The Mark Of The Beast

Q. I enjoy your web site Immensely. I am a prodigal who has returned to the Lord and have strengthened my walk by listening to my pod cast daily and reading your site.

My question is this. (A popular Middle Eastern commentator)  advocates that the letters representing 666 are not Greek but are Arabic and mean Allah is Lord which are seen on head gear, especially by Jihadist. I know that this man has some questionable theology, but could there be some validity to this and that this head gear could actually be the mark of the beast?

A. I doubt this very much.  In my studies of Revelation, I’ve read commentaries by theologians familiar with the Arabic language as well as those by experts in Biblical Greek.  None of them has ever confirmed this man’s opinion.

Neither Hebrew nor Greek has numbers.  Instead, the letters of both alphabets have numerical values and are used in place of numbers.  Rev. 13:17-18 says that 666 is the number of the anti-Christ’s name, in other words the numerical value of the letters in his name.  But Arabic is different.  It’s letters have no numerical value because it has separate numbers.  They’re called Arabic numerals and today all the western world uses them.

This also tells us that the name of the anti-Christ will have to be translated into Hebrew or Greek in order to find its numerical value, and right now no one knows which.