Deciphering the Clues of Revelation (5)

Understanding the significance of Nero's death, the civil wars that followed, and Vespasian's rise to power in the year of four emperors.

This is Part 5 of a five-part series. To start at the beginning, click here.

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Part of the challenge of interpreting the Book of Revelation in light of its original first-century context is that, because of the failure of our modern educational system, few Bible readers today have even a basic grasp of ancient history. Therefore, if the Apocalypse is best interpreted as relating to events that were about to take place in John’s own day,¹ then for most of us, the crucial interpretive keys have been lost. 

What’s particularly fascinating, however, is to discover the apparent relationship between events related to the death of Nero and key passages in Revelation. Since Nero was the last blood relative of the Julio-Claudian dynasty,² the Roman historian Suetonius candidly admits that “The race of the Caesars ended with Nero.”³ Though subsequent emperors continued to use the name “Caesar” moving forward, they did so not because any of them happened to be related to Julius Caesar but because his name had essentially become synonymous with emperorship itself.

After Nero’s suicide, therefore, “the city was in panic,” since it was unclear who should rule the world moving forward. When it became clear who had been “appointed by Providence to ruin the empire,” Tacitus informs us that the masses “openly deplored their fate” and complained that the world had been “turned upside down.”⁴ In the historian’s estimation, the Roman Empire was thrown into such chaos during Galba’s brief reign that it nearly resulted in “the end of the commonwealth of Rome.”⁵ When Otho succeeded Galba several months later, even he wondered out loud whether there was a province in the empire that had not been “polluted with massacre?”⁶

Though this was seen as an empire-wide crisis, reports of Nero’s death and the chaos that followed were no doubt received as news to be celebrated throughout Judea. Because “the whole of Rome was intent upon the civil war,” Tacitus declares that “foreign affairs were neglected.”⁷ In what was left of Judea, this likely would have been seen as a kind of divine intervention since it resulted in the temporary suspension of the Roman assault on the nation’s capital. According to Josephus, as Vespasian was “getting ready with all his army to march directly to Jerusalem, he was informed that Nero was dead.”⁸ Since he was “in suspense about the public affairs, the Roman empire being then in a fluctuating condition,” Vespasian delayed his assault on Jerusalem, thinking that “to make any attack upon foreigners was now unreasonable, on the account of the fear they had for their own country.”⁹

In the following months, however, things quickly fell into disorder in Jerusalem, and “the affairs of the Jews became very tumultuous [as they] fell into dissensions amongst themselves.”¹⁰ After the short-lived reigns of Galba, Otho, and Vitellius, Vespasian was eventually declared emperor, which was seen by many throughout the Roman empire as an “unexpected deliverance of the public affairs of the Romans from ruin.”¹¹ For the residents of Judea, however, Vespasian’s rise to power was seen as the worst possible news since he was the general who had already devastated so much of the country. Just as they feared, when Vespasian was first declared emperor, his thoughts immediately “turned…to what remained unsubdued in Judea.”¹²

The Resurrection of Rome
Because the civil wars of 69 AD temporarily put the war in Judea on hold, Victorinus, in his Commentary on the Apocalypse (written around 260 AD), concluded that Nero’s death was the key to understanding Rev 13:3. When John wrote that “One of its heads was mortally wounded, but its mortal wound was healed,” this church father argued that, “He is referring here to Nero, for it is a well-known fact that when the army sent by the Senate pursued him, he cut his own throat.” This suggestion by Victorinus aligns particularly well with the propaganda found on Roman coins minted during Vespasian’s first year as emperor (69-70 AD). As shown below, the words “Roma Resurgens” appear on the reverse above the image of Vespasian, who is depicted helping the goddess of Rome to her feet.¹³ When translated into English, the phrase can be understood to mean “Rome Rising Again.”

This coin featuring Emperor Vespasian was issued in 69-70 AD. On the reverse is written “Roma Resurgens,” which means “Rome Rising Again.”

Recall again that according to Rev 13:14, “the beast was wounded by the sword and yet lived,” and that later in chapter 17, John repeatedly states that the beast “was, and is not, and is about to rise…” As we’ve seen, when Nero died, the empire itself was severely wounded and teetered on the verge of collapse as it descended into civil war. But when Vespasian came to power in 69 AD, he was widely celebrated as having restored Rome from the brink of ruin.

