With this idea in mind, what we have in view here, according to what the Holy Spirit through John has said here in verse 18, is that this NAME of the beast, this NUMBER, represents a man, an individual. Well, if we take that literally, and most commentators do take that literally, indeed, there is someone, there is an individual, that is in mind here. Most scholars believe that it may have been one of the Roman Emperors, someone like Nero or Domician, one of those ones, who was notorious for his ill-treatment, for his persecution, of Christians and the like. And the suggestion is that, if the name were to be put into a letter as it was written, if the letter fell into the wrong hands and the individual’s name—the Emperors name—was identified, then this would cause even more persecution and more hardship upon the people who received the letter. So, rather than putting the name—actually spelling out the name—the number would be something of a code. Knowing what the code was, knowing what the numerical association with the letters was, they could figure that out—one would know who John has in mind here.

One writer, as a matter of fact, J. W. McGarvey [see more about J. W. McGarvey at the end of this lesson], in his commentary on Revelation, had gone through an exercise in identifying letters in the Hebrew alphabet and putting a numerical value on those, and with the numeric values on the letters he came up with the name “Nero” and “Caesar.” And you have to have both of them together. Now, I wish I had an overhead projector. I could illustrate this for you. I actually saw this laid out in a diagram. So, let me just try to explain it.

The numeric value of Nero’s name added up to a certain number, 320, and the numeric value of Caesar added up to 346. So, you added “Nero” and “Caesar” together [320 + 346], and you came up with 666. Well, of course, Nero was the Caesar and “Caesar” was the title of the Emperor of Rome. This is just one idea. I only share that with you so that we might have some appreciation, not so that we absolutely identify “Who was that? What was the individual’s name?” and so on, but just to identify what was in view here, what was being done at this time, and why there would be a number associated with a name.

I believe, from what I have read, what I have seen, that this is a good explanation. Again, it has to do with the numeric value—whether it was the Hebrew alphabet, or whether it was the Greek, we don’t know about that—but this number represented a man, represented the name of a man. Again, most scholars believe that that would have been, no doubt, one of the wicked, one of the evil, despots of the Roman Empire, or, perhaps, ALL of them. Maybe it was an identification of the office—the Emperor or Caesar, for example.

Just as God’s seal represents His Ownership of HIS people and His protection of them, in the same way, the mark of the beast represents the distinguishing mark of ownership on those who serve the dragon, Satan, and who defy the authority of God, the Almighty. The mark that is spoken of here is the distinguishing characteristic upon those who follow the beast. [“Here is wisdom. Let him who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man: His number is 666.”].

The mark of the beast is in contrast to the sealing of God. Back in chapter 7, we saw the 144,000. We saw that that angel was instructed to put the seal of God upon their foreheads [“Then I saw another angel ascending from the east, having the seal of the living God. And he cried with a loud voice to the four angels to whom it was granted to harm the earth and the sea, 3 saying, ‘Do not harm the earth, the sea, or the trees till we have sealed the servants of our God on their foreheads.’ 4 And I heard the number of those who were sealed. One hundred and forty-four thousand of all the tribes of the children of Israel were sealed,” Revelation 7:2-4]. And so we have set up here this great contrast between those who are the people of God and those who are the people of Satan.

Of course, as we said before, this is not a literal mark. This is not something that we can see, but, rather, it’s based upon God’s way of identifying that person and, moreover, the things that we can see about the life of that particular individual.

The same thing is true of those who belong to Satan, who belong to the beast. He has them. They are identified with him. They are in his camp, and they can be seen most often by their behavior.

Again, do we have a specific mark here? Is it a specific identity for one individual or another down through the ages? This mark, 666, has been applied to men like Hitler and Nero and even Saddam Hussein and others. But, I think, for our purpose, what we see here is the contrast between those who have been marked, who have been sealed, and are part of God’s elect, part of God’s people, and those who are part of the realm of Satan, and who have been marked as well.