From the earliest pages of Scripture, God’s covenant has always been described as leaving a mark, not etched into skin but borne in mind and carried out through the hands. In Deuteronomy and again in Joshua, Israel is told to place God’s word on the forehead and the hand, language that clearly points to thoughts shaped by loyalty and deeds formed by obedience. This imagery reappears in the New Testament when Jesus insists that a life is known by its fruit, and what governs the heart will inevitably express itself in action. With that biblical background in view, the language of Revelation becomes more difficult to interpret in isolation. When John speaks of a mark placed on the same two locations, the question naturally arises whether this is new imagery at all, or whether it is deliberately echoing and distorting a much older covenant sign.
In the Old Testament, the clearest passages are in Deuteronomy 6:6–8 and 11:18, and they are echoed narratively in Exodus 13:9, 16, and later in Joshua 22 by way of covenant loyalty. Israel is told to bind God’s words on the hand and between the eyes. In context, this is not about a physical marking but about internalized allegiance. The forehead indicates thought, loyalty, and the mind’s orientation. The hand points to action, labor, and obedience. God’s law is to govern both what Israel loves and thinks, and what Israel does.
Second Temple Judaism later literalized this imagery in the practice of tefillin (phylacteries), but even there, the physical sign served to reinforce the deeper symbolic reality. The covenant mark was visible in life, not inked into skin.
When you come to the New Testament, Jesus’ words about fruit and deeds are closely continuous with this idea. What governs the heart necessarily expresses itself in action. Thought and deed together reveal allegiance.
Revelation deliberately mirrors this earlier covenant language. The “mark of the beast” on the forehead and the hand is best understood as a counterfeit covenant sign. Just as God seals his people, the beast marks his own. Revelation itself reinforces this parallel by describing the seal of God on the foreheads of the faithful in Revelation 7 and 14. Two marks, two allegiances, two ways of life.
In apocalyptic literature, symbols are meant to be read theologically rather than mechanically. The mark of the beast represents a mindset shaped by idolatrous power and a pattern of behavior that conforms to it. It is the inversion of Deuteronomy’s call to love the Lord with heart, soul, and strength.
Revelation does not abandon the biblical grammar of covenant signs. It is intensifying it. The question remains the same throughout Scripture: who governs your thinking, and whose purposes are you carrying out with your hands?
Between the Garden and the Garden City 