666 or 616?
According to the oldest copy of the book of Revelations (~1700 yo) the number of the beast is 616. So the poor chap was already damned to eternal hell 50 days previously!
An American man has brought a wrongful dismissal suit over his former employer's attempt to make him wear the number of the beast - in the guise of a safety record sticker. Billy E Hyatt alleges that he was fired from the Pliant Corp plastics factory in northern Georgia for refusing to wear a sticker declaring the factory had …
In the original text it's not actually written as "666" but as something like νρων κσρ in greek or, in modern hebrew letters, נרון קשר.
This is because, in those days, there was no separate numerical system and both cultures used letters of the alphabet as numbers, adding up various letters until the required total is reached (which is part of the logic behind numerology-based mystery cults like Kabbalah and so forth). A modern equivalent might use A as 1, B as 2 all the way up to J as 9, then K as 10, L as 100, M as 1000 and so forth.
The smart amongst you may have already noticed that the letters above spell "nron ksr" and "nrwn qsr" respectively. When the book of Revelation was written, it was done so in greek, as any literate writer in Israel of the day would have known Greek as well as Aramaic and old Hebrew. The writer may have written in Greek, however he was still thinking in Aramaic and wrote the name "nero ceasar" (or neron kaiser as it would have been in literate circles there, as they all spoke Greek rather than Latin), transliterated from aramaic to greek, as the "number of the beast". Aramaic, like Hebrew and most other semitic languages has no vowels, so the result would be the equivalent of NRWN QSR. With the transition to hindu-arabic numerals the transliteration lost its meaning and the total number was rendered simply as "666".
In some translations from greek to latin a mistake was made by the translator, who assumed that the text should say NRW QSR, resulting in some later texts having the number add up to 616.
So, to end it all, the whole "number of the beast" thing is actually a bit of historical curiosity now rather than a fundamental element of identification of some future "antichrist" figure. It's worth remembering that there is no mention of a single man named "antichrist" in the entire book of revelation. The entire book refers to events that took place around 69 AD, when the romans laid seige to Jerusalem. The beast of the sea was Nero, the beast of the land was the Jewish religious hierarchy, the "harlot" was that same hierarchy, the weeping merchants were the Jewish people and foreigners who traded in Jerusalem as it stood on the crossroads between east and west and so on and so forth. Those "end times" referred to throughout the new testament were a reference to the eventual sack of Jerusalem and the annexation of Israel as part of the Roman Empire, something anyone with a bit of foresight and brain could have predicted if they paid attention to the political motions of the day.
Basically the entire book refers to events in the past. It's over. Finito. Finished. We're living after the end of the book.
Marvellous. :)
Finally someone who puts some sense in Christian Mythology.
I am not a Nihilist, in fact I am baptized christian by choice- but I really have a hard time with fundamentalists of any color who do not care to get the facts and have no sense for of the spiritual side of things.
They rather take unreflected everything as truth that is written down and hand themselves cowardly to whatever authority claims to own that truth. If that's not 100% materialistic, lacking every spark of spirituality.
And worse, they fight everyone who choose to disagree without an inch of tolerance...
You could argue, with the help of some adult beverage, that that's where things went wrong.
Everyone tells us to be tolerant, but I've never understood why I should tolerate such complete, utter, manic, raging, rot-inducing idiocy. Then again, that seems to be the most common state of humanity.
I do wish these sky fairy merchants would occasionally get their facts right. The NOB is not, as explained by the erudite Mr Stephen Fry, 666. More like 620 or thereabouts, though my memory fails to extract the definitive result.
Not sure if this minor inaccuracy deserves sacking though.
The employer is asking for it really, isn't he. And why 666? Why not 600?
If I worked for them I'd go to the first aid room with a paper cut, insisting it be logged. On day 665, after the stickers had been printed, and I'd been asked to unbox them.. you see where this is going.... the irony would make it all worth while.
Why is he working for a company and collecting wages when he should be dedicating himself to the work his Saviour recommended: feeding the poor, looking after the widow and orphan, visiting those in prison, helping people out who need help, laying down his life for others?
Oh, I guess that would be walking the walk. So much more fun to get hung up on the superstitious, mumbo-jumbo bit of your religion and enjoy feeling outraged.
Or he could just be very, very thick.
Tricky thing, helping out the less fortunate if you don't have your own home and income. Cos, you know, you'd *be* one of the less fortunate at that point. How do you feed the poor if you can't afford food? Or the land on which to grow it?
The fact the guy is credulous and a bit daft is reason enough to mock him. So what does your complete failure to understand economics or charity say about you?
If the guy was credulous and daft, I would not mock him. If he were just a simple soul who'd swallowed the whole thing, fuzzy supertitious bits and all, i would pity him. But he was shrewd enough to sue his employer. Nothing like money to sharpen a man's wits. I curl my lip at him not because he is a simple believer, but because he's a canting hypocrite.
When he felt frightened and oppressed, he was supposed to turn the other cheek. What do you think that means? When hurt, humiliated, put into distress, a Christian accepts it joyfully as a way to walk the walk his Saviour set for him and the one He demonstrated. Though wearing the nunber of the beast (although completely out of context), he would have held fast to his faith and trusted his God.
Or can you find somewhere that Jesus said 'Sue the socks off the b*st*rd, matey, get loads of dosh: that's My teaching in a nutshell.'
>>Not much of a fanatic → #
>>In Man sues boss for 'condemning him to eternal damnation'
>>A real religious nutcase would have voluntarily had an industrial accident on day #665, just to stick it to the boss.
a sensible religious nutcase would have organised an industrial accident for his boss. involving nails, or a crown of thorns, or something :)
Let me add like everyone else has that the oldest versions of revelations had the number as 616.
Let me also add that this would have been a front-page bile-spewer in The Daily Fail if this had happened in the UK.
"Another Christian persecuted for beliefs!"
...where he'd be pictured glum-faced with his copy of the Bible and his wife and dogs. The sub-text would then go on about how different it would have been if he'd been Islamic or gay and would then try to wangle in something about peadophilia and secularists.
I had one. It never missed a beat, and was fun as hell with its reasonably advanced suspension design (for the era and market segment), RWD and skinny tyres. I miss that car.
Now every idiot wants one so they can put a rotary engine in it, and as a result they cost far too much.