And 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.
The Number of the Name of the Beast, Rev 13:17-18
17. and that ] “And” should not improbably be omitted, the construction then, being, he causeth all that they give them a mark, that no man may ”
no man might buy or sell ] Such disabilities seem to have been actually imposed, at least in the Diocletian persecution, by requiring business transactions to be preceded by pagan formulas.
the mark, or the name ] Om. “or:” the true reading is, “the mark the name of the Beast, or the number of his name.”
the number of his name ] In Hebrew and in Greek, letters were used for numerals, every letter having its own proper significance as a number. Among the Jews (and to some extent among early Christians, especially heretics) this suggested the possibility of finding numbers mystically corresponding to any word: the numerical value of all the letters might be added together, and the sum would represent the word. This process was called by the Jews Gematria, a corruption of the Greek Geometria. Ridiculous as were many of the attempts made to find mystical meanings in the words of Scripture by this process, it remains true that a Jew of St John’s time would probably mean, by “the number of a name,” the number formed by Gematria from its letters: and probably the numerous guesses, from St Irenaeus’ time to our own, that have been based on this method are so far on the right track. But there are too many that are plausible for any one to be probable. There are in fact an indefinite number of proper names whose letters will amount to 666 (or 616, see below) either in Hebrew or Greek at least when the names are neither Hebrew nor Greek, and so have to be arbitrarily transliterated. Thus neither Lateinos, i.e. Latinus (one of several mentioned by St Irenaeus) nor Nern Ksar i.e. Nero Caesar (adopted by many modern interpreters) is convincing: and no other name ( Genseric, Mohammed, and even Napoleon have been tried, with more or less violence) has any real chance of being right. The letters of Lateinos must be taken with their numeral value in Greek, those of Neron Kesar as Hebrew. If neither of these be the true one, we may be pretty certain it will not be discovered till Antichrist appears: and then believers will be able to identify him by this token.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
And that no man might buy or sell – That is, this mighty power would claim jurisdiction over the traffic of the world, and endeavor to make it tributary to its own purposes. Compare Rev 18:11-13, Rev 18:17-19. This is represented by saying that no one might buy or sell except by its permission; and it is clear that where this power exists of determining who may buy and sell, there is absolute control over the wealth of the world.
Save he that had the mark – To keep it all among its own friends; among those who showed allegiance to this power.
Or the name of the beast – That is, the mark referred to was either the name of the beast, or the number of his name. The meaning is, that he had something branded on him that showed that he belonged to the beast – as a slave had the name of his master; in other words, there was something that certainly showed that he was subject to its authority.
Or the number of his name – In regard to what is denoted by the number of the beast, see the notes on Rev 13:18. The idea here is, that that number, whatever it was, was so marked on him as to show to whom he belonged. According to the interpretation here proposed, the meaning of this passage is, that the papacy would claim jurisdiction over traffic and commerce; or would endeavor to bring it under its control, and make it subservient to its own ends. Traffic or commerce is one of the principal means by which property is acquired, and he who has the control of this has, to a great degree, the control of the wealth of a nation; and the question now is, whether any such jurisdiction has been set up, or whether any such control has in fact been exercised, so that the wealth of the world has been subject to papal Rome? For a more full illustration of this I may refer to the notes on Rev 18:11-13, Rev 18:16-17; but at present it may be sufficient to remark, that the manifest aim of the papacy, in all its history, has been to control the world, and to get dominion over its wealth, in order that it might accomplish its own purposes. But, besides this, there have been numerous specified acts more particularly designed to control the business of buying and selling. It has been common in Rome to prohibit, by express law, all traffic with heretics. Thus a canon of the Lateran council, under Pope Alexander III., commanded that no man should entertain or cherish them in his house or land, or traffic with them (Hard. vi., 2:1684). The synod of Tours, under the same Pope Alexander, passed the law that no man should presume to receive or assist the heretics, no, not so much as to exercise commerce with them in selling or buying. And so, too, the Constance council as expressed in Pope Martins bull (Elliott, vol. 3, pp. 220, 221).
