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TIL The Number of the Beast, commonly known to be '666', may in fact be '616' according to the oldest manuscript (about 1,700 years old) of Revelation 13 to date.
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Originally, Alan Moore wanted to designate the Marvel Universe with the number "666" in the series Captain Britain. When his editors rejected it, he replaced it with "616", which has since become the most popular designation for Marvel's main universe among fans, and has been referenced many times in many comics. Given that the guy has an extremely deep occult knowledge, this was very likely done on purpose.
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=UkZqFtYtqaI
Here is a possible reason why it's 666 or 616
that was very informative. thanks for sharing!
616...the area code of Ann Harbor, Michigan. And the number of the beast.
Grand Rapids muh fucka!
Hell yeah west Michigan ftw! Good to see some close fellow redditors!
I'm actually from the Detroit area but I work for a school that's main campus is in GR. I do dig west MI pretty hard though. Much better than it is over here.
which school? :o
Davenport.
See? I knew I was right when I got 616 tattooed on my forehead! All my Satanist friends laughed at the time. Who's laughing now?
RADIOLAB
please, any ardent QI fan knew this several years ago, yet no one believed us
what's QI?
A TV comedy quiz panel show, it stands for Quite Interesting, it's famous for having really wierd facts, a TV TIL, oh and stephen Fry hosts it aswell.
Well this fact basically confirms that the "number of the beast" is actually referring to Nero (as this article hints at.) People at this time believed there was significance to the "number" of words - letters and numbers did not have the same distinction they have today. So "Alpha" or "Aleph" had a numerical value of 1, "beta" 2, etc. Since Hebrew doesn't write out vowels, and there's not really a completely direct way to translate Roman words, this accounts for the discrepancy. In this instance, it's possible to translate "Caesar Nero" 2 ways - one way adding up to 666 and the other adding up to 616. This is basically a case relating specifically to Nero, and this earlier manuscript basically confirms what scholars have thought for a good while. After all, Revelation (contrary to what most Christians believe these days) is basically just a revenge-fantasy about the destruction of Rome.
This. While Christians believe in a new Heaven and New Earth, this statement is true. The Apostle John had to be sneaky and write in code because of the roman rule/oppression. So that's why everything is so cryptic. A lot of it you have to look in context.
Minor correction - the book was probably not written by the Apostle John whom Jesus interacted with, but another man named John (it was a common name even then!) living on the Greek island Patmos, off the coast of modern day Turkey. But yes, context is incredibly important and often overlooked by people today, which is sad, because it really is incredible uncovering all of the allusions to the Roman Empire contained within it.
You're a smart cookie! I'm a Christian. And I study my religion seriously. I have to always sit through this mumbo jumbo about the end times predicted in revelation when almost all of it was talking about things that happened nearly two thousand years ago. Why would God send scripture to early Christians about events that would take place thousands and thousands of years in the future that had literally no bearing on them? Some people just don't understand. Some christians might say "well the bible talks about jesus long before he comes" to which the simple reply is, that had effect on people before he came! Unlike revelation if it were a prophecy of end times.
Phew. Sorry. That was my "Christian who tries and be smart even when he's surrounded constantly by idiot Christians" rant
Thanks! Haha yeah, when you put it like that, it really is remarkable that people don't see how silly the ways it's been interpreted in modern times really is. It's really a shame that people seem to have this idea that the Bible fits in any context - I don't doubt that ideas from it can definitely apply to people even today, but it still needs (and has) context! You can't understand the work properly (or most correctly) if you don't understand the context. Sadly, I'm not sure that's really important to a good number of people.
Context context context. One of the KEY things they tell us to keep in mind during interpretation. Without it you get screwed up theology, which is the unfortunate fate of many less thoughtful Christians.
Would have been better to post this on 6/16...
It's Bloomsday.