Early Latin Commentaries on the Apocalypse contains translations of two Hiberno-Latin commentaries on the Book of Revelation from the seventh and eighth centuries. They are the pseudo-Jerome Handbook on the Apocalypse of the Apostle John and On the Mysteries of the Apocalypse of John found in the anonymous eighth-century Reference Bible. These commentaries use earlier Latin commentaries, such as those of Victorinus and Tyconius, as source material. However, they contain unique interpretations of the Book of Revelation. The Handbook has the number of the beast (Rev 13:18) as 666, 000, which the author says may be the number of Antichrist’s army or disciples. It also says that they are heretics who interpret the thousand years of Rev 20 in a carnal manner and who think that Christ has not already bound the devil. On the Mysteries implies that Nero was reigning when John wrote the Apocalypse (On Rev 17:10), and that the mark of the beast will be a slight counterfeit of the Chi-Rho symbol for Christ.
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