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*[[Robert Graves]] suggested that DCLXVI, 666 in [[Roman numerals]], is an abbreviation for the Latin sentence “Domitianus Caesar Legatos Xti Violenter Interfecit”, or “The Emperor [[Domitian]] violently killed the envoys of [[Jesus Christ|Christ]]”.<ref name="graves">{{cite book| first=Robert| last=Graves| title=[[The White Goddess]]| year=1948| curly=yes}}</ref>
*[[Robert Graves]] suggested that DCLXVI, 666 in [[Roman numerals]], is an abbreviation for the Latin sentence “Domitianus Caesar Legatos Xti Violenter Interfecit”, or “The Emperor [[Domitian]] violently killed the envoys of [[Jesus Christ|Christ]]”.<ref name="graves">{{cite book| first=Robert| last=Graves| title=[[The White Goddess]]| year=1948| curly=yes}}</ref>
*The [[Roman numeral]] writing of 666, "DCLXVI" is also composed with the first six Roman numerals, written in descending order (I, V, X, L, C, D).
*The [[Roman numeral]] writing of 666, "DCLXVI" is also composed with the first six Roman numerals, written in descending order (I, V, X, L, C, D).
*[[Ralph Ellis]] suggested that the number referred to King Solomon, because the king received 666 talents of gold each year. 1Ki 10:14 This is why, he suggested, 'no man could buy or sell', for perhaps Solomon had all the gold.
*In [[Kabbalah]] ([[Jewish]] mysticism), the number 666 may be considered mystical and holy and may represent the physical universe.<ref name="rabbi">{{cite web| last=Lauffer| first=Reuven| coauthors=et al.| url=http://www.ohr.org.il/ask/ask277.htm#Q1| title=Ask the Rabbi| date=[[2000-06-10]]| accessdate=2006-06-22}}</ref>
*In [[Kabbalah]] ([[Jewish]] mysticism), the number 666 may be considered mystical and holy and may represent the physical universe.<ref name="rabbi">{{cite web| last=Lauffer| first=Reuven| coauthors=et al.| url=http://www.ohr.org.il/ask/ask277.htm#Q1| title=Ask the Rabbi| date=[[2000-06-10]]| accessdate=2006-06-22}}</ref>
*[[Martin Luther]] wrote in a footnote to Rev 13:15-18: "Spirit means / that it is active / and not a dead image / but that it has its rights and offices in its womb. These are six hundred and sixty and six years. So long the earthly papacy remains." Luther has many comments and theories against the papacy in the footnotes to his translation of the Book of Revelation.
*[[Martin Luther]] wrote in a footnote to Rev 13:15-18: "Spirit means / that it is active / and not a dead image / but that it has its rights and offices in its womb. These are six hundred and sixty and six years. So long the earthly papacy remains." Luther has many comments and theories against the papacy in the footnotes to his translation of the Book of Revelation.

Revision as of 16:03, 6 October 2007

For other uses, see Number of the beast (disambiguation).

The Number of the Beast is a concept from the Book of Revelation of the New Testament of the Christian Bible. The Number is 666 in modern biblical text, although 616 and 665 appear instead in at least one ancient source. This topic is a source of contention for many church groups and theologians.[1] Some scholars contend that the number is a code for the Roman Emperor Nero.[2][3]

Bible

Oxyrhynchus Papyri Fragment P115

The Number of the Beast is described in the Book of Revelation 13:18. From the King James translation:[4]

Here 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.

In the Greek manuscripts, the Number is rendered in Greek numerical form as “χξς”,[5] or sometimes literally as “six hundred and sixty-six”, “Template:Polytonic”.[6][7] [hexakosioi hexékonta hex, lit. six hundred sixty six]

The oldest known record of the verse, a fragment of an early manuscript of Revelation from the Oxyrhynchus site, Papyrus 115, gives a different number, 616, as “χιϛ”.Cite error: A <ref> tag is missing the closing </ref> (see the help page).

666 can also refer to a Roman Emperor such as Nero[8] (whose name, written in Aramaic, was valued at 666, using the Hebrew numerology of gematria, a manner of speaking against the emperor without the Roman authorities knowing).