Now, since Vespasian was the emperor associated with Rome’s “resurrection,” this crucial fact may serve as an important clue that helps us to interpret the symbolic language we find in Revelation 17. As I have argued, John’s seven-headed beast is a representation of the Roman Empire, and its seven heads are described as kings (Rev 17:10). Since the mortal wound received by one of the heads (Rev 13:3) had empire-wide consequences (Rev 13:14), this explains why “the whole earth” later marvels at “the beast, because it was and is not and is to come” (Rev 17:8).

I’m convinced that this part of John’s prophecy relates to the chaotic events following Nero’s death in 69 AD. Nero was the face of the beast in its most idolatrous and ferocious form, and as we’ve seen, his suicide resulted in the near-collapse of the empire. This was the time when the beast was not. Thinking about these things from a first-century Jewish perspective can also be helpful since, as we’ve seen, Vespasian was set to attack Jerusalem but suddenly withdrew after hearing the report of Nero’s death. If John’s depiction of Rome as a “beast” is associated with it’s ravenous warlike powers (cf. 11:7, 12:17, 13:5-7, 17:16, 19:19), particularly insofar as it was directed against the saints in Judea, then the fact that Vespasian’s assault on Jerusalem was essentially put on hold during the brief reigns of Galba, Otho and Vitellius, fits well with the suggestion that during this time the beast was not.

Things quickly changed, however, just as John prophetically described in the pages of Revelation. As soon as Vespasian was declared emperor, his thoughts immediately turned to finishing the war in Judea, which matches what we read in Rev 17:8: “The beast that you saw was, and is not, and is about to (μέλλει) rise from the bottomless pit and go to destruction.” Though many commentators have argued that the “destruction” referred to in this passage relates to the beast’s own doom,¹⁴ this interpretation fails to account for John’s use of the word μέλλει, which indicates that this was to take place soon after John wrote and dispatched his letter.¹⁵ We should also notice all the parallel passages that associate the beast’s rising with a coming war in and around the vicinity of Jerusalem:

• Rev 11:7 “…the beast that RISES from the bottomless pit will make war on them and conquer them and kill them.” According to 11:2, this takes place in the “holy city” during a “forty two month period.” For additional references to this period, see Rev 12:14 and 13:5 (cf. Rev 11:8 for another clear reference to Jerusalem).

• Rev 13:1; 7 “I saw a beast RISING from the sea…and it was allowed to make war on the saints and to conquer them.” According to 13:5, this occurs during the same forty-two month period mentioned in 11:1-7 (which connects it to the war in Jerusalem).

• Rev 17:8; 11 “The beast that you saw was, and is not, and IS ABOUT TO RISE from the bottomless pit and go to destruction. [They] will marvel to see the beast, because it was and is not and IS TO COME…As for the beast that was and is not, it IS AN EIGHTH but it belongs to the seven, and it goes to destruction.” In Rev 17:8a we’re told that the beast goes to destruction, whereas in 17:8b this is described as “a coming presence” (πάρειμι), and the destruction hinted at in verses 8 and 11 is ultimately realized when the beast turns on Harlot Babylon, devours her flesh and burns her up with fire (v. 16). As I argued in previous articles, Babylon the Great is a depiction, not of Rome, but of the unrepentant authorities in Jerusalem who in John’s day continued to persecute the followers of Jesus.

Counting Heads
Now, if John’s statement that “the beast was, and is not” (Rev 17:8, 11) is rightly connected to the events of 69 AD, this is a strong indication that Galba, Otho, and Vitellius should be excluded from John’s list of seven kings. Recall what he writes in Rev 17:9-10, “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.” In my previous article, I listed Galba as the seventh king, which seemed to make sense, given that he remained in power only for a few months (cf. Rev 17:10). But if we remove Galba, Otho, and Vitellius from John’s sequence, then Vespasian should be reckoned as the seventh king. Here, then, is an updated version of my chart:

Though John’s beast isn’t identical to Daniel’s fourth beast, it’s clear that they have many shared characteristics. As we’ve seen, both refer not only to Rome but also to specific kings of that empire, and the fact that Daniel lists ten in contrast to John’s seven can now be plausibly explained as a result of the different ways that the brief reigns of Galba Otho and Vitellius were described. In Daniel’s case, though these rulers were included, they’re also depicted as being “plucked up.” In John’s vision, however, since these three emperors reigned at a time in which the beast was not, they do not function as heads of the destructive beast and, therefore, are not factored in.

