Veil of Fire

Revelation 13:18 says the number of the beast will be "Six hundred threescore and six". That's the direct quote from the KJV, including punctuation.

Notice there's no comma.

It's not Six hundred + threescore + six. It's six hundred sets of threescore + 6.

Six hundred sets of sixty is 36,000. The number of the Beast will be 36,006.

Oh, I know, you'll say that it's a simple mistake... nobody expects the BIBLE to be accurate when it comes to mathmatical conventions, right? Except, look at Rev. 7:4

"And I heard the number of them which were sealed: and there were sealed an *hundred and forty and four thousand* of all the tribes of the children of Israel."

Which comes out to 144,000. 100 and 40 and 4 thousand. Why wasn't this scheme used for the number of the beast, if they really meant it was 666? Why doesn't it say "Six hundred and threescore and six"? The conventional precedent has already been set!

Also see Rev. 9:16

"And the number of the army of the horsemen were two hundred thousand thousand: and I heard the number of them."

THAT number, the NIV translates to 200 million... which would be technically correct. Why doesn't the NIV (or anyone else) add up the number of the beast the same way they add this number? If this number had been calculated out the same way as 666 was, it'd be 211,000. Two hundred, a thousand, and a thousand. Right?

And then there's Rev. 14:3, which repeats the 144,000 figure above in 7:4.

So, in conclusion, enough about 666. It's 18, and that's about all the significance the number has outside of the Golden Dawn. I wish these damned Christians would actually READ their stupid book.

Grumpy

Interesting, but what of it? (Except to mess with minds.)

Incidentally, the number of the Beast also does not equal six, six, six. For example, the old joke about Ronald Reagan: "R-o-n-a-l-d W-i-l-s-o-n R-e-a-g-a-n = 666" except that his name adds up to eighteen, not six-hundred sixty-six.

It also does not equal 6, some numbers, 6, some numbers, and 6 -- as those who allege that UPC symbols are the Devil's barcode.

Amos

KJV is wrong. The number 666 is the number of "man" and the number of a "certain man" is not given but requires ingenuity to calculate.

The difference between "man" and "certain man" is equal to the difference between heaven and hell. This is made clear just before this in Rev. 13.

Heleilu

How is the number represented in the original Greek? Let's assume that the KJV isn't perfect for once

Koyaanisqatsi

"Ronald Wilson Reagan" does come out to be "Insane Anglo Warlord" if you rearrange the letters, however.

Godless Dave

I disagree. I think in King James-era English, "six hundred three score and six" would be taken to mean six hundred plus three score plus six. Today we would write it "six hundred, three score and six". Except we wouldn't say three score.

But I would be curious how it was phrased in the original Greek.