After obtaining the resources of the Roman Empire, Satan now utilizes the human being in control of the Empire. This human being will use the power under his control to force people to adore the Empire (through the mandatory Imperial Cult) and to perform mighty deeds and speak whatever words Satan tempts him to do.
REVELATION 13:11–18
11 And I saw another beast coming up out of the earth, and he had two horns, like a lamb, and he spoke as a dragon.
12 And he executed all the power of the former beast in his sight; and he caused the earth, and them that dwell
therein, to adore the first beast, whose wound to death was healed.
13 And he did great signs, so that he made also fire to come down from heaven unto the earth in the sight of men.
14 And he seduced them that dwell on the earth, for the signs, which were given him to do in the sight of the
beast, saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make the image of the beast, which had the
wound by the sword, and lived.
15 And it was given him to give life to the image of the beast, and that the image of the beast should speak; and
should cause, that whosoever will not adore the image of the beast, should be slain.
16 And he shall make all, both little and great, rich and poor, freedmen and bondmen, to have a character
in their right hand, or on their foreheads.
17 And that no man might buy or sell, but he that hath the character, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.
18 Here is wisdom. He that hath understanding, let him count the number of the beast. For it is the number of a
man: and the number of him is six hundred sixty-six.
This vision shows a beast rising from the earth. The beast resembles a lamb. But Jesus is a lamb, or as the Baptist put it, a lamb is the symbol of the human Incarnation of Jesus. This beast rose from the earth. In a similar genesis, the human flesh of Jesus rose from the earth. It arose through the human descendants of Adam who rose from the earth, for God created Adam from the dust of the earth. This beast that resembles a lamb, therefore, is a man. He will become the next divine head, the eighth head, of the sea beast. The same spirit that motivates the sea beast will motivate this man, and this man will speak like the dragon. He will wield the first beast's power and will make the earth and all the earth's inhabitants worship the first beast. I propose that this man is the emperor Domitian, the second successor of his father, Vespasian.
Domitian got his first taste of power when he was eighteen. Troops loyal to his father had just defeated the short-lived coup of Vitellius. They wanted Vespasian as emperor, but Vespasian and his eldest son, Titus, were still in Judea. In spite of Domitian's youth, he was the logical figurehead to rule until his father returned to Rome.
Vespasian, when he became emperor, and both his sons revived emperor worship. They authorized a religious cult with a priesthood. Noblemen vied for position as priests and built new temples. In this way, the divine Caesars of the Flavian family were worshiped, same as the divine Caesars of the family of Julius Caesar had been. Domitian was jealous of his brother Titus, and many times plotted against him when Titus succeeded Vespasian:
On the death of his father he hesitated for some time whether to offer a double largess to the soldiers, and he never had any compunction about saying that he had been left a partner in the imperial power, but that the will had been tampered with. And from that time on he never ceased to plot against his brother secretly and openly, until Titus was seized with a dangerous illness, when Domitian ordered that he be left for dead, before he had actually drawn his last breath. And after his death he bestowed no honor upon him, save that of deification, and he often assailed his memory in ambiguous phrases, both in his speeches and in his edicts (Suetonius, II, pp. 343–5 [Domitian, 2]).
When Domitian succeeded Titus in A.D. 81, the priests of this cult, the "College of the Flaviales," wore crowns that had born the image of Vespasian and would now bear Titus as well. Domitian told the priests to include his image also: He presided at the competitions in half-boots, clad in a purple toga in the Greek fashion, and wearing upon his head a golden crown with figures of Jupiter, Juno, and Minerva, while by his side sat the priest of Jupiter and the college of the Flaviales, similarly dressed, except that their crowns bore his image as well (Suetonius, II, p. 349 [Domitian, 4]).
