John of Patmos, 666, and the Whore of Babylon

What was the godless imperial power in John's Revelation of the end of the world?

John of Patmos, the author of the Book of Revelation, was a Jewish Christian who was probably from Galilee. Long identified as John the Apostle, modern scholars now believe he was a different man. Aramaic was his native language. but like John the Apostle, he wrote his contribution to the New Testament in Greek.

The Gospel of John is written in elegant, philosophical Greek indicative of long literary practice. The Revelation of John of Patmos features terrifying imagery, a brutal tone, and odd and erroneous grammar. These stylistic differences indicate the books were written by different authors.

In Revelation 13:18, the number 666 is “the number of a man” and the “number of the beast” (the Antichrist) — a cryptic identifier of a sinister figure opposing God.

The number 666 refers to Nero Caesar through gematria, a system in which Hebrew letters are assigned numerical values. The Greek name for Nero, Neron Kaisar, written in Hebrew, is נרון קסר (N-R-O-N Q-S-R), the sum of which equals 666.

According to the Roman historian Tacitus, Nero used the Christians as scapegoats to deflect blame for the Great Fire of Rome in 64 AD. Suspicion fell on Nero for having his agents set fire to the city because he wanted to build it back after his plans. Tacitus describes Nero as being fascinated by grand building projects as a means of expressing his power, wealth, and personal grandiosity.

To deflect blame and wrath from himself, Nero claimed that the peculiar religious congregation in Rome who worshipped a deity from Judea was responsible for the fire. He deemed the Christians as haters of humanity (odio humani generis), deserving to be executed in the most spectacular way.

For reasons that strike me as somewhat mysterious in John’s case — given that he lived in the provincial town of Ephesus before he was exiled—he strongly associated overweening power with sexual immorality. Indeed, he envisions corrupt power and corrupt sexuality as virtually inseparable.

In Revelation 17:1–18, John refers to the Whore of Babylon, which most scholars agree is a veiled reference to Imperial Rome, which he regarded as a godless and bloodthirsty place of luxury, vice, and cruelty.

John’s vision of the Whore has a name inscribed on her forehead: “BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF PROSTITUTES AND OF EARTH’S ABOMINATIONS.” She straddles a seven-headed beast (representing the hills of Rome) and is “drunk with the blood of the saints” and the martyrs of Jesus. She sits on “many waters,” representing peoples and nations.

John was was exiled to the Aegean island of Patmos by the Roman Emperor Domitian around 95 AD as punishment for preaching the Christian gospel. I have visited Patmos three times and viewed the cave in which he purportedly lived.

As a true crime author, I have long been fascinated by the idea of an “unveiling” or “disclosure.” In Greek, the word is ἀποκάλυψις (transliterated as apokalypsis or apokalupsis). The title of the book in Greek is Ἀποκάλυψις Ἰωάννου (Apokálypsis Iōánnou).

In Revelation 16:16, John refers to Armageddon—the climactic end-times battle between God and the forces of evil. Derived from the Hebrew Har Megiddo ("Mount Megiddo"), it represents the meeting place for the lords of this earth who are possessed by demonic spirits.

Since 1997 I have visited Patmos three times and viewed the cave in which John purportedly lived. His book has long struck me as one of the strangest in all of literature. I often think about him and what he was trying to tell us about the world.

I thought about him this evening when I arrived in Washington D.C. to attend a MAHA Institute roundtable discussion about the Massive Epidemic of Vaccine Injury (MEVI).

Both SARS-CoV-2 and the mRNA vaccines were developed by individuals and institutions associated with what President Eisenhower called the Military Industrial Complex. This same Complex has gone to great lengths to conceal the origin of the virus, as well as the vast fraud and corruption of the mRNA vaccine program. Our job is to reveal the reality of this monstrous crime and those who perpetrated it.

Our valiant McCullough Foundation filmmaker, Brian Olson, has joined me and Nicolas Hulscher to film our testimony at the roundtable discussion. Please stay tuned for a recording of my own Apokálypsis Iōánnou.