What is "the mark of the Beast"?

 

To those concerned about "the Mark of the Beast" in these troubling times (whether that is focused on vaccination, a cashless society, or some other idea), please remember that Revelation is Jewish Apocalyptic Literature. (In this context "Apocalyptic" does not mean "End Times", "End of the World" or anything like that. An "Apocalype" is technically something that has been revealed, which is why the book is called "Revelation". But I digress...)

In Apocalyptic Literature, every reference is symbolic. In Jewish Apocalyptic Literature most of them are connected to symbolism from the Tanakh ("Old Covenant" Scriptures). So, in that context, what does the "mark" (or, more appropriately "sign") refer to? Let's look at Exodus 13, Deuteronomy 6, and Deuteronomy 11 for the answer.

 

In Exodus 13, Israel is told that the observance of Passover "shall serve as a sign to you on your hand, and as a reminder on your forehead, that the law of the Lord may be in your mouth; for with a powerful hand the Lord brought you out of Egypt." (NASB)

 

In Deuteronomy 6 is, of course, the Shema, the central prayer of Israel: "“Hear, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord is one! You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand and they shall be as frontals on your forehead. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates." (NASB)

 

Deuteronomy 11 promises blessing to Israel "...if you listen obediently to my commandments which I am commanding you today, to love the Lord your God and to serve Him with all your heart and all your soul...You shall therefore impress these words of mine on your heart and on your soul; and you shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontals on your forehead."

 

Two things to draw from these passages:

1. These are promises made to Israel, the Biblical descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. If the promises being used as symbols apply to Israel, it is at least arguable that the "sign of the Beast" does also. This is not to say that what affects the 'apple of God's eye" doesn't affect the rest of Creation, but it does say that the events being talked about aren't likely to be centered in the USA, or even in this half of the globe.
2. The "sign" is not a physical thing, except where a physical thing is used as a reminder of a Spiritual thing. It is a matter of cleaving onto the Word of God, and loving Him, and the other human beings He created in His image, above all else
   

Based on this, what is the "Mark of the Beast"? I would argue that it is not a literal, physical, thing. I would argue that it is the "anti-Shema". The Shema calls Israel to a singular focus on one God, supreme over any and all distractions. The "sign" then is made up of the distractions.

In short: The "sign of the Beast" is making anything, or anyone, more central to your thought, words, and actions than God and His Word.

Picking this back up again...

 I just got back on here after a long hiatus (about 6 years!), where I put a lot of my thoughts in Facebook. I have come to understand that Social Media platforms are not the best place to explore ideas in a calm, thoughtful manner.

So, I'm relocating back to my old neighborhood, so to speak.  I'l start by moving some of my commentary on Facebook here, where I'll expand and elaborate on those ideas.

Stay tuned...

Thoughts on Romans 10:4

Note updated to correct some typos and flesh out the idea a bit more.

In the MSI Romans class, we talk a fair amount about two Greek words:

• telos - Usually translated "end", but more often means "goal" or "purpose"
• nomos - Usually translated either "law" or "Law", but can also mean "rule" or "instruction"

In Romans 10:4, Paul uses these two words together.  It is generally translated as something along the line:

"Christ is the end (telos) of the Law (nomos) so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes."

Various translators and commentators have struggled mightily with this phrase, trying to reconcile the meaning of "end of the Law" with the Paul who is depicted in Acts as a Torah-observant Jew.

Some bail entirely on the question of whether telos means "cessation" or "goal" here, and refer to the latter portion of the verse "so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes" to establish the idea that either way, the Law is irrelevant for the Believer.

I would like us to look at another word to try to identify how a Torah-observant Jew might have written and meant Romans 10:4 - Christos

In the 1st Century, there were a number of different expectations or images of the Messiah. For our purpose here, we'll focus on two of them:

• Moshiach ben David - the conquering King who brings the Kingdom of God to Earth
• Moshiach ben Joseph - the suffering servant who takes upon himself the penalty for sin.

Each of these visions of the Messiah are testified to by the Prophets, hence the two different images of the Messiah.  I would like us to consider these two Christoi in the light of Paul's statement.  This may be the key question in applying this passage: Which Messiah is the "end game" of God's promise to mankind (via Israel)?

If Easter and Pentecost are the end game of Scripture, then the question of the "cessation of the Law" is up for consideration for both Paul and us.  Christ clearly died as Moshiach ben Joseph and that is that.

But what about Moshiach ben David?  If you take the position that the Revelation is a stand-alone document, and needs no support from the Old Testament to be valid, then you don't need Moshiach ben David to support the return as a conquering king.   However, there is very little in Revelation that makes one lick of sense without the Old Testament.

If, however, Moshiach ben David is the end game of Scripture, then no matter how we want to play with telos and nomos, Torah still has meaning and purpose, because the Messiah that is the telos of the nomos is still to come.

So, either the death and resurrection of the Messiah brings righteousness for everyone who believes, or the return of the Davidic King to establish God's reign on the Earth brings righteousness for everyone who believes.

If it is the death and resurrection that brings righteousness, then what are we to make of Paul's own struggle with sin as detailed elsewhere in the letter?

I suspect that Paul was looking towards the Davidic reign, when "the full number of Gentiles" has come in, and "all Israel will be saved". 

I plan on developing these thoughts further, but for the moment, I invite comment.

Dating Paul's Letter to the Romans

Last night in Galatians class, I mentioned that there was a pretty good basis for dating Paul's letter to the Romans in the political situation in Rome itself, but there wasn't time to pursue it.  One person had already taken my Romans Class, but for the benefit of the others:

Installing BibleWorks 9 in Ubuntu Linux using Wine.

Why this is here...

I love Linux.  I also love BibleWorks.  Unfortunately, these two loves of mine don't play nice together.  BibleWorks only likes Windows and Mac. So, what's a Linux-loving BibleWorks junkie to do?  Well, there is a way to make everyone cooperate, and that is to create a sort of sandbox where BibleWorks thinks it's playing with Windows, when it's really Linux in Micro$oft clothing.  The "sandbox" is a lovely little project called "Wine".

What is meant by "Jesus made all foods clean"?

The following is a discussion that came up obliquely in both my New Testament Environment class and Galatians.  What follows is a fairly detailed discussion of Mark, Chapter 7.

Welcome MSI 2015 Students!

The whole purpose of this Blog is to give you folks access to ideas, resources and whatnot that is interesting and/or useful, but doesn't quite fit into a class, because of either time or scope.

This is where "bunny trails" that we don't pursue in class will often end up.

This is also a "live fire exercise" in MSI making the transition into a greater online presence, so participate, comment, question, vent.  Just be polite and considerate of others, OK?

Postings will be tagged with one of (at this point) 5 tags, for your convienience:

1. ANNOUNCE (Announcements like this one)
2. NT_ENV (Posts / links specific to the NT Environment Class)
3. ROMANS (Posts / links specific to the Romans class)
4. GALATIANS (Posts / links specific to the Galatians Class)
5. Musings (Posts / links of general interest, or that are of interest to multiple classes)

That's it for the moment.  If I update a post (including this one) I'll put up a new post with a link to the update.