glenn morton wrote:
>
> At 07:08 PM 1/2/00 +0000, Dick Fischer wrote:
> He repudiated Nero by name using its numeric
> >equivalent - 666.
> >
>
> My eyes usually glaze over when this kind of stuff comes up but I have a
> question. How exactly does one derive 666 from Nero? ..............................
> This is why I find this numeralogy stuff silly and a total waste of time.
I heartily agree that the vast majority of numerology is nonsense but
it's clear that the author of Revelation was using 666 to refer to something.
In fact the practice of "gemetria" - adding up the numerical values of letters
in a name to get a value for that name - was fairly common in the 1st century.
(There is a graffiti at Pompeii, "I love a girl whose name is 545.")
The number of the beast in Rev.13:18 is generlly given as 666, though there
is some manuscript evidence for 616. The alphabet to be used is Greek or Hebrew.
With the latter, nrn qsr, "Nero Caesar", gives 666 while omission of the final n for
nr qsr gives 616. Another possibility _if_ 616 is the correct reading is the Greek
kaisar theos, "Caesar [is] God."
Whether any of these is correct can't be established now with certainty
because we just don't have the "wisdom" and "understanding" that the first century
audience did. But these suggestions seem to be in the right ballpark. Attempts to
fasten 666 on Hitler, the pope, World Council of Churches &c are drivel. (In his
_Budget of Paradoxes in the middle of the 19th century - Vol.2, pp.227-229 - de Morgan
gave a list of all the Latin & Greek names & titles he knew of which had been 666ed,
including now obscure figures like Genseric, 5th century king of the Vandals.)
Shalom,
George
George L. Murphy
gmurphy@raex.com
http://web.raex.com/~gmurphy/
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