I mentioned it higher up, but 666 comes from the latin pronouniation of Nero Ceasar, which translated into hebrew is 666. The slightly-earlier greek version used 616, because contemporary authors knew that Nero was in fact The Beast. The reason for the change is that, when speaking in greek, his name was pronounced “neron” ceasar… the original translators that put it into latin knew that and used the ‘Nero Ceasar’ for gematria. To maintain the meaning.
Other parallels include the neronic persecution of christians lasting 42 months (which is the length given for The Beast’s persecution,) the seven heads of the beast represent the 7 hills that Rome was built on, Ireneaus (bishop of lyons, author of 'Against Heresies) was alive around 130 to 202 ce and linked the beast to Nero; being much closer to the historical context, his understanding is illuminating. Similarly, Hyppolytus lived 170 to 235 ce, and was an early scholar of christian eschatology making the same connections.
Simply put, the author of revelation used the prophetic style to speak in a sort of culturally-coded language to relate what nero was and had been doing at a time when talking about it was very dangerous. In modern context, it would be like if someone used prophetic language to describe an “Orange Turd” who was a false prophet and persecuting said illegal imigrants. if it was laced with double-meanings that only illegal immigrants would know, then it would likely be overlooked.
basically the christains around the time of nero would have all recognized what the author was trying to say; cultural context is important, and it wasn’t about some future eschatology that could happen thousands of years in the future. it was about current (or recent,) events.
The modern christian eschatology is what happens when you divorce texts from the cultural context in which they were written.
I mentioned it higher up, but 666 comes from the latin pronouniation of Nero Ceasar, which translated into hebrew is 666. The slightly-earlier greek version used 616, because contemporary authors knew that Nero was in fact The Beast. The reason for the change is that, when speaking in greek, his name was pronounced “neron” ceasar… the original translators that put it into latin knew that and used the ‘Nero Ceasar’ for gematria. To maintain the meaning.
Other parallels include the neronic persecution of christians lasting 42 months (which is the length given for The Beast’s persecution,) the seven heads of the beast represent the 7 hills that Rome was built on, Ireneaus (bishop of lyons, author of 'Against Heresies) was alive around 130 to 202 ce and linked the beast to Nero; being much closer to the historical context, his understanding is illuminating. Similarly, Hyppolytus lived 170 to 235 ce, and was an early scholar of christian eschatology making the same connections.
Simply put, the author of revelation used the prophetic style to speak in a sort of culturally-coded language to relate what nero was and had been doing at a time when talking about it was very dangerous. In modern context, it would be like if someone used prophetic language to describe an “Orange Turd” who was a false prophet and persecuting said illegal imigrants. if it was laced with double-meanings that only illegal immigrants would know, then it would likely be overlooked.
basically the christains around the time of nero would have all recognized what the author was trying to say; cultural context is important, and it wasn’t about some future eschatology that could happen thousands of years in the future. it was about current (or recent,) events.
The modern christian eschatology is what happens when you divorce texts from the cultural context in which they were written.