666 YEARS dates Revelation's composition
Posted: Fri Dec 21, 2018 8:28 pm
Okay, sometimes the best way to get into the "swimming pool" of a Christian forum is to do a quick sprint with a cannonball jump into the deep end. So here goes...
I have the firm conviction that there are many internal evidences within scripture itself that pin down a single year as the date of Revelation's composition. That year would be late AD 59. The 666 figure given to us in Rev. 13:18 is part of the proof for this date. Cross-referencing is how we arrive at this particular year. It's a rather circuitous route to arrive at the goal, but it gets the job done, and without the need to devote an entire book to the process.
First of all, we know that John told the self-satisfied Laodicean church members that God was "about to spue thee out of my mouth"; an imminent judgment in the very near future for that church. We also know from several historical sources that Laodicea suffered its devastating earthquake in AD 60. So, if the earthquake was the occasion of God's "spueing out of His mouth" the complacent Laodicean church, then Revelation had to have been written JUST PRIOR to the AD 60 quake event.
We also know that some of the Smyrna church members were "about to be" thrown into prison by Satan. And they would have tribulation for TEN DAYS. In real time, that symbolic "ten days" translates into TEN YEARS, in the same symbolic manner that it took Babylon / Jerusalem "one hour" to fall (the real-time equivalent of 3 1/2 years). Those "ten days" (ten years) I believe lasted from the about-to-arrive AD 60 year until AD 70.
As for the 666 YEARS figure which John's readers were to "calculate", this would take just a little mathematics for those with some wisdom to figure out. Forget the gematria angle for this number. This has nothing to do with using gematria. Anyone of John's time period with even a basic knowledge of Israel's history as a people could count 666 years backward in time from AD 59, all the way back to 607 BC when Nebuchadnezzar deported the first group of Jerusalem captives (including Daniel and his friends - the "good figs" of Jer. 24:4). That was the beginning year of their prophesied 70-year exile period under the Chaldean empire (symbolized by a lion in Daniel's visions).
Significantly, the Sea Beast of Rev. 13 was an amalgamation of lion, bear, and leopard features (Rev. 13:2). This tells us that the Sea Beast had a continual history of existence, ever since Daniel identified that lion as being connected with Nebuchadnezzar, the Chaldean empire's conqueror of Daniel's people. Consequently, the ongoing history of the Sea Beast was still extant as John was writing Revelation in late AD 59.
In addition, Rev. 13:18 also tells us that this 666 figure is the "number of A MAN". This is exactly how Daniel described the lion kingdom of Nebuchadnezzar in Daniel 4:4; the lion with eagle's wings who was made to "stand upon the feet as A MAN, and A MAN'S HEART was given to it." Also, the 4th Beast of Daniel 7:8 (which I believe equates with both the "iron" kingdom and also the amalgamated leopard-bear-lion Sea Beast in Rev. 13) has the little horn with eyes "like the eyes of MAN, and a MOUTH SPEAKING great things".
All these human-type features of A MAN found in the Sea Beast (aka Daniel's 4th Beast, aka the iron kingdom) are why Rev. 13:18 claims that the 666 figure applies to A MAN. This was meant to jog the memory of John's readers back to Daniel's statue of A MAN made of those various metals - a statue that incorporated into one figure ALL of the empire powers from the lion, bear, and leopard kingdoms - manifesting itself in those first-century days as the terrifying, powerful 4th kingdom of the Sea Beast. At the time of John's writing in late AD 59, that Sea Beast's power then in place was represented by the Roman empire with Nero at the helm, but actually, that Sea Beast as a conglomerate entity had existed for 666 YEARS before that time. In one way or another, each of those world kingdoms which composed the Sea Beast had demanded homage on pain of death. (Think of the worship demanded for Nebuchadnezzar's golden image, and the fiery furnace threat during the Chaldean empire. Think of the Medes and Persians empire, with Darius and the threat of the lion's den for praying to anyone other than the Persian king. Think of Antiochus Epiphanes during the Greek empire, and his death threats if the Jews failed to switch over to idol worship, prior to the Maccabean uprising. Think of the "render to Caesar" example in Christ's day, when He was tempted by the Pharisees about the tribute money question, and He told them to keep their heart's loyalty to God separated from their obedience to the Roman empire's governance.)
