There is an interesting article on the preterist fullfillment of the mark of the beast long ago in the Roman empire. I've long felt that Pompeii is the Babylon talked about in Revelation, which was destroyed shortly after it was written:
Mark of the beast
For other uses, see
Mark of the Beast (disambiguation).
Coin showing Nero distributing charity to a citizen, c. 64–66
The
Classical Greek word
charagma (χάραγμα), translated as
mark (of the beast) in Revelation 13:16 can also mean
any mark engraved,
imprinted, or
branded;
stamped money,
document, or
coin.
[49][50]
The mark of the beast is interpreted differently across the four main views of
Christian Eschatology.
Preterist view
A common
preterist view of the Mark of the beast (focusing on the past) is the stamped image of the emperor's head on every coin of the Roman Empire: the stamp on the hand or in the mind of all, without which no one could buy or sell.
[51] New Testament scholar C.C. Hill notes, "It is far more probable that the mark symbolizes the all-embracing economic power of Rome, whose very coinage bore the emperor's image and conveyed his claims to divinity (e.g., by including the sun's rays in the ruler's portrait). It had become increasingly difficult for Christians to function in a world in which public life, including the economic life of the trade guilds, required participation in idolatry."
[52]
Adela Yarbro Collins further denotes that the refusal to use Roman coins resulted in the condition where "no man might buy or sell".
[53][54] A similar view is offered by Craig R. Koester. "As sales were made, people used coins that bore the images of Rome's gods and emperors. Thus each transaction that used such coins was a reminder that people were advancing themselves economically by relying on political powers that did not recognize the true God."
[55]
In 66 AD, when Nero was emperor—about the time some scholars say Revelation was written—the Jews revolted against Rome and
coined their own money.
The passage is also seen as an antithetical parallelism to the Jewish institution of
tefillin—
Hebrew Bible texts worn bound to the arm and the forehead during daily prayer. Instead of binding their allegiance to God to their arm and head, the place is instead taken with people's allegiance to the beast.
[51]