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 17. And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark] “If any,” observes Bishop Newton, “dissent from the stated and authorized forms; they are condemned and excommunicated as heretics; and in consequence of that they are no longer suffered to buy or sell; they are interdicted from traffic and commerce, and all the benefits of civil society. So Roger Hoveden relates of William the Conqueror, that he was so dutiful to the pope that he would not permit any one in his power to buy or sell any thing whom he found disobedient to the apostolic see. So the canon of the council of Lateran, under Pope Alexander III., made against the Waldenses and Albigenses, enjoins, upon pain of anathema, that no man presume to entertain or cherish them in his house or land, or exercise traffic with them. The synod of Tours, in France, under the same pope, orders, under the like intermination, that no man should presume to receive or assist them, no, not so much as hold any communion with them, in selling or buying; that, being deprived of the comfort of humanity they may be compelled to repent of the error of their way.” In the tenth and eleventh centuries the severity against the excommunicated was carried to so high a pitch, that nobody might come near them, not even their own wives, children, or servants; they forfeited all their natural legal rights and privileges, and were excluded from all kinds of offices. The form of excommunication in the Romish Church is to take lighted torches, throw them upon the ground with curses and anathemas, and trample them out under foot to the ringing of the bells. It is in this and similar ways that the false prophet has terrified the Latin world, and kept it in subjection to the secular and spiritual powers. Those interdicted by the two-horned beast from all offices of civil life are also such as have not:-
The name of the beast, or the number of his name.] See on the following verse.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
And that no man might buy or sell: this the popish church effects by its excommunications; it was begun in the council of Lateran, anathematizing all who entertained any of the Waldenses, or traded with them; and the late learned bishop of Armagh, in his book Deu Successione Ecclesiae, hath given us an account of such a canon of a synod in France, which in express terms forbade any commerce with heretics in buying or selling. Paraeus tells us Pope Martin the Fifth hath best interpreted this prophecy, in his bull added to the council of Constance, where he prohibits Roman Catholics to suffer any heretics to have any dwellings in their countries, or to make any bargains, or use any trades, or to perform to them any civil offices.
Save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name: there have been great disputes about the name and number of the beast. I must profess myself not able to distinguish between the mark, name, and number of the beast; they may all signify the same thing, viz. the profession of the Romish religion. Some think the number is contained in the name, and that the name is , in which the number six hundred and sixty-six is contained; of which we shall speak more by and by.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
17. AndSo A, B, and Vulgateread. C, IRENUS, 316,Coptic, and Syriac omit it.
might buyGreek,“may be able to buy.”
the mark, or the nameGreek,“the mark (namely), the name of the beast.” The mark maybe, as in the case of the sealing of the saints in the forehead, nota visible mark, but symbolical of allegiance. So the sign of thecross in Popery. The Pope’s interdict has often shut out theexcommunicate from social and commercial intercourse. Under the finalAntichrist this shall come to pass in its most violent form.
number of his nameimplyingthat the name has some numerical meaning.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And that no man might buy or sell,…. Either in an ecclesiastical sense, as to, be in any church office, or perform any such service, to say Mass, hear confession, give absolution, sell pardons and indulgences, c. or in a civil sense, as to trade, and exercise merchandise, and this was forbidden by several Popish councils and synods the Lateran council, under Pope Alexander, decreed against the Waldenses and Albigenses, that no one should presume to retain or encourage them in their houses or countries, or “trade” with them; and the synod of Tours in France forbid any reception of heretics, or protection, and that any communion should be had with them “in buying and selling”, as Mr. Mede has observed; and it was ordered by a bull of Pope Martin the Fifth, that no contract should be made with such, and that they should not follow any business and merchandise:
save he that had the mark; took the oath to be true to the pope, or made a public profession of the Popish religion:
or the name of the beast; Papists, so called from the pope; thus the antichristians are called from antichrist, as the Christians from Christ:
or the number of his name; which is either the same with the number of the beast in Re 13:18, or is something distinct it; and those who have it may be such persons who neither have the indelible character of the Romish clergy, nor are open professors of the Popish religion, but are in heart inclined to it, and privately and secretly promote it, by their doctrines and practices; and so are numbered, reckoned, esteemed, and accounted of by the Papists, and receive favours from them; or rather such who openly “furnish the drink offering” in the Mass, mixed with wine and water, , “for that number”, Isa 65:11.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
That no man should be able to buy or to sell ( ). Final clause with and present middle subjunctive of with aorist active infinitives. This is a regular boycott (Ramsay, Seven Letters, p. 106f.) against all not worshippers of the emperor.
