Revelation 9 Part 1 Bible Teaching
revelation 8 and 9 biblical interpretation
Video Teaching Script
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If you haven’t been with us we have deconstructed these gatherings down to the essentials:
We begin with prayer
Sing the Word of God set to music (as a means to get it into our heads) and then we sit for a moment in silence here at the Church/Studio.
When we come back we pick up where we left two weeks ago in our verse by verse study.
And that takes us to Acts chapter 23 verse 12.
Prayer
Song
Silence
Okay, we have covered the content of the first three trumpets and examined them from an actual historical view.
Let’s pick it up at verse 12 and 13 which will wrap up chapter 8:
Revelation 8. Part IV
Revelation 9. Part I
Meat
September 3rd 2017
12 And the fourth angel sounded, and the third part of the sun was smitten, and the third part of the moon, and the third part of the stars; so as the third part of them was darkened, and the day shone not for a third part of it, and the night likewise.
13 And I beheld, and heard an angel flying through the midst of heaven, saying with a loud voice, “Woe, woe, woe, to the inhabiters of the earth by reason of the other voices of the trumpet of the three angels, which are yet to sound!”
So let’s first look to scripture to help us understand the language here.
In verse 12 we have
And the fourth angel sounding, and
the third part of the sun was smitten,
and the third part of the moon,
and the third part of the stars;
so as the third part of them was darkened, and the day shone not for a third part of it, and the night likewise.
Then in verse 13 we have John saying:
And I beheld (saw), and heard (audio) an angel flying through the midst of heaven, saying with a loud voice,
“Woe, woe, woe, to the inhabiters of the earth by reason of the other voices of the trumpet of the three angels, which are yet to sound!”
To bring this all back to earth and to remove it from the imaginations of men who want to give it application today, the imagery here was long used in the Old Testament prophets to depict the fall of nations and national rulers.
That is all that this is – Hebraic imagery.
Speaking of the destruction of Babylon Isaiah writes in Isaiah 13:9-11 and then 19:
Isaiah 13:9 Behold, the day of the LORD cometh, cruel both with wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate: and he shall destroy the sinners thereof out of it.
10 For the stars of heaven and the constellations thereof shall not give their light: the sun shall be darkened in his going forth, and the moon shall not cause her light to shine.
11 And I will punish the world for their evil, and the wicked for their iniquity; and I will cause the arrogancy of the proud to cease, and will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible.
Then in chapter 24:19-23 Isaiah again warns the Israelites of what was to come to waken them out of their spiritual stupors, saying:
Isaiah 24:19 The earth is utterly broken down, the earth is clean dissolved, the earth is moved exceedingly.
20 The earth shall reel to and fro like a drunkard, and shall be removed like a cottage; and the transgression thereof shall be heavy upon it; and it shall fall, and not rise again.
21 And it shall come to pass in that day, that the LORD shall punish the host of the high ones that are on high, and the kings of the earth upon the earth.
22 And they shall be gathered together, as prisoners are gathered in the pit, and shall be shut up in the prison, and after many days shall they be visited.
23 Then the moon shall be confounded, and the sun ashamed, when the LORD of hosts shall reign in mount Zion, and in Jerusalem, and before his ancients gloriously.
Then speaking of the wrath to fall upon the Assyrian’s Isaiah writes in 34:3-5
Isaiah 34:3 Their slain also shall be cast out, and their stink shall come up out of their carcases, and the mountains shall be melted with their blood.
4 And all the host of heaven shall be dissolved, and the heavens shall be rolled together as a scroll: and all their host shall fall down, as the leaf falleth off from the vine, and as a falling fig from the fig tree.
5 For my sword shall be bathed in heaven: behold, it shall come down upon Idumea, and upon the people of my curse, to judgment.
Most reliable biblical scholars admit that when scripture talks about the falling and dimming of stars in the heavens, (etc) it speaks of failing and falling rulers and kings and such.
Ezekiel 32:7 And when I shall put thee out, I will cover the heaven, and make the stars thereof dark; I will cover the sun with a cloud, and the moon shall not give her light.
8 All the bright lights of heaven will I make dark over thee, and set darkness upon thy land, saith the Lord GOD.
For times sake, we won’t read chapters 11-12 of Ezekiel too which share in similar verbiage.
