Wahyu 13:16-18

13:16 He also caused ¹  everyone (small and great, rich and poor, free and slave ² ) to obtain a mark on their right hand or on their forehead. 13:17 Thus no one was allowed to buy ³  or sell things ⁴  unless he bore ⁵  the mark of the beast – that is, his name or his number. ⁶  13:18 This calls for wisdom: ⁷  Let the one who has insight calculate the beast’s number, for it is man’s number, ⁸  and his number is 666. ⁹ 

Wahyu 14:9

14:9 A ¹⁰  third angel ¹¹  followed the first two, ¹²  declaring ¹³  in a loud voice: “If anyone worships the beast and his image, and takes the mark on his forehead or his hand,

Wahyu 14:11

14:11 And the smoke from their ¹⁴  torture will go up ¹⁵  forever and ever, and those who worship the beast and his image will have ¹⁶  no rest day or night, along with ¹⁷  anyone who receives the mark of his name.”

[13:16]  ¹ tn Or “forced”; Grk “makes” (ποιεῖ, poiei).

[13:16]  ² tn See the note on the word “servants” in 1:1.

[13:17]  ³ tn Grk “and that no one be able to buy or sell.” Because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, a new sentence was started here in the translation. Although the ἵνα (Jina) is left untranslated, the English conjunction “thus” is used to indicate that this is a result clause.

[13:17]  ⁴ tn The word “things” is not in the Greek text, but is implied. Direct objects were frequently omitted in Greek when clear from the context. In the context of buying and selling, food could be primarily in view, but the more general “things” was used in the translation because the context is not specific.

[13:17]  ⁵ tn Grk “except the one who had.”

[13:17]  ⁶ tn Grk “his name or the number of his name.”

[13:18]  ⁷ tn Grk “Here is wisdom.”

[13:18]  ⁸ tn Grk “it is man’s number.” ExSyn 254 states “if ἀνθρώπου is generic, then the sense is, ‘It is [the] number of humankind.’ It is significant that this construction fits Apollonius’ Canon (i.e., both the head noun and the genitive are anarthrous), suggesting that if one of these nouns is definite, then the other is, too. Grammatically, those who contend that the sense is ‘it is [the] number of a man’ have the burden of proof on them (for they treat the head noun, ἀριθμός, as definite and the genitive, ἀνθρώπου, as indefinite – the rarest of all possibilities). In light of Johannine usage, we might also add Rev 16:18, where the Seer clearly uses the anarthrous ἄνθρωπος in a generic sense, meaning ‘humankind.’ The implications of this grammatical possibility, exegetically speaking, are simply that the number ‘666’ is the number that represents humankind. Of course, an individual is in view, but his number may be the number representing all of humankind. Thus the Seer might be suggesting here that the antichrist, who is the best representative of humanity without Christ (and the best counterfeit of a perfect man that his master, that old serpent, could muster), is still less than perfection (which would have been represented by the number seven).” See G. K. Beale, Revelation, [NIGTC], 723-24, who argues for the “generic” understanding of the noun; for an indefinite translation, see the ASV and ESV which both translate the clause as “it is the number of a man.”

[13:18]  sn The translation man’s number suggests that the beast’s number is symbolic of humanity in general, while the translation a man’s number suggests that it represents an individual.

[13:18]  ⁹ tc A few mss (̹¹⁵ C, along with a few mss known to Irenaeus {and two minuscule mss, 5 and 11, no longer extant}), read 616 here, and several other witnesses have other variations. Irenaeus’ mention of mss that have 616 is balanced by his rejection of such witnesses in this case. As intriguing as the reading 616 is (since the conversion of Nero Caesar’s name in Latin by way of gematria would come out to 616), it must remain suspect because such a reading seems motivated in that it conforms more neatly to Nero’s gematria.

[14:9]  ¹⁰ tn Here καί (kai) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and English style.

[14:9]  ¹¹ tn Grk “And another angel, a third.”

[14:9]  ¹² tn Grk “followed them.”

[14:9]  ¹³ tn For the translation of λέγω (legw) as “declare,” see BDAG 590 s.v. 2.e.

[14:11]  ¹⁴ tn The Greek pronoun is plural here even though the verbs in the previous verse are singular.

[14:11]  ¹⁵ tn The present tense ἀναβαίνει (anabainei) has been translated as a futuristic present (ExSyn 535-36). This is also consistent with the future passive βασανισθήσεται (basanisqhsetai) in v. 10.

[14:11]  ¹⁶ tn The present tense ἔχουσιν (ecousin) has been translated as a futuristic present to keep the English tense consistent with the previous verb (see note on “will go up” earlier in this verse).

[14:11]  ¹⁷ tn Grk “and.”