17 and that no one would be able to buy or to sell, unless he has that mark, the name of the beast or the number of his name.
that no one will be able to buy or sell except the one who has the mark– in other words, “no one can do business (on the Sabbath Day) unless they have the mark.” The same kind of a double negative riddle is found at Rev 9:4, “they were told not to hurt the grass of the earth, nor any green thing, nor any tree, but only the men who do not have the seal of the living God on their foreheads.”
the name of the beast or the number of his name – the Gentiles were called “beasts” throughout the Old Testament, eg. Hos 2:18, Zech 8:10. The name of the fourth beast of Daniel is the “Latins,” as we shall discover in the next verse. The letters of the Greek,”Lateinos” add to 666.
The European States enforced Sunday rest through a barrage of sanctions, including fines, expropriation of property, and even imprisonment. These are comprehensively documented in Thomas Morer’s, “Discourse of the Lord’s Day,” published in 1701. Thomas proudly describes the history of these laws, on page 257, saying, “there are a great many cannons, decrees, edicts and laws..to let you see the Piety of all ages in this particular, and the care they had to have the Lord’s Day kept…I begin with Emperor Constantine…”
His book is filled with many testimonies of signs and wonders that attested to the keeping of Sunday rest. Just as John wrote, “he (the false prophet) deceives those who dwell on the earth by those signs which he was granted to do in the presence of the beast,” (Rev 13:14).