Joel appeals to similar language saying in 2:10 and 2:28-32 saying:
“The earth shall quake before them; the heavens shall tremble: the sun and the moon shall be dark, and the stars shall withdraw their shining:”
In other words all of these Old Testament passages were descriptions for them in that day to describe the falling of earthly kingdoms.
Same here in Revelation – a description of the earthly kings falling from glory.
Because Peter uses similar language in his New Testament epistle, believers today tend to take the descriptions literally, and have forgotten that this style of language was always representational (going all the way back to the Old Testament prophets)
This takes us for a moment to the words of Peter (found in 2nd Peter 3:10-12) where he says something similar to what we are reading about here in Revelation
“But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up. Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat?”
We could go through now and show from the Old Testament that the prophetic warnings of Israel’s destruction are often couched in terms of eagles descending upon dead things.
Deuteronomy 28:49
Jeremiah 4:13
Lamantations 4:19
Hosea 8:1
Habukkuk 1:8
I mean, a basic aspect of the Old Testament covenantal curse includes kingdoms and its people being devoured by the birds of the air
See Genesis 15:9-12
Proverbs 30:17
Jeremiah 7:33-34; 16:3-4; 19:7; 34:18-20
and Ezekiel 39:17-20.
Why am I talking about birds and eagles in relation to this fourth trumpet?
First of all, Jesus, in Matthew 24 said the following:
28 For wheresoever the carcase is, there will the eagles be gathered together.
Then in the next line said:
29 Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken:
To me there is a direct connection to the nation of Israel becoming a carcase and the eagle, a symbol of a bird of prey, coming in to dominate upon it.
Additionally, one of the faces of the beast that lives in and about the throne of God is an eagle, and so I think we need to incorporate these things into our understanding of Revelation.
But there is some discrepancy in the original mss as to interpretation of this 13th verse.
Instead of “aggelos petwmenou,” (an angel flying) almost every MS and version of note has “aetou petwmenon,” (an eagle flying).
To me this helps our understanding and translation.
Like the original plagues on Egypt, the curses that accompany the seven trumpets are becoming intensified, and more precise in their application.
St. John is building up to a crescendo, using the three woes of the Eagle (corresponding to the fifth, sixth, and seventh blasts of the Trumpet; cf. 9:12; 11:14-15) to dramatize the increasing disasters being visited upon the Land of Israel.
After many delays and much longsuffering by the jealous and holy Lord of Hosts, the awful sanctions of the Law are finally unleashed against the Covenant-breakers, so that Jesus Christ may inherit the kingdoms of the world and bring them into His Temple.
Now, four years before the Jewish War began, Jeshua, the son of Ananus, was heard, though never seen at this time, crying the warning issued in verse 13:
“Woe, Woe to Jerusalem!”
Perhaps his voice is the voice that is crying, “Woe, Woe to the inhabitants of the earth”?
And remember, and as already stated, earth represents Jerusalem/Israel throughout the Book of Revelation and the Sea is representing Gentile or foreign nations.
With this being the case, the mentioning of eagles and lights of kings going out the symbol of a hovering predator (an eagle) makes sense.
Add in that the Aquila (Eagle) was a symbol of Rome and we have a complete picture here of what John is saying will come upon the Nation.
Interestingly, there is more to the identity of this eagle than what has been stated above.
Revelation 8:13 calls to mind the threat for unfaithfulness that is mentioned in Deuteronomy 28:49.
And in Deuteronmy 28:29 an eagle mentioned as it is also mentioned in Hosea 8:1 as a metaphor for an invading nation.
Of course the eagle in Hosea 8 represents the Assyrian army but in Revelation 8:13 it represents Rome.
I do not think it is a coincidence that the symbol of first century Rome, like America today, was an eagle.
And as we have said, whenever Rome went to war its legions always carried with them a metal eagle held aloft on a pole called the Aquila.
The Aquila, which symbolized Rome appears to be the eagle mentioned in v. 13.
According to Josephus’ account of the Jewish War, Rome issued repeated warnings to the people of Judea to surrender throughout the Jewish War.
In fact, Josephus himself speaking on the behalf of Rome issued many of these warnings himself.
Here one can see how the eagle of v. 13 representing Rome repeatedly proclaimed “Woe! Woe! Woe to the inhabitants of the earth” in fulfillment of Revelation 8:13.
