The revelations of John the Theologian, the last to be included in the New Testament, were written in the second half of the 1st century from the birth of Christ, according to some assumptions, around 70, according to others - after 95. Apocalypse is not a name, but a genre designation.
Writings about the end of the world - about the Judgment, or the Lord's day - at different times existed apparently-invisibly, because what kind of faith is there without the thought of final retribution and final justice.
Since only a companion of Christ could write so convincingly, the version that the author of the book was John the Theologian, whose fourth Gospel is considered the most strict, but also almost the most accurate, won out. In general, we only know that the vision to John was on Patmos. Criminals, mostly dissidents, were exiled to this island.
Who is the author of the Apocalypse?
At the end of the last century, an amazing thought was expressed: in Revelation, seven descriptions are clearly traced - from different points of view - of the same event. This clear and harmonious construction does not in any way confirm the version that everything in the Apocalypse is only the sick imagination of a fanatic.
The event in question and the main signs of which are listed seven times over are the growing discord between people, fatal diseases, the appearance of false prophets, the fall of morals, the reign of a new, unprecedentedly cruel dictatorship and soon the last battle between the forces of light and darkness. This battle will take place in the valley of Armageddon.
Ultimately, the Apocalypse is a story of struggle and victory, and the result of this victory will be the salvation of 144 thousand faithful. The number "144000" does not mean the exact number of the righteous, but a certain absolute perfection, twelve squared (12 is the perfect number for the Jews). There is much debate about whether all the inhabitants of the Earth will be saved if the Last Judgment takes place and all souls are resurrected; whether all the myriads of those resurrected after the Judgment will be taken to the heavenly Jerusalem. The Apocalypse does not answer this question, since salvation depends on everyone.
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All this is difficult for perception, since, firstly, the author follows the traditions of the genre and uses many stable metaphors, and secondly, he could not understand everything from what he saw. Naturally, he has to describe the events of future centuries in terms of the first century, and then, according to the Strugatskys' fair assumption, a vertical take-off fighter can easily be mistaken for a very large locust.
But the greatest difficulty for interpretation is the description of the Beast, which clearly symbolizes some main anti-Christian force. When the Antichrist appears, his number, if desired, can be unraveled. It will also be easy to recognize him by the dictatorship: everyone will be invited to worship him as a god and wear his images on the right hand and on the forehead.
Nero - persecutor of Christians
One Roman manuscript from about the third century contains the idea that the number of Christ is 888, for seven is a perfect number, sacred in all world religions, and seven plus one is a sign of the highest perfection. Accordingly, seven minus one is a sign of something directly opposite, hostile to Christ. Hence 666, but such a simple explanation, of course, did not suit anyone. Everyone rushed to substitute the Antichrists, deciphering their names by numbers and letters - and there were enough candidates. The Antichrists were: Luther, Nikon, in general all the church reformers, Napoleon, Leo Tolstoy, Lenin, Hitler, Stalin and several popes, whom the Seventh-day Adventists did not particularly like.
One of the first interpreters, Irenaeus Leonsky, decided that the number 666 stands for the word "Eunfas" E - 5, U - 400 and so on. Everything agreed, but when Irenaeus was asked what "Eunfas" was, he could not answer anything intelligible. He didn't know it himself. The decoding "Lateinos" (L - 30, A - 1, etc.) has a little more soil underneath.
This can mean both the Roman Empire, which then persecuted Christians with might and main, and the institution of the papacy, which gives some especially zealous interpreters a reason to say that the Catholic Church is immensely far from Christianity and distorts its ideas. The most convincing version goes back to ancient times and directly points to Nero. The world knew no other such persecutor of Christians. And the point is not only that the name Neron in Latin transcription gives 666 (50 + 6 + 500 + 60 + 50): it was correctly called Nero, which in total is 616, And in the most ancient lists of the Apocalypse the number of the Beast is sometimes exactly 616. And if the words "Caesar Nero" are written in Hebrew, then just 666 will be - the coincidences are too numerous to be ignored.
Not just debauchery or villainy, but some kind of metaphysical challenge is seen in what he did. He set fire to Rome, so that later it could be rebuilt and thus glorified. He experimented with boys, wives of relatives, slaves. Neither young men nor women were immune from his lust. He was a terrible homosexual and even married a boy once. But here, too, there was some kind of challenge - not just got married, but in all the rituals, and even went with him on a honeymoon trip. Several times he tried to kill his mother, which fortune-tellers predicted for her in her youth, but she did not believe. He committed suicide after the Senate found the courage to remove him from power. Stabbing himself, he repeated: "O heaven, what an actor dies!"
There was really some kind of provocation in all this, almost violence against oneself, an abuse of one's own human nature: here, I will be the world's evil - and I'll see what you do. And therefore, after his suicide, which all Christians received with great and understandable joy, a legend arose that he would be resurrected. In a sense, he was resurrected more than once, because a number of Nero features were observed in every major tyrant in world history.
Antichrist is a perverted evil
Hitler repeated Nero in many ways - up to a morbid inclination towards the arts, to the aestheticization of violence - and the Antichrist mark was also very literal, they burned camp numbers on the hands of prisoners … This is perhaps the most convincing argument in favor of the fact that Hitler is the Antichrist … But under Stalin, numbers were also written on their hands in endless prison lines (the tragedy repeats itself as a farce; under Brezhnev, numbers were written in lines for any deficit). Hitler unleashed a world war, Stalin claimed to create a new world order - both are good. Antichrist is a conscious evil striving for destruction, an evil beyond, defiant, mocking.
There was, however, a sensible attempt to distract from all kinds of personalities and decipher 666 as "primordial chaos", for the Beast comes out of the abyss, and in the abyss there is chaos. In Greek, "chaos" just gives the desired sixes. This is good in that it distracts the good Christian from cheap sensationalism and directs his thoughts to good.
There is another version: 666 is a number that easily turns into 999. A simple flip changes the meaning. In this there is a hint of permissiveness, the relativity of all truths. If everything is relative, then everything is possible. Upside-down numbers and upside-down people, the loss of criteria, a rapid repainting - that's what, obviously, the main sign of the Antichrist, and in this sense, conversations about the beauty and attractiveness of evil, about the insanity and mediocrity of good, which took place so violently at the beginning of the XX century and its end does not bode well. It is not for nothing that Vladimir Soloviev, before his death, in 1990, wrote "The Tale of the Antichrist."
The number 666 is the product of 37 by 18, and the number 37 is sacred in many beliefs. Most great poets die at this point. Finally, the sum of the numbers on the roulette wheel - from 1 to 36 - is 666, and no one knows who invented this roulette wheel. Was not, was not - and suddenly appeared.
One of the wisest researchers of Christianity was right, when he was asked about the timing of the end of the world, he answered in amazement: what are you talking about? It all started long ago! Nuclear disaster … environmental disasters … 666 times more expensive goods! The end of the world is always ALREADY. But hope is always STILL.
“Interesting newspaper. Magic and mysticism № 2013