"Biometric Facial Recognition" in next year's drivers' licenses, right hand thumb prints at banks: how close to the "Mark" of Revelation 13:16?
What is the Revelation 13:16 Significance of "biometric facial recognition", "biometric voice recognition", biometric iris scans", "biometric retinal scans", "biometric hand geometry", and "biometric finger scans" (finger prints)?
1. Could the mark in the "metwpon", the Greek word translated "forehead" in Revelation 13, be literally fulfilled by a retina scan or digital photograph processed by facial recognition software? The Revelation 13 "Mark" will be "in" (KJV) the right hand OR "in" the "forehead". ("On", say modern translations.) To what extent do facial or retina scans "or" finger prints fulfill prophecy, according to the Greek?
The "mark" is "in or on" the "forehead". The retina is below the forehead. A facial scan includes the forehead but also the rest of the face. Could the Greek word describe anything below the forehead?
The Greek word is metwpon. MET-oh-pon.
Strong's Concordance defines it: " the forehead (as opposite the countenance) :--forehead."
Wikipedia (as of 7/7) says a forehead is "the bony part of the head above the eyes", but Webster's original dictionary, in use in 1890 when James Strong published his Concordance, defined "forehead" as from the hairline down "to the eyes". "Opposite the countenance", the other part of Strong's definition, was defined as "in front of" the expressive part of the face, or in other words, the most expressive part of the face - the part of the face that takes the lead in expressing the heart. By that definition of metwpon, the word definitely does not mean the skin above the eyebrows, but the eyes.
The Arndt-Gingrich Greek Lexicon gives an example from classical Greek literature where a woman is veiled "up to the metwpon". If "metwpon" meant from the eyebrows to the hairline, the veil would blind her! But if metwpon means from the eyes to the hairline, (so that the veil comes "up to the eyes"), the phrase describes the Middle Eastern custom from Bible times to the present.
Rev. 7:3, 9:4, 22:4, and Ezekiel 9:4 describe God's marks on the "foreheads" of the sa ints. Revelation 22:4 says Jesus' Name will be written on the metwpon of the saints in Heaven. Ezekiel says it is written with ink. Well, you can't write on retinas with ink, I don't think. At least I can't. But could an angel? Don't know.
The Hebrew word for "forehead" in Ezekiel is defined "clear" and "conspicuous". The most clear and conspicuous part of the face - the part at which we always first look, is the eyes. Salesmen are taught to "look your customer in the eye", not in the forehead above the eyebrows. The same Hebrew word describes Aaron's golden plate inscribed with "Holiness to the Lord" on blue lace attached to the front of his turban which sat always on his "forehead", Exodus 28:38. - his "clear and conspicuous".
In Ezekiel, God marks men who "sigh and that cry for all the abominations that be done in the midst" of the city in which they live. Could it be that the marks God places are the repulsion expressed by the eyes at the appearance of temptation, the sadness expressed by the eyes at the world's "fun", the joy expressed by the eyes at another's sacrifice of everything for others and for God? Could it be that God's ink etches the lines in our faces that proclaim to the world, "devil, keep out! This one's mine! See My Name in his eyes?"
Eyes are full of spiritual significance throughout the Bible. As physical light enters the eyes to direct the whole physical body, God's Truth directs the soul. For example,
Mt 6:22 The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, [Gr. healthy, sound] thy whole body shall be full of light. 23 But if thine eye be evil, [if you shut your eyes to God's Truth] thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, [if you have filled your heart with religions based on myths] how great is that darkness! 24 No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon. [the "god" of money]Revelation 17:5 describes the "mother of harlots" with names written on her Metwpon. There is more room to write names on foreheads than on retinas -- unless the harlot could be some electronic monster, and her eyes are TV screens, or projectors of video images.
Rev 22:4 describes Jesus' name on our "metwpon" in Heaven. If all this theorizing about it meaning "eyes" is nonsense, and the mark will be on what Wikipedia defines as "foreheads", perhaps the photo at the right shows what we will all look like in Heaven.
2. Does the Greek word "epi", translated "in" in the KJV ("the mark in the right hand") and "on" in some modern translations, necessarily mean some physical alteration or addition to the right hand or the forehead? Can it possibly mean a record based on the right hand or the forehead?
The Arndt-Gingrich Greek dictionary says "epi" can mean "on the basis of": "on the basis of. epi duo h triwn marturwn on the evidence of two or three witnesses 1 Ti 5:19." (KJV: "before [Gr: epi] two or three witnesses.") So in other words, where the KJV said "before", Arndt-Gingrich pointed out the context requires us to understand "based on the evidence of", from which we may extract the general meaning, "on the basis of".
This proves the possibility that "epi" in Revelation 13:16 may mean, not the mark "in" or "on" the metwpon, but the retina scan - the digital record or image - which is "based on" the metwpon.
Another verse with this meaning is Matthew 4:4. "But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by [Gr. epi, on the basis of, or by the power of] every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God".
CONCLUSION: We cannot know if digital photos, iris scans, or fingerprints, on drivers' licenses, are the same "marks" John foresaw in Revelation 13, but they literally fulfill the Bible's description of them, even though they are NOT YET linked to a worldwide database.
For more details from Greek and English dictionaries about the definitions of "forehead", "in", and "mark", See "Mark of the Beast, Defined, More Details")
4. Tying it all together. Current Technology. The Real ID Timeline  5. Hope: the Senate isn't Ready to Roll Over for the Antichrist, Just Yet!  6.Why does God care about such a little bitty thing?  7. Clue #1: The Census Scriptures.  8. Clue #2: The Freedom Scriptures.  9. Clue #3: The Small Government Scriptures.  10. Challenge!
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