ed in sixty-nine and in eighty AD. In the year eighty - eight AD, a more serious pretender surfaced in Parthia and, according to the Roman historians, almost succeeded in bringing about a war between these ancient superpowers. We know that the idea of a returning Nero affected Jewish thought of the first and second centuries primarily through his appearance in the Sibylline oracles. In book five written in Egypt around one - hundred AD and bitterly anti - Roman, makes a full presentation of Nero as the apocalyptic opponent of the messiah. No less than five passages contain an extensive development of the story of the evil emperor. Aspects of his life and deeds are prophetically recounted. He is described as having disappeared but also as becoming destructive again when he returns declaring himself equal to God. A final passage in Book five also approaches the Antichrist legend by contrasting the action of the returning Nero as the agent of final apocalyptic conflict. The belief that Antichrist - Nero is the devil incarnate is one of the two major forms of the Christian use of the stories about Nero. Although this form would be rejected by the mainstream tradition, it would have a number of adherents in later centuries. The second Christian use of the Nero legend, one that found its center in contrasting resurrections was to be far more influential in Christian history, though later Christian theology denied the Final enemy a real resurrection because such power was seen as belonging to God alone. We find this use in the Johannine Apocalypse (Revelations) the greatest of all Christian apocalyptic texts. Revelations was written by an early Christian prophet named John in Asia Minor, in the last decade of the first century. It is clearly an Apocalypse, or a revelation given to John by the risen Christ and by various angelic figures. The key figure is the Beast from the Abyss of Revelations 11:7, who is also one of the seven h...