This implied that Domitian was already divine while yet alive. The sea beast now, in A.D. 81, has a head that thinks like the beast thinks, a head that has an unscrupulous character ready to follow any selfish temptation. The sea beast, as described earlier, is the Roman Empire. The land beast is a human being serving as the living head of the Empire. A human head is visible to other humans and can talk to them. When Domitian follows the whims placed in his mind by the dragon, he allows the dragon to influence both him and the Empire. Domitian will then—he actually did—cause people to worship the image of the beast that was slain but now lives. He did this by encouraging and, later, enforcing emperor worship. He had many people murdered. He thought he was a god privileged to do anything he desired:
When he became emperor, he did not hesitate to boast in the senate that he had conferred their power on both his father and his brother, and that they had but returned him his own; nor on taking back his wife after their divorce, that he had 'recalled her to his divine couch.' He delighted to hear the people in the amphitheatre shout on his feast day: 'Good fortune attend our Lord and Mistress.' Even more, in the Capitoline competition, when all the people begged him with great unanimity to restore Palfurius Sura, who had been banished some time before from the senate, and on that occasion received the prize for oratory, he deigned no reply, but merely had a crier bid them be silent. With no less arrogance he began as follows in issuing a circular letter in the name of his procurators, 'Our Master and our God bids that this be done.' And so the custom arose of henceforth addressing him in no other way even in writing or in conversation (Suetonius, II, pp. 367–9 [Domitian, 13]).
His abuse of his vast authority as the Empire's divine head grew so great that, finally, someone could endure no more and assassinated him: The day before he was killed he gave orders to have some apples which were offered him kept until the following day, and added: 'If only I am spared to eat them'; then turning to his companions, he declared that on the following day the moon would be stained with blood in Aquarius, and that a deed would be done of which men would talk all over the world. At about midnight he was so terrified that he leaped from his bed. The next morning he conducted the trial of a soothsayer sent from Germany, who when consulted about lightning strokes had foretold a change of rulers, and condemned him to death. While he was vigorously scratching a festered wart on his forehead, and had drawn blood, he said: 'May this be all.' Then he asked the time, and by pre arrangement the sixth hour was announced to him, instead of the fifth, which he feared. Filled with joy at this, and believing all danger now passed, he was hastening to the bath, when his chamberlain Parthenius changed his purpose by announcing that someone had called about a matter of great moment and would not be put off. Then he dismissed all his attendants and went to his bedroom, where he was slain (Suetonius, II, pp. 375–7 [Domitian, 16]).
This beast from the earth has a name. The numerical value of the name is 666. This is a clue for Christians to recognize
the beast when he comes. Ancient Hebrew and Aramaic lacked symbols to show numbers as we have today with Arabic
numerals. These languages simply used letters for numbers. The ancient Latins and Greeks did the same. We are familiar
today with some Latin letters used as Roman numerals. In those days any word could be converted to a number by adding
each letter's numerical value. This was frequently done with people's names to give a kind of code name. We do something
similar today when we use the first letters of long titles to spell a shorter substitute word. UNESCO for "United Nations
Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization" is a good example. The Roman equivalents of the Hebrew letters for
"Caesar Nero" have the following values:
Q = 100
S = 60
R = 200
N = 50
R = 200
W = 6
N = 50
Total = 666
The words stand for QAESAR (Caesar) NERWN (Neron) (Scullion, pp. 1278 9). In Hebrew, vowels are not written as
letters but as vowel marks above or below each syllable, much as we use accent marks today. The vowel marks are
frequently omitted. Therefore: QSR NRWN. The results are similar if we use Latin rather than Hebrew. In Latin the
letters spelling NERON have the following values (Barclay, II, p. 102):
N = 50
E = 6
R = 500
O = 60
N = 50
Total = 666
This beast from the earth has a name. The name is the number of a man. The number is 666. This is the number that Nero's name had. The new emperor will be another Nero. He will be a human being controlling the Roman Empire. He has a voice and will speak. Romans will heed him. He will try to destroy the woman and her child just like Nero tried. This portion of Revelation was first preached before Domitian became emperor. Nero's memory was still fresh in people's minds. Rumor had it that Nero had not really died. He escaped and was hiding, planning vengeance against his enemies. The rumor found ready ears. After all, Nero spent his latter years already hiding. Perhaps the Christians worried about these rumors and what would happen to them if Nero did return—or someone just like Nero.