Revelation 17:10Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Counting the time from the creation of the world and of Adam, we shall easily find what is sought. The first coming of our Lord in the flesh, which took place in Bethlehem, occurred eight days before the Kalends of January, on Wednesday, in the forty-second year of Augustus's reign.

From Adam it was in the five thousand five hundredth year. He suffered in His thirty-third year, eight days before the Kalends of April, on Friday, in the eighteenth year of Tiberius Caesar.

This was under the consuls Rufus and Rubellio, and Gaius Caesar, who was consul for the fourth time, and Gaius Cestius Saturninus.

Therefore, in order that the holy day of rest may come, on which God rested from all His works that He had made (cf. Gen 2:2), these six thousand years must be fulfilled.

Thus one must understand the time in which the Apocalypse is written, for Caesar Domitian was then ruling. Before him were Titus, his brother, and Vespasian, their father. Then came Otho, Vitellius, and Galba. These are the five who have fallen. "One is," John declares, namely the one under whom the Apocalypse was written, Domitian. "The other has not yet come," meaning Nerva, who, when he comes, must remain a short time. For not even two years will pass.

Blessed Hippolytus understands by the five kings who have fallen, from among the seven, the ages. Five of these have passed. The sixth, in which this vision came to the Apostle, now continues. The seventh has not yet come, and when it comes it will be brief.

But if, according to blessed Irenaeus, seven days, seven heavens, and seven angelic ranks having authority over others were created, then by accepting this opinion one must also agree with our interpretation.

The seven kingdoms are those that have existed from the creation of the world until now. Five of them have already perished. The sixth, in which this revelation occurred, was in ancient Rome. The seventh, not yet come, will be in new Rome.

John rightly understands the heads as rulers, for they exercise rule over the Romans. Why, then, although there were so many rulers in Rome at different times, did he call only seven the seven heads of the beast?

Because these seven especially represent the beast, that is, the devil. They raised his head against Christians by beginning persecutions against the Church.

The first was Nero, the second Domitian, then Trajan, Severus, after him Decius, Valerian, and Diocletian. These rulers of Rome relentlessly persecuted the Church, as Eusebius relates in his chronicle.

Of these seven, as it is said, five have fallen: Nero, Domitian, Trajan, Severus, and Decius. One is, that is, Valerian. "The other has not yet come, and when he comes, he must remain a little while."

As we have already said, the whole genus is represented in each individual species. What the whole beast is, John calls the seven heads, and the seven heads he calls seven mountains and seven kings.

That is, they are the entire being of sinful humanity, which abides in leaders as well as in kings and their subjects. It is named in different ways because of the difference of actions to which it resorts.

It uses force or deceives, creeping into those who are being destroyed with slippery movements through pleasures supplied by sensible things. As we read in Scripture: "Death enters through our windows" (Jer 9:21).

John declares that the heads of the beast are the kings of the world, who are compared to high mountains because of their enormously swollen pride. Lust and impiety rest upon the mountains, so that they crush by force and deceive by cunning.

Since the number seven signifies the fullness of worldly kingship, whose last period, that is, the kingdom of Antichrist, has not yet come, John says here that five kings have already passed. The sixth now is, and the seventh is yet to come.

"And when he comes, he must remain a little while." The Lord sees us all, both the proud and the weak. Therefore it is said here that, in His mercy, He will shorten that especially evil day which He will permit to come upon us.

Thus He will be able both to terrify the proud by the calamities of that time and to strengthen the weak because that time will be short.

According to the interpretation of St Andrew, "the seven heads and seven mountains signify seven places especially remarkable for the scale of their dominion at different times. The first is the kingdom of the Assyrians in Nineveh, the second of the Medes, the third of the Chaldeans in Babylon, the fourth of the Persians, the fifth of the Macedonians, and the sixth of the Romans."

This last kingdom, after its former kings and consuls, attained autocracy under Caesar Augustus. It endured until the fall of Constantinople in 1453, and Russia, the third Rome, became the successor of this kingdom.

After the fall of the monarchy in 1917, terrible persecutions of the Church immediately began. God permitted them because of the lack of watchfulness in the church of Sardis (cf. Rev 3:2-3).