[COLOR=black]The ten horns are commonly explained as the vassal rulers under the supremacy of [/COLOR][COLOR=black]Rome[/COLOR][COLOR=black]. They are described as kings (basileis), here to be taken in a wider sense, that they are not real kings, but received power to rule with the beast. Their power, moreover, is but for one hour, signifying its short duration and instability ([/COLOR][COLOR=black]17:17[/COLOR][COLOR=black]). The [/COLOR][COLOR=black]Seer[/COLOR][COLOR=black] has marked the beast with the number 666. His purpose was that by this number people may [/COLOR][COLOR=black]know[/COLOR][COLOR=black] it. He that has understanding, let him count the number of the beast. For it is the number of a man: and his number is six hundred and sixty-six. A [/COLOR][COLOR=black]human[/COLOR][COLOR=black] number, i.e. intelligible by the common rules of investigation. We have here an instance of [/COLOR][COLOR=black]Jewish[/COLOR][COLOR=black] gematria. Its object is to conceal a name by substituting for it a cipher of equal numerical value to the letters composing it. For a long [/COLOR][COLOR=black]time[/COLOR][COLOR=black] interpreters tried to decipher the number 666 by means of the Greek [/COLOR][COLOR=black]alphabet[/COLOR][COLOR=black], e.g. Irenæus, [/COLOR][COLOR=black]Against Heresies V.33[/COLOR][COLOR=black]. Their efforts have yielded no satisfactory result. Better success has been obtained by using the Hebrew [/COLOR][COLOR=black]alphabet[/COLOR][COLOR=black]. Many scholars have come to the conclusion that [/COLOR][COLOR=black]Nero[/COLOR][COLOR=black] is meant. For when the name [/COLOR][COLOR=black]"Nero Caesar"[/COLOR][COLOR=black] is spelled with Hebrew letters, it yields the cipher 666. [/COLOR]
[COLOR=black]The second beast, that from the land, the pseudoprophet whose office was to assist the beast from the sea, probably signifies the work of seduction carried on by [/COLOR][COLOR=black]apostate[/COLOR][COLOR=black]Christians[/COLOR][COLOR=black]. They endeavoured to make their fellow [/COLOR][COLOR=black]Christians[/COLOR][COLOR=black] adopt the [/COLOR][COLOR=black]heathen[/COLOR][COLOR=black] practices and submit themselves to the cultus of the Caesar. They are not unlikely the [/COLOR][COLOR=black]Nicolaitans[/COLOR][COLOR=black] of the seven [/COLOR][COLOR=black]Epistles[/COLOR][COLOR=black]. For they are there compared to [/COLOR][COLOR=black]Balaam[/COLOR][COLOR=black] and [/COLOR][COLOR=black]Jezabel[/COLOR][COLOR=black] seducing the [/COLOR][COLOR=black]Israelites[/COLOR][COLOR=black] to [/COLOR][COLOR=black]idolatry[/COLOR][COLOR=black] and fornication. The [/COLOR][COLOR=black]woman[/COLOR][COLOR=black] in travail is a personification of the [/COLOR][COLOR=black]synagogue[/COLOR][COLOR=black] or the [/COLOR][COLOR=black]church[/COLOR][COLOR=black]. Her [/COLOR][COLOR=black]first-born[/COLOR][COLOR=black] is [/COLOR][COLOR=black]Christ[/COLOR][COLOR=black], her other seed is the community of the [/COLOR][COLOR=black]faithful[/COLOR][COLOR=black]. [/COLOR]



[COLOR=black]In this interpretation, of which we have given a summary, there are two difficulties: [/COLOR]

• [COLOR=black]In the enumeration of the emperors three are passed over, viz. Galba, [/COLOR][COLOR=black]Otho[/COLOR][COLOR=black], and [/COLOR][COLOR=black]Vitellius[/COLOR][COLOR=black]. But this omission may be explained by the shortness of their reigns. Each one of the three reigned but a few months. [/COLOR]
• [COLOR=black]Tradition[/COLOR][COLOR=black] assigns the Apocalypse to the reign of [/COLOR][COLOR=black]Domitian[/COLOR][COLOR=black]. But according to the computation given above, the [/COLOR][COLOR=black]Seer[/COLOR][COLOR=black] himself assigns his work to the reign of [/COLOR][COLOR=black]Vespasian[/COLOR][COLOR=black]. For if this computation be correct, [/COLOR][COLOR=black]Vespasian[/COLOR][COLOR=black] is the emperor whom he designates as "the one that is". To this objection, however, it may be answered that it was the custom of apocalyptic writers, e.g., of [/COLOR][COLOR=black]Daniel[/COLOR][COLOR=black], Enoch, and the [/COLOR][COLOR=black]Sibylline books[/COLOR][COLOR=black], to cast their [/COLOR][COLOR=black]visions[/COLOR][COLOR=black] into the form of [/COLOR][COLOR=black]prophecies[/COLOR][COLOR=black] and give them the appearance of being the work of an earlier [/COLOR][COLOR=black]date[/COLOR][COLOR=black]. No literary [/COLOR][COLOR=black]fraud[/COLOR][COLOR=black] was thereby intended. It was merely a peculiar style of writing adopted as suiting their subject. The [/COLOR][COLOR=black]Seer[/COLOR][COLOR=black] of the Apocalypse follows this practice. Though actually banished to [/COLOR][COLOR=black]Patmos[/COLOR][COLOR=black] in the reign of [/COLOR][COLOR=black]Domitian[/COLOR][COLOR=black], after the destruction of [/COLOR][COLOR=black]Jerusalem[/COLOR][COLOR=black], he wrote as if he had been there and seen his [/COLOR][COLOR=black]visions[/COLOR][COLOR=black] in the reign of [/COLOR][COLOR=black]Vespasian[/COLOR][COLOR=black] when the [/COLOR][COLOR=black]temple[/COLOR][COLOR=black] perhaps yet existed. Cf. [/COLOR][COLOR=black]2:1-2[/COLOR][COLOR=black].[/COLOR]