The Empire Strikes Back: The Mark of the Beast in Revelation

Abstract

The symbol for the “mark of the beast” originated within the numismatic environment of the first-century Roman world. Many of the images and symbols in the book of Revelation were also prominent motifs on Roman imperial and provincial coinage that served to distribute imperial theology and propaganda into every part of the Empire. The “mark,” itself, is implicitly linked with the imook operial economic system. In chaotic periods of revolution and civil war, one of the most visible and widespread ways that aspirants to demonstrate authority and gain support for being the next emperor of Rome was by circulating countermarked coins. The historical referents for the “mark” were special countermarks, perhaps the Capricorn associated in Roman imperial ideology with Emperor Augustus, stamped on Roman imperial coins, especially those circulated in Asia. John may have seized upon the visually prominent countermarked Roman coinage as the mark of the beast in order to advocate a radical rejection of this mark along with the entire economic system it represented.