Ten Horns

 

Revelation 17:12:  “And the ten horns which thou sawest are ten kings, which have received no kingdom as yet; but receive power as kings one hour with the beast.”

 

            The ten horns of the “beast” are “ten kings.”  These are the puppet kings set up by Rome to rule in Judea.  They only reign for “one hour“, a very short time.  They have “one mind” and that is to give their power and strength to the “beast“, the devil ruled Fleshly kingdom, manifested in the Roman rule through Jewish puppets.  Their common purpose is to make war with the Lamb, Jesus and His Church.  These ten horns so hate the true Jerusalem that they destroy the natural, fallen city, the Whore.  This was fulfilled in the horrible wars which destroyed the City and the Temple.  Warring factions of Jews who were fighting over the High Priesthood had gathered their armies to fight one another and were locked up in the City by the siege of Titus and so tore the City to pieces and burned it with fire.

 

“Ten Horns Are Ten Kings”: Perhaps Those Appointed by Rome.[1]

            When Antiochus Epiphanes desecrated the Temple, he interrupted, for the first time, the line of succession of priests from Aaron, although High Priests were appointed from the priestly families descended from Aaron until the time of Herod.  Antiochus Eupator, (son of Epiphanes), deposed Onias, the first time a High Priest was put out of office during his own lifetime.  The Maccabees then became High Priests and there was a line of succession from that family until Pompey captured Aristobulus, the High Priest, in about 63 B.C.  This was the second time that a High Priest had ever been put out of office in his own lifetime.  When Herod became King in Judea, about 37 BC he deposed Antigonus from being King and also removed him from the office of High Priest.  This was the third time that a High Priest had been taken from office during his own lifetime.  However, after that, the High Priests were deposed and replaced at the will of the rulers.  When Aristobulus, grandson of Hyrcanus was slain by Herod in about AD 6, the lineage of the Maccabees came to an end.

            If the seven-headed beast is the Roman Empire, and Mystery Babylon is the fallen Jerusalem who is riding on the power of Rome, then the ten horns of the beast are the ten “kings” who were not lawfully in line for the kingship, but who were appointed by the Romans or their designated appointees.  When Hyrcanus I died, Whiston says:  “Here ends the life of this excellent person, and together with him the holy theocracy, or divine government of the Jewish nation, and its concomitant oracle by Urim.”[2]

            Those “High Priests” who took the title of “King” following Hyrcanus were:

1. Aristobulus, (Judas) of the Maccabees, a High Priest the first to take upon himself the crown of kingship; (Ant. 13.11.1.)

2. Alexander Janneus, his brother, who did likewise; (Ant. 13.14.2; Wars 1.4.1.)

3. [Alexandra, wife of Alexander, took the crown for 9 years after Alexander’s death, while she gave the High Priesthood to Hyrcanus, her son, and put the Pharisees in power.  (Ant. 13.16.1; Wars 1.5.1.)

4. Aristobulus, fought Hyrcanus, his brother, and won the Priesthood, and also took the crown of “King”, (Ant. 14.1.2.)  About this time, Pompey took advantage of the civil war and captured Jerusalem, (63±B.C).  He awarded the High Priesthood back to Hyrcanus, (Ant. 14.4.4; 15.2.2; Wars 1.10.3.  See Herod, #7, for more on Hyrcanus.  Josephus says that at that time: “The royal authority… became the property of private men.”)

5. Antigonus, son of Aristobulus, took the crown and was the last King of the royal blood (not of David’s lineage but of the Maccabees, Ant. 14.16.1-4.)

6. Herod the Great, (“the Idumean”), made King at Rome at the behest of Antony, (Ant. 12.8.1; 14.16.1-4; 15.6.2-7.  Herod’s son Antipater, son of Doris, reigned as co-regent with his father, (Ant. 17.1.1).  Herod had him put to death, (Ant. 17.7.1), and Herod died 5 days later.

7. By pretense, Herod made Hyrcanus, (brother of #4 above, now about 80 years old), co-regent with him, in order to have him killed, (Ant. 15.2.3-4, 6.3).  Hyrcanus had also served as High Priest in Babylon where the Jews there gave him the title of “King”, (Ant. 15.2.1-4).

8. Archelaus, Herod‘s son, became King at Herod’s death, but fell into such disfavor with both the Jews and Rome that he was banished to Vienna.  Gaul and Judea became a province for a time, (Ant. 17.8.2; Wars 1.33.9)

9. Agrippa I, grandson of Herod the Great, made King over Judea by Gaius Caligula, (AD 37-41), (Ant. 18.6.10).

            [This Agrippa proclaimed himself a god, but was smitten, acknowledged his sin, but died, having reigned about 3 1/2 years.  Judea was then under procurators again for a time, (Ant. 19.8.1-2; 19.9.2.]

            Herod II, brother of Agrippa I, was given power to appoint High Priests and also given the Temple treasury, however, he was not called “King” over Judea, only of Chalcis, (Ant. 20.1.3, see also Whiston‘s note, p. 414, col. 2.  Herod II died in the eighth year of Claudius, about AD 49, Ant. 20.5.2; Wars 2.11.6).

10. Agrippa II, made King at Herod II’s death and had power to appoint High Priests until the end, (Ant. 20.5.2)

            These ten “kings” qualify as the “ten horns” of the Beast, Rome.

 

God’s Word

 

Revelation 17:17:  “For God hath put in their hearts to fulfil his will, and to agree, and give their kingdom unto the beast, until the words of God shall be fulfilled.”

 

            The ten horns of the beast upon which Mystery Babylon sat were ten kings, (17:12).  Not only do these kings make war with the Lamb and His followers, (v. 14), but they also turn on the Great Whore and make her desolate and naked, eat her flesh and burn her with fire, (v. 16). 

            The reason for this mad rage of hate is that God has put it into their hearts in order to give the kingdom unto the Beast, – “until the words of God shall be fulfilled.”  If these ten horns are kings appointed by the Roman Empire, (the Beast, as representative of the Gentile, or Fleshly nations), then they intend to give their kingdom to Rome.  What “words of God” does this passage refer to?  These “words of God” are Daniel 9:24-27, where Daniel predicted the total destruction of the nation and City of Jerusalem, and Luke 21:24 where Jesus confirmed that prophecy.