Save ( ). “If not,” “except.”
Even the name ( ). No “even,” just apposition with (the mark).
Or the number ( ). The stamp (the mark) may bear either the name or the number of the beast. The name and the number are one and the same. They could write the name in numerals, for numbers were given by letters. Swete suggests that it was “according to a sort of known to the Apocalyptist and his Asian readers, but not generally intelligible.”
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
The number. The method of mystic numbering obtained alike among pagan Greeks, Gnostics, Christian Fathers, and Jewish Cabbalists. Jupiter was invoked under the number 717 contained in the letters H APXH the beginning. The Gnostics affixed to their gems and amulets the mystic word ajbrasax or ajbraxav, under the idea of some virtue attaching to its number, 365, as being that of the days of the solar cycle. Barnabas and Clement of Alexandria speak of the virtue of the number 318 as being that of IHT, the common abbreviation for Jesus crucified. In the pseudo – Sybilline verses, written by Christians, about the end probably of the second century, are found versified enigmas giving the number and requiring the name. The translation of one of these on the word Jesus is as follows : “He will come upon earth clothed with flesh like mortal men. His name contains four vowels and two consonants : two of the former being sounded together. And I will declare the entire number. For the name will exhibit to incredulous men eight units, eight tens, and eight hundreds.”
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
1) “And that no man might buy or sell,” (kai) hina me tis dunetai agroasai e polesai) “And in order that no one could buy or sell,” engage in commercial exchange to sustain their livelihood, not acknowledging that in the true God men live, move and have their being or existence, Act 17:28.
2) “Save he that had the mark,” (ei me ho echon to charagma) “except the one having, holding, containing, or possessing the mark,” the mark or identity of ownership and allegiance to this dragon -empowered one world ecumenical Devilish despot, Rev 13:4-5; Rev 13:7; Rev 13:12; Rev 13:16; 2Co 4:4.
3) “Or the name of the beast,” (to onoma tou theriou) “That is, or which is the name of the beast,” the sanction, authority, or “rubber-stamp”, of the beast, the anti-God materialist leader and the government over which he presided.
4) “Or the number of his name,” (e ton arithmon tou onomatos autou) “Or the number of his name,” the mathematical identity of his name, identified with him (the second beast).
Note the terms, 1) Mark , 2) name, or 3) number of the name, of the beast is required to keep men from being slaughtered or starved to death. This is the kind of paymaster Satan is – he promises bread, gives a stone, promises life but leads one to death and hell, Psa 9:17.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
17. No man might buy Says E.B. Elliott: “A canon of the Lateran Council, under Pope Alexander III., commanded that no man should entertain or cherish them in his house or land, or exercise traffic with them. The Synod of Tours, (just when the Waldenses and Albigenses had begun to excite attention,) under the same Pope Alexander, passed the law that no man should presume to receive or assist the heretics, no, not so much as to exercise commerce with them in selling or buying. And so, too, as expressed in Pope Martin’s Bull, the Constance Council. How the mass of the clergy urged its execution in other days throughout the popedom is notorious.” Vol, iii, p. 217. We may add that to-day, in revising these notes, we find in a New York daily paper the report of a trial, in these United States, of a Roman priest for prohibiting his people from continuing their custom to an excommunicated parishioner, the damages being laid at ten thousand dollars, the jury’s verdict being over three thousand. Such is this persecuting power to this day.
‘Or the number of his name. Here is wisdom. He who has understanding let him calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of man (or ‘of a man’) and his number is six hundred and sixty six (in some manuscripts 616).’
Attempts to relate this number to emperors are unnecessary for the wild beast represents all Emperors and their Empires. Indeed by a certain level of manipulation and selection it can be made to mean almost anybody (including Caligula, Nero and Domitian).
But the number itself is significant. Six is one short of seven, the number of divine perfection, it thus represents shortfall from perfection. And six hundred and sixty six is six intensified.
There are also three sixes in a row indicating a trinity that comes short of God’s perfection, and remarkably it is the sum of all the numbers that make up the square of six. In other words it hugely stresses that which comes short of God.
Furthermore in Greek letters it represents chi (six hundred) and xi (sixty) and digamma, the latter in numerical use is very similar to the sigma ending (six). Chi and final sigma represent a shortening (first and last letter) of Christos and xi bears the shape of a serpent. It may thus pictorially represent anti-Christ, a devil indwelt messiah.
