I would dearly love to answer your question with a straight 'Yes' or
'No' so that we might elicit its true purpose. I think the best I can
do, given the circumstances, is as follows:
It seems to me that your 'stunningly impressive suggestion' of a name
having the value 616 cannot, of itself, lead the rational and unbiased
mind to voice the considered opinion that the verse was necessarily of
divine origin. To clinch the issue it would be necessary that the
individual concerned eventually turned out to be the promised
Antichrist. Only then, in retrospect, could I answer 'Yes, the correct
number was 616; and the method used to derive number from name,
verified.' - and because, on your hypothesis, I would have been
unaware of any textual alternative, I would have agreed that it was
divinely inspired.
Paul, I'm afraid this is my best shot at formulating an answer. If it is
still not satisfactory, then I must ask you to rephrase the question -
and in a less hypothetical manner. Assuming it is OK, perhaps you will
now reveal your motive in asking it.
Regards,
Vernon
PHSEELY@aol.com wrote:
>
> I asked, Suppose God inspired a writer to write "666", but later a scribe
> changed
> the text to "616"; and, in addition all copies of the text with "666"
> were lost, so that all that was available were the copies with "616."
> If a clever person by various mathematical processes found a name which
> matched "616" and that name was a stunningly impressive suggestion,
> would the name show that this Bible verse was of divine origin----even
> though the clever name was not based on a word inspired by God?
>
> You answered, Since "The Revelation of St.John the Divine" (the title of the
> Book as
> we find it in the AV) is really "The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which
> God gave unto him, to shew unto his servants..." (Rev.1:1) - and we
> would be wise never to forget that! It therefore follows that - God
> being Omniscient - such a problem could not arise. However, that said -
> and since you wish me to pursue the hypothesis - why would you suppose
> that our 'clever person' would command the general consent of his peers
> in respect of his method of converting a name into a number?
> >>
>
> But, do you have an answer to my question?
>
> Regards,
>
> Paul
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