Verse 17
Many believers will not take the mark of the beast (cf. Revelation 7:3; Revelation 14:1; Revelation 14:9-11). Perhaps they will be able to survive by pooling their resources, by obtaining the necessities of life in clandestine ways (cf. Revelation 12:16), and through God’s supernatural provisions. Those earth-dwellers who worship the beast will accept his law and authority. Coins bore the image of the head and the inscription of the emperor. Those who bear the mark of the beast demonstrate by this that they belong to him. When a person burned a pinch of incense to worship Caesar, he received a certificate verifying that he had done so. This preserved him from death by persecution and enabled him to buy and sell. [Note: Barclay, The Revelation . . ., 2:129-30.] The mark of the beast appears to be such a certificate of worship that a person may only obtain by affirming his or her veneration of Antichrist.
The interchangeability of the beast’s name and the number of his name evidently indicates that the name, written in letters, has a numerical equivalent (Revelation 13:18). [Note: Charles, 1:364; Robertson, 6:406.]
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