Gonzalo Rojas-Flores, «The Book of Revelation and the First Years of Nero’s Reign», Vol. 85 (2004) 375-392
In this article I try to demonstrate that the Book of
Revelation was written in the first years of Nero’s reign, because (a) there
is an important patristic tradition in favor of Nero and (b) the internal
evidence shows that the text was redacted after Nero’s ascension to the throne
in 54 and before the earthquake of Laodicea in 60.
The Book of Revelation and the First Years of Nero’s Reign 391
ascends from the abyss (17,8), it might be Augustus, explicitly
associated with the Messiah’s birth (cf. Luke 2,1) and implicitly linked
to the scarlet Dragon with seven crowned heads who tries to devour
the newborn Messiah (Rev 12,3-5). It might also be Tiberius, probably
identified as the beast who crucified the Messiah (11,7-8). But
Caligula is very close to the Danielic figure of Antiochus Epiphanes
(Dan 8,10-12; 11,36-37), archetype of the Antichrist (2 Thess 2,3-4),
since he attempted to be worshipped in the Temple of Jerusalem (47).
If my hypothesis is correct, it was just at the end of the first
century when some Jewish-Christian circles began to relate the beast
who “was, and is not, and is about to ascend from the bottomless pitâ€
to the last of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, due to the increasing
veneration to Nero’s memory. In fact, in the Sibylline Oracles and the
Ascension of Isaiah, it is foretold that the demon Beliar shall descend
from his firmament as a king of iniquity, murderer of his mother.
*
**
The external evidence does not allow us to date the Book of
Revelation with certainty the end of Domitian’s government, since
there is an important patristic tendency in favor of Nero’s reign or
even before that. The internal evidence shows that as John wrote his
prophecy, Jerusalem and its Temple had not yet been destroyed, the
rebels had not yet taken the control of the Temple, the Jewish-
Christian Community had not yet left Jerusalem, the martyrs James,
Peter and Paul had not yet been executed, Laodicea had not yet been
destroyed because of an earthquake, and Nero Caesar (666) still was
the reigning emperor, the sixth one of the dynasty according to
Roman, Jewish and Jewish-Christian literature. Therefore, the work
should be dated between the years 54 and 60. In this context, Rev 13,3
alludes to the murder of Julius Caesar, and 17,8 to the Antichrist’
return, identified as a fallen emperor who might be Augustus, Tiberius
or Caligula.
Av. Suecia 3390, dp. 401 Gonzalo ROJAS-FLORES
Ñuñoa, Santiago de Chile
(47) Josephus, Ant. Iud. 18.8.2.