Revelation 17:10
Jay E. Adams (1966)
"Should there be any question about the contemporary nature of the second section of the book, the seventheenth chapter dispels it... Can the kings be identified? Yes. Five of them are already dethroned, one is now (that is, was in John's day) reigning, and the seventh hasn't yet begun to reign. Words could not be plainer. Regardless of which Roman emperor one identifies with the head there can be no doubt that the beast-prophecy pertains to the Caesars who were then in power. The prophecy can refer to nothing but the contemporary Roman empire because of the angel's clear cut identification." (The Time is at Hand, p. 53)
Ken Gentry (1988)
"It seems indisputably clear that the book of Revelation must be dated in the reign of Nero Caesar, and consequently before his death in June, A.D. 68. He is the sixth king; the short-lived rule of the seventh king (Galba) "has not yet come." In addition to all the foregoing, it would seem unreasonable to exclude Julius from the list in light of the circumstances and subject matter of the book." (Before Jerusalem Fell, p.151)
James M. MacDonald (1870)
"We have then only to reckon the succession of emperors, and we must arrive with certainty at the reign under which the Apocalypse was written or was seen. It stands thus: (Julius) Caesar, Augustus, Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius ; these make up the five who are fallen. 'One is' - Nero. The ancients, although the empire was not fully established till the time of Augustus, reckoned from Julius Caesar." (ibid., p. 164)
Moses Stuart (1845)
"It seems indisputably clear that the book of Revelation must be dated in the reign of Nero Caesar, and consequently before his death in June, A.D. 68. He is the sixth king; the short-lived rule of the seventh king (Galba) "has not yet come." (p. 24)
But why only seven kings? First because the number seven is the reigning symbolic number of the book; then, secondly, because this covers the ground which the writer means specially to occupy, viz., it goes down to the period when the persecution then raging would cease. (2:325,326)
Milton Terry (1898)
"This receives additional confirmation in the fact that the book assumes to belong to the period of the sixth king as mentioned in 17:10, 'the one that now is,' and if we follow the most natural method of reckoning the Caesars, and the one which appears in Suetonius and Sibylline Oracles, we have (1) Julius, (2) Augustus, (3) Tiberius, (4) Caligula, (5) Claudius, (6) Nero. The reign of Nero extended from A.D. 54-68, and somewhere between these dates we must assign the composition of the Apocalypse." (Biblical Apocalyptics, p. 259)
L. Michael White (1999)
Accordingly, the woman sits on the seven-headed beast as a symbol of her "seven hills" -- the seven hills of Rome. The woman is the city of Roman, here depicted as the persecutor of Christians. Then it says that the seven heads are also seven kings. And we can read from its cryptic terminology the references to the Emperors of Rome. The "five fallen" refer to the five emperors who have died: Augustus (29 BCE - 14 CE), Tiberius (14-37 CE), Gaius (37-41), Claudius (41-54) and Nero (54-68). "One has a wound" refers to the emperor Nero, who died in 68, but whom comtemporary legend had it would return from the dead to continue persecuting the Christians. Thus, the beast has a head that has recovered from a mortal wound. The head "who is" refers to Vespasian (69-79) and the one that is "not yet" refers to Titus (79-81). The head that "was but is not" refers to an eighth emperor, Domitian. ( Understanding the Book of Revelation)
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