Israel ignored these warnings. And like an eagle viciously attacking its prey, in the next chapter, Rome continues its ferocious assault on Judea.
And in Revelation 9 the outcome of this foreboding omen begins to unfold.
Which is what we have come to now. So let’s read it now – 21 verses – which will launch us into a several part study of them. LOOK THE HECK OUT. Nine is wild.
Remember the Beatles White Album? Revolution number 9 was an amalgam of voices, sounds, and Lennon’s attempts at trying to present an audio version of what a Revolution actually sounded like.
Charles Manson took the music and applied it to his interpretion of some of the Book of Revelation, including chapter 9 (after all, the use of 9 was repeated over and over again by the Beatles).
So let’s read our content but try to stand away from the Manson temptation to interpret it outside of sound biblical context.
Revelation 9:1 And the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star fall from heaven unto the earth: and to him was given the key of the bottomless pit.
2 And he opened the bottomless pit; and there arose a smoke out of the pit, as the smoke of a great furnace; and the sun and the air were darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit.
3 And there came out of the smoke locusts (which, by the way, Manson believed was a way to describe the Beatles – Locusts, Beatles – get it?) upon the earth: and unto them was given power, as the scorpions of the earth have power.
4 And it was commanded them that they should not hurt the grass of the earth, neither any green thing, neither any tree; but only those men which have not the seal of God in their foreheads.
5 And to them it was given that they should not kill them, but that they should be tormented five months: and their torment was as the torment of a scorpion, when he striketh a man.
6 And in those days shall men seek death, and shall not find it; and shall desire to die, and death shall flee from them.
7 And the shapes of the locusts were like unto horses prepared unto battle; and on their heads were as it were crowns like gold, and their faces were as the faces of men.
8 And they had hair as the hair of women, and their teeth were as the teeth of lions.
9 And they had breastplates, as it were breastplates of iron; and the sound of their wings was as the sound of chariots of many horses running to battle.
10 And they had tails like unto scorpions, and there were stings in their tails: and their power was to hurt men five months.
11 And they had a king over them, which is the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in the Hebrew tongue is Abaddon, but in the Greek tongue hath his name Apollyon.
12 One woe is past; and, behold, there come two woes more hereafter.
13 And the sixth angel sounded, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God,
14 Saying to the sixth angel which had the trumpet, Loose the four angels which are bound in the great river Euphrates.
15 And the four angels were loosed, which were prepared for an hour, and a day, and a month, and a year, for to slay the third part of men.
16 And the number of the army of the horsemen were two hundred thousand thousand: and I heard the number of them.
17 And thus I saw the horses in the vision, and them that sat on them, having breastplates of fire, and of jacinth, and brimstone: and the heads of the horses were as the heads of lions; and out of their mouths issued fire and smoke and brimstone.
18 By these three was the third part of men killed, by the fire, and by the smoke, and by the brimstone, which issued out of their mouths.
19 For their power is in their mouth, and in their tails: for their tails were like unto serpents, and had heads, and with them they do hurt.
20 And the rest of the men which were not killed by these plagues yet repented not of the works of their hands, that they should not worship devils, and idols of gold, and silver, and brass, and stone, and of wood: which neither can see, nor hear, nor walk:
21 Neither repented they of their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of their fornication, nor of their thefts.
Let’s go back to the first three verses – I’m going to read them slowly for emphasis:
Revelation 9:1 And the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star fall from heaven unto the earth: and to him was given the key of the bottomless pit.
2 And he opened the bottomless pit; and there arose a smoke out of the pit, as the smoke of a great furnace; and the sun and the air were darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit.
3 And there came out of the smoke locusts upon the earth: and unto them was given power, as the scorpions of the earth have power.
Okay, we are going to get into some really wild stuff at this point in Revelation. Things I have certainly never considered when studying scripture but it may go a long way to helping us understand what the heck is going on here.
I am going to allow myself to teach some things along the way that may seem not so important but in the end I hope everything will prove itself necessary to our understanding of scripture.
Let me begin by talking about books or writings that are linked to the Old Testament but are not found in most of our translations here in America today.
We will categorize them as the Old Testament Apocrypha and the Old Testament Pseudepigrapha – they are not the same thing.
The contents of the OT Apocrypha is pretty much fixed. The Apocrypha is, by definition, those extra books beyond the canonical 39 which are accepted by all Christians and Jews as part of the Old Testament canon.
