September 8, 2022: Day 193 – Revelation 13-18

As I mentioned earlier a modern overlapping of events with what is depicted is pretty much impossible.  But an ancient one is a little less tricky.  It is fairly clear that Rome and Nero are seen as the great enemy in the day of John who wrote Revelation.  We have a couple of hints in regards to this.  We see in chapter 17 an angel who interprets the visions that John sees and in 17:9 says: “This calls for a mind with wisdom.  The seven heads are seven hills on which the woman sits.”  Everyone knew, and even today it is very well known, that Rome is a city with 7 hills.  When I studied in Rome I lived on the Aventine hill, the Palatine hill is famous for the Forum and there are others as well that make up the city of Rome.

Clearly John had in mind the arch enemy of Israel would be the one who crucified their messiah, Jesus himself, which was Rome.  Jesus died on a cross which was a national execution for those who did not fall in line with the Roman Empire teachings.  Rome was responsible for the burning and the final destruction of Jerusalem and the temple in 70 AD by Nero.  It makes sense that John, both the Gospel writer and the writer of Revelation and the writer of I,II, and III John would describe the enemy as the one who destroyed the very fabric of the people of Israel.  John probably wrote these books of the Bible at the end of the 1st century.  He is always depicted as very old because of the belief that this was written at that time.  This means that he witnessed the destruction in some format.

Granted, he was a disciple of Jesus Christ and a Christian, but back then Christians, especially if they came from a Jewish background, still very much identified as Jews, just as followers of Jesus as well.  So if we read Revelation in light of this revelation, that the beast and all of his minions are the Romans and those who helped facilitate the destruction of the temple with the Romans, it makes much more sense.