From: George Murphy (gmurphy@raex.com)
Date: Tue Apr 15 2003 - 22:26:22 EDT
Vernon Jenkins wrote:
>
> George,
>
> Thanks for writing. Perhaps you will allow me to answer your question in a
> structured fashion.
>
> 1. Regarding Rev.13:18, it is God who poses the riddle, and it is He who has
> assigned the unique number 666 to the beast.
>
> 2. Our attempts (as 'understanding believers') to solve the problem are
> intended to further some serious purpose - the words of Rev.22:19 and the
> imperative of the riddle itself making this abundantly clear - and we are
> encouraged by the promise of wisdom.
>
> 3. At first sight, the matter appears to consist in equating some
> individual's name with the number 666. Clearly, this requires us to read its
> constituent letters as numerals and apply some acceptable rule of bonding in
> order to obtain the number represented by the name.
>
> 4. At the time of John's writing, two systems (in which all letters assumed
> a double identity as numerals) would have been in common usage, viz the
> Hebrew and the Greek. It would therefore have followed that the original
> documents upon which all our Bible translations are based would, in God's
> wisdom, have been as much sets of numbers as life-giving scriptures.
Not exactly. The letters of the human languages in which the biblical documents
were written were used to designate numbers by human beings & this provided a natural
way (_gematria_), & one comprehensible to people of the 1st century, for the author of
Revelation to encode a particular name in one verse. But as I said originally, this in
no way ensures that any additional revelation is to be obtained by applying the process
of gemetria to other words of scripture.
> 5. So, to return to the matter of the riddle, we have to question its direct
> interpretation, for that would lead inevitably either to a seemingly
> purposeless 'witch-hunt', or else a realisation of the obvious after the
> beast had assumed power. But if not this, what, then, can be its true
> purpose?
It had already assumed power. The name undoubdtedly refers to claims of the
Roman imperium to divine authority & is probably _kaisar theos_ in Greek or _nrw [or
nrwn] qsr_ in Hebrew.
>
> 6. Because the use of gematria (ie the reading of words as numbers) was
> implicit in the process of identifying the beast, we infer that it is - in
> this context, at least - a divinely-sanctioned procedure.
It is "divinely sanctioned" in Rev.13:18 because we're explicitly told so there.
We are not told this for any other words of scripture. Besides, what we're told in this
verse is the _opposite_ of what you're trying to do. Here we're given a number which is
used to conceal a name. You're taking perfetly clear words & turning them into numbers.
> 7. But has the same procedure a wider application as a tool of biblical
> exegesis? While Rev.13:18 has nothing to say about this possibility, I
> believe the favourable outcomes obtained by applying it to the Greek form of
> the Lord's name and the Hebrew of the Bible's first verse must be considered
> decisive. Thus, we find the letters forming the word 'Jesus' have a combined
> value of 888 (as opposed to the 666 of the Antichrist); the number 296 being
> a factor of both 'Jesus' and 'Christ'; the same number appearing as 7th word
> of Genesis 1:1 ('...the earth.'); 666 appearing three times in a geometrical
> representation of this first verse with its outline of 6.6.6, and so on.
>
> 8. The numbers indelibly associated with the Hebrew words of the OT and the
> Greek of the NT appear to have a complementary and precious message to bring
> to an increasingly apostate world, viz God is; He is exceedingly able; and
> His Word, undoubtedly true.
This adds nothing at all to the clear and unambiguous words of scripture.
In sum, I see nothing here to change my original statement.
Shalom,
George
>
> http://www.otherbiblecode.com
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "George Murphy" <gmurphy@raex.com>
> To: "Vernon Jenkins" <vernon.jenkins@virgin.net>
> Cc: "Michael Roberts" <michael.andrea.r@ukonline.co.uk>; <asa@calvin.edu>
> Sent: Wednesday, April 09, 2003 1:10 AM
> Subject: Re: The power of ten
>
> > Vernon Jenkins wrote:
> >
> > > Michael,
> > >
> > > You are surely aware that much of what you have written is cpmpletely
> > > irrelevant to the matter raised, viz the Christian believer's response
> > > to the Lord's command, 'count' (AV), or 'calculate' (NASB), that is a
> > > significant feature of Rev.13:18.
> >
> > From the fact that the writer of Revelation tells readers to "calculate
> the
> > number of the beast" it does not remotely follow that there is any
> biblical authority
> > for trying to get any theological result by "calculating" any other words
> of scripture.
George L. Murphy
gmurphy@raex.com
http://web.raex.com/~gmurphy/
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