17 And 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.
Ver. 17. Might buy or sell ] As at Rome, oaths, laws, vows, are soluble, and all things else are saleable. Romoe omnia venalia.
” Vendit Alexander cruces, altaria, Christum:
Vendere iure potest: emerat ills prius. “The pope sells crosses, altars, Christ, and all:
Well he may sell, for he bought them at the stall.”
Also it is well known that the pope flatly forbids trade and traffic with all whom he hath excommunicated, as he did with the Albigenses in the Lateran Council, and as he did with one Tooly in Queen Mary’s days, who being hanged for felony, and defying the pope, was (after his death) suspended and excomunicated, that no man should eat or drink, buy or sell with him, bid him good morrow. (Acts and Mon.)
Or the name of the beast ] To be called a Roman Catholic, which is better esteemed among Papists than the name of a Christian. It is notoriously known, saith Dr Fulke, that the most honourable name of Christian is in Italy and at Rome a name of reproach, and usually abused to signify a fool or a dolt. (Armor. in Acts xi. sec. 4.)
Or the number of his name ] That keep somewhat more aloof, and yet privily comply with Papists, and drive the same design with them, though more slyly and covertly, and to themselves perhaps unperceivedly. What is the reason the pope will not dispense in Spain or Italy, if a Papist marry a Protestant, yet here he will; but because such Protestants receive the number of his name, and will soon be drawn to him?
might = should be able to.
buy or sell. The great boycott of the future.
save = except. Greek. ei (App-118) me (App-105).
had = hath.
or. Omit.
Rev 13:17. ) Others, . Wolf approves of this, remarking, however, that is omitted even by the Coptic Version. In truth the shorter reading is supported by the most ancient authorities. Add to the Latins, Apringius, Ansbert, Etherius.[147] See above, on ch. Rev 6:4. The construction is this, , , … We have shown, on Rev 13:1, that there are three Periods of duration. In the last part of the first period arises the most grievous calamity, the length of which can scarcely he defined, unless it be the number of clays agreeing by analogy with the number of the beast, of which we shall speak presently.
[147] AB Vulg. support . Ch Iren. 316, Memph. Syr. omit it.-E.
mark: Rev 13:16
name: Rev 3:12, Rev 14:11, Rev 17:5, Rev 22:4
the number: Rev 13:18, Rev 15:2
Reciprocal: Lev 19:28 – print Psa 144:8 – their right hand Isa 51:23 – Bow Dan 3:10 – hast made Zec 13:6 – What Joh 9:34 – And they 2Ti 3:3 – fierce Rev 13:11 – and he spake Rev 18:11 – the merchants
Rev 13:17. The pope restricted the privileges and rights of all who would not submit to his dictation. If a man gave evidence of having the mark (the stain of guilt), and who had (knew and endorsed) the number of his name was given permission to proceed with his own interests.
Comments by Foy E. Wallace
Verse 17.
Verse 17: He compelled all the subjects of the provinces to bear the mark of the beast by an economic warfare, that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or name of the beast, or the number of his name –the enforcement of a maniacally rigorous interdict, an imperial boycott that would make life impossible for all who refused to wear the stigmatic name of the demonic emperor. By such means the provincial procurators forced all of their subjects into abject submission to the imperial edict of emperor-worship, which was the mark or badge of the Satanic beast-the emperor. Thus the mark of the beast simply meant to yield and bow to the edicts of the Roman emperor to worship his image.
Rev 13:17. The meaning of this verse can only be that the second beast aimed at denying a part in the intercourse of life, or the rights of citizenship, to every one who refused to acknowledge the supremacy of the first.
