Here is another sign from the Bible, Revelation 13:
16And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads:
17And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.
18Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six.
I don't disagree that the Old and New Testaments make numerous references to astrology, or that Revelations is symbolic, however, I do have a problem with texts that are flawed, biased and prejudicial, and no text is more flawed, biased and prejudicial than the King James Version, from which the above is quoted.
In
Koine Greek, the language of John of Patmos (which is not the same as modern Greek or Attica Greek or any other ancient Greek dialect), the words 'beast' and 'empire' are neither masculine nor feminine, they are neuter.
In Hebrew, the words 'beast' and 'empire' are neither masculine nor neuter, they are feminine.
Accordingly, if the Anti-Christ was a man, then it seems logical that the deity would have chosen a masculine noun in Greek that translated into Hebrew as a masculine noun.
Instead, you have a noun that is not masculine, rather it is either neuter or feminine. The implication is that the Anti-Christ is an entity, which makes sense since time immemorial we have referred to countries, and entities as either "she" or "it."
Not only that, but....
Revelation 13:17 ...and that no one be able to buy or sell, except the one who had its name or the number of its name.
...and that is the
CORRECT translation.
The Greek word
therion is neuter, and grammatically speaking that means the only possessive pronoun it can take is "its."
The correct translation is "...its name..."
not "...his name..."
"...his name..." would be the correct translation if and only if
therion would be a masculine noun, but as I pointed out, it isn't.
Which brings us to the next grammatical problem:
Revelation 13:18 Here is wisdom: Let the one who has insight calculate the beast’s number, for it is man’s number and his number is 666.
The head noun and the genitive are
anarthrous, and for those who want proof, look at
Revelation 16:18 ...an earthquake unequaled since humanity.
In other words, in both instances the Greek word
anthropos refers to humankind, not a single particular man.
It's important when reading to consider the Point of View of the writer. From the point of view of John of Patmos, and from everyone living in the Roman Empire, the whole world was the Roman Empire. Outside of the boundaries of the Roman Empire there was nothing, just an empty expanse of land populated by uncivilized, uncouth barbarians who were viewed as less than human, even less than an animal, because at least you could tame an animal.
So, the whole of humanity is the Roman Empire and the whole of the Roman Empire is humanity. They are one in the same.
And "wisdom" is required to recognize that Roman is
lateinos in
Koine Greek and
romi-ith in Hebraicized Aramaic, and both work out to 666 using gematria (since John of Patmos was probably an Hellenistic Jew).
One might well ask, why all the coy disguises and symbolism? Well, John was already exiled to the Isle of Patmos in the Aegean Sea. The last thing he needed to do was let everyone know that Roman Empire and its successor entity was evil incarnate. The Roman prefects would have drug John off and doused him with tar and lit him up as a human torch to light the night events at the local coliseum, especially during the "Reign of Terror" under Emperor Domitian during which early Christians were persecuted. So, John wisely used codes and symbolism.
Go look for bar codes in your house - they all have the mark of the beast!
I'm looking at a box of oyster crackers and a pack of Camel Wide Lights and I just don't see it. What I see is three lines, not two.
Historically speaking, the "mark of the beast" was most likely the papal seal, which was required for anything and everyone to buy, sell or trade during the Middle Ages, and even after the Reformation, up until about the early 1700s, when the power of the Vatican began to decline. The guilds of the period all had the "mark of the beast" as the guilds, like the cobbler's guild or the hat-maker's guild were assigned a patron saint for which they must observe the feast days and of course, tithe the Roman Catholic Church. Anyone doing business in the market or elsewhere had to have the authority and blessing of local church authorities, and failure to tithe meant that you'd appear in the local church court, not the king's court.
