"Mark of the Beast"

Introduction to the "Mark of the Beast"

No book of the Bible sparks as much interpretive reading and controversy as the Book of Revelation. Of particular interest is Chapter 13, verses 11 through 18, which seeks to identify "the name of the beast or the number representing his name."

In addition to providing an overview of the Book of Revelation, this paper will examine different facets of wisdom and understanding that attempt to solve the "number of the beast."

Historical and Social Context of The Book of Revelation

According to Baker's Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology, the Book of Revelation, also known as "the Apocalypse," is drawn from the mainstream of first-century Christian belief in the presupposition of the risen Christ who, now enthroned in heaven, will return to earth at some future time. In this second coming, Christ will extend God's rule over the earth (2:27, 11:15) and a church in which Gentiles will share covenantal prerogatives of Israel (5:9).

The book was written from exile by John (1:1-2, 1:4, 1:9, 22:8). Conventional wisdom identifies him as John the apostle. The date of writing is generally put somewhere around A.D. 96 during the reign of the Roman emperor Domitan.

The unique voice of the Book of Revelation is born out of a peculiar crisis: a founding - or foundering - church suffering persecution at the hands of a Roman emperor who wants to enforce a cult of emperor worship. In a

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," the first servant of Satan, who possesses "ten horns and seven heads with ten crowns on his horns, and on each heads a blasphemous name," much similar to the description of the Satan dragon given before and thus derivative of Satan's power. This beast is further described with attributes of a leopard, a bear, and a lion, which many attribute to a description of the temporal power of Rome given in the Book of Daniel (7:4-6). Mathew Henry, in his "Complete Commentary on the Whole Bible," also comments that this first beast represents pagan Rome: its many heads and horns representing its many powers; the ten crowns signifying its tributary princes; and the "word blasphemy on its forehead (proclaiming) its direct enmity and opposition to the glory of God, by promoting idolatry." By this, we can assume to see the name of the Roman emperor who is to be worshipped as a god. Where one of the heads of this beast "seemed to have had a fatal wound, but the fatal wound had been healed" (NIV Bible), B. W. Johnson, in his commentary on "The People's New Test- ament," explains that this "symbolism implies that a mortal wound was inflicted on the power represented by the beast" (Rome) and "that when it was dead, or about to perish, its pow

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