Revelation! 666 Is Not The Number Of The Beast!

[Hardrock69]

By Tom Anderson
The Independent - UK
5-1-5

A newly discovered fragment of the oldest surviving copy of the New Testament indicates that, as far as the Antichrist goes, theologians, scholars, heavy metal groups, and television evangelists have got the wrong number. Instead of 666, it's actually the far less ominous 616.

The new fragment from the Book of Revelation, written in ancient Greek and dating from the late third century, is part of a hoard of previously unintelligible manuscripts discovered in historic dumps outside Oxyrhynchus in Egypt. Now a team of expert classicists, using new photographic techniques, are finally deciphering the original writing.

Professor David Parker, Professor of New Testament Textual Criticism and Paleography at the University of Birmingham, thinks that 616, although less memorable than 666, is the original. He said: "This is an example of gematria, where numbers are based on the numerical values of letters in people's names. Early Christians would use numbers to hide the identity of people who they were attacking: 616 refers to the Emperor Caligula."

The Book of Revelation is traditionally considered to be written by John, a disciple of Jesus; it identifies 666 as the mark of the Antichrist. In America, the fundamentalist Christian right often use the number in sermons about the coming Apocalypse.

They and satanists responded coolly to the new "Revelation". Peter Gilmore, High Priest of the Church of Satan, based in New York, said: "By using 666 we're using something that the Christians fear. Mind you, if they do switch to 616 being the number of the beast then we'll start using that."

©2005 Independent News & Media (UK) Ltd.

http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/this_britain/story.jsp?story=634679

[Roguesgirl]

I have a cousin who is a complete hellion and his b-day is 6/16. so, makes sense to me. :D

[bueno bob]

I always figured it was closer to 316...or 5150...

[Figs]

Damn, I thought it was 5803.




Originally posted by bueno bob
I always figured it was closer to 316...or 5150...

excellent wit!

[bueno bob]

Originally posted by Figs
Damn, I thought it was 5803.





excellent wit!

:D

[FORD]

Well we all know that it is NOT 42!!

http://www34.pair.com/zoil/images/zaphod.gif

[Rikk]

They better go back and fix THE OMEN with computer editing...

[Hardrock69]

Iron Maiden will haveta re-write The Number Of the Beast...

[Hardrock69]

I worked for a prestigious business jet manufacturer for a short while....and while I was there, line unit number 665 came down the line.

The very next one was unit 667.

:)

[Rikk]

Originally posted by Hardrock69
Iron Maiden will haveta re-write The Number Of the Beast...

"6-1-6! The number of the beast!" Doesn't have the same ring to it, does it?:p

[Rikk]

Originally posted by Hardrock69
I worked for a prestigious business jet manufacturer for a short while....and while I was there, line unit number 665 came down the line.

The very next one was unit 667.

:)

:)

Most buildings still don't have a 13th floor...

[nosuchluck]

think of the number of email ids that will have to be changed now...
shocking

[FORD]

They tried to make "666" a phone prefix on the eastside of town here. They had to scrap it, because nobody would take the number.

Makes a great marketing tool though. Back when I worked at a 7-11 in the 80's, everytime the total came to $6.66, the customer would always buy something else. Except for this one really evil looking dude. You know he did the shit on purpose ;)

[Ally_Kat]

Originally posted by Hardrock69
Peter Gilmore, High Priest of the Church of Satan, based in New York, said: "By using 666 we're using something that the Christians fear. Mind you, if they do switch to 616 being the number of the beast then we'll start using that."



LMAO! Gotta love a Satanist with a sense of humor.

[Hardrock69]

Hey if I could get a 666 prefix for a phone number I would go for it immediately!

It would keep Christian telemarketers from calling me (not that they do anyway...).

:D

[Nitro Express]

Whenever I apply for a discount card at a store, I don't want to give them my real information so I use this on the form:

Lucifer Beezelbub
666 Hades Lane
Hell, Norway (Which is a real town by the way)

[Satan]

Originally posted by Nitro Express
Whenever I apply for a discount card at a store, I don't want to give them my real information so I use this on the form:

Lucifer Beezelbub
666 Hades Lane
Hell, Norway (Which is a real town by the way)

Hey, that's identity theft! :mad:

[Hardrock69]

Yeah I steal your identity as well. Anytime I have to sign up for something on the net it is always something like:

Jesus Satan
666 Inferno Drive
Hell, California (named after a song by Love/Hate)
66666

[Last_Child]

Originally posted by Nitro Express
Hell, Norway (Which is a real town by the way)

Yeah..
It's a small & boring town..
except for the Hell Blues Festival..

[aesop]

Originally posted by Satan
Hey, that's identity theft! :mad:

WOW. That's fookin hilarioius! Instant Classic.

[rustoffa]

I should try to get this really fat, obnoxious, personnel department-fouling bitch at work's home telephone number and post it in this thread.

