Seal of Love vs. Marked by Sin
mark of the beast and the mark on the foreheads of God’s faithful followers is a metaphor of the character of the beast revealed by thoughts (foreheads) and by actions (the hands)
Let me be a seal The present translation conveys wish or desire. More precisely, the verb is an imperative (siymeini, “set me”) that governs the two ensuing similes (kh/ka-ḥotam, “as a seal”) and the two areas of placement (“upon your heart … upon your arm”). The first such place is emotional and internal; the second physical and external. Together they convey her desire to be an insignia both upon and within him, body and soul.
16 Also he compels all [alike], both small and great, both the rich and the poor, both free and slave, to be marked with an inscription [stamped] on their right hands or on their foreheads,
16 It also caused everyone, small and great, rich and poor, free and bound, to be marked on the right hand or on the forehead
6 Set me like a seal upon your heart, like a seal upon your arm; for love is as strong as death, jealousy is as hard and cruel as Sheol (the place of the dead). Its flashes are flashes of fire, a most vehement flame [the very flame of the Lord]! [Deut. 4:24; Isa. 49:16; I Cor. 10:22.]
Seal. Small engraved object widely used in the ancient Near East to produce an image in soft clay.
Origin. The exact origin of seals cannot be determined. It has been claimed that the cylinder seal preceded the invention of writing. The first seal probably developed from the amulet, whose purpose was to give protection to its wearer or to ward off evil. At one time a seal was believed to have some kind of magical protective power that would bring a curse or harm to the unauthorized person who dared to break it to obtain the contents it protected. Primitive seals were little more than tiny clay spools scratched with twigs to produce simple designs or figures. Glyptic art (the technical name for engraving or carving of seals on gems) fluorished in the ancient Near East from the 4th millennium BC. down to the end of the Persian period in the 4th century BC.
Types of Seals
Stamp Seals. Seals were produced in many shapes and sizes, the earliest being the stamp seal, a flat engraved gem or bead which produced a copy of itself by pressing it against soft clay. It was superceded about 3000 BC. in Mesopotamia by the cylinder seal and began to be used again only at the end of the 8th century BC; by Hellenistic times it had replaced the cylinder seal altogether.
Cylinder Seals. The cylinder seal first appeared in Mesopotamia before 3000 BC. and became the most widely used kind of seal until the middle of the 1st millennium BC. Its use in Egypt is evidence of very early Mesopotamian cultural influence upon Egypt; however, it was soon replaced there by the scarab seal, which was better adapted for sealing papyrus documents.
Symbols or designs were carved on the outside of the cylinder which left their imprint when the seal was rolled over the wet clay. Some of the earliest symbols used were geometric designs or representations of some magical symbol. Later seals depicted everything from mythology (deities seated conversing with each other, receiving worshipers in audience, riding in a boat or chariot, or fighting an enemy) to scenes from everyday life (hunting, marriage, banqueting, feeding animals, fighting wild beasts, offering sacrifices to the deity, war, leading prisoners away) and representations of animals, flowers, and birds. Writing (e.g., the owner’s name or a declaration of loyalty to a god or king) began to appear on seals in the 3rd millennium BC. Because of the great number and variety of seals that have been found, they are invaluable for what they reveal about ancient peoples—how they dressed, their hairstyles, furniture, utensils, and religious beliefs.
Seals were made from a variety of materials, including shells, baked clay, limestone, lapis lazuli, gold, silver, onyx, serpentine, marble, aragonite, opal, amethyst, jasper, quartz crystal, chalcedony, carnelian, ivory, hematite, jade, glass (rare and of a late period), terra-cotta, obsidian, agate, glazed pottery, and wood. Stones from which seals were cut were carefully chosen, as some were considered “unlucky.” Stones that were readily available were ordinarily used, though lapis lazuli was imported from Persia, Afghanistan, and India and shells from the Persian Gulf.
Earlier seals of soft materials such as shell and marble were easily cut with flint, but as harder materials such as quartz and agate began to be used, a harder cutting tool was required. Coarse corundum was probably used for this purpose, and the earlier seals were all incised by hand. The Egyptians are credited with making tools for engraving that were later used in Assyria. Holes that pierced the cylinders were probably made by a copper tool, used with emery, and revolved by the aid of a bow string, or simply rolled by hand. Some designs produced by these tools were so crude that they are almost unrecognizable, but many were extremely well done. It is quite possible that engraving tools were eventually revolved by attachment to a wheel that was worked by foot, like the potter’s wheel (Jer 18:1–4).
Seals were so widely used and have been unearthed in such quantity in the ancient Near East that they can be dated within a century or two of their origin, though sometimes it is difficult to determine the exact period or country of origin. Herodotus observed that every Babylonian gentleman “carries a seal and a walking stick” (Book I, 195). The seal was suspended by a cord about the neck or the wrist or attached to some part of the owner’s clothing (cf. Gn 38:18; 41:42; Sg 8:6; Jer 22:24). Graves have been found with cylinders tied to the wrists of the skeletons.