The King James Version says that it is “the number of a man” (Revelation 13:18).
I think the translators got it right, in this case.
And 13:17, "so that no one could buy or sell unless he had the mark..."
Just my 2 cents. :)
It could go either way, so I keep the options open.
Kind of like the moon landing. :)
Forty and six years has the prophecy house of merchandise been in building.
Buyers, sellers... symbiosis. Judgment begins at the den of thieves. That could explain the sign of the prophet Jonah. Those who sold doves were forced to pay attention when their seats were overturned.
Matthew 21
12 And Jesus went into the temple of God, and cast out all them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the moneychangers, and the seats of them that sold doves,
13 And said unto them, It is written, My house shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves.
Heart of the earth: where its treasure is, what it values most. Where thieves break through and steal...