I could certainly spend the next ten to fifteen minutes discussing the respective merits and shortcomings of each of these interpretations. I could analyze the passage’s original language and historical context and offer up a measured theological conclusion, which you would then recall the next time someone comes at you with their hot take that Revelation 13 is, without a doubt, a dire warning about George W. Bush or Barak Obama. But here’s the thing…that sounds like a LOT of work. I JUST got back from Sabbatical, people; don’t assign me a research paper right off the bat!
I’m not entirely convinced that this would be the most productive approach to this passage, anyway. Although there’s a strong temptation to try and decode this ancient mystery once and for all, the beasts’ exact identities and location in history don’t actually matter as much as people tend to think they do. There always have been, and always will be, countless people just like these figures who stand against everything that God is – as Ecclesiastes reminds us, “There’s nothing new under the sun.”[1]. What good would it do us to pin down just one of them? If we succeed in ascribing this passage to one particular person, place and time, then the only thing we’ll have accomplished would be lowering our guard against the many, many others who inevitably follow them. After all, blasphemy, deception, and corruption have (unfortunately) never been rare qualities among human beings.
As soon as we let go of the idea that these are one-time events tied to a particular individual, it becomes much easier for us to “translate” the beast’s actions into different contexts so that we can more easily recognize them when they happen. Speaking blasphemy, doing signs, and demanding worship all look and sound much different today than they would have when the book of Revelation was first written, but you’d better believe that they’re still happening as regularly as ever – just in different forms. If we can understand the ways that today’s beasts are following the exact same footsteps of those who came before them, then we’ll have a better chance of spotting their behavior EVERY time we encounter it.
But there’s one action in this passage that seems so extreme and so specific that it’s difficult to picture it happening today. Maybe that’s why the so-called “mark of the beast” has captured the popular imagination so strongly. Your average leader or king generally doesn’t brand human beings like cattle as it seems the beast is doing in verse 16 – not even the worst ones. That sounds like the act of a truly malevolent, once-in-a-thousand-years sociopath. Surely, at least THIS part of the passage is pointing to a particularly heinous individual – Nero? Hitler? Putin?
Maybe. But then again, maybe there’s a way that even the “mark of the beast” has taken a new form to live on in a new era. Maybe the act of imposing the mark itself isn’t what’s important here; maybe the relevant part is the purpose behind it. If we do a little digging into the Greek word used in verse 16, we discover that it refers to a mark that’s used to provides undeniable identification or to create an irrefutable connection between things.[2] The mark of the beast is, for all intents and purposes, nothing more and nothing less than a label.
During the time in which Revelation was written, the only real option for making a label undeniable and irrefutable was to carve it into a surface. These days, the invention of sharpies and stickers have made engraved labels much less common. Who knows; maybe if this passage had been written today, it would have referred instead to “the self-adhesive nametag of the beast”. But then again, maybe we shouldn’t be so determined to interpret the mark as a physical label of any sort. Revelation is a book of symbols and metaphors, after all, and invisible labels can still be just real and lasting as visible ones.
Unlike the rare kind of mark that may have initially come to mind when we read this passage, we encounter invisible labels every single day. We assign them to one another – and even to ourselves! – on a regular basis. They serve the exact same function as the engravings from verse 16 – they identify us and demonstrate our connections to one another. For example, my label as a pastor helps people understand my role in this community. Your label as a Christian indicates to other Christians that you share their traditions, beliefs, and (ideally) values. We don’t have to have these labels literally written on our bodies for them to have an impact.
Now, while some invisible labels have specific criteria that must be met before they can be appropriately applied, others are more subjective. But even these labels have power. I can’t PROVE that I’m creative, but the fact that other people have labeled me as such still shapes my self-understanding. There’s no formal standards to be called a Broncos fan or an egotist or an introvert, but that doesn’t stop each of those labels from influencing how we interact with the world. It’s these kinds of labels, the ones that can’t quite be quantified, that the beasts described in Revelation can use most effectively for their own ends. These are the marks that can be the most difficult for us to resist – and the most damaging if we don’t.
The beasts of today are far less likely to leave their mark by carving your flesh than by labeling you in a way that you can’t disprove. You may try to reject the label at first – the first time someone calls you too insignificant to make a difference, too weak to demand change, too ignorant to know right from wrong – but these sorts of labels are stickier than you think. If you entertain them at all, even just for a moment, they gain a foothold and refuse to let go. By changing the way you think about yourself, they begin to mold you into something that better serves the beast’s purposes. Before you know what’s happening, the label has become a part of you, and the beast has left its mark – undeniable and irrefutable.
The beasts that we encounter in our everyday lives don’t have to dictate what we wear on our bodies or make us into walking billboards to gain control over us. They can leave their mark in the form of a carefully planted idea or quietly persistent epithet, allowing it to fester until it either erodes who we once were or turns us into something we were never meant to be. They label us with their lies, and the events of Revelation 13 unfold one more time: the same old story simply told in a different way.
So, what’s the Good News? Is the lesson here that the mark of the beast is inescapable, that it’s our fate to submit to the worst of humanity, time and time again? Are we doomed to lives of helplessness? Of course not, thanks be to God. As the saying goes, “Knowledge is power,” and now that we have a clearer idea what we could be facing – not a once-in-a-lifetime villain but a series of less obvious adversaries – we have the chance to prepare. And believe it or not, we’ve already gotten a head start.
See, humans aren’t the only ones who make use of labels. Long before you encountered your first beast, you were given an invisible mark that’s more real and more enduring than all others. This label empowers us to reject those that might seek to lead us astray. It’s undeniable and irrefutable because of the one who imparts it. And at your baptism, this invisible mark was given a physical form, confirming the label that cannot be taken from you: child of God.[3] Of all the labels we receive over the course of a lifetime, this is the only one that truly matters. It keeps us rooted in who we are and whose we are, grounding us in a truth that overcomes all the beasts’ lies. All other labels are utterly insignificant in comparison.
The beasts of the world will try to conceal this mark from you and to impose their own in its place in an effort to mold you into something they can use for their own selfish purposes. Don’t be deceived. Although the beasts’ labels are convincing, they cannot last so long as we keep returning to our truest identity in God. Armed with this knowledge, we can endure everything that Revelation describes, in whatever form it takes.
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[1] Ecclesiastes 1:9.
[2] Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance, entry 5480: charagma (Biblehub.com/Greek/5480.htm).
[3] Cf. Revelation 7:1.
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