Another clear indication that AD 59 is a spot-on match for Revelation's date is the "tribulation" John was then experiencing (Rev. 1:9). It was NOT Nero's persecution, but the tribulation that was triggered by the Ephesian riot of the silversmiths in Acts 19 (in AD 59). Asia's capital of Ephesus was the epicenter of the persecution that immediately spread after the riot to the surrounding cities and the 7 churches of Asia (such as Smyrna's "ten days" (10 years) of tribulation from AD 60-70). Paul described this persecution period in Asia in vivid terms in II Cor. 1:8. "For we would not, brethren, have you ignorant of our trouble which came to us in Asia, that we were pressed out of measure, above strength, insomuch that we despaired even of life:" He commends Priscilla and Aquila for "laying down their own necks" for his life's sake during this time (Rom. 16:4). Luke also described this same period of persecution surrounding the Ephesian riot in an understated way in Acts 19:23. "And the same time there arose no small stir about that way."
Since Patmos, just off the coast from Ephesus, was under the jurisdiction of that capital city of Asia, it was only natural that the Ephesian authorities would have sent Christians to nearby Patmos, to clear the idol-worshipping city of any cause for disturbance to the peace. Hence, John's presence in Patmos during that tribulation period following the AD 59 Ephesian riot, with the prospect of Nero's 3 1/2 years of "wearing our the saints" looming in the near future, starting in AD 64.
This theme of 666 YEARS of the Sea Beast's existence from 607 BC to AD 59 has great ramifications for interpreting the rest of Revelation's visions related to this Gentile-based Sea Beast. It means that the "mark" of that Sea Beast could have been imposed for quite some time before the AD 66-70 era. (It was the Tyrian shekel demanded by the priests for all temple transactions.) It means that the Rev. 20 saints who had not worshipped that Sea Beast could have lived all the way back in Nebuchadnezzar's day, when the Sea Beast was first identified by Daniel. This also impinges on when the Rev. 20 millennium started, etc. etc. This 666-year interpretation colors every reference to the Sea Beast that comes up.
There is just one caution we need to pay attention to when studying this topic of the Sea Beast: that Rev. 13 Sea Beast is NOT to be confused with the TWO OTHER "BEASTS OF THE EARTH" (Rev. 6:8), which were the Judean "Land Beast" of Rev. 13:11, and the Judean "Scarlet Beast" of Rev. 17:3 seen in the wilderness. They were (past tense) three totally separate entities, with totally different origins.
I have the firm conviction that there are many internal evidences within scripture itself that pin down a single year as the date of Revelation's composition. That year would be late AD 59. The 666 figure given to us in Rev. 13:18 is part of the proof for this date. Cross-referencing is how we arrive at this particular year. It's a rather circuitous route to arrive at the goal, but it gets the job done, and without the need to devote an entire book to the process.
First of all, we know that John told the self-satisfied Laodicean church members that God was "about to spue thee out of my mouth"; an imminent judgment in the very near future for that church. We also know from several historical sources that Laodicea suffered its devastating earthquake in AD 60. So, if the earthquake was the occasion of God's "spueing out of His mouth" the complacent Laodicean church, then Revelation had to have been written JUST PRIOR to the AD 60 quake event.
We also know that some of the Smyrna church members were "about to be" thrown into prison by Satan. And they would have tribulation for TEN DAYS. In real time, that symbolic "ten days" translates into TEN YEARS, in the same symbolic manner that it took Babylon / Jerusalem "one hour" to fall (the real-time equivalent of 3 1/2 years). Those "ten days" (ten years) I believe lasted from the about-to-arrive AD 60 year until AD 70.
As for the 666 YEARS figure which John's readers were to "calculate", this would take just a little mathematics for those with some wisdom to figure out. Forget the gematria angle for this number. This has nothing to do with using gematria. Anyone of John's time period with even a basic knowledge of Israel's history as a people could count 666 years backward in time from AD 59, all the way back to 607 BC when Nebuchadnezzar deported the first group of Jerusalem captives (including Daniel and his friends - the "good figs" of Jer. 24:4). That was the beginning year of their prophesied 70-year exile period under the Chaldean empire (symbolized by a lion in Daniel's visions).
Significantly, the Sea Beast of Rev. 13 was an amalgamation of lion, bear, and leopard features (Rev. 13:2). This tells us that the Sea Beast had a continual history of existence, ever since Daniel identified that lion as being connected with Nebuchadnezzar, the Chaldean empire's conqueror of Daniel's people. Consequently, the ongoing history of the Sea Beast was still extant as John was writing Revelation in late AD 59.
