Revelation 13:17

The Number of the Name of the Beast, Revelation 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, letterswere 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 neitherHebrew nor Greek, and so have to be arbitrarily transliterated. Thus neither Lateinos, i.e. Latinus(one of several mentioned by St Irenaeus) nor Nerôn Kêsari.e. Nero Caesar(adopted by many modern interpreters) is convincing: and no other name (Genseric, Mohammed, and even Napoleonhave been tried, with more or less violence) has any real chance of being right. The letters of Lateinosmust be taken with their numeral value in Greek, those of Neron Kesaras Hebrew. If neither of these be the true one, we may be pretty certain it will not be discovered till Antichrist appears: and thenbelievers will be able to identify him by this token.