Has this been covered here?
Seems to be a cool new development. What will this mean to JWs? Does this figure into their numerology/prophecy in any way?
I found it on ReligionNewsBlog.com
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Beast's real mark devalued to '616'
National Post, Canada
May 4, 2005
Christ Wattie
www.canada.com
• More news articles on Bible • Article Tools
ReligionNewsBlog.com • Item 11134 • Posted: 2005-05-04 21:35:58Satanists, 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."
See Also
Daniel B. Wallace, Ph.D., Executive Director, Center for the Study of New Testament Manuscripts, responds to this article
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Bible Contradictions and Other Difficulties
Books:
The New Testament Documents: Are They Reliable? by F.F. Bruce
The Beast of Revelation
Is the Antichrist Alive Today?
101 Answers to the Most Asked Questions about the End Times
Interpreting the Symbols and Types
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."
616 and NOT 666 turns out to be the "number of the beast" ???
by Kudra 4 Replies latest watchtower bible
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Kudra
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Gregor
What they are confusing is the 'mark' of the beast on the forehead "666" and the beasts area code, which is 616, the Grand Rapids, Michigan area.
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Sad emo
It's not really such a new development - the New Jerusalem Bible has had it in their study edition footnotes for several years that some manuscripts read 616 not 666.
Whether it has already been covered on JWD I don't know.
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greendawn
The book of Revelation is highly symbolic and there have been numerous theories as to what the number of the beast means if finally the number is 616 then they are all wrong.
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Stealth453
AH CRAP!!!!!
Now I have to change all of my business cards!!!!!!!