////Genuine Biblical scholars and historians have noted that the Book of Revelation, rather than referring all that much to what modern "Rapture" fans consider the "End Days,"////

It most certainly isn't about the Rapture because the Rapture isn't found in Revelation, it's found in 1 Thessalonians 4: 16-18:

1Th 4:16   For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:

1Th 4:17   Then we which are alive [and] remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.


1Th 4:18   Wherefore comfort one another with these words.


///was more of a political tract—and veiled rant against the Roman occupation. It's notable that 666, the Mark of the Beast, rather than refering to the Devil or the Anti-Christ, is the name of the emperor Nero, translated into numerology.///

Lots of things add up to 666. Why Nero when Domitian was emperor when this book was written and historians admit that Nero didn't presecute Christians to any appreciable extent despite was Tacitus wrote (Tacitus hated Nero). The Revelation was written against the Church that taught a historical Christ that rose from the dead. The author believed that Christ was a purely divine figure as we learn in Chapter I:

[12] And I turned to see the voice that spake with me. And being turned, I saw seven golden candlesticks;
[13] And in the midst of the seven candlesticks one like unto the Son of man, clothed with a garment down to the foot, and girt about the paps with a golden girdle.
[14] His head and his hairs were white like wool, as white as snow; and his eyes were as a flame of fire;
[15] And his feet like unto fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace; and his voice as the sound of many waters.
[16] And he had in his right hand seven stars: and out of his mouth went a sharp twoedged sword: and his countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength.

Chapter 12 recounts his celestial birth which I already explained in my "Hamlet and the Christmas Tradition" thread and you can read it there.