Mujokan":3fctazm3 said:
Good article. There's another interpretation that besides Nero and the Roman Empire, Revelation also is discussing the split in early Christianity over accepting gentiles and not requiring them to fully follow Mosaic law. Though the New Testament in general is on the pro side of that argument, Revelation is on the anti side.
There is actually a hypothesis -- or theory, there's not much difference in this field -- that the second part of the Revelation (the first part is the epistles to various churches in Asia Minor) is a pre-christian Jewish apocalypse, which was later adopted to a Christian context in anticipation of the persecutions of Emperor Domitian. According to a well known folk legend from first century C.E. Domitian was the resurrected Emperor Nero,
i.e. "Neron Kaisar" (666 by number subsitution from original Greek) as translittered from Greek.
Ironically, it appears that despite threatening mood in the Empire, Domitian never actually persecuted Christians or at least there is no good evidence of such persecution, so the Revelation was actually a dud prophecy. Of course that does not stop Evangelicals to try and apply it to various current events and that has been going on for centuries...
