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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comVincent Word Studies - Revelation 13:16 - 13:16
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A mark (χάραγμα)
The word occurs frequently in Revelation, and only once elsewhere (Act 17:29) on which see note. Commentators find illustrations in the brand set upon slaves by their masters, or upon soldiers by their monarchs, and in the branding of slaves attached to certain temples. Herodotus describes a temple to Hercules at the Canopic mouth of the Nile, and says: “If a slave runs away from his master, and taking sanctuary at this shrine gives himself up to the God, and receives certain sacred marks upon his person, whosoever his master may be, he cannot lay hand on him” (ii., 113). In the treatise “concerning the Syrian goddess” falsely attributed to Lucian, it is said of the slaves of the temple, “all are branded, some upon the wrist and some upon the neck.” Paul, in Gal 6:17, applies the word for these brands, στίγματα, to the marks of Christ's service which he bears in his body. In 3 Macc. 2:29, we read that Ptolemy Philopator required all the Jews of Alexandria to be registered among the common people; and that those who were thus registered were to be marked (χαράσεσθαι) on their persons by the ivy-leaf symbol of Dionysus (Bacchus). In Lev 19:28, the Israelites are forbidden to make cuttings in their flesh for the dead and to print marks (γράμματα στικτὰ) upon themselves.