In addition, Rev. 13:18 also tells us that this 666 figure is the "number of A MAN". This is exactly how Daniel described the lion kingdom of Nebuchadnezzar in Daniel 4:4; the lion with eagle's wings who was made to "stand upon the feet as A MAN, and A MAN'S HEART was given to it." Also, the 4th Beast of Daniel 7:8 (which I believe equates with both the "iron" kingdom and also the amalgamated leopard-bear-lion Sea Beast in Rev. 13) has the little horn with eyes "like the eyes of MAN, and a MOUTH SPEAKING great things".
All these human-type features of A MAN found in the Sea Beast (aka Daniel's 4th Beast, aka the iron kingdom) are why Rev. 13:18 claims that the 666 figure applies to A MAN. This was meant to jog the memory of John's readers back to Daniel's statue of A MAN made of those various metals - a statue that incorporated into one figure ALL of the empire powers from the lion, bear, and leopard kingdoms - manifesting itself in those first-century days as the terrifying, powerful 4th kingdom of the Sea Beast. At the time of John's writing in late AD 59, that Sea Beast's power then in place was represented by the Roman empire with Nero at the helm, but actually, that Sea Beast as a conglomerate entity had existed for 666 YEARS before that time. In one way or another, each of those world kingdoms which composed the Sea Beast had demanded homage on pain of death. (Think of the worship demanded for Nebuchadnezzar's golden image, and the fiery furnace threat during the Chaldean empire. Think of the Medes and Persians empire, with Darius and the threat of the lion's den for praying to anyone other than the Persian king. Think of Antiochus Epiphanes during the Greek empire, and his death threats if the Jews failed to switch over to idol worship, prior to the Maccabean uprising. Think of the "render to Caesar" example in Christ's day, when He was tempted by the Pharisees about the tribute money question, and He told them to keep their heart's loyalty to God separated from their obedience to the Roman empire's governance.)
Another clear indication that AD 59 is a spot-on match for Revelation's date is the "tribulation" John was then experiencing (Rev. 1:9). It was NOT Nero's persecution, but the tribulation that was triggered by the Ephesian riot of the silversmiths in Acts 19 (in AD 59). Asia's capital of Ephesus was the epicenter of the persecution that immediately spread after the riot to the surrounding cities and the 7 churches of Asia (such as Smyrna's "ten days" (10 years) of tribulation from AD 60-70). Paul described this persecution period in Asia in vivid terms in II Cor. 1:8. "For we would not, brethren, have you ignorant of our trouble which came to us in Asia, that we were pressed out of measure, above strength, insomuch that we despaired even of life:" He commends Priscilla and Aquila for "laying down their own necks" for his life's sake during this time (Rom. 16:4). Luke also described this same period of persecution surrounding the Ephesian riot in an understated way in Acts 19:23. "And the same time there arose no small stir about that way."
Since Patmos, just off the coast from Ephesus, was under the jurisdiction of that capital city of Asia, it was only natural that the Ephesian authorities would have sent Christians to nearby Patmos, to clear the idol-worshipping city of any cause for disturbance to the peace. Hence, John's presence in Patmos during that tribulation period following the AD 59 Ephesian riot, with the prospect of Nero's 3 1/2 years of "wearing our the saints" looming in the near future, starting in AD 64.
This theme of 666 YEARS of the Sea Beast's existence from 607 BC to AD 59 has great ramifications for interpreting the rest of Revelation's visions related to this Gentile-based Sea Beast. It means that the "mark" of that Sea Beast could have been imposed for quite some time before the AD 66-70 era. (It was the Tyrian shekel demanded by the priests for all temple transactions.) It means that the Rev. 20 saints who had not worshipped that Sea Beast could have lived all the way back in Nebuchadnezzar's day, when the Sea Beast was first identified by Daniel. This also impinges on when the Rev. 20 millennium started, etc. etc. This 666-year interpretation colors every reference to the Sea Beast that comes up.
There is just one caution we need to pay attention to when studying this topic of the Sea Beast: that Rev. 13 Sea Beast is NOT to be confused with the TWO OTHER "BEASTS OF THE EARTH" (Rev. 6:8), which were the Judean "Land Beast" of Rev. 13:11, and the Judean "Scarlet Beast" of Rev. 17:3 seen in the wilderness. They were (past tense) three totally separate entities, with totally different origins.