Now, as I was reading through the Greek text of Revelation 17 while working on this series, I discovered an alternative interpretive option related to verse 10. Though translators typically render the word ὀλίγον as an adverb that refers to the “short” period that the seventh king must remain (usually translated as “a little while”), if taken as an adjective, this would change its meaning to “a little one.” If this was John’s intention, the implications would be huge. Since he has referred to a sequence of kings, the introduction of “a little one” in this context would point in the direction of “a little king” (or “prince”), making the connection to “the little horn” of Daniel 7:8 clear and unmistakable. Below is a comparison between the standard translation of Rev 17:10 and the one I am proposing. In each case, I’ve provided a fairly wooden translation to give a sense of the flow and word order of the original passage:

This proposal not only makes the connection between Revelation 17 and Daniel 7 much more explicit but also fits better with the first-century context. Since Vespasian was in the city of Caesarea when he was first proclaimed emperor, according to Josephus, he “made haste to go to Rome,” and “sent his son Titus, with a select party of his army, to destroy Jerusalem.”¹⁶ This makes sense of several features of John’s prophecy. Though Vespasian is the seventh head, he doesn’t appear to be described by John as the new face of the beast now that Rome has risen from the brink of ruin. Instead, John mysteriously tells us that the beast is “an eighth,” which, in my opinion, not only hints at the theme of resurrection but also links us to Titus, the prince of the empire and son of emperor Vespasian, whom John reckons as the seventh head.

Because his father gave him the responsibility of finishing the war in Judea, which resulted in the destruction of Jerusalem and its sacred temple, Titus became the new face of the beast. Though Vespasian was responsible for Rome’s rising after the civil war, once he was declared emperor, he did not remain either in the country or involved in the war. Instead, he handed off all responsibility to Titus, who did remain (Rev 17:10) in the land and in charge of the war “until the times of the Gentiles were fulfilled” (Lk 21:24, Rev 11:2).

Because the three plucked up horns are included in Daniel’s numbering, Vespasian is an excellent candidate to be the tenth horn since he was the tenth Caesar following Julius who came to power immediately following three short-lived reigns of Galba, Otho, and Vitellius. This identification would, therefore, make Titus the “little horn.”¹⁷ In John’s prophetic vision, however, Galba, Otho, and Vitellius reigned during the time that the beast was not, which is why Vespasian should be considered the seventh head of the beast. Soon after the beast’s “rising” (Rev 13:3, 12; 17:8, 11), we’re told that it “makes war on the saints” (Rev 11:2-7, 13:1-7, 17:8-11, 16), which fits remarkably well with the history of Vespasion and Titus when they first rose to power.

This is where I believe the parallels between Daniel 7 and Revelation 17 are the most striking. The antichrist figure of Daniel 7 is never described as an eleventh horn but instead is simply called “a little horn” (which also happens to be parallel to the antichrist figure of Dan 9:26-27 who is identified as “the prince of the people”). Apart from the different numbering scheme, many features of Daniel’s fourth beast in chapter 7 are identical to John’s depiction of the seven-headed beast in Revelation 17. For John, the beast has seven heads (not eight). And yet, mysteriously, the beast is also called “an eighth” that “belongs to the seven” (17:11). In my opinion, this is best explained as referring to Titus who at the time of the Jewish war was the son of Vespasian (the seventh head) and thus prince of the empire. Though he was not yet officially installed as the eighth king, he eventually would be, and because he was the prince who destroyed Jerusalem, he became the new face of the beast. Titus is the key that unlocks the riddles of both Daniel and Revelation.

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Shane Rosenthal is the founder and host of The Humble Skeptic podcast. He was one of the creators of the White Horse Inn radio broadcast which he also hosted from 2019-2021, and has written numerous articles for various sites and publications, including TableTalk, Logia, Core Christianity, and others.

