13:14-18

Image

 

Revelation 13:14:  “Saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast.”

 

            In Man the visible and invisible creations meet for Man is a unity of Spirit and Flesh.  While his flesh is material, it is created in the Image of God and made alive by God’s Breath.

            We have in Genesis 1 and 2 what may appear to be two accounts of the creation of Man.  However, a careful look at these Scriptures shows that Genesis 2 is only a more detailed account and not a contradictory one.  In Genesis 1:26-7 the most important aspect of the creation is that it is the image of God.  In chapter 2 the less important material element of the creation is shown, – dust.  But this sculpture of dust is then imbued with the “Breath of Life” from God and it is this Breath that makes him a “living soul.”  This Breath is the Spirit, ruah, sometimes translated ‘wind’.  It is this wind of the Spirit of God that is the source of Life.

            The image of God is significant to Man’s position of dominion.  Heathen kings would set up their own image in the places they had conquered in order to assert their dominion.  In some cases, they required worship of these images as a sign that the people were subject to that ruler.  In other cases the king taught that he himself was the incarnation of a god and so set up an image of himself for worship.  But the true God, the Creator, chose to set up Man as his “image”, not that Man should be worshipped but that he should serve as a symbol of the dominion of God.

            But the image of God can, and has, led to the idolization of Man.  Of all the idol worship, the worship of Self is the most prevalent.  The worship of Self becomes the worship of Mankind in some form.  So the Law required that there should be no worship of idols.  Therefore, any arrogance a man might assume as the image of God is condemned and he must confess that he is only of the most inferior of material, dust, not even to be compared to idols of silver, gold, or even wood.  Man’s only glory is the Breath (Spirit) of God.

            The tree of the knowledge of good and evil represented Man’s ability to choose his own way in opposition to God’s command.  It was this exaltation of his own way above God that caused his Fall.  There is never a time, however, that Man is left without hope of regaining his appointed place in creation, and that hope is in the Seed.  There is a righteous Seed that persists throughout many generations of sinners until at last Christ fulfills the promise by conquering human nature and thus all of nature. (Hebrews 2:6-9; 1 Cor. 15:22-28).

            The hope of Mankind for restoration and redemption is also the hope of creation, (Rom. 8:22-23).  The prophet Isaiah foresaw a peaceful kingdom, a redeemed creation, (Isaiah 11:1-10).  The apocalyptic writers saw a new heaven and a new earth.  When Man is restored to his proper place of dominion, the earth will be properly “dressed” and “tended”.

 

Mark of the Beast

 

Revelation 13:14-18:  13:14. And deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by [the means of] those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast; saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast, which had the wound by a sword, and did live.  13:15. And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed.  13:16. And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads:  13:17. And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.”

.

            This mark may be seen in the context of the marks of idolaters who submitted to being permanently marked in their foreheads and/or forearms as a sign of their lifelong commitment to their idol. Herodotus, an ancient historian, records a custom of marking the worshippers of an idol god:

Here [on the mouth of the Nile] on the beach there was a temple, which still exists, dedicated to Heracles, and in connexion with it there is a very ancient custom, which has remained unaltered to the present day.  If a runaway slave takes refuge in this shrine and allows the sacred marks, which are the sign of his submission to the service of the god, to be set upon his body, his master, no matter who he is, cannot lay hands on him.[1] 

            This passage in Revelation indicates a similar custom.  This mark of the idolater may be referred to in Scripture as a “spot“, [Hebrew #03971 m’ûuwm; Greek #4696 and 784], in: Deuteronomy 32:5; Job 11:15; Song of Solomon 4:7.  In the New Testament it may be referred to in: Ephesians 5:27; 1 Timothy 6:14; 2 Peter 3:14.

            The word translated “mark” in the book of Revelation is Greek #5480 charagma, something graven or sculptured, a mark cut in.  In Acts 17:29 KJV translates the same word “graven“.  (See also 14:1 grapho, ‘written’.  Revelation 14:1; 17:5; 19:12, 16.)

            (See Galatians 6:17 for stigma, ‘a mark burnt in, a brand, especially of a runaway slave or prisoner.’ Here Paul is no doubt implying either his irrevocable devotion to Christ, and/or the scars from his beatings and stonings.)

            (See Ezekiel 9:4-6 for Hebrew tâv, ‘a mark; by implication a signature.’)  Brown, Driver, Briggs gives the meaning of this 22nd letter of the Hebrew alphabet as: tâvmark on forehead, sign of exemption from judgment Ezekiel 9:4, 6. See also Job 31:35 = ‘my written mark.  The word ‘av, shortened form of ’âvâh, seems to be a synonym, if not the same root word, meaning sign, mark, or describe with a mark.”