These extra books are found, for example, in Roman Catholic Bibles and include Judith, Tobit, 1 and 2 Maccabees, the book of Wisdom, Ecclesiasticus, Baruch, Susannah and the additions to Daniel (called Bel and the Dragon).
The Ethiopian Coptic Church also includes 1 Enoch in its canon.
This little caveat is important to our discussion of Revelation 9:1-3 – because most list 1st Enoch a Pseudopigraphal book and not an apocraphal one.
But the Coptic Christians differ with most and include it in their canon.
The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha is a loosely-defined set of Jewish writings from about 250 BC to about 150 AD.
These books are said to have been written by an important Old Testament character who in all probability was not the author. Therefore, they are considered fraudulent or Pseudo.
With this definition, 1 Enoch (and sometimes Baruch) could be included as part of the “Pseudepigrapha.”
In these two books we see some overlapping between the OT Apocrypha and the OT Pseudepigrapha.
There are a number of pseudopigraphal books and they include
Odes of Solomon
1, 2, 3, and 4th Esdras,
Revelation of Moses,
2 and 3 Baruch,
The Book of Adam and frankly a whole bunch more.
Neither the OT Apocrypha nor the OT Pseudepigrapha is accepted as inspired scripture by the majority of Christian (or by any Jews for that matter) for a few reasons.
The primary reason is that the Jews themselves did not ever accept these as canonical and even if they did (for which we have no evidence) they certainly are not accepted today.
God gave to the Jewish scribes and teacher the job of collecting the list of inspired writings. We have to accept (by faith) that God had them pick properly which were conclusively inspired and which were not.
So there’s that.
Another reason these books might be viewed with some suspicion is in the content of the books themselves.
I mean just read “Bel and the Dragon” or “3 Baruch” or even 1 Enoch and its pretty easy to see that they bear clear marks that these are not inspired.
And while the Book of Wisdom and Ecclesiasticus contain wise sayings there are blatant false doctrines present as well.
A third reason these books are to be questioned is that, without exception, they were written hundreds of years after the Old Testament was complete.
In other words, we make the argument that God brought to an end prophetic utterance through the Jews from the time of Nehemiah or Malachi until the coming of the Messiah.
This is not a Christian view but the opinion of virtually all Jews and is the main reason they reject all of these apocryphal and pseudepigraphal books.
Another reason that these are rejected by virtually all is that they were not even written in Hebrew in the first place, but in Aramaic (in some cases) or in Greek (in most cases).
This is not as strong a reason as the others
but we can take it into account when judging these writings. At least it is one reason Jerome rejected these writings at the end of the 4th century AD.
Got all that?
Okay. In our text of the first three verses of Revelation 9
Revelation 9:1 And the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star fall from heaven unto the earth: and to him was given the key of the bottomless pit.
2 And he opened the bottomless pit; and there arose a smoke out of the pit, as the smoke of a great furnace; and the sun and the air were darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit.
3 And there came out of the smoke locusts upon the earth: and unto them was given power, as the scorpions of the earth have power.
We have a similar attestation in the Book of Enoch, which, again, is one of those books that hovers between the apocraphal and the pseudopigrapha, meaning the Coptics include it in their Bibles and the rest reject it as not even apocraphal.
This book attributes its existence to Enoch, the great-grandfather of Noah (who was also the son of Jared) dating all the way back to Genesis 5:18.
Enoch is also one of the two people in the Bible taken up to heaven without dying (the other being Elijah), as the Bible says “And Enoch walked with God, and he was not; for God took him.” (Genesis 5:24; see also Hebrews 11:5).
What is interesting is that Jude in the New Testament quotes from the Book of Enoch in verses 14-15,
“Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied about these men: ‘See, the Lord is coming with thousands upon thousands of his holy ones to judge everyone, and to convict all the ungodly of all the ungodly acts they have done in the ungodly way, and of all the harsh words ungodly sinners have spoken against him.’”
But this does not mean the Book of Enoch is inspired by God and should be in the Bible but it does cause us to wonder why the author of Jude would cite that Enoch himself said something in a book considered fraudulent?
Did the author of the book actually cite from things that Enoch of Old actually said amidst the fraud of the rest of the book?
Perhaps.
