Roman Emperors, up to the time of Emperor Domitian in Apostle John’s time, is “the beast”, the Antichrist. It is saying that when he (one of the five dead emperors) is revived back to life, and rises out of the Abyss, that he will become the eighth of the seven because he will resume his reign that he had before he died. [5]
So, one of the above five dead Emperors listed above is the “beast” (the Antichrist), so how do we determine which one of the five is him? … Well, an angel tells Apostle John, and us Christians, how to decipher who the Antichrist is in Revelation 13:18 …
“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.”
Now think about that verse of Scripture for a moment. If God didn’t want us to know the identity of Antichrist, He would have never allowed the angel to reveal to Apostle John the secret to identifying him. — Nor, would he have allowed Apostle John to write those words in Revelation 13:18 into the Book of Revelation. The following quote explains the use of Hebrew Gematria to determine the identity of Antichrist among the five Roman Emperors …
[BEGIN QUOTE] – Gematria is an interpretive method that assigns numerical value to letters, words, and phrases. Most of us are unfamiliar with this method since we have a separate alphabet and numbering system. When trying to match up “six hundred and sixty-six” with a known historical figure, we need more than a plausible candidate; we need a relevant candidate. The first readers of Revelation were told to “calculate the number of the beast, for the number is that of a man; and his number is six hundred and sixty-six” (13:18). Since Revelation was written to a first-century audience we should expect some first-century readers to have been able to calculate the number with relative ease and understand the result. They would have had few candidates from which to choose. It’s unlikely that this number of a man identifies someone outside their time of reference. The same is true of the rest of the book. Since the book of Revelation is written in a Hebrew context by a Jew with numerous allusions to the Old Testament, we should expect the solution to deciphering the meaning of six hundred and sixty-six to be Hebraic. “The reason clearly is that, while [John] writes in Greek, he thinks in Hebrew, and the thought has naturally affected the vehicle of expression.”
So what name is behind the cryptic 666? When Nero Caesar’s name is transliterated into Hebrew, which a first-century Jew would probably have done immediately, he would have gotten Neron Kesar or simply nrwn qsr, since Hebrew has no letters to represent vowels. (The w represents a long “o” sound and the q represents the “k” sound in Hebrew.) “It has been documented by archaeological finds that a first century Hebrew spelling of Nero’s name provides us with precisely the value of 666. Jastrow’s lexicon of the Talmud contains this very spelling.” When we take the letters of Nero’s name (Neron Kesar – nrwn qsr) and spell them in Hebrew, we get the following numeric values:
n = 50, r = 200, w = 6, n = 50, q = 100, s = 60, r = 200. Put together, the sum is 666. .
.Every Jewish reader, of course, saw that the Beast was a symbol of Nero. And both Jews and Christians regarded Nero as also having close affinities with the serpent or dragon . . . The Apostle writing as a Hebrew, was evidently thinking as a Hebrew . . . Accordingly, the Jewish Christian would have tried the name as he thought of the name—that is in Hebrew letters. And the moment that he did this the secret stood revealed. No Jew ever thought of Nero except as “Neron Kesar.”
There’s something else to consider. If the Greek word for beast (θηρίον = תריון) is translated “into Hebrew consonants, the numerical value comes out to 666. This appears to be what John means when he mentions in 13:18 ‘the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man, and his number is 666.’” So not only does Nero Caesar add up to 666 when transliterated into Hebrew letters, but the Hebrew transliteration of the Greek word for “beast” also comes to 666. [END QUOTE] [6]
None of the other names in the five dead emperor list above will add up to “six hundred sixty-six”, so the Antichrist is the Roman Emperor “NERO” .
END NOTES
[1] CHRISTIAN CLASSICS ETHERAL LIBRARY, “ANFO7, Fathers of the Third and Fourth Centuries – From the Seventeenth Chapter (9)”, Accessed September 12, 2024, Web: https://ccel.org/ccel/victorinus/apocalypse/anf07.vi.ii.xvi.html
[2] DRIVE THRU HISTORY ADVENTURES, “John Exiled to Patmos”, Accessed September 13, 2024, Web:https://drivethruhistoryadventures.com/john-exiled-to-patmos/
[3] EYE OF PROPHECY . . .WATCH AND WAIT (Posted by Gary Bowers), “Exposing Antichrist’s Identity … More Compelling Evidence (Part II)”, Accessed September 13, 2024, Web: https://eyeofprophecy.com/2017/03/18/disclosing-antichrists-identity-more-compelling-evidence-part-ii/
[4] BIBLE STUDY TOOLS, “New Testament Greek Lexicon - NAS”, Accessed September 13, 2024, Web: https://www.biblestudytools.com/lexicons/greek/nas/pipto.html
[5] Ibid [1] EYE OF PROPHECY…WATCH AND WAIT (Posted by Gary Bowers), “Exposing Antichrist’s Identity … More Compelling Evidence (Part II)”, Accessed September 13, 2024, Web: https://eyeofprophecy.com/2017/03/18/disclosing-antichrists-identity-more-compelling-evidence-part-ii/
[6] THE AMERICAN VISION, “Calculating the Number of the Beast”, Accessed September 13, 2024, Web: https://americanvision.org/10369/calculating-the-number-of-the-beast/