            Note that according to the RSV translation, the “mark” is the “name of the beast or the number of his name:”  So that no one can buy or sell unless he has the mark, that is, the name of the beast or the number of its/(his) name. (Revelation 13:17 RSV)  The mark, then, was of the alphabetic letters that constituted his written name, which letters also had numeric value:

13:18. Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number [is] Six hundred threescore [and] six.

            “This calls for wisdom” is also used in Revelation 17:9.  This phrase indicates that the interpretation of this verse depends on a special knowledge known only by a certain group.  Translating this passage into Greek would present a serious problem if the original text were written in Hebrew, (which we assume to be true).  For one thing, the message was esoteric; that is, relating to knowledge that is restricted to a certain language and cultural group, in this case the Christian community with Jewish roots.  How could this esoteric message be expressed to a universal audience in another language and culture?

            We do not know just what alphabet was used.[2]  This may have been a secret knowledge shared by the Jewish/Christian community of that era.  An example of this may be found in the secret books of the Essenes in which there was the use of two different alphabets containing signs which were arbitrarily chosen to replace the normal Hebrew characters.  There are also examples of writings in which the direction is reversed from left to right instead of the expected right to left.  Sometimes Greek or Phoenician letters were inserted instead of the Hebrew.[3]

            For another thing, the original would have been written in the Hebrew alphabet which has its established order while the target language, Greek, had its own alphabet with its own conventional order.  At this point in time, each of the languages used the letters of its alphabet not only as phonetic symbols but also as numeric symbols.  However, the phonetic value in the one alphabet did not match the numeric value in the other alphabet.  The problem:  Should the message be transliterated according to the phonetic equivalent in the target language?  Or should it be transliterated according to the numeric value of the target language?  Or should it be translated according to the meaning of the word, which the letter/numerals spelled?

            Its (or His) number is six hundred and sixty-six: (RSV)  Six hundred and sixty-six =Greek # 5516, “chi xi stigma,” respectively the 22nd, 14th and the letter stigma which became obsolete at some point in the ancient Greek alphabet, but occupied the sixth position, (intermediate between the 5th and 6th of the later alphabets.  As a word, stigma is Greek #4742).  Used as numbers, these letters denoted respectively 600, 60 and 6; i.e., 666 as a numeral.[4]

            Note that all three of these letters are represented by some form of a cross, or ‘X’.  The Hebrew letter tâv in the ancient manuscripts appears as the letter ‘X’.  It is the word used in Ezekiel 9:4-9 as the ‘mark’ placed upon the righteous.  The satanic mark was perhaps a derogatory caricature of the cross of Christ.

            If the translator did indeed use the corresponding place value of the letters in their respective alphabets, then the Greek letters chi, xi, stigma, would transliterate back to the Hebrew tau, nun, vau; that is, the twenty-second, fourteenth, and sixth letters.  If this were the case, the original Hebrew letters would have then spelled the word tan with first masculine singular possessive vau.[5]  The word tan means a dragon, monster, or sea-serpent.

            This interpretation would fit the context because there is a “dragon” who is being worshipped, (13:4), through its identification with the “beast out of the sea.”  The “dragon” is identified in 12:9 as “the Devil and satan, the deceiver of the whole world.”  Since the “mark” is the name of the “beast,” (13:17), it is reasonable to believe that the “mark” was the letters tan, ‘dragon.’  The mark then represented the irrevocable giving over of oneself to the worship of satan and the consequent eternal damnation.

            However, in translating from Hebrew to Greek, if the emphasis is on the numeric value, there is a further problem, for each letter depends not only upon its place in the alphabet but its conventional use as a numeral.  The numeric order of the twenty-two letters of the Hebrew alphabet do not merely go from one to twenty-two but rather the correspondence of letters to numerals goes from one to ten, then follows the pattern of decades, (10, 20, 30, etc.), then hundreds up to the last letter which represents the numeral 600.  The Hebrew letter nun in this scheme represents the number 50, and it is the letter samech that represents the number 60, etc.