Jude’s quote is not the only quote in the Bible from a non-biblical source.
For example, the Apostle Paul quotes Epimenides in Titus 1:12 and this does not mean we should give any additional authority to Epimenides’ writings.
In the end, because of the fact that Jude referred to Enouch we might treat the Apocryphal writings as possessing some truths but not entirely canonical.
In any case, 1 Enoch 10:4-7 reveals that the Abyss, like the fiery magma of the earth’s core, is located under the earth.
This idea is confirmed by Numbers 16:31, Ezekiel 26:20, Luke 16:23 and 2 Peter 2:4.
Here in Revelation 9:1-3 an angel opens the Abyss which releases smoke and fire. This smoke is so dark that according to v. 2 it darkens the sun and sky.
We might suggest that this was describing a volcanic eruption as they have the capacity to release so much smoke and ash into the air that they can shroud vast areas around the eruption in darkness so thick that it can blot out the sun sometimes hundreds of miles away.
And this was the case with the eruption of Vesuvius in A.D. 79 which buried Pompeii in hot ash.
But in his historical account of A.D. 69, which was a most calamitous year before the rise of the Flavian Dynasty, Tacitus the Roman historian writes,
“Whole towns were burnt down or buried throughout the richest part of the coast of Campania [or the central, coastal part of Italy].”
Could these towns in Campania have been burned down and buried from a volcanic eruption in explicit fulfillment of Revelation 9:1-3?
Well even today, Campania is part of a known volcanic chain with three main centers of volcanic activity so it is not beyond reason that Tacitus was describing a volcano thus fulfilling the description here in Revelation 9:1-3
Anyhow, and regardless of whether or not a volcano actually erupted in A.D. 69, Revelation 9:1-3 is full of imagery that points to the release of the beast from the Abyss, or the underworld of the dead.
In Revelation 9:2-3 a locust army is released from the Abyss and in Revelation 9:11 the king of this army is identified as “the angel of the Abyss, whose name . . . Apollyon.”
In Revelation 17:8 Apollyon is the beast that “once was, now is not, and will come up out of the Abyss.”
Because the Abyss is the spiritual realm of the dead, the expression “once was, now is not, and will come up out of the Abyss” is a cryptic way of saying, “This beast once was alive, now is dead, and yet will rise from the dead.”
I would suggest that this is describing a beast who once was alive, then dies, then rises out of the Abyss and it is describing Rome (represented by its Caesars.)
Specifically how can this be justified?
After the death of Nero Caesar in June of A.D. 68, Rome collapsed because of civil war and the Roman legions withdrew from Israel.
This period of civil war from the death of Nero in the summer of A.D. 68 to the rise of Vespasian in A.D. 70 represents the death of the beast.
This period from A.D. 68 to A.D. 70 is the period of the fifth trumpet of Revelation 9:1-12 and the fifth bowl of Revelation 16:10-11.
The fact that Rome, the beast, had been hurled into darkness in Revelation 9:2 and Revelation 16:10 during the fifth trumpet and bowl implies that the beast had been cast into the Abyss, the dark underworld of the dead described in Job 10:19-22 as “the land of deepest night, of utter darkness” and called outer darkness by Jesus in the Gospels.
As explained in Revelation 13:3, the Flavian Dynasty–Caesar Vespasian, Caesar Titus and Caesar Domitian–is the beast whose wound had been healed.
At Vespasian’s coronation as emperor of Rome, Vespasian and his two sons and successors, Titus and Domitian, were simultaneously granted the title Caesar.
Thus the beast is embodied by Caesar Vespasian, Caesar Titus and Caesar Domitian who shortly after coming to power brought peace back to Rome after destroying Jerusalem.
Having restored the unity of the empire by putting an end to the civil war at the fall of Jerusalem, the Flavian Dynasty brought the Roman beast which had died as a consequence of civil war back to life.
In other words, the Roman Empire under the trinity of Flavian Caesars is the beast whose wound had been healed of Revelation 13:3 and the beast that rises out of the Abyss in Revelation 9:2-3, Revelation 11:7 and Revelation 17.
Just because the Flavians reigned beyond 70 AD does not mean everything in the Age of the Jew was not wrapped up then.
Perhaps Revelation 9 is incorporating all that this resurrected beast would do including the wrapping up of the age and all things.
