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Message: <blockquote data-quote="William Ronald" data-source="post: 338392" data-attributes="member: 426">If I remember correctly, most modern biblical scholars view Revelations as mostly a parable or political treatise, reflecting the situation after the destruction of the Second Temple.  Based on that interpreptation, Rome is the villain of the work.  Indeed, one program I saw mentioned that if gematria (a form of numerology) was used on the number 666, it translates to Nero Caesar. As I recall, Revelations was added to the Christian canon relatively late.As for Satan, there are various interpreptations.  In the Jewish tradition, he began as an adversary or accuser.  There was a brief identification of him as a ruler over evil by some sects, but in time he became rather insignificant.  (Essentially, God can have no rivals, even one such as a lord of evil.  Such dualism (and the rise of Satan to some prominence) may have had much to do with Zoroastrian influences.)  Also, the term Satan came to be associated with internal enemies in some texts.The role of Satan came to take a much larger place in Christianity. Perhaps as an explanation for some of the pagan deities.</blockquote>