            In some ancient texts the number is given as “six hundred sixteen.  If the numbers were indeed “six hundred sixteen” instead of “six hundred sixty-six,” a possible back translation spelling would be the Hebrew twenty-second letter tau, representing 600, with the sixteenth letter ayin, representing the numeral 16, although it is known to have represented the number 70 elsewhere.  The word thus spelled would be ta` ‘to deceive, go astray, err.’  Although this word would be somewhat appropriate to the context, it is less so than the word tan #8565, ‘dragon’, ‘whale’.  Consider also #8577, tannîyn, ‘dragon’, ‘sea-serpent’, ‘serpent’.  Although several other possibilities suggest themselves, it is fruitless to speculate on them.[6]

            The Talmudic doctors were known at that time as Tanna, a word very similar to my suggested word for the 666 appellation.  It could well have been that the author of the Revelation, having seen and endured the fierce persecution perpetrated by the Jewish Tannaim, was including them in the body of “the beast”.  (Tanna-im is the plural form of Tanna.)

            The number 616 is written in the ancient texts as chi deka stigma, denoting the number 616 as a numeral.  The ancient Greek letter stigma was also a word: #4742, stigma …a mark incised or punched (for recognition of ownership), i.e. figuratively a scar of service…”

            Since the letter stigma may have been the brand commonly placed upon slaves, it may have acquired the connotation of “a mark of disgrace” which perhaps caused it to lose its place as an alphabetic letter, becoming instead a word in its own right.  We still use the word ‘stigma’ to mean a mark of shame or disgrace.

            The now obsolete letter stigma occupied the position between the 5th and 6th letters of the alphabet,[7] and would therefore have been the 6th in the old order.  It is at this point that the ancient Hebrew and Greek alphabets diverge from one another phonetically.  The absence of this letter may account for the confusion the translator-into-Greek had in trying to translate an obsolete alphabetic letter into a numeric letter, which would depend upon its place in the alphabetic sequence for its value as a numeral.  We do not know which alphabet he was using.  Later translators and copyists would also have had occasion to question which alphabet was indicated.  This may explain why some of the ancient Greek copies have 666 and some 616.

            The RSV translates: “It is a human number,” whereas the KJV translates: “It is the number of a man.”.  “Man (Human): Greek #444 anthroposmanfaced, i.e. a human being.”  Note that Ezekiel‘s creatures had “faces as a man“, i.e., were manfaced, (1:10).  In the apocalyptic writings of Daniel, especially Daniel 7 and 8, the “beasts” he saw were rulers of kingdoms, (7:17).  The fact that he saw these kings and rulers as “beasts” indicates that their spiritual nature was that of the Flesh, and that they operated, ruled, and walked in the Flesh. 

            Upon the analogy that “beast” represents Man walking after the Flesh, then “Man” represents Man as ruled by a spirit.  In this scheme of things, “beast” = natural Man; “Man” = spiritual being.  Therefore the phrase “It is the number of a man” may indicate: “The number/name of a ‘god,’ i.e. spirit being,” or man ruled by an evil spirit.  (“Son of Man” as a title of Christ represents Man under the control of the Holy Spirit.)

            Regardless of the various possibilities for interpreting this name/number, it is clear that this “mark of the beast” was the satanic imitation and counterpart of the “seal of God” given to the saints in chapter 7:

And I looked, and, lo, a Lamb stood on the mount Sion, and with him an hundred forty [and] four thousand, having his Father’s name written in their foreheads


[1]. Selincourt, Aubrey De, trans. Herodotus: The Histories, A New Translation, E. V. Rieu, ed., reprint 1955, (Great Britain by R. & R. Clark, Ltd., Edinburgh, The Penguin Classics), 143.

[2] The older Hebrew alphabets were used for coinage in the Maccabean period and also later in the coinage of AD 70 and AD 135.  See Isaac Taylor, The Alphabet: An Account of the Origen and Development of Letters, vol. 1 of two volumes.  Volume 1, “Semitic Alphabets,” (l Paternoster Square, London, Kegan Paul, Trench, & Co., 1883), 240-241.

   We may note the alphabetic Psalms for evidence of the ancient order of the letters.  Ps. 25 and 34 do not contain the letter vau but there is a letter, phe, added at the end, after tau.  Since vau is later in the sixth place, it is interesting to note that the sixth place of the Greek alphabet, which is derived from the Hebrew, also shows some instability.  At one point it was occupied by the letter stigma, but the phonetic equivalent of vau in the Greek is upsilon, which comes after the Greek tau in order (ibid., 187-8, footnote 1).

[3]. Milik, Ten Years of Discovery, 115.

[4] Strong‘s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible.

[5].Or perhaps the first person plural with the doubling of nun, since the vowel points were not inserted into the text until much later in time.

[6]. The differences between the scribes and the doctors: The scribes were public notaries and secretaries, besides being transcribers of the law.  The Talmud says: “That a scribe computes more briefly, a doctor more largely,” (Lightfoot, CNT, vol. 2, p. 40).

[7] Strong‘s Greek #5516.

Leave a Reply