9 BP. II. καὶ τὸ θηρίον ὃ ἦν, καὶ οὐκ ἔστι, καὶ αὐτὸς ! ὄγδοός
k In and after them, so Dan. vii. 8, 24.
and xii. 6 also 1 Kings xiii, 25 (LXX).
g vi. 11.
h xx. 3.
i Cf. 2 Pet.
m Dan. vii. 20, 24.
12. καὶ
] Ver. 8.
prophecy of doom upon persecutors; it need not be a post-factum reference to D.’s murder in 96. He belonged to the seven, as he had been closely associated with the Imperial power already (Tac. Hist. iii. 84, iv. 2, 3; cf. Jos. Bell. iv. 11, 4). The enigmatic and curt tone of the verse shows that either from prudence (‘some consideration towards the one who is beseems even a prophet,” Momm- sen), or more probably from pre-occupa- tion in the grim, ulterior figure of the Neronic antichrist, the prophet does not care to dwell minutely on the emperor's personality as an incarnate Nero. He does not even allude to the suspicion, voiced by his contemporaries (4 Esd. xi. 12) that Domitian had made away with Titus. His vision is strained, like that of his source, to the final and super- natural conflict; the Satanic messiah, the Beast who is to return from the abyss, bulks most prominently on the horizon. The absorbing interest of the oracle, even in its edited form, is escha- tological. John simply puts in a few words, as few as possible, to bring this Vespasianic source up to date, since the death of Titus had not been followed by the appearance of the Nero-antichrist. The latter is still and soon to come however! John thoroughly shares, though he expands and applies, the pre- diction of his source. The addition he makes to it in ver. ΤΙ must on no account be taken as if it meant the substitution of “' Domitian= Nero redivivus”’ for the supernatural expectation of the latter. There is certainly some awkwardness in the juxtaposition of Domitian as a second Nero and of Nero redivivus, but this was inevitable under the circumstances.
Vv. 12-18: the campaign of Nero and his vassal-kings against Rome, which is slain by an arrow feathered from her own wings.
Vv. 12, 13. This political application of the ten horns probably means either the Parthian satraps of xvi. 12. reckoned
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