12.1 Jerusalem vs. Rome
DIGRESSION 12.1 - A TALE OF TWO CITIES – JERUSALEM VERSUS ROME
We suggested in chapter 12 page that part of the description of the dragon in Rev.12:3 had dropped out of the text and been interpolated as a gloss into Revelation 17:9,10. The present author is all too aware that the book of Revelation comes with a warning from Jesus himself:
“For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book: and if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book” (Rev.22:18,19).
These words hold validity for the whole Scriptures, not just for the book of Revelation, for, says God:
“Ye shall not add unto the word which I command you, neither shall ye diminish aught from it, that ye may keep the commandments of the Lord your God which I commanded you” (Deut.4:2).
This has, however, not prevented errors creeping into the text, sometimes deliberately and sometimes accidentally.
Here follow a few examples where either accidental or deliberate manipulation of the text has occurred:
1 Accidental Copyists Error
The passages in I Chron.9:34 and I Chron.8:28 are identical, this is due to a copyists error, in the words of J. PATERSON SMYTH (The old documents and the New Bible):
“There is the old copyist seated at his desk patiently transcribing letter by letter the wearisome names in I Chronicles chapter 8 and chapter 9 – name after name in monotonous succession. At last he stops and lays down his pen. He has just written the words, “THESE DWELT AT JERUSALEM”. This will do nicely for a catchword to find his place again when he returns, and so repeating the words to himself the old man retires to rest.
See him next day resuming his task. He arranges his parchments, he looks at the catch-word, the last he has written, and raising his eyes to the manuscript before him, they light on the words, but at the top of the preceding page, ‘THESE DWELT AT JERUSALEM’ and calmly he goes on from that, in blissful unconsciousness that he is writing over again his yesterday’s work.”
2 Deliberate Manipulation
Judges 18:30:
“And the children of Dan set up the graven image: and Jonathan, the son of
Gershom, the son of Manasseh, he and his sons were priests to the tribe of Dan until the day of the captivity of the land.”
The RV text has the name Moses. This Jonathan was a descendant of Moses; he became the first in a line of priests who officiated at the shrine of the stolen idol all the time that the tabernacle was in Shiloh, till the captivity of the land or district. Jonathan had dishonoured his descent from Moses, and accordingly the letter nun (N) was inserted in the Hebrew word for Moses (M S S) changing it to Manasseh (M N S S). The inserted letter was not incorporated into the text, but was suspended above the line. (Manasseh means forgetting his father’s house.)
3 Accidental Inclusion Of Commentary
Daniel chapter 11:1-39 is a genuine prophecy interpolated and overlaid by real or supposed fulfilments.
The present author has always found Daniel chapter 11 to be unlike any other Biblical prophecy; it is extremely elaborate, very political in nature and moreover it describes an obscure period of Israel’s history, the inter- testamental period of the Maccabees, a period during which no prophet appeared to Israel, a period from which we have no prophetic books.
In his book ‘In and around the book of Daniel’ (p.5-7), Boutflower discusses the work of Dr. C.H.H. Wright who examined this phenomenon, he comments
as follows:
“The eleventh chapter of Daniel is, then, in the first place, a translation from the original; and, in the second place, it is a translation that has been added to by way of interpolation; and to this is due the form which it has come down to us. What has happened to the Greek Septuagint translation has also happened to the Hebrew translation of chapter 11; it has been added to, and the nature of the additions resembles to some extent the expository comments which we meet in the Hebrew Targums.
The writers of the Targums, or ancient Aramaic commentaries on the Scriptures of the Old Testament, loved to introduce into Scripture prophecies fulfilments, actual or supposed, in such a way that they appear as parts of the original prophecy. In such paraphrases, writes Dr. Wright, phrases of the original are retained, although often so modified and obscured by expository comments that if we possessed only the Targum it would be often impossible to restore the original text.”
4 Deliberate Misinterpretation
Isaiah chapter 45 –Thirtle has pointed out in ‘Old Testament Problems’ that the prophecy concerning Cyrus is a deliberate misinterpretation.
He shows that the name for Cyrus (Kô rê sh) is virtually identical with the Hebrew for workmen (Châ râ sh) used in the previous chapter (44:11; same word 45:16).
The contrast is between the ‘workmen’ who fashion idols (44:11-20) who has a “lie in his right hand” and the Lord’s ‘workman’, “whose right hand I have holden” (= strengthened RV, 45:1).
The anointed of the Lord, whose right hand was strengthened, was, of course, Hezekiah whose name means ‘strengthened of Yah’ and who features so extensively in the background of all the Isaiah prophecies, including that of
Isaiah 53. A very strong case against this prophecy referring to Cyrus is made in H.A.W.’s book ‘Isaiah’.
The prophecy is obviously about Hezekiah who was called by name (45:4) from his mother’s womb (44:24), thus fulfilling the Emmanuel prophecy of Isaiah 9:6 for he truly represented the nation (44:1) and as such typified Jesus Christ who would, “build my city and let go my captives” (45:13).
It is inconceivable that such language be used of a foreign, idol worshipping king, but it is easy to see how Jews of the captivity would use this text to their advantage by re-interpreting Châ râ sh (workman W(r!H!) to read Kô rê sh (Cyrus W(R@(K); this could be achieved by only changing one letter in the Hebrew, for now they could approach Cyrus with a prediction from their holy book, that it would be Cyrus who would return them to their land.
Although the text of Scripture is remarkably well preserved, it is obvious that we must always scrutinise what we read critically and with intellectual honesty and that we must always place our interpretation in context. If this results in us having to reject long cherished beliefs on how certain passages are to be interpreted, so be it, for we have observed (from these few examples) that Scripture has been added to (whether deliberately or otherwise).
Having established that Scripture has been added to in the past, let us now turn to the verses that concern us in Revelation chapter 12 and chapter 17 (shown in bold type).
REVELATION 12:1-17
REVELATION 17:1-18
1
2 And she being with child cried, travailing in birth, and pained to be delivered.
3 And there appeared another wonder in heaven; and behold a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads.
4 And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth: and the dragon stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered, for to devour her child as soon as it was born.
5
6
7
8
9
10 Therefore rejoice, ye heavens, and ye that dwell in them. Woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea! for the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time.”
5 I will tell thee a mystery of the woman, and of the beast that carrieth her, which hath the seven heads and ten horns.
6 The beast that thou sawest was, and is not; and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, and go into perdition: and they that dwell on the earth shall wonder, whose names were not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, when they behold the beast that was, and is not, and yet is.
7 And here is the mind which hath wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains, on which the woman sitteth.
8 And there are seven kings: five are fallen, and one is, and the other is not yet come; and when he cometh, he must continue a short space.
And the beast that was, and is not, even he is the eighth, and is of the seven, and goeth into perdition.
The chapters should read as follows:
REVELATION 12:1-5
REVELATION 17:5-12
1 “And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars:
2 And she being with child cried, travailing in birth, and pained to be delivered.
3 And there appeared another wonder in
heaven; and behold a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads. And here is the mind which hath wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains, And there are seven kings: five are fallen, and one is, and the other is not yet come; and when he cometh, he must continue a short space.
4 And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth: and the dragon stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered, for to devour her child as soon as it was born.
5 And she brought forth a man child, who was
to rule all nations with a rod of iron: and her child was caught up unto God, and to his throne……
12 Therefore rejoice, ye heavens, and ye that dwell in them. Woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea! for the devil is come down to you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time.”
5 “And upon her forehead was a name written,
MYSTERY,BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.
6 And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus: and when I saw her, I wondered with great admiration.
7 And the angel said unto me, Wherefore didst thou marvel? I will tell thee the mystery of the woman, and of the beast that carrieth her, which hath the seven heads and ten horns.
8 The beast that thou sawest was, and is not; and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, and go into perdition: and they that dwell on earth shall wonder, whose names were not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, when they behold the beast that was, and is not, and yet is.
11 And the beast that was, and is not, even he is the eighth, and is of the seven, and goeth into perdition.
12 And the ten horns which thou sawest are ten kings, which have received no kingdom as yet; but receive power as kings on hour with the beast.”
The logic of this change is immediately obvious:
1) Chapter 17 now flows and is no longer disjointed, whereas before this chapter
referred to seven kings and ten kings, it now refers to only ten kings.