Old Testament

The number 666 appears several times in the Old Testament, including in 1 Kings 10:14-22 as the number of talents of gold received by King Solomon in one year. "Now the weight of gold that came to Solomon in one year was 666 talents of gold".

Scholars such as Dr. Ellen Aitken, Dean of the Faculty of Religious Studies at McGill University, have speculated that the reference to this passage was a way of speaking in code about then contemporary figures about whom it would have been politically dangerous to criticize openly.

According to the Bible, Solomon fell into apostasy and built altars to Chemosh, Moloch, and Ashtoreth, pagan gods to whom human sacrifices were made. (See 1 Kings 11:4-8.)

Interpretations

Name

Figuratively

One interpretation is that 666 encodes the letters of someone’s name or title, identifying the Antichrist.

To be convincing, interpretations invoke arguments other than mathematics to prove their point. For example, scholars who believe that the Book of Revelation refers to historical people and events argue that the number represents Nero. In Hebrew gematria, every letter has a corresponding number. Summing these numbers gives a numeric value to a word or name. In Hebrew, "Nero Caesar" is spelled “נרון קסר”, pronounced "Neron Qe[i]sar". Adding the corresponding values yields 666, as shown:

Resh Samekh Qoph Nun Vav Resh Nun
200 60 100 50 6 200 50

Removing the terminal נ (written as ן) makes the name "Nero" rather than "Neron", and makes the numeric value 616, which may explain that variation. The hypothesis that 666 is a code for a Roman emperor seems to have historical support. The emperors were noted for their oppression of both Jews and Christians. Both communities were known to use numerology, codes and symbols (such as the Ichthys) when living under Roman rule to avoid persecution.

The German Protestant theologian Ethelbert Stauffer, arguing that gematria had been the most popular form of numerology not only among Jews but also in the Graeco-Roman world (Pergamon, Pompeii)[9], conceived a Greek gematrical procedure to explain the number 666. Judging from the precise information that the Book of Revelation gives about the person behind the number 666[10], Stauffer concluded that the "beast" can in general only refer to a Roman emperor and argued that this Emperor must be Domitian, because he had reigned during the proposed time of origin of the Apocalypse and supposedly was called "The Beast" as a "secret derisive nickname" by Romans, Greek, Christians and Jews.[11] Stauffer computed the Number of the Beast using the short form of Domitian's five titles and names A KAI ΔOMET ΣEB ΓE, as derived from the abbreviations on coins and inscriptions.[12]

Some Protestant Bible commentators have equated the "beast" of Revelation chapter 13 with the Papacy [13]. To this end, the letters of a title of the Pope, accepted as authentic from 8th - 16th century, Vicarius Filii Dei, are summed to total 666 in Roman numerals. The earliest extant record of a Protestant writer on this subject is that of Professor Andreas Helwig in 1612 in his work Antichristus Romanus. The title was contained in the Donation of Constantine a forged document of Emperor Constantine the Great, by which large privileges and rich possessions were conferred on the pope and the Roman Church [14]. Although occasionally found in Catholic publications as late as the 19th century [15], today the title is repudiated by the Vatican.

Mark of commerce

Futurist Christian eschatology typically holds that the Mark of the Beast is one way in which the Antichrist will exercise power over the Earth during the period of Tribulation, because of the prophetic statement in Revelation 13:16-17 that "the Beast" (θηριον) will require all people to receive the mark (χάραγμα "branded mark or character) in their right hands or foreheads in order to buy or sell, making survival for those on the run much more difficult. A possible translation of the meaning of the number 666 may be: the number 666 will be the number that all currency will be based upon. Exact interpretations of this vary widely. For example:

  • Some Christians interpret the mark as a requirement for all commerce to mean that the mark might actually be an object with the function of a credit card (i.e. RFID).[16]
  • Steven D. Miller proposes that the mark of the beast may refer to a social security number or card.[17]
  • Terry Watkins supposes the mark to be a microchip and or barcode on the human body.[18]