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FOR FURTHER STUDY

Articles
Deciphering the Clues of Revelation (Pt 1), (Pt 2), (Pt 3), (Pt 4), (Pt 5), Shane Rosenthal
Notes to Episode #68, featuring selections from the Dead Sea Scrolls and more
Notes to Episode #66, featuring selections from Josephus, Irenaeus, and others
Finding Christ in All The Scriptures, Shane Rosenthal
Why Should We Believe The Bible? Shane Rosenthal
Archaeological Discoveries Related to Nebuchadnezzar II, Shane Rosenthal
Justin Martyr on the Importance of Fulfilled Prophecy, Shane Rosenthal
Isaiah’s Prophecy of the Messiah’s Birth, Shane Rosenthal
The Bethlehem Prophecy: An Exploration of Micah 5:2, Shane Rosenthal

Books
The Last Days According to Jesus, R.C. Sproul
End Times Bible Prophecy: It’s Not What They Told You, Brian Godawa
Revelation: Four Views, Steve Gregg
The Divorce of Israel, Kenneth Gentry, Jr.
Before Jerusalem Fell, Kenneth Gentry, Jr.
Redating the New Testament, John A.T. Robinson
Rethinking the Dates of the New Testament, Jonathan Bernier
The Antichrist & The Second Coming, Duncan McKenzie
Proof of the Gospel, Eusebius of Caesarea
Son of Man in Early Jewish Literature, Richard Bauckham
A Commentary on the NT from the Talmud, John Lightfoot
The Parousia, James Stuart Russell — FREE
The Early Days of Christianity, F.W. Farrar — FREE

Audio
Decoding the Prophecies of Daniel, Humble Skeptic #68
Babylon, Humble Skeptic #66
Jacob’s Ladder, Humble Skeptic #63
Jewish Views of the Messiah, Humble Skeptic #38
The Intersection of Church & State, Humble Skeptic #53
What Child is This? Humble Skeptic Bonus Episode

Coming Soon
A PDF Resource for DONORS and PAID subscribers…
Understanding the Mystery of Babylon the Great, Shane Rosenthal

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1. See the 3rd article in this series for a defense of this point.

2. Tacitus, Histories, 1:15

3. Suetonius, Lives 7.1-2

4. Tacitus, Histories, 1:50. I believe that Jesus alluded to this chaotic period in his Olivet Discourse when he spoke of the “distress of nations in perplexity” and “people fainting with fear and with foreboding of what is coming on the world” (Lk 21:25-26).

5. Tacitus, Histories, 1:11

6. Tacitus, Histories, 1:37

7. Tacitus, Histories, 1:79

8. Josephus, War 4:491

9. Ibid., 4:491-503

10. Ibid., 1:4; 23

11. Ibid., 4:657

12. Ibid.

13. Kenneth Gentry has a discussion of this coin (as well as others) in his 2024 book, The Divorce of Israel. See his comments related to Revelation 17 in Volume 2.

14. If John had the beast’s own distruction in view, he likely would have included the word ἑαυτῶν. Alternatively, he could have used a middle or passive verb to communicate that “he will be destroyed,” etc. One fact that most commentators overlook is that in Rev 17:8 the beast “rises from the bottomless pit,” but this connects us to Rev 9:11 where we discover the name of the “the angel of the bottomless pit.” According to John, “in Greek he is called Apollyon” (Ἀπολλύων = destroyer).

15. Though I generally agree with Kenneth Gentry’s interpretive approach to Revelation, in his discussion of Rev 17:8, he argues that the beast who is about to go to destruction refers to the eventual destruction of the Roman empire in 410 AD (cf. The Divorce of Israel, Vol. 2, p. 1344). In addition to the appearance of μέλλω in 17:8, when the parallel passages are factored in, it seems clear that the “destruction” mentioned relates not to the beast’s own doom but to the desolation of Jerusalem in 70 AD (cf. 11:7, 12:17, 13:5, 7, 17:8b, 16-18).

16. Josephus, War, 4:657-658.

17. It’s interesting to note that the ESV rendering of Dan 7:8 says, “behold, there came up among them another horn, a little one (זְעֵיר).”