Having considered the particulars mentioned in these verses, we have now to ask what is denoted by this second beast, or third great enemy of the saints. In doing so it is necessary to call to mind the leading principle which seems to lie at the bottom of the apocalyptic conception of the Churchs struggle. We have already had various illustrations of it, and more will meet us as we proceed. That principle is simply this, that the struggle of the Church is the counterpart of the struggle of Christ Himself. The Church is one with her Lord, is appointed to carry on His work in the world, is exposed to the same trials, and is destined to achieve the same victory. The enemies who rise against her are therefore substantially the same as those with which Jesus had to contend. Keeping this in view, we ought to have little difficulty in determining the meaning of the second beast. It was with three great enemies that the contest of Jesus was carried on, and by them His sufferings and death were brought about. These were the devil, the power of the heathen world, and the spiritual wickedness of the Jews. The two former have already been set before us in the dragon and the first beast. The last mentioned is the second beast. It is not worldly wisdom, or learning, or science, or art; not increasing civilisation, or the power of intellectual cultivation, even when most refined and spiritual. A fatal objection to all such views is that they not only draw no sufficient distinction between the first and the second beast, but that they fail to recognise the essentially religious character of the latter. Upon this point the indications of the passage are too numerous and precise to be mistaken. The second beast exercises its power not through the sword but through the word and signs. The lamb-like form of the horns reminds of Jesus the great Teacher and Prophet of his people. The speaking as a dragon takes us to the thought of those false teachers who come in sheeps clothing but inwardly are ravening wolves (Mat 7:15). The great wonders done by it are an obvious allusion to the words There shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders; so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect (Mat 24:24); while at the same time we are reminded by its whole appearance of that antichrist, whose coming is according to the working of Satan, with all power and signs and lying wonders (2Th 2:9). Add to all this that the second beast is expressly styled the false prophet in other passages of this book (Rev 16:13, Rev 19:20, Rev 20:10), and the conclusion appears to be incontrovertible, that it represents to us no mere secular or worldly, but a distinctly religious and antichristian, spirit. Further, this spirit is clearly in the first instance Jewish, for the second beast rises up out of the land, not like the first out of the sea, and the land is the emblem of Judaism, as the sea is of heathenism. More even may be said; for the action of the second beast corresponds precisely to that of the fanatical spirit of Judaism in the days of our Lord. It was the Jews who stirred up the power of Rome against their true King;it was they who exercised all the authority of the first beast before Him; they who by their cry We have no king but Caesar made an image to the beast; and they who gave life unto the image of the beast, that it should both speak and cause as many as would not worship it to be killed. Circumstances such as these lead directly to the belief that the fundamental spirit of this second beast is that of a degenerate Judaism in its most bigoted, fanatical, and antichristian form,that spirit which stirred up the Roman power against our Lord, which in after times was so often the means of unsheathing the sword of the civil magistrate against Christians, and which, down to our own day, has been ever working as a spirit of enmity and persecution to all that claims for the religion of Christ the immediate presence of the Divine.
At the same time we are not to imagine that this spirit of degenerate Judaism is to be found only in those who are Jews by birth. In the Fourth Gospel the spirit of the Jews is looked upon as that which most truly and fully exhibits the irreligious spirit of the world. The same is the case here. The spirit and rule of the second beast are as wide as those of the first. The Jews were men. Their nature was human. They exhibited the preference shown by human nature in every age for the seen above the unseen, for the outward and formal above the inward and spiritual. In this beast, therefore, although we have first the spirit displayed by them, we have also embodied that irreligious spirit which, especially in the Church, has no toleration for the unworldliness of the children of God. Tolerant of all else, it would here threaten and persecute and kill. The friend of the world is the enemy of God. Finally, the remark must be made, that this second beast is to be sought within rather than without the professing Christian Church.
13:17 And that no man might {25} buy or sell, save he that had the {26} mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.
(25) That is, have any trade or dealings with men, but only those who have this annointing and consecration of Clearkely shaving of the head, as they call it, read Gratian “de Consecratione, distincione tertia.c.omnes.cap spiritus, etc.” of these matters.
(26) Here the false prophets require three things, set down in the order of their greatness, a character, a name, and the number of the name. The meaning is, that man that does not have their first annointing and clerical shaving of the head: secondly holy orders, by which is communicated the name of the beast: or finally has not attained that high degree of pontifical knowledge, and of the law (as they call it) canonical, and has not made up in account and cast the number of the mysteries of it: for in these things consists the number of the name of the beast. This is excellently set forth in the next verse.
Many believers will not take the mark of the beast (cf. Rev 7:3; Rev 14:1; Rev 14:9-11). Perhaps they will be able to survive by pooling their resources, by obtaining the necessities of life in clandestine ways (cf. Rev 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 (Rev 13:18). [Note: Charles, 1:364; Robertson, 6:406.]
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)