Some support this barcode theory through reference to the three elongated end and middle symbols found in some common barcode symbologies; they appear identical to the symbol used to represent the number six on the right hand segment of a barcode—666 is the template from which barcodes are read. Many barcodes are 'written' in a binary system. Each number—and the guardbars—are represented by the black and white spaces. When carefully comparing the codes, the number "6" is written in the code 1010000, seven units. The left and right guardbar are written in three units: 101. Finally, the middle guardbar is written in 5 units, 01010. Although this recurring "101" looks like three sixes the blanks necessary for it to be read as such are not present.[19]

Alternatively, some who take a historical view of the Book of Revelation identify the Mark of the Beast with the stamped image of the emperor's head on every coin of the Roman empire: the stamp on the hand or in the mind of all, without which no-one could buy or sell.[20]

Other interpretations

  • Seventh-day Adventists believe that the "mark of the beast" (but not the number 666) refers to a future, universal, legally enforced Sunday-worship. “Those who reject God’s memorial of creatorship — the Bible Sabbath — choosing to worship and honor Sunday in the full knowledge that it is not God’s appointed day of worship, will receive the ‘mark of the beast.’”[21]
  • Irenaeus suggested that the number indicates that the beast is the sum of all apostasy committed over the course of six thousand years.[22]
  • Robert Graves suggested that DCLXVI, 666 in Roman numerals, is an abbreviation for the Latin sentence “Domitianus Caesar Legatos Xti Violenter Interfecit”, or “The Emperor Domitian violently killed the envoys of Christ”.[23]
  • The Roman numeral writing of 666, "DCLXVI" is also composed with the first six Roman numerals, written in descending order (I, V, X, L, C, D).
  • Ralph Ellis suggested that the number referred to King Solomon, because the king received 666 talents of gold each year. 1Ki 10:14 This is why, he suggested, 'no man could buy or sell', for perhaps Solomon had all the gold.
  • In Kabbalah (Jewish mysticism), the number 666 may be considered mystical and holy and may represent the physical universe.[24]
  • Martin Luther wrote in a footnote to Rev 13:15-18: "Spirit means / that it is active / and not a dead image / but that it has its rights and offices in its womb. These are six hundred and sixty and six years. So long the earthly papacy remains." Luther has many comments and theories against the papacy in the footnotes to his translation of the Book of Revelation.
  • Jehovah’s Witnesses believe that the Beast for which 666 stands symbolizes many governments, harmonizing with the symbolic depiction of past governments (denoted as "kings") in the Book of Daniel as wild beasts. The Beast is said to have "a human number" in that the governments that the beast symbolizes are all of a human origin, they aren't made up of spirit or demon entities. The number 666 is also believed to be symbolic, standing for imperfection. The number seven is interpreted as being a "perfect" or "complete" number based on the fact that it is used frequently in the Bible to signify completeness, for example Psalm 12:6 and the Genesis creation week. Just as six is one short of seven, imperfection is short of perfection, and hence six is interpreted as symbolizing imperfection. Six is repeated three times for emphasis, producing the number 666. [25] (This is similar to Vines Expository Dictionary under "Sixty, Sixtyfold," which states: "The number is suggestive of the acme of the pride of fallen man, the fullest development of man under direct satanic control, and standing in contrast to 'seven' as the number of completeness and perfection.")
  • Aleister Crowley (1875–1947) claimed that he was the Beast prophesised in the Book of Revelation and took the name “Το μεγα θηριον” ("To Mega Therion"), Greek for “The Great Beast”, which adds up to 666 by isopsephy, the Greek form of gematria.[26][27]
  • In Robert A. Heinlein's novel The Number of the Beast, the main characters reinterpret the number to be 6^6^6, or 10,314,424,798,490,535,546,171,949,056. This corresponds to the number of possible universes in the story.
  • More simply, man being created on the sixth day makes the number 6 symbolize man, and the juxtaposition of three sixes can signify a trinity.
  • Arnold Murray and followers of The Shepherd's Chapel believe that the Number of the Beast refers to the anti-Christ who precedes Christ in the End Times and will deceive many. [1]
  • In the writings of the Bahá'í Faith, 'Abdu'l-Bahá states that the numerical value given to the beast referred to the year 666 A.D., when the Umayyad ruler Muawiyah I, who opposed the Imamate, arose.[28]
  • Walid Shoebat, author of Why I Left Jihad, does not believe the Greek letters χξς′ in Revelation 13:18 should be translated “666”. He proposes that if these were Arabic letters, the χ becomes the crossed swords of Islam, and ξς′ is Arabic for “in the name of Allah”.[29]
  • Robert Winkler Burke of www.inthatdayteachings.com says "6" is a spiritual marking supposedly made by God's angels to those whose spirit,or soul or body is the number of man, meaning apart from God. He says those marked "666" cannot buy God's higher truths and erroneously believe escapology doctrines of Christianity.
  • Dr. Kim Riddlebarger, PhD in his book "The Man of Sin" (Baker Books, 2006) explains the number 666 to represent endless work without rest or "sabbath", and the number 616 to represent 6 days of work and one day of rest.
  • A series of coincidences involving former President Ronald Wilson Reagan, whose first, last and middle names are six letters apiece. Other coincidences involving Reagan include the winning three-digit lottery ticket being 666 in Maryland on the Sunday after his 1984 re-election and him living at the former 666 St. Cloud Road in Bel-Air.[30]
  • A second century Catholic, Irenaeus of Lyon, believed 666 to be Lateinos:

"Then also Lateinos has the number six hundred and sixty-six; and it is a very probable [solution], this being the name of the last kingdom [of the four seen by Daniel]. For the Latins are they who at present bear rule: I will not, however, make any boast over this [coincidence]."

If you look at the greek numerals (which is what 666 should be counted in since the Book of Revelation was written in Greek), you see that "L" is 30, "A" is 1, "T" is 300, "E" is 5, "I" is 10, "N" is 50, "O" is 70, and "S" is 200. This adds up to 666. This same opinion was shared by Herbert W. Armstrong, as he shows in his booklet, Who or What is the Prophetic Beast.

The 6666 martyrs of the Theban Legion

The long-standing tradition of Christian hagiography regarding the Theban Legion - an entire Roman legion whose members had supposedly converted en masse to Christianity and were martyred together, in 286 - gives their number as preiciesly "six thousand six hundred and sixty-six men", which was not the normal number of soldiers in a Roman Legion. This number is similar to the "Number of the Beast" though with an additional digit, but has a precisly opposite connotation as the number of highly honoured and revered martyrs for the Chrisitian cause.

Culture and psychology

Main article: Number of the Beast (occurrence)

The number 666 retains a peculiar significance in the culture and psychology of Western societies, where some perceive it as “the Devil’s number”, even in contexts usually remote from superstition. The fear of the number 666 is called hexakosioihexekontahexaphobia.