[Hardrock69]

Please do. We can have much fun calling her and pretending to be Satan.

:D

[DavidLeeNatra]

the real number of the beast is 1013

[WACF]

Another story on it...quite interesting.

http://www.canada.com/national/nationalpost/news/story.html?id=702d14ee-4847-4c3d-90ce-46e933232df0

Beast's real mark devalued to '616'
Revelation fragment

Chris Wattie
National Post


May 4, 2004

Satanists, apocalypse watchers and heavy metal guitarists may have to adjust their demonic numerology after a recently deciphered ancient biblical text revealed that 666 is not the fabled Number of the Beast after all.

A fragment from the oldest surviving copy of the New Testament, dating to the Third century, gives the more mundane 616 as the mark of the Antichrist.

Ellen Aitken, a professor of early Christian history at McGill University, said the discovery appears to spell the end of 666 as the devil's prime number.

"This is a very nice piece to find," Dr. Aitken said. "Scholars have argued for a long time over this, and it now seems that 616 was the original number of the beast."

The tiny fragment of 1,500-year-old papyrus is written in Greek, the original language of the New Testament, and contains a key passage from the Book of Revelation.

Where more conventional versions of the Bible give 666 as the "number of the beast," or the sign of the anti-Christ whose coming is predicted in the book's apocalyptic verses, the older version uses the Greek letters signifying 616.

"This is very early confirmation of that number, earlier than any other text we've found of that passage," Dr. Aitken said. "It's probably about 100 years before any other version."

The fragment was part of a hoard of previously illegible manuscripts discovered in an ancient garbage dump outside the Egyptian city of Oxyrhynchus. Although the papyrus was first excavated in 1895, it was badly discoloured and damaged. Classics scholars at Oxford University were only recently able to read it using new advanced imaging techniques.

Elijah Dann, a professor of philosophy and religion at the University of Toronto, said the new number is unlikely to make a dent in the popularity of 666.

"Otherwise, a lot of sermons would have to be changed and a lot of movies rewritten," he said with a laugh. "There's always someone with an active imagination who can put another interpretation on it.

"It just shows you that when you study something as cryptic and mystic as the Book of Revelation there's an almost unlimited number of interpretations."

The book is thought to have been written by the disciple John and according to the King James Bible, the traditional translation of the passage reads: "Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six."

But Dr. Aitken said that translation was drawn from much later versions of the New Testament than the fragment found in Oxyrhynchus. "When we're talking about the early biblical texts, we're always talking about copies and they are copies made, at best, 150 to 200 years after [the original] was written," she said.

"They can have mistakes in the copying, changes for political or theological reasons ... it's like a detective story piecing it all together."

Dr. Aitken said, however, that scholars now believe the number in question has very little to do the devil. It was actually a complicated numerical riddle in Greek, meant to represent someone's name, she said.

"It's a number puzzle -- the majority opinion seems to be that it refers to [the Roman emperor] Nero."

Revelation was actually a thinly disguised political tract, with the names of those being criticized changed to numbers to protect the authors and early Christians from reprisals. "It's a very political document," Dr. Aitken said. "It's a critique of the politics and society of the Roman empire, but it's written in coded language and riddles."

© National Post 2005

[FORD]

I'm still not entirely convinced this is correct.

The King James Bible, still considered the "official" translation by many churches, actually doesn't give a numerical value of either "666" or "616", but instead spells it out. Here's the scripture, in context:

16And 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:

17And 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.

18Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six.

A score = 20 years (see also Lincoln's Gettysburg address "Fourscore & seven years ago......")

So, 3 scores would = 60

Six Hundred, Sixty, and Six.

I don't know if there was an equivalent term for "score" in the ancient Greek, but this does seem odd that they would want to make an issue of this now.

[Hardrock69]

That is a major problem.....churches considering the King James version to be somehow "official".

That is like saying Batman comix are the New Testament. They have just about the same level of reality.....

Ever wonder why there are certain words that are in italics in the King James Version?

Because those words were added by translators as they did not even exist in the original Latin (the language the King James Version was translated from).

And Latin was already 2wice removed from the original Aramaic and Hebrew.

Not only that, but the New Testament books were written mostly in the second century, and the very earliest of them was written about 70 A.D.

Add to that that there is not a single written record by anyone who actually saw or spoke to someone named Jesus in the flesh, and you have proof that it is pretty much a big fairy tale, as there is no historical proof that Jesus was even a real person.


SIX! ONE SIX! THE NUMBER OF THE BEAST!!!!

:D

[The Scatologist]

667, the Bloke Next Door

[Hardrock69]

LMAO!!!!

[Panamark]

Damn, I preferred 666....

Just shows how sucked in we are to vastly misinterpreted
records that are not even 2000 years old.
Your whole lives are based on the info in the bible, and
as you can see, how easy it is that a lot of it is wrong,
or misinterpreted..