The Mark of the Beast (666)

Many Christians today assume the mark of the beast (666) is something to expect in the future as we approach the end times.  But is it possible that the mark of the beast is something that has already come and gone?

The mark of the beast is only found in the book of Revelation, primarily in Revelation 13.  The first three verses of Revelation tell us that the book is about things that "must soon take place," "because the time is near."  If Revelation was written in 65-66 AD, then we should be looking for its fulfillment near that time, not thousands of years later.  Just a few years after Revelation was written, in 70 AD, the Roman army invaded Israel and destroyed Jerusalem and the temple.  Many believe that Revelation is primarily about the events leading up to and including the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD, which was God's judgment on Israel for rejecting Christ and persecuting His followers.  As well, Revelation touches on the early church's persecution at the hands of the Roman empire.  With this in mind, we can arrive at a plausible theory of the meaning of the mark of the beast.  

To understand the mark of the beast, we first have to identify the beast.  Revelation 13 describes the three enemies of the first century church: The dragon, the sea beast, and the land beast.  We know the dragon is Satan from Rev 12:9.  Satan wages his war on Christians through the sea beast and land beast.  The land beast was most likely the Jewish priesthood that was loyal to Rome, and utilized the authority of Rome to kill Christ and persecute his followers (Rev 13:11-15).  The sea beast is the primary beast, and the one associated with the mark of the beast.  I believe the sea beast to be the Roman empire in general, and its emperor Nero Caesar in particular.  Here are ten reasons why I believe this to be the case.  

1.  It came out of the sea (Rev 13:1).  Rome is in Italy, which is across the Mediterranean the sea from Israel.  The quickest ay to get to Israel from Italy is by boat across the sea.

2.  It was a political power.  The beast had ten horns, seven heads, and ten crowns (Rev 13:1).  The ten horns and crowns describe a major political power, an empire, which fits Rome.  Revelation 17:9-10 gives us more information about the seven heads.  The seven heads represent seven mountains or hills.  Rome was known as the City on Seven Hills, or the Septimontium.  The seven heads are also said to represent seven kings; five had fallen, one is, and the other had not yet come, and would remain only a little while.  This is a perfect description of Rome's first seven kings, beginning with Julius Caesar, Augustus, Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius, Nero, and Galba.  By the time of Revelation's writing, the first five emperors were dead.  The sixth, Nero, was currently in power.  The seventh, Galba, when he replaced Nero, only reigned for seven months.

3. It was blasphemous.  The beast is described as blasphemous three times (Rev 13:1, 5, 6).  This fits the emperor worship at the time.  The Roman emperor was worshiped as a god, with many temples erected to them throughout the empire.  Nero erected a 120-foot image of himself to be worshiped.  

4. It had beastly character.  Rev 13:2 compares the beast to three vicious carnivores.  If anyone had beastly character, it was the emperor Nero.  He murdered his mother.  First he tried to poison her, then he tried to drown her, and finally he ordered his soldiers to slash and bludgeon her to death.  He had his wife, Octavia, killed so that he could marry his mistress Poppaea.  He killed Poppaea by kicking her to death when she complained about his coming home late.  He had boy named Sporus castrated and then made a woman out of him, and then married him with a huge ceremony, and treated him like his wife.

5. It almost collapsed but was restored.  Rev 13:3 says the beast almost died but was healed.  The identity of the beast switches back forth from the empire to the emperor.  Here is is referring to the empire.  After Nero died in AD 68, the Roman empire almost collapsed.  Galba came to power, but Rome was plunged into civil war.  In AD 69 Rome had four emperors.  Just when it looked like it was over for the empire.  General Vespasian took control, became emperor, and restored order.

6. It persecuted the church for forty-two months (Rev 13:5).  Nero came to power in AD 54, but in AD 64 there was a great fire in Rome.  When people suspected that he started the fire, Nero blamed the Christians, and for the next forty-two months (three and a half years), Nero led the empire to persecute Christians.  Nero was the first Roman emperor to persecute Christians.

7. It demanded worship (Rev 13:16-17).  Everyone was forced to receive the mark (666) of the beast to buy and sell.  The mark is symbolic, not literal.  For example, Rev 14:1 speaks of a mark (seal) that was placed on 144,000 Christians -- the name of Christ written on their foreheads.  Every commentator agrees this is symbolic.  The seal indicated that these people worshiped Christ.  Similarly, the mark of the beast (the beast's name) was placed on everyone who worshiped the beast.  It symbolized that they belonged to the beast and therefore could buy and sell.  Those who refused the mark (by refusing to worship the emperor), would be persecuted.

8. Its identity could be discerned by the recipients of Revelation.  Rev 13:18 indicates that the original recipients of the book of Revelation would be able to discern the identity of the beast.  The means that the beast was obviously a contemporary of theirs, and not someone who would come thousands of years later.  This fits Nero who was the emperor of Rome at the time.

9. It was a person.  Rev 13:18 says that the beast's number is 666, which is the number of a person.  This tells us that the beast was not simply the Roman empire in general, but a particular person.  The emperor Nero was the figurehead of Rome; its personality; its authority.

10. Its number was 666.  Rev 13:18 says the number of the beast is 666.  The actual Greek number is 600, 60, and 6; a total of six hundred and sixty-six.  Back then they didn't have numbers and letters, only letters, and they used their alphabet for letters and numbers.  Each letter represented a number (we still use Roman numerals today).  It was very common back then to reduce a person's name to its numerical value.  By giving each letter a number, and then adding up the numbers, you could come up with the numerical value of a person's name.  This is called gematria.  When you add up Nero's name in Hebrew -- Nrwn Qsr (pronounced Neron Kaiser), the numerical value is 666: n [50] r [200] w [6] n [50] q [100] s [60] r [200] = 666.

To understand the mark of the beast, you have to understand what Revelation is all about.  It is not about the end times, but the end of the Jewish age.  It is not about the distant future, but the near future.  It was written in AD 65-66 and is about Christ's judgment on Israel through the Roman army in AD 70, and the early church's persecution at the hands of the Jewish priesthood and the Roman empire.  

The mark of the beast is not literal.  Like the other marks in Revelation, it is symbolic and represented those who worshiped the beast -- the Roman emperor.