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Read an interesting article today in the local paper. [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]
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Bad omen: Mark of the beast is wrong, expert says
Jenni Lee Campbell
The Ottawa Citizen; with files from Citizen News Services
May 3, 2005
Few numbers strike more fear into the hearts of believers than 666.
Thirtieth birthdays and income tax deadlines aside, the "mark of the beast" has traditionally given more people the creeps above all other numerical configurations -- and metalheads, satanists, and televan-gelists alike have milked it for all its worth.
One man is crusading to change all that.
Professor David Parker of the University of Birmingham in England claims that a newly discovered piece of the oldest surviving copy of the New Testament proves that the number from the Book of Revelation is actually one digit off -- he says the original is 616.
The papyrus fragment, dating from the late third century is written in archaic Greek and was part of a collection of documents salvaged from a "historic garbage dump" in Egypt.
A new technique called multi-spectral imaging has allowed a team of expert classicists to get a clearer look at the original text, and they discovered, much to their surprise, the number 616 where they were expecting 666.
Mr. Parker appeared last Sunday on the BBC2 series Bible Mysteries for their episode titled "Revelation: The End of the World?" where he further expounded on his theory.
Mr. Parker believes the new number does not represent the devil, but rather the mad Roman emperor Caligula.
"Early Christians would use numbers to hide the identity of people who they were attacking," Mr. Parker told the Guardian yesterday.
"This is an example of gematria, where numbers are based on the numerical values of letters in people's names."
Traditionally attributed to the disciple John, the Book of Revelation's prophecies about the Antichrist, and in particular the number 666, have often been used by fundamentalist Christians as warnings about the coming Apocalypse.
In the King James version of the Bible, Revelation 13:18 reads:
"Here is wisdom: let him who hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred three score and six."
Fear of the number actually has a name: Hexakosioihexekontahexaphobia, and it is surprisingly widespread:
Last year, Highway 666 in New Mexico, known as "the devil's highway," was renamed Highway 491. The governor of New Mexico lobbied for the name change because of its "negative connotations."
In 2001, thousands of Russian Orthodox believers raised a stink over the government's attempt to give every taxpayer an ID number, claiming the bar code on the application forms contained the number 666.
Even Harry Potter has been accused of having affections for the Antichrist, when parents cried foul over a 666-year-old old man in one of J.K. Rowling's bestsellers. More recently, Dan Brown's inflammatory DaVinci Code pointed to an ominous 666 panes of glass composing the pyramid in the Louvre.
In the past, this phobia has worked in favour of those who use it to provoke fear. Peter Gilmore, high priest of the Church of Satan, based in New York, told the Guardian: "By using 666 we're using something that the Christians fear. Mind you, if they do switch to 616 being the number of the beast, then we'll start using that."
If Mr. Parker's theory is accepted, a lot of people are going to look a bit silly, says Courtney Cannon, who works at Ottawa's Planet Ink tattoo shop. Ms. Cannon says she would normally try to discourage someone from getting a 666 tattoo, but one of her co-workers remembered selling one.
"He's going to feel kind of stupid now, isn't he?" she said.
© The Ottawa Citizen 2005
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Interesting. Very weird also considering I JUST started reading the New Testament last night before going to sleep. [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]
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Bad omen: Mark of the beast is wrong, expert says
Jenni Lee Campbell
The Ottawa Citizen; with files from Citizen News Services
May 3, 2005
Few numbers strike more fear into the hearts of believers than 666.
Thirtieth birthdays and income tax deadlines aside, the "mark of the beast" has traditionally given more people the creeps above all other numerical configurations -- and metalheads, satanists, and televan-gelists alike have milked it for all its worth.
One man is crusading to change all that.
Professor David Parker of the University of Birmingham in England claims that a newly discovered piece of the oldest surviving copy of the New Testament proves that the number from the Book of Revelation is actually one digit off -- he says the original is 616.
The papyrus fragment, dating from the late third century is written in archaic Greek and was part of a collection of documents salvaged from a "historic garbage dump" in Egypt.
A new technique called multi-spectral imaging has allowed a team of expert classicists to get a clearer look at the original text, and they discovered, much to their surprise, the number 616 where they were expecting 666.
Mr. Parker appeared last Sunday on the BBC2 series Bible Mysteries for their episode titled "Revelation: The End of the World?" where he further expounded on his theory.
Mr. Parker believes the new number does not represent the devil, but rather the mad Roman emperor Caligula.
"Early Christians would use numbers to hide the identity of people who they were attacking," Mr. Parker told the Guardian yesterday.
"This is an example of gematria, where numbers are based on the numerical values of letters in people's names."
Traditionally attributed to the disciple John, the Book of Revelation's prophecies about the Antichrist, and in particular the number 666, have often been used by fundamentalist Christians as warnings about the coming Apocalypse.
In the King James version of the Bible, Revelation 13:18 reads:
"Here is wisdom: let him who hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred three score and six."
Fear of the number actually has a name: Hexakosioihexekontahexaphobia, and it is surprisingly widespread:
Last year, Highway 666 in New Mexico, known as "the devil's highway," was renamed Highway 491. The governor of New Mexico lobbied for the name change because of its "negative connotations."
In 2001, thousands of Russian Orthodox believers raised a stink over the government's attempt to give every taxpayer an ID number, claiming the bar code on the application forms contained the number 666.
Even Harry Potter has been accused of having affections for the Antichrist, when parents cried foul over a 666-year-old old man in one of J.K. Rowling's bestsellers. More recently, Dan Brown's inflammatory DaVinci Code pointed to an ominous 666 panes of glass composing the pyramid in the Louvre.
In the past, this phobia has worked in favour of those who use it to provoke fear. Peter Gilmore, high priest of the Church of Satan, based in New York, told the Guardian: "By using 666 we're using something that the Christians fear. Mind you, if they do switch to 616 being the number of the beast, then we'll start using that."
If Mr. Parker's theory is accepted, a lot of people are going to look a bit silly, says Courtney Cannon, who works at Ottawa's Planet Ink tattoo shop. Ms. Cannon says she would normally try to discourage someone from getting a 666 tattoo, but one of her co-workers remembered selling one.
"He's going to feel kind of stupid now, isn't he?" she said.
© The Ottawa Citizen 2005
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Interesting. Very weird also considering I JUST started reading the New Testament last night before going to sleep. [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]
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