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A fragment of the oldest known New Testament has been discovered, and it seems the number of the beast has been mistranscribed in subsequent editions. It isn't 666, but 616.
The new fragment from the Book of Revelation, written in ancient Greek and dating from the late third century, is part of a hoard of previously unintelligible manuscripts discovered in historic dumps outside Oxyrhynchus in Egypt. Now a team of expert classicists, using new photographic techniques, are finally deciphering the original writing.
Professor David Parker, Professor of New Testament Textual Criticism and Paleography at the University of Birmingham, thinks that 616, although less memorable than 666, is the original. He said:This is an example of gematria, where numbers are based on the numerical values of letters in people's names. Early Christians would use numbers to hide the identity of people who they were attacking: 616 refers to the Emperor Caligula.
A representative of the Church of Satan was unfazed. Peter Gilmore told the press 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.
Revelation! 666 is not the number of the beast (it's a devilish 616) - The Independent on Sunday, 1st May 2005 (thanks, Rick).
Posted in
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at 22:12. Last modified on September 28 2006 at 23:43.
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Comments
1: Posted by: Alexis | May 2, 2005 10:49 AM
This papyrus may be the oldest known to date, but it doesn't follow that it's the most correct. 616 was a known variant as early as the 2nd century, and dismissed then (by Irenaeus) as a copyist's error. (The article doesn't seem to be available on the Independent's site just now, so maybe they go into this.)
2: Posted by: Feòrag | May 2, 2005 11:04 AM
I've just clicked on the link, and it works fine here. Maybe it was just a temporary glitch.
3: Posted by: Alexis | May 2, 2005 9:28 PM
Apparently it was. And no, they don't go into it. They hear about one new papyrus, talk to one guy with a contrarian theory, and suddenly, woohoo, everything you ever heard is wrong. Stupid, worthless so-called reporters. *gripe*
(Not that this should really be that much of a surprise to me. Perhaps I was cherishing the illusion that you had a better quality of news reporting on your side of the Atlantic.)
4: Posted by: Feòrag | May 3, