The Pulpit Commentary — Revelation — Section 298

(et eh. jij., 12, "I Will write upon him my aymbolizing aeJf-deeeit. St. Johu evidently w,w "8,Qle,." oh. uii, 4~ "His name shall intenda that the meaning of the number be in their foreheads ; " oh. vii. S : ix. 4 ; ahould be know.n: "Let him that bath xiv. 1). . The idea is taken from the Mosaic undent.andi~ count the number;" that is, custl)JDB (of. Deut. \'f. 8, "And. thou shalt "Let him that bath underatanding discern bind them for a Bign upon thine hand, a11d in what aeD10. the symbol is mad." It is they shall be as &ontlets .between thine the "number .of man :- " that is, it descriooa eyesf). Some writers see also an allusion aymbolically something which is peculiarly to Jh1:1 heathen twitom of branding slaves a oharacteristio of mankind. So1Il8 writers and othen who were devoted to the service have underst.ood the words to mean, "the of ;templee ; and recall the faot .that· xa.pd-y. number refon to an individ1111l man ; " but ,.,..,a, or " outtings,.. such as are here the absence t:1f the article militates against mentioned. wer~ forbiddea. to the Jews this view. .Others explain, "It is a number (Lev. xix. 28). whioh is to. be reckoned according to man'a Ver.. 17.-And that no man might buy mode of _reckoning," jmt as in oh. x:xi.17, or •el4 ave he that had the mark, or the " a measure of a man." If this be the namil of the beast, or the number of hil meaning, it leaves open the question.as to name. "And" is omitted in 1-t, C, some what St. John meant by-"the usual mode Olqllives and versions ~d Fathers: ,w man of mau's reekQning." His own use• of MOt(ld .~ able to buy, eto. A, B, C, P, and numerals throughout the Apooalypae is, as IJWIII; cursive& alao omit fi, "or," before " the · we have repeatedly llOOD,. aymbolieal of U8tllle," thus• reading, as in the Revised general qualities, a,nd .doea not indicate Veraion: tat1e 1111 ~ hath th6 . mark. e11en either individuals or exact numbers. . We tAa. Rlltllll o/ tAa be111t, ot" the number of hi, are justified, therefore, aooording -to thi1 ~ Tbia expl'6Bsly 11888rts what we view, in interpreting the number symboli- migh~ Jlave gathered from the ~Iogy of cally (flide supra). And his number is Six the mark !If ~ true Christian (see on ver. hundred three soore and six. The Revised 16), vi:11- that "the mark" was " the name" Version is better, Biz hllfldred and mty awd or "the number of his name." The manner m; it preserves the similarity of form which in w~ch this waa fulfilled in the early ages ia found in. the Greek words, l~wcaaw, i!H• qf tbe Chl!,rOb, is sufflciiently notorious. 1<011Ta f~ as found in A. In N we have T4en faithfulneea to _tqe ea~ of Christ i!~wc&.r1a1, etc.; in P, Andreaa, E(wctlo-,a.. frequently meant baniahment from friends, The shortened form x!'5'' ii found in B and Jiindred, and home. St. John himself was most cursivlll!. 0, 11, and some manuscripts feeling the eff"~t of. this at the time when known to lreneeus and Tichonius differ by he wrote these. words in exile at Patmoa. reading i!~1<&u1a1 5/,ca. IE, "aix hundred and So, at the pn,ilellt day, the Jews regard as sixteen," but this is probably incorrect. &II utter alien any one of their number who Commentators have universally attempted 8lllbr&,1l811 Christianity•. So alao, at the pre• to discover the name denoted by thia num- 10nt day, the faithful Christian. is often ber, by attaching to each letter of the name int&rjiioted the soc,iety of the world, is (generally the Greek letters) its numerical declared a e,ocial nuisan-0e. and ia llhunmid value, the. total of which 11hould equal the by the ·wqJ"ldly minded, who.pay ollegiance number 66~ Tu this method there are to the beaa1. (Oi;i the "number," see on several objectious, In. the .first place, St. ,er. is.) . John nowhere ,else makes snob use of a . Ver. 18.-;lhre:il wiadom. Let him that number,"though numbel'B form a prominent bath Ude?II:~ eout ~ nuJDber Qf feature. of the book. . In the second .place, the heut: for,U ia the number of• man. the adopti!)n of this method seems to have The. la.it .chi.use has n<i artiele, a.p1fJpb$ 'l'~P been a consequence .upon the interpretation ullp'1r0;u ltrrL -Complll"e the expression, of the worda, "number of a man," as mean- "Here•,ia the patience," eto. in ve:i:. 10, ing " a number to be calculated aoooming to ,r)lere it relates to what precedes, Here it _man's methods." :ant this may not be the eri~tly rek1aJo what foll1Jws. The form meaning at all (t1W6 ,upra); and, if U is, Q( exprel!llion . .is frequent in. St. John's "man'': method " would surely signify the wrlijn@ (of. l John ii. 6; iii .. Hi, 19; iv. 10, symbol10al D!ethod which St. John adopts eto.). The plain meaJling se:eme to be that all ,hrough the reat of the book, as being men may display their wisdom and under- a language perfectly well understood by ata.nding in di$1overing the meaning of the himself and liis reader■• And thirdly, this number of the beast. But the interpretation numerical method has proved entirely un- which Auberlen give■ may be correct; viz. satisfactory in the h!Lllda of those who have Ula&, aa Qie fil'llt lieut is metand vanquislied hitherto adopted it. For a complete e:rpollt! by patience 1md fllitb, BO this seoond beast of the fallacionsne1111 of such attempts. we ia to be met by W18dom. Tbia agrees with may refer the reader to Dr. Salmon's ~ tnterpxetation of. this seeond beast as 'Introduction to the New Teatament,' p 0.11. XIIL 1-18.] THE REVELATION OF' ST. JOHN THE DIVIN& 837