c. THE FEROCITY OF THE PERSECUTION: Tacitus reported that Nero "inflicted unheard-of punishments on those who, detested for their abominable crimes, were vulgarly called Christians" (Annals 15.4 4). The persecution claimed "an immense number" ( Tacitus ), "a vast multitude of the elect" (1 Clement 6).

4. NERO'S BEAST-LIKE CHARACTER

a. HE MURDERED HIS OWN FAMILY MEMBERS

b. HE "MARRIED" A BOY, THEN CASTRATED HIM

c. HE KICKED HIS PREGNANT WIFE TO DEATH

d. HIS SADISTIC SPORT: Suetonius writes that Nero "devised a kind of game in which, covered with the skin of some wild animal, he was let loose from a cage and attacked the private parts of men and women, who were bound to stakes." (The Lives of the Caesars, 6.2 9)

e. HE WAS EVEN CALLED "THE BEAST": Tacitus ... spoke of Nero's 'cruel nature' that 'put to death so many innocent men.' Pliny the Elder ... described Nero as 'the destroyer of the human race' and 'the poison of the world.' Juvenal tells of 'Nero's cruel and bloody tyranny.' Apollonius of Tyana specifically states that Nero was called a 'beast': 'In my travels, which have been wider than ever man yet accomplished, I have seen man, many wild beasts of Arabia and India; but this beast, that is commonly called a Tyrant, I know not how many heads it has, nor if it be crooked of claw, and armed with horrible fangs. ... And of wild beasts you cannot say that they were ever known to eat their own mother, but Nero has gorged himself on this diet."

5. NERO'S NUMBER

a. Rev. 13:18 - "Let him who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for the number is that of a man: and his number is 666." (NASV)

b. THE HEBREWS HAD NO NUMERALS, and so, used letters to signify numbers, just as the Romans did. Neron Caesar (the Greek rendering, documented by archaeological finds), when transliterated into Hebrew (NRWN QSR) had a number of 666.

c. n =50 r =200 w =6 n =50 q =100 s=60 r =200

d. so we have

e. rsq nwrn = 666

f. FURTHER EVIDENCE: A well-documented textual variant has 616. A mere copyist's error? Bruce Metzger speculates: "Perhaps the change was intentional, seeing that the Greek form Neron Caesar written in Hebrew characters ( nrwn qsr ) is equivalent to 666, whereas the Latin form Nero Caesar ( nrw qsr ) is equivalent to 616. When writing a foreign name in Hebrew an "n" was added to names that end in "o".

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