To [receive] GIVE HIM a mark in their right hand or in their [foreheads] FOREHEAD.—By contrast with Ex. 13:9; 28:26‐38; Deut. 6:8; Z. ’07‐265; Rev. 7:3; 14:1; Ezek. 9:4‐6. “Consecration to the service of the beast is what is signified here.” (Cook.) (Lev. 19:28.) “All classes of Christians must bow; all must, in some way, give evidence of their support of the Image and consecration to its interests and laws; either a public, open profession of being members of the Alliance, and hence supporters (mark in forehead), or at least a giving of some assistance and influence to the principles of Image organisation—(the right‐hand support).” (Z. ’80‐1‐2.) This implies a re‐establishment of the inquisition _soon_—in some form of house‐to‐house “investigation” or public enrollment.
13:17. [And] That no man might buy or sell.—“The ‘buying and selling,’ like the other features, is symbolic, and refers to dealing in spiritual things. [But it may be literally fulfilled as well in the year of prospective famine now at hand.] None may be recognized as having any right to teach or preach or baptize or administer the emblems of our Lord’s death, except those licensed by some orthodox member of the Image, and acts of such persons (‘unlicensed’) are not counted valid.”—Z. ’80‐1‐2.
Save he that had the mark [or the name] of the beast.—Protestants affiliated with the Federal Council of Churches—already “marked,” stamped O. K. by the papacy.
Or the number of his name.—Consent to the principle of clergy rule in matters of faith, order and war (murder.)—Rev. 15:2.
13:18. Here is wisdom. Let him that hath [understanding] AN EAR count the number of the beast.—“Here is scope for ingenuity. Let people of shrewd intelligence calculate the number of the Wild Beast; for it indicates a certain man, and his number is 666.”—Weym.
For it is the number of a man.—The Man of Sin, the Papacy.—Rev. 19:20; 2 Thes. 2:3.
[And his number is] Six hundred threescore and six.—In the Greek this number is six hundred (represented by the Greek letter χ), plus sixty (represented by the Greek letter ξ), plus six (represented by the Greek letter ζ). It is not as though it read six plus six plus six.
“The following extract on this point is from a work entitled The Reformation, bearing the date of 1832: