We have all heard ALL the crap about 666, now does anyone have any conjecture or idea about 616? I have only heard of one possible conclusion to this so far. 616 is generaly found in the oldest manuscripts.
666, or 616?
by ElijahTheThird 19 Replies latest watchtower bible
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RunningMan
A few years back, there was a rock band with an album entitled:
"668 - the neighbor of the beast"
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plmkrzy
One of my sons just happen'd to ask me the other day what
does 666 stand for. He said "I know it stands for the mark
of the wild beast but what exactly do the numbers 666 have
to do with satan?"
six-hundred and sixtysix what. Anyone know for sure? -
RunningMan
OK, according to the society, the number six stands for imperfection, and three stands for emphasis. So, three sixes mean imperfection to the ultimate degree.
More mainstream scholars believe that the ancient practice of numerology is being used. If you convert the letters of a name into numbers, then add them up, it comes to 666. Based on the time that Revelation was written, and the viewpoint of the writer, it appears to point to one of the Roman Emperors, I forget which one. This is also consistent with the mainstream interpretation of Babylon the Great, as referring to the Roman Empire itself.
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plmkrzy
Thanks RunningMan
About 616, Don't know anything...sorry -
gilwarrior
In that dumb Arnold Schwartzegger movie, "End of Days" it was said that 666 is 999 upside down and that if you added a 1 then you had 1999 and that was when the end of the world was.
Yeah...right!
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JanH
666 is Emperor Nero, in Hebrew written with Greek letters. At that age, they used letters for numbers, so a word could typically be a number as well. The variant 616 confirms this is the correct interpretation, since that is Emperor Nero in Latin, written with Greek letters.
Not very exciting for those who want to fit Revelation to current events, of course, but pretty universally accepted by serious Revelation scholars as the correct explanation. It was, after all, the number of a man.
(Edited since I wrote Greek instead of Latin. Sorry.)
- Jan
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kenny2
Try this:
"Vicarius Filii Dei"
K2
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JanH
avalon,
How did the Greek write down mathematical NUMBERS ?
From what I remember, alpha=1, beta=2 and so on up to 9, then the next 10 letters stand for 10, 20, 30, and thereafter 100s.
Or something like that. All my books are in boxes still
- Jan
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Moxy
interestingly, the 'vicarius filii dei' explanation (which identifies 666 with the pope) is found in the infamous Finished Mystery, Russell's 'post-humous' book, indicating that Russell himself accepted this explanation.
mox