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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comRobertson Word Pictures - Revelation 13:17 - 13:17
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
That no man should be able to buy or to sell (hina mē tis dunētai agorasai ē pōlēsai). Final clause with hina and present middle subjunctive of dunamai with aorist active infinitives. This is a regular boycott (Ramsay, Seven Letters, p. 106f.) against all not worshippers of the emperor.
Save (ei mē). “If not,” “except.”
Even the name (to onoma). No “even,” just apposition with charagma (the mark).
Or the number (ē ton arithmon). The stamp (the mark) may bear either the name or the number of the beast. The name and the number are one and the same. They could write the name in numerals, for numbers were given by letters. Swete suggests that it was “according to a sort of gematria known to the Apocalyptist and his Asian readers, but not generally intelligible.”