We also read in verses 1-3 that “a star” is given the key to the shaft of the Abyss. The fact that this star has the key to the Abyss shows that it has power over the temporary death of Rome itself.
This star appears to be Jesus Christ who says, “I hold the keys of death and Hades” in Revelation 1:18.
Jesus again implies that He is the star of vs. 1-3 when He says that He “holds the key of David” in Revelation 3:7.
I suggest that He opens the Abyss causing locusts to be released under the authority of Apollyon (Revelation 9:11).
The ascent of Apollyon and his army of locusts from the Abyss is resurrection imagery and are probably a metaphorical depiction of the resurrection of the Roman beast under the Flavians.
But why is the resurrection of Rome (also mentioned in Revelation 13:3, Revelation 11:7 and Revelation 17) portrayed as a locust army rising out of the Abyss, the dark underworld of the dead?
In the Book of Revelation, the Abyss is not just the land of the dead. Abyss also has a symbolic meaning.
The Abyss represents foreign nations, in this case Rome, throughout the Apocalypse just as the earth symbolizes Israel
(proven by Revelation 17:15; Daniel 7; Psalm 65:7; 144:7; Isaiah 8:7-8; 17:12; 60:5; Jeremiah 46:7-8; 47:1-2; 51:55-56; Ezekiel 26:3).
After the death of Nero Caesar, Rome ceased its assault on Judea and Titus and Vespasian left Israel not long after.
Thus around the time of the death of the beast (Nero) Vespasian and Titus left Israel (the earth) and went to Lebanon and Egypt in Gentile Rome, the sea or Abyss, in order to plot the overthrow of their rival for the emperor’s throne, Vitellius.
Thus around the time in which the beast was “dead,” Vespasian and Titus were in “the Abyss,” Gentile Rome.
Immediately after supplanting Vitellius and usurping the throne, Caesar Vespasian dispatched Titus back to Israel, and “the earth” was once again under the control of the Roman military.
Therefore, at the coronation of Vespasian which represents the resurrection of the beast, Titus and the Roman army leave the Abyss (Gentile Rome) and return to Israel.
Put simply, when the beast (Vespasian and or Titus and the Roman army) was present on the earth (Israel) the beast was symbolically alive.
When the beast departed (to the sea or Abyss) represented by both Gentile Rome or other foreign gentile nations it was back in the realm of the dead meaning that “the beast was metaphorically dead.”
When the beast rises out of the sea or Abyss, the beast is alive again.
So we now enter into the period when the beast returns from the Abyss of Gentile lands, reanimates in the spirit of Neros, and is like a locust army .
As stated, Revelation 9:1-3 were fulfilled metaphorically from A.D. 68-A.D. 70 with the death of Nero and the rise of the Vespasian and the Flavian Dynasty which represented the resurrection of the beast.
That having been said, it should be noted that an interesting historical peculiarity may hint at the fact that the Flavian Dynasty (Caesar Vespasian, Caesar Titus and Caesar Domitian) represented the resurrection of the beast.
During the reign of the second emperor of the Flavian dynasty; Titus, Vespasian’s son and successor a person appeared that may represented the beast with the wounded head (which we will read about in Revelation 13:3).
Cassius Dio writes:
“In his (Titus’s) reign also the False Nero appeared, who was an Asiatic named Terentius Maximus.
He resembled Nero both in appearance and in voice (for he too sang to the accompaniment of the lyre). He gained a few followers in Asia, and his advance to the Euphrates attached a far greater number, and finally sought refuge with Artabanus, the Parthian leader, who . . . both received him and set about making preparations to restore him to Rome.”
As we will see in our study of Revelation 13 Nero, Vespasian and Titus are all represented by the 666 cryptogram.
I would suggest that in Revelation these three men symbolically represent a beast who dies and resurrects from the dead.
Vespasian and Titus represent the beast whose wound had been healed while Nero represents the beast with the wounded head.
If the Nero imposter was not the actual miraculous resurrection of Nero (and thus a literal fulfillment of Revelation 13:3) he at least represents a kind of counterfeit resurrection, a symbol pointing to Titus, one of the Flavians, as the beast who rises from the dead.
As we shall see he is called Apollyon in verse 11 and then the beast that comes out of the Abyss in Revelation 17:8, so Titus (like his father, Vespasian) may also be seen as some kind of resurrected devil.
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