“And he shall make all, both little and great, rich and poor, freemen and bondmen, to have a character in their right hand, or on their foreheads. And that no man might buy or sell, but he that hath the character, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name. Here is wisdom. He that hath understanding, let him count the number of the beast. For it is the number of a man: and the number of him is six hundred sixty-six.”—Revelation 13: 16-18
It is called hexakosioihexekontahexaphobia, the fear of the number 666, a crippling psychological condition for some people. But for most Christian students of prophecy, it is less of a phobia than fodder for end-time speculations, many downright bizarre.
The number is closely associated with a “mark” that will be imposed on followers of the Beast for identification. Nowhere in Revelation is this Beast called the Antichrist, but popular belief has cemented the connection. If we read Revelation in its historical context rather than as a roadmap of future events, we can understand what the number and mark actually mean. Revelation is an anti-Roman polemic and uses ciphers and symbols to hide its message from those not meant to read it.
The number 666 is an example of gematria, where letters are assigned numerical values. The Greek of “Nero Caesar” in Hebrew letters (NRON QSR) adds up to 666. In fact, there are manuscripts known to 2nd-century church father Irenaeus, bishop of Lyons, that give the number as 616. These must have used the Latin version of the emperor’s name, which in Hebrew letters becomes NRO QSR, dropping one N (=50), giving us 616. The “mark” in Greek is charagma and usually refers to the name and image of the emperor stamped on coins.
Thus interpreted, the Mark of the Beast had already come and gone. But this won’t make an iota of a difference to some believers, especially fundamentalists. After all, speculating about the future is kind of fun. So let’s examine 10 surprising things that some believe represent the Mark of the Beast.
Related: 10 Objects, Legends, and Locations That Share The Devil’s Name
10 Social Security Number
How do Social Security Numbers work?
The Social Security Number (SSN) was created in 1936 by the Roosevelt administration to track the earnings history of U.S. workers and determine their benefit levels under the Social Security system. Since then, it has been the chief means of identifying and getting information about an individual. This makes the SSN a sinister government tool in the minds of some Christians.
President Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal liberalism and the increasing power of the federal government, together with the rise of fascism in Germany and Italy, were interpreted by fundamentalists as heralds of the approaching end. FDR must be the Antichrist and the SSN the Mark of the Beast.
Some Christians have refused the SSN, notably in the case Miller v. Commissioner, 114 T.C. No. 32 (June 23, 2000), where the parents of two children objected to giving them the identifying numbers to claim them as dependents. The court ruled that in cases where the government has a compelling interest, whether collecting taxes or administering dependency exemptions to prevent fraudulent claims, the free exercise of religion can be overridden.
In 2021, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to overturn a lower court ruling against an Idaho man who refused to provide his SSN when applying for work as a state contractor, writing, “By forcing me to disclose an SSN in order for one to buy my labor or for me to sell my labor, is, in essence, the number of the beast and the card is a form of the mark.” In rejecting his appeal for exemption, the court ruled that the requirement is a “neutral law of general applicability.”[1]
9 Credit Cards
History in Plastic: Credit Cards
When VISA and Mastercard were first introduced and increased in popularity in the ’60s and ’70s, evangelicals went nuts, as they habitually do, over what they saw as the hand of the Antichrist. One particularly amusing conspiracy theory involving credit cards says that VISA in different languages is 666.
The VI = 6 in Roman numerals, the S is supposedly the 6th letter of the Greek alphabet, and the Babylonian letter A is claimed to look like a 6. Voila, 666! In pre-internet days, it was difficult to fact-check this, and many undoubtedly accepted it as another evidence of the grand plot to impose Satan’s mark on everyone. Today, a quick online search would reveal that zeta, the 6th letter of the Greek alphabet, does not look like an S, and A in Babylonian cuneiform does not remotely resemble a 6.
But credit cards continue to be suspect. That master of the outrageously bizarre, the late Pat Robertson, warned against smart cards, which are credit cards with implanted microchips that contain an individual’s credit history. Robertson saw just a tiny step from that to a microchip implanted in the hand. He feared that the growing technological efficiency of cashless transactions would ultimately provide the basis for controlling a person’s ability to “buy and sell.”[2]
8 Barcodes
When IBM engineers Joe Woodland and George Joseph Laurer III introduced their barcode to the nation’s shoppers in the early 1970s, they ignited a firestorm of protests. An IBM executive who went to inspect the first scanners at an LA grocery store was told to his face that the code was the Mark of the Beast.
It was said that each of the three long guide bars in the code represents a 6. Laurer received a letter from a nutcase who identified himself as Satan asking Laurer how it felt to have carried out his plan. It didn’t help that the letters of Laurer’s first, middle, and last names count to 666. He explained how barcodes work and that 666 is not embedded in it. Besides, the code is placed on grocery products, not the hand and forehead. By the ’80s, the furor had died down.
But not quite. In 2012, a San Antonio school district was sued by a teenager and her family for requiring her to wear an ID badge with a GPS chip and a barcode that allowed her to borrow books from the library and pay for cafeteria meals. The parents asserted that the barcode was the Mark of the Beast and that requiring their daughter to wear it violated her religious rights.
While we are on the subject, let’s debunk one rumor. No, Hobby Lobby doesn’t use barcodes, but not because the bosses believe it is the mark of the Antichrist. Founder David Green wrote that, among other reasons, none of them religious, “Employees take more pride in their work when they know they are in charge, not some faceless machine.”[3]
7 Microchip Implants
Microchipping humans wields great promise, but does it pose greater risk?
Even to sober, non-religious people, digital technology is progressively becoming more sinister. Already, 3,000 Swedes have had microchips containing credit card numbers and other digital information implanted in the back of their hands. A Wisconsin company offered to implant chips in their employees, allowing them to open doors, log into computers, or buy snacks. The chips have been hailed as the “ultimate form of mobile payment,” but enthusiasm is muted. The technology reminds many of the Mark of the Beast.
Microchip implants have a vast potential for good. With a GPS tracker, it assures parents and relatives that children and elderly people will never go missing again. Patients can be monitored by their doctors. Implants that can store and release medications on schedule are being developed. An implantable artificial kidney with microchips that will eliminate the need for dialysis is also in the works.
However, it may also be a slippery slope toward workplace surveillance and violation of privacy. What about hacking, data breaches, and identity theft? How sure are we that Big Brother will not use it for his own nefarious purposes? These are worrying trends even to those who don’t care what Revelation says.[4]
6 Bitcoin
HORROR! Bitcoin, Mark of the Beast & SCARY Economics – Dr. Kim
One would think that Bitcoin, a decentralized cryptocurrency no one owns with no central oversight, is the perfect antidote to the Antichrist’s plan to control b