Revelation Chapter 17 Verse 8

8 The beast that you saw was, and is not, and is to ascend from the bottomless pit and go to perdition; and the dwellers on earth whose names have not been written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, will marvel to behold the beast, because it was and is not and is to come.

We have already discussed the bottomless pit and the book of life. We have also already discussed this beast, which represents Rome as a civil persecuting power. Recall that the time when “the beast was” denotes the persecution under Nero, the time when “the beast is not” denotes the lull in persecution between Nero and Domitian, and the time when “the beast is to come” denotes the resumption of persecution under Domitian, who was called Nero Redivivus by some.

Nero was the first to actively persecute the Church. The persecution had subsided considerably when the book was written during Vespasian’s rule. But the persecution began again under Domitian’s reign. Juvenal said that Rome under Domitian was enslaved to a “bald-headed Nero.” Tertullian called Domitian “a man of Nero’s type of cruelty” and “a sub-Nero.” Domitian renewed the persecution against Christians that Nero had started.

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