13:1
This is a chapter that lends itself to endless speculation, not much of it fruitful. We do well to remember that the primary purpose of Revelation is first to glorify the Name of Jesus, and secondly to provide support for persecuted Christians, to enable us to live as faithful servants of Christ in a hostile world.
So the chapter starts with the dragon standing on the shore of the sea, and a beast coming out of the sea. Now some of the speculations focus on identifying the beast as Nero, so let’s take a brief look at Nero (most of this information, and later on 666, comes from the Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible).
Nero was the first emperor to declare official state persecution on Christians. This included burning Christians alive to provide light in the imperial gardens. More widespread persecution then followed.
Nero died in June 68 AD, this was followed by months of civil war. There was a belief that Nero was still alive, and there were various imposters claiming to be Nero. These posed something of a threat to the Roman empire.
Some early Christians expected that Nero would return, and referred to him as the “great beast”. Nero was seen as a type of the beast.
So Nero, and the Roman Empire, embody some characteristics of the beast and the reign of evil, as have many subsequent regimes, but to say that they embody the full realisation of evil described in Revelation is nonsense. Moses and David were types of Christ, but they were quite clearly not Christ.
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