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The other mark (in the Revelation block)

REVELATION · THE 144,000, AND THE SEAL SET BEFORE THE WINDS

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Revelation sets two marks on the forehead, not one. Before the winds are let go, the servants of God are sealed; the number of the sealed is given, and then a multitude that no one could count. It is the ark again — the vessel set before the storm — and it carries far more than eight.

Sealed before the winds — THE TEXT

“And after these things I saw four angels standing on the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, that the wind should not blow on the earth, nor on the sea, nor on any tree” (Revelation 7:1). Then: “Saying, Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads” (7:3). The seal comes first, and the winds wait for it — as the ark was finished, and the door shut, before the rain.

A number, and then a multitude — THE TEXT

“And I heard the number of them which were sealed: and there were sealed an hundred and forty and four thousand of all the tribes of the children of Israel” (7:4) — twelve thousand from each of the twelve tribes (7:5–8). And at once: “After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands” (7:9). “These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb” (7:14). Eight souls came through the water. This company cannot be counted.

Two marks — THE TEXT

The beast's: “And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name” (13:16–17). The other: “And I looked, and, lo, a Lamb stood on the mount Sion, and with him an hundred forty and four thousand, having his Father’s name written in their foreheads” (14:1). At the end of the book: “And they shall see his face; and his name shall be in their foreheads” (22:4). One mark buys and sells. The other is a name.

The seal keeps — THE TEXT

When the trumpets sound, the plague is sent against “only those men which have not the seal of God in their foreheads” (9:4). The seal is the ark of Revelation: it does not stop the storm; it keeps the ones who carry it.

No guile — THE TEXT

“These were redeemed from among men, being the firstfruits unto God and to the Lamb. And in their mouth was found no guile: for they are without fault before the throne of God” (14:4–5). They sing a song “no man could learn” but they (14:3). The mark of the true is a mouth with no lie in it — the very thing Letter I opens by confessing it failed.

The first sealing: Ezekiel's mark — THE TEXT, IN ITS LANGUAGES

Ezekiel saw it first: “Go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and set a mark upon the foreheads of the men that sigh and that cry for all the abominations that be done in the midst thereof” (Ezekiel 9:4), and “come not near any man upon whom is the mark” (9:6). The Hebrew word for the mark is tav, the last letter of the alphabet. In the old script it was written as a cross, an X or a +, and early Christian writers read it as a figure of the cross.

Blood on the door — THE TEXT

The same shape at the Passover: “And the blood shall be to you for a token upon the houses where ye are: and when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and the plague shall not be upon you to destroy you, when I smite the land of Egypt” (Exodus 12:13). The token is set before the destroyer passes — on the door, as the ark had its door, and as the seal is set before the winds.

In the geometry — A READING

The forehead is where the aim is set. The beast's mark is a counterfeit reference: it can be bought, sold and demanded. The other mark is a name — the reference held, and set before the pressure arrives. It is not earned in the storm; it is received before it.

What the text grants, and what it does not — OPEN

The 144,000 are counted from the twelve tribes (7:4–8); the multitude that follows is from all nations (7:9). Readers divide over whether the number is literal or a figure, and whether the multitude is the same company seen whole or a second one. The text sets the counted and the uncountable side by side; this plate does not decide between the readings.

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