The Number 666 and a Note of Wisdom (verses 16-18)

All men, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, are to receive a mark on their right hands or their foreheads, showing that they have worshiped the sea beast [representing evil government/political power, re: Emperor worship]. They will have either the name of the sea beast or the number of the sea beast [verses 16-17: “He causes all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hand or on their foreheads, 17 and that no one may buy or sell except one who has the mark or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.”].

No one can buy or sell unless they have the mark of the beast [the sea beast, representing government/political power].

I want to share with you is, again, from Brother W. B. West’s book, Through First Century Glasses. He has another section of his book regarding the mark, or, the identification, and not being allowed, then, to buy or to trade or to do business if you did not have the “mark.” I found this to be interesting; I trust you will, as well:

Picture a brother and sister living outside the city of Smyrna. It is the year 95 AD. They are gardeners. They take what they have raised to sell into the city of Smyrna in one of the Roman markets. Our brother goes up to the manager of that market and says, “I am a farmer. My family and I have raised a large crop of vegetables and other kindred things. I would like to sell them to you and buy some groceries, some clothes for my family, for the coming winter.”

The manager of the market looks at him and says, “Mister, have you worshiped the Roman Emperor as God and as Lord? If so, do you have any evidence that you have done so?”

He [this Christian man] will say, “I have not worshiped Domician as Lord and God because I do not believe he is. Now, therefore, I have no evidence of having worshiped him.”

The manager will say, “I cannot buy anything from you. Neither can I sell you anything.”

The Romans placed economic pressure on the Christians across the Roman world. Those who worshiped the Roman Emperor were required to request and receive a certificate in order to buy and sell, to go in and out of certain programs and other places in the Roman world, as if they were Roman citizens. The request read [and this is historically accurate]: “To those who have been appointed to preside over the sacrifices from [and a fictitious name is there] from the village of [and the village name is there] together with his children [the names of the two children are written there], who reside in the village of [the village name is there]. We have always sacrificed to the gods and now, in your presence, and according to the regulations, we have sacrificed and offered libations and tasted the sacred things, and we ask that you give us a certification that we have done so. May you fare well.”

This is an example of the request that would be made to officials, and the certificate would read something like this: “We, the representatives of the Emperors [names of two Emperors written in] have seen you sacrificing.” So, this would have been something, then, that a Christian could carry with them which would permit them, as indicated, to buy and sell and trade and to participate in various programs, and so on. Having NOT worshiped, having not had that witnessed by certain officials, and not having the certificate, then they would be disallowed from doing so.

I couldn’t help but think about the discussion we had back when we were studying chapter 6, opening the third seal. You remember what we read: “And I heard a voice in the midst of the four living creatures saying, ‘A quart of wheat for a denarius, and three quarts of barley for a denarius; and do not harm the oil and the wine.’” [Revelation 6:6]. One of the things that we said about a possible implication of that particular verse is exactly what we’re talking about here, that, as the pressure would be applied by the Roman government upon 1^st Century Christians, the value of merchandise would be raised for them and they would not be able to buy and sell and trade. That is, or course, unless they would bow and worship the Emperor. So, this is exactly what John is speaking about here.

What is the mark of the beast? We don’t know what the mark of the beast is. There are many who have speculated. In fact, one writer said that even people who don’t know anything else about the Bible or about Christianity or anything else…well, they’ll know something about the mark of the beast or the number 666!

There are many, many ideas about what this could be, pointing to a particular individual—maybe someone like Nero. We do know that in John’s day, not only in Rome but in other cultures as well, their alphabets were given a numeric value. Before the discovery of, and use of, Arabic numbers, it was common practice for ancient peoples to associate a number with a letter of their alphabet. We’re all familiar with “Roman Numerals,” and they are letters of the alphabet which represent numbers. This is the idea. The Hebrew people did this, the Romans did this, and so on. It’s conceivable that there could have been a number associated with the name of a particular individual.