to conquer Rome and regain his throne. [1] The writing of the Apocalypse is assigned to the reign of Vespasian who thus becomes the sixth head, the one who "now is," Titus is the seventh who is yet to come. His short reign fulfills the prediction: "He must remain a short time." Then Nero, one of the five who have fallen, returns with the kings of Parthia (the ten horns) to regain his throne and establish himself as the eighth although he is one of the seven.
This interpretation is ingenious but impossible be cause, as already noted, Nero cannot be identified with Antichrist. [2] But the insuperable difficulty lies in the fact that it destroys inspiration. The use of a legend in an inspired work might be admitted, incongruous though it seems, but a prophecy without fulfillment can not be inspired. Yet according to the above widely received interpretation the prophecy remains unfulfilled except in so far as Domitian was known as a second Nero on account of his cruelty. [3] If the ten horns be interpreted as the Parthian kings, or satraps, there is no ground in history for representing Domitian or any other Emperor, as their leader. Neither was Rome ever destroyed by a Parthian invasian.
The settled conviction of many scholars that Nero was Antichrist makes it necessary to refer this whole prophecy to the time of St. John and interpret the seven
