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an excuse to charge some of them, Christians would still have viewed this as persecution, especially those that were charged. Beale notes further that later Christian tradition supports the idea that Domitian’s persecution may have focused on Christians in the higher classes. Eusebius writes that members of Jesus’ family were brought before Domitian because “they were reported as being of the family of David”18 and because they were identified with the movement of Christians. This also shows that Christianity, as a sub-set of Judaism and acknowledged as a religion in the Roman Empire, was beginning to be set apart.

      If it is true that 13:3–4, 17:8, and 17:11 refer to the myth of the reappearance of Nero (Nero redividus), which speaks of the demise of the beast and his later revival, only a later date makes sense. Nero died in 68 AD. Surely two years would not have been enough time for the myth to take hold.

      The reoccurring “Babylon” theme in Revelation is another date indicator. In Jewish literature, Babylon refers to Rome after 70 AD because the Roman armies destroyed Jerusalem and the temple, just as Babylon had done in the sixth century BC.

      Evidence for an Earlier Date

      Some suggest that, together, the name values of Nero and Caesar in Hebrew letters add up to 666, which, in conjunction with 13:18, would mean an earlier date. But should we be playing number games? Was John that familiar with gematria (giving numerical value to letters) that he would hide the meaning of who 666 is? (I include more on this in my discussion of chapter 13.)

      Final Thoughts on the Date

      Recipient

      Methods of Interpretation

      1. Historicist: This is the classic dispensational view, that the seven churches represent different periods of history. The historicist view is also associated with the prophesy movement that sees every detail of Revelation fulfilled in current events. This view was held by Joachim of Fiore (twelfth century). Franciscans followed him. The Reformers (Martin Luther, John Calvin) saw the Pope as the antichrist in the sixteenth century.

      2. Preterist: In this view, the details of the book relate to the present situation in which John lived, rather than a future period. Three main options of interpretation fall in this category: 1) those who say the situation related to the Roman Empire and the book is written about Roman oppression and the fall of the Roman Empire (R.H. Charles, Leonard Sweet, Jurgen Roloff); 2) those who say that the persecution was a perceived crisis rather than a real one, but the church was still called to follow God. The problem of the book is compromise, and the solution is true worship of Christ (Adela Yarbro Collins, John L. Thompson, Gerhard Krodel, James Barr); 3) those who think the book was written before 70 AD and prophesies the fall of Jerusalem as God’s judgment upon wicked Israel for rejecting the Messiah and persecuting the church (Kenneth Gentry, D. C. Chilton), and that the beast is Rome, and the kings of the east are Roman generals.

      3. Idealist: In this view, the symbols do not relate to historical events but to timeless spiritual truths. The millennium is not a future event, but more conceptual. This view is part of the amillennial position. The final cycle of the book encourages the church to carry on (William Hendriksen, Anthony Hoekema, and Philip Hughes are Idealists).

      4. Futurist: In this view, chapters 4–22 refer primarily to events in the future that will take place at the end of history and usher in the end times and the return of Christ. There are two branches to a futurist view: dispensationalism, the belief that there are seven dispensations (or periods in history), and we are currently in the sixth (the church age). Revelation, according to dispensationalism, describes the seventh age, where the church is taken out before the travail of the last days, and Israel is reinstated. The second branch is classic premillennialism, which holds that there is only one return of Christ and the church must endure and be faithful through suffering and persecution before Christ’s return.

      5. Eclectic: This view combines more than one of the views above, avoiding the weaknesses of particular

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