on the coin. Rom. i. 24, an mage of men, birds, beasts, etc. Col. iii. 10, “the zmage of Him that created him;” de., the moral likeness of renewed men to God. Christ is called the image of God (Col. i. 15; 2 Cor. iv. 4). Besides the idea of likeness, the word involves the idea of representation, though not of perfect representation. Thus, man is said to be the image of God (1 Cor. xi. 7). In this it resembles yapaxrip image in Heb. i. 3. Ceesar’s image on the coin, the reflection of the sun in the water (Plato, “ Pheedo,” 99); and the statue or image of the beast in this passage, are e/xav.
The word also involves the idea of manifestation. Thus, Col. i. 15, where, in the tage there is an implied contrast with the invisible God. Hence Philo applied the term to the Logos. See on John i. 1.
The word played an important part in the Arian controversy, in which the distinction was sharply emphasized between eixav image as assuming a prototype, and therefore as properly rep- resenting the relation of the Son to the Father, and opotwpa likeness, a8 implying mere similitude, and not embodying the essential verity of the prototype. The mage involves the like- ness, but the likeness does not involve the image. The latter may imply only an accidental resemblance, while the former is a veritable representation. Christ is therefore the efxav of God.
The image of the beast occurs ten times in the Apocalypse ; four times in this chapter, and in xiv. 9,11; xv. 25 xvi.2; xix. 20; xx. 4.
15. Speak. This is supposed by some to refer to the tricks of pagan priests in making pictures and statues appear to speak.
16. A mark (ydpayua). The word occurs frequently in the Apocalypse, and only once elsewhere (Acts xvii. 29) on which see note. Commentators find illustrations in the brand set upon slaves by their masters, or upon soldiers by their mon- archs, and in the branding of slaves attached to certain temples. Herodotus describes a temple to Hercules at the Canopic mouth of the Nile, and says: “If a slave runs away from his master, and taking sanctuary at this shrine gives himself up to the god,
Vou. Il.—84