Mathematics

  • An apocalypse number is defined as any number having exactly 666 digits.[31]
  • An apocalyptic number is any number that follows the formula 2n and contains three sixes consecutively, such as 2157, which is the first one of this kind.[32]
  • Apocalypse primes are given by the formula 10665+n for n=123, 1837, 6409, 7329, 8569, 8967, 9663, ... The smallest apocalypse prime containing the digits 666 is 10^(665)+166657 (Rupinski).[31]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ "The Other Number of the Beast". Centre for the Study of Ancient Documents. Retrieved 2006-06-23.
  2. ^ Hillers, D. R. (1963). "Revelation 13:18 and a Scroll from Murabba'at". Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research. 170: 65. Retrieved 2006-08-07. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |curly= ignored (help) Note: website requires subscription.The New Jerome Biblical Commentary. Ed. Raymond E. Brown, Joseph A. Fitzmyer, and Roland E. Murphy. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1990. 1009
  3. ^ Just, Felix (2002-02-02). "666: The Number of the Beast". Retrieved 2006-06-06. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Unknown parameter |curly= ignored (help)
  4. ^ "Revelation 13:18". King James Version of the Bible. Bible Gateway. Retrieved 2006-06-22.
  5. ^ "Revelation 13:18". Stephanus New Testament. Bible Gateway. Retrieved 2006-06-22.
  6. ^ "Revelation 13:18". Westcott-Hort New Testament. Bible Gateway. Retrieved 2006-06-22.
  7. ^ "Revelation 13:18" (JPEG). Codex Alexandrinus. Center for the Study of New Testament Manuscripts. Retrieved 2006-06-22.
  8. ^ Some Recently Published NT Papyri from Oxyrhynchus: An Overview and Preliminary Assessment by Peter M. Head, Tyndale Bulletin 51 (2000), pp. 1-16 http://www.tyndale.cam.ac.uk/Tyndale/staff/Head/NTOxyPap.htm#_ftn39
  9. ^ According to Stauffer (1947) the terminus technicus ψηφίζειν clearly emphasizes the gematrical interpretation. Gematria was also used in an "often-cited old-Christian Apocalypse that is doubtlessly connected with Apocalypse 13,18 and that probably goes back to a secret sign in Johannean times, Orac. Sibyll. I, 324-331."
  10. ^ 1. He has power over all nations, 2. his likeness is worshipped all over the world, 3. his name appears on official signatures, 4. he prosecutes Christianity for its denial to worship his likeness and accept the signing with his name.
  11. ^ E. Stauffer. Coniectanea Neotestamentica XI in honorem Antonii Fridrichsen sexagenarii. Lund 1947.
  12. ^ Aυτοκράτωρ (A = 1); KAIσαρ (KAI = 20 + 1 + 10 = 31); ΔOMETιανός ( ΔOMET = 4 + 70 + 40 + 5 + 300 = 419); ΣEBαστός (ΣEB = 200 + 5 + 2 = 207); ΓEρμανικός (ΓE = 3 + 5 = 8). This results in A KAI ΔOMET ΣEB ΓE (gematrially: 1 + 31 + 419 + 207 + 8 = 666), making Domitian the Beast. In: E. Stauffer. Christus und die Caesaren. Historische Skizzen. 6th extended edition. Hamburg 1964.
  13. ^ Halley, H. H., Halley's Bible Handbook, Zondervan Publishing house, 1978, p726
  14. ^ Donation of Constantine, New Advent, Catholic Encyclopedia
  15. ^ Manning H. D., The Temporal Power of the Vicar of Jesus Christ, (Burns & Lambert, 1862) p231-232
  16. ^ Scheeres, Julia (2003). "When Cash Is Only Skin Deep". Wired News. wired.com. Retrieved 2003-11-25.
  17. ^ Miller, Steven D. (2001). "Is your social security card the Mark of the Beast?". Retrieved 2006-06-22. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |curly= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  18. ^ Watkins, Terry (1999). "What about barcodes and 666: The Mark of the Beast?". Retrieved 2006-06-22. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |curly= ignored (help)
  19. ^ George J. Laurer, George J. Laurer's personal web site; the inventor of the UPC barcode
  20. ^ eg Tony Robinson, The Doomsday Code, Channel 4, 16 September 2006
  21. ^ Seventh-day Adventists Believe (2nd ed). Ministerial Association, General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists. 2005. p. 196.
  22. ^ Irenaeus. "Book V, Chapter XXIX.". Adversus Haereses. {{cite book}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help); External link in |chapterurl= (help); Unknown parameter |chapterurl= ignored (|chapter-url= suggested) (help)
  23. ^ Graves, Robert (1948). The White Goddess. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |curly= ignored (help)
  24. ^ Lauffer, Reuven (2000-06-10). "Ask the Rabbi". Retrieved 2006-06-22. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  25. ^ "Identifying the Wild Beast and Its Mark". The Watchtower. 2004-04-01. Retrieved 2006-06-29. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |curly= ignored (help)
  26. ^ Carroll, Robert Todd (2003). The Skeptic's Dictionary (Aleister Crowley). Wiley. ISBN 0-471-27242-6
  27. ^ Crowley, Aleister. The Magical Diaries of Aleister Crowley (Tunisia 1923), Skinner, Stephan (editor). Samuel Weiser. ISBN 0-87728-856-9
  28. ^ Research Department of the Universal House of Justice (1986-01-07). "Interpretation of Biblical Verses". Bahá'í Library. Retrieved 2007-05-16.
  29. ^ Shoebat, Walid. Why I Left Jihad. ISBN-10: 0977102114 ISBN-13: 978-0977102112
  30. ^ "Omens about Ronald Wilson Reagan". Retrieved 2007-06-30.
  31. ^ a b http://mathworld.wolfram.com/ApocalypseNumber.html
  32. ^ http://mathworld.wolfram.com/ApocalypticNumber.html

ru-sib:Зверино число

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