The view that the Pope is the Antichrist is a heinous lie based on culturally uninformed interpretations of Revelation that no academic commentary on this book accepts. There are 2 reasons for this:
(1) "Babylon" is a symbol of secular Rome in 1 Peter 5:13, Revelation, and in Jewish apocalyptic.
(2) There is a scholarly consensus that the mark of the Beast (666), "the number of a man," stands for Emperor Nero.
There are x reasons for this:
(a) In common ancient Judeo-Christian gematria the numerical value of the numbers of "emperor Nero" in Hebrew adds up to 666.
When the early church translated Revelation (13:18) into Latin, the number 666 was changed to 616 because the alternate spelling of "emperor Nero" in Hebrew was 616.
(b) The chief religious basis for Roman persecution of Christians was the emperor cult, which required empire subjects to offer sacrifice to Caesar as a god and acknowledge him as their "lord." The Romans didn't care if their subjects never believed in Caesar's divinity, but required this sacrifice as an expression of political loyalty in a way analogous to our Pledge of Allegiance. The Christian refusal to participate was deemed political treason.
(c) The "Beast" of Revelation 13:3 is mortally wounded but returns to life to continue his persecution of Christians. Nero was forced into exile in what is now Turkey. There were rumors that he committed suicide, but in the time of John 3 Nero impersonators emerged and terrified believers, who thought Satan had raised Nero up to continue his persecution of Christians.
