Verse 16
The second beast also implements the marking of beast-worshippers. We should probably interpret "all" to mean all classes rather than all individuals since John mentioned six classes of people: social, economic, and cultural. However taken together these three groups comprise the entire population. This marking corresponds among unbelievers to the sealing of God’s servants in chapter 7. It probably will begin early in the Great Tribulation shortly after the sealing of the 144,000. [Note: Thomas, Revelation 8-22, p. 180.] Those who receive this mark will do so willingly. [Note: Düsterdieck, p. 381.]
"The choice of right hand or forehead is presumably for conspicuousness. It could not be hidden. It may also be meant as a travesty of the Jewish custom of wearing phylacteries (little boxes containing extracts from the Bible) on the left hand (or forearm) and on the head." [Note: Morris, pp. 172-73.]
The mark of the beast is evidently a brand-like mark, similar to a tattoo, that will identify beast-worshippers and will enable them to buy and sell. Beale viewed it as "figurative of the ways in which the state keeps check on whether people submit to compulsory idol worship." [Note: Beale, p. 715.] It probably connects with ancient customs. Domestic slave owners sometimes branded their slaves with their mark. [Note: Plutarch, Pericles, 26; Herodotus, 7.233.] Those bearing the mark of the beast show by their mark that they are his followers. Sometimes Roman soldiers branded themselves with the mark of their general if they were particularly fond of him. [Note: Lucian, De Syria Dea, 59; Herodotus, 2.113.] Those devoted to the beast will take his mark. The same Greek word translated "mark" (charagma) also described the seal attached to legal documents that bore the name of the emperor and the date. A less literal view understands the mark as "John’s way of symbolically describing authentic ownership and loyalty." [Note: Johnson, p. 532.]
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