And it will cause all, small and great, rich and poor, Masters and Servants, to be given a mark on their right hands or on their foreheads, That no one may buy or sell again except one who has the mark of the name of The Beast or the number of
And it will cause all, small and great, rich and poor, Masters and Servants, to be given a mark on their right hands or on their foreheads, That no one may buy or sell again except one who has the mark of the name of The Beast or the number of its name. – Revelation 13:16-17, Peshitta Holy Bible Translated
This text from the apocalyptic book of Revelation in the Holy Bible, written by the apostle John towards the end of his life, around A.D. 95 , when he was banished to the island of Patmos, has confounded many as to its meaning. Revelation, like other parts of the Holy Bible which describe events that are to occur during earth’s end times, contain much symbolisms, hence making it a challenging book to decipher.
Three key words, “it”; “cause” and “mark”, raise some questions:
It
Who or what is “it”? A natural individual or an organization? Is “it” governmental or private? Whoever or whatever “it” is, we can be certain that “it” has enormous power to cause “all” to be given “a mark”
Cause
Will the “cause” be voluntary adoption of the “mark” for reasons of convenience or necessity? Or will the “cause” be coercively enforced through draconian laws?
Mark
What form will the “mark” take? Referred to as the “mark of the beast” among bible commentators, many suggestions have been put forward over time, from the barcode to the microchip. Is the “mark” literal or figurative?
To have a better sense of the context of this text, we zoom outwards to the entire chapter of Revelations chapter 13:
And I stood on the sand of the Sea, and I saw a beast ascending from the Sea, which had 10 horns and seven heads, and upon its horns, 10 diadems, and upon its heads the name of blasphemy. And The Beast that I saw was like a leopard, and its feet like those of a wolf and its mouth like that of lions, and the Dragon gave its throne, its power and great authority to it. And one of its heads was as if it had been crushed to death and its mortal wound was healed, and all The Earth marveled after The Beast. And they worshiped the Dragon that gives authority to The Beast, and they worshiped The Beast saying, “Who is like this Beast, and who is able to war with it?” And a mouth that speaks great things and blasphemy was given to it, and authority was given to it to work 42 months. And it opened its mouth to blaspheme before God, to blaspheme The Name and the dwelling of those who dwell in Heaven.
And it was granted to make war with The Holy Ones and to conquer them, and it was given authority over all generations, peoples, languages and nations. And all the inhabitants of The Earth will worship it, those who are not written in The Book of Life of The Lamb slain before the foundation of the world. He who has an ear, let him hear. Whoever leads into captivity goes into captivity and those who murder with the sword will be killed with the sword. Here is faith and the endurance of The Holy Ones.
And I saw another Beast that ascended from the ground, and it had two horns and was like The Lamb and was speaking like The Dragon. And it will exercise all the authority of the former Beast before it and will make The Earth and those living in it also to worship the first Beast, whose mortal wound was healed. And it will perform great signs so as to make fire descend from Heaven on The Earth before the people. And it will seduce those living on The Earth by the signs that were given to it to perform before the Beast, to tell the dwellers on Earth to make an image to the Beast, which had the wound by the sword and lived. And it was given to it to give spirit to The Image of The Beast and to cause that all who would not worship the image of The Beast would be murdered.
And it will cause all, small and great, rich and poor, Masters and Servants, to be given a mark on their right hands or on their foreheads, That no one may buy or sell again except one who has the mark of the name of The Beast or the number of its name. Here is wisdom, and whoever has a mind in him, let him calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man – 666. – Revelation 13:1-18, Peshitta Holy Bible Translated
There are 3 key actors in Revelation 13 – the first beast, the dragon and the second beast. Leaving aside the dragon at this time, we understand from the text that the first beast will have a global authority over all the inhabitants of the world. This beast will have a mass following and at the same time it will make war with a resistance group identified as “The Holy Ones”.
The second beast similarly will have global authority as the first and its sole purpose appears to be drawing the world’s population to follow the first beast. It is this beast that will institutionalize the “mark”. The mark has political and economic purposes. It identifies individuals who will follow the ideology of the first beast and only these individuals are permitted to carry out daily economic activities.
The book of Revelation foretells of a futuristic time where geopolitical, geophysical, astrophysical, world-wide socio-economic and supernatural events converge. This convergence will usher in a global leadership seeking to address worldwide catastrophic issues through political, economic and technological means. While seemingly necessary at that time for public good, the side effects of infringement of privacy, lost of freedom, rights and property ownership and discriminations arise.
Subsequent postings will deep dive into these different issues