The fact that verses 9 and 10 are not even missed, is proof enough that we are dealing with an interpolation.
2) Chapter 12 now informs us what the seven crowns represent. It would be very unusual for a symbol to be introduced without explanation, now that is no longer the case. Moreover we have a secondary point of contact with the words “he must continue a short space”, which are repeated in the same chapter (v.12) so confirming that our analysis is correct.
HOW AND WHY DID THE INTERPOLATION TAKE PLACE?
The interpolation must have occurred very early for we have no manuscript variations on these verses. This can only be explained if Revelation had a very early date (pre AD 70) and especially if these verses refer to the Nero persecution.
The “five that are fallen” (Rev.17:10 which belongs in 12:3) are then the following:
1. Julius Caesar the first Roman Emperor (101 – 44 BC).
2. Augustus (27 BC – AD 14).
3. Tiberius (AD 14 – 37).
4. Gaius (AD 37 – 41).
5. Claudius (AD 41 – 51)
This means that the “ONE THAT IS” refers to Nero (AD 54 – 68) and definitely establishes the writing of Revelation during his reign. The seven mountains (hills) are obviously referring to the city of Rome, built on seven hills: Capitol, Aventine, Caelian, Esquiline, Quirinal, Viminal.
This means that “the one that is not yet come; and when he cometh, he must continue for a short space”, is still future; he is the established protagonist or the ‘man of sin’ that must be revealed before Christ returns. Nero, the persecutor of the early ecclesia, was a type of the man of sin and there is every evidence that his anti-Christian stance was aided and abetted (if not suggested in the first place) by his wife Poppea, who may have been a Jewish proselyte, but was in any case very well disposed towards the Jews (Josephus Antiquities Book 20.8.11).
Under the circumstances it is understandable and perhaps inevitable, that the first century ecclesia should apply the future prophecy of Revelation 17 to Rome, and that a possible marginal reference to Revelation 12:3 should enter the text of Revelation 17 as an interpolation.
After the death of Nero, who was much feared and hated, the rumour circulated that he had not really committed suicide, but was in exile in Parthia and that he would return to Rome in command of the Parthian hordes to wreak vengeance on his enemies. According to the modernist critics, the legend of Nero Redivivus (Nero living again) has been adapted to the book of Revelation. The reasoning behind this is as follows:
Nero is the head that was wounded to death and afterwards healed (13:3,12,14). He is as it were slain, like the lamb (5:6). For as the latter continues to live on in heaven, so does Nero prolong a shadowy existence in hell. Out of the Abyss (17:8) he will again return from the regions of Parthia (ie Babylon, 13:2) with the kings of the East (9:14-16), and as Roman Emperor demand adoration1. Then will be the days of the great future struggle. The above reasoning by the critics seems to be justified by the number of the beast which is given as 666. Out of the many possible solutions to this enigma, a very plausible one is NERON KAISAR2. But a number of the old manuscripts preserve a different reading: 616, a number which would be yielded if the alternative form of the name were used: NERO CAESAR.
John Robinson states the following: The reference to Nero who killed himself with his own sword, is further confirmed by the fact that Suetonius cites a parallel puzzle based on the aggregate of the letters in Greek (1005), as current in Nero’s lifetime:
“Count the numerical values
Of the letters in Nero’s name,
And in ‘murdered his own mother’:
You will find that their sum is the same” 3
This strongly suggests that Revelation 13:18 is the Christian version of a familiar game. Further for the naming of Nero as ‘the beast’ there is the interesting parallel, from Philostratus’ Appollonius of Tyana. Appollonius is represented as saying upon his arrival in Rome at this time:
“In my travels, which have been wider than ever man yet accomplished, I have seen many, many wild beasts of Arabia and India; but this beast, that is commonly called a Tyrant, I know not how many heads it has, nor if it be crooked of claw, and armed with horrible fangs. However they say it is a civil beast, and inhabits the midst of cities; but to this extent it is more savage than the beasts of mountain or forest, that whereas lions and panthers can sometimes by flattery be tamed and change their disposition, stroking and petting this beast does but instigate it to surpass itself in ferocity and devour at large. And of wild beasts you cannot say that they were ever known to eat their own mothers, but Nero has gorged himself on this diet.”
As early as the year 69 AD, a pseudo – Nero had raised commotions in Asia Minor and Greece, the Roman historian Tacitus records the following:
“About this time Achaia and Asia were upset by a false alarm. It was rumoured that Nero was on his way to them. There had been conflicting stories about his death, and so numbers of people imagined or believed that he was alive. I shall describe the adventures of the other claimants in their chronological context as my story develops. On this occasion the man concerned was a slave from Pontus, or, according to other accounts, a freedman from Italy. The circumstance that he was a harpist and singer by profession, when added to a facial resemblance, made the imposture all the more plausible. He was joined by some army deserters who had been roaming about in destitution until he bribed them to follow him with lavish promises….” ( for the full story see Tac. Hist. 28f; Dio Cassius, 64g; Zonaras,1115).
During the reign of Titus a second pseudo – Nero showed himself on the Euphrates (Zonaras 1118) and was acknowledged by the Parthian king Artabanus (Mommesen, 5521). About 88 AD a third pseudo – Nero again made his appearance, also amongst the Parthians, and threatened the Roman Empire (Seut. Nero; Tac. Hist. 12).
SUMMARY
As early as AD 39, the half mad tyrant Gaius Caligula ordered his governor Petronius to place his statue (image of the beast) in the Temple at Jerusalem, this catastrophe was only averted by his death4.
We should not be surprised then to find that the first century believers saw the Roman Emperors as the embodiment of the beast of Revelation 13, this is apparent from the manuscript change of 666 to 616, undoubtedly meant to reflect Nero’s name. However the first pseudo – Nero appeared as early as 69 AD; this indicates that Revelation 13 contributed to the Nero legend and not vice versa. In other words Revelation was not a Vaticinium ex eventu (prophecy after the event) but was written in advance of the Nero persecution and was the driving force behind the Nero Redivivus legend.
It is entirely understandable how the early Christians (and those affiliated with them) would recognise Nero as being the “beast whose number is 666”. Bible prophecy always has a short term typical fulfilment and a longer term true fulfilment – centuries earlier Antiochus Epiphanes had typified the antichrist: “a king of fierce countenance and understanding dark sentences” (Dan.8:23). The apostle Paul, however, taught that the final manifestation of the antichrist would only be revealed shortly before the second advent and that he would sit in the Temple (= true ecclesia) of God. Those who persecuted God’s people through the centuries typify the antichrist (Pharaoh, Antiochus, Nero etc) but the final manifestation will come out of the true ecclesia.
CONCLUSIONS
1) Revelation is to be dated to Nero’s reign before the persecution.
2) Revelation chapter 13 gave rise to the Nero Redivivus legend (Nero lives again) and is therefore to be dated before the first impostor in AD 69.
3) Revelation 17:9,10 belong naturally in Revelation chapter 12.
4) There is no longer any contradiction between Revelation 11:8, (The great city = Jerusalem) and Revelation 17:9,10 (Rome).
5) Revelation 12 now refers to the circumstances concerning the first century ecclesia prior to AD 70.
6) The events in Revelation 12 typify the still future revelation of the man of sin as described in Revelation chapters 13 to 17.
7) The events of the first century show that it was a combination of an imperialistic power (Rome) and a religious power (Jerusalem) that put Jesus to death and persecuted the early ecclesia.
DIGRESSION 12.1
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1. Caligula proclaimed himself divine and tried to have a statue of himself as Jupiter placed in the
Temple at Jerusalem in AD 39.
2. The Hebrew form ‘Nron qsar’ is now further confirmed from Qumran; cf. Discoveries in the
Judean desert of Jordan II, ed. P. Benoit, J.T. Milik and Dr. de Vaux, Oxford 1961, 18, plate 29. The alternative reading 616 (already known to Irenaeus, Adv. haer. 5.28.2) neatly fits the Latin form ‘Nero Caesar’.
3 Nero 39, tr. R. Graves, The Twelve Caesars, 1962.
4 Josephus Antiquities 18.261-309. For the horror of the alarm this raised amongst the Jews, cf. Philo, Leg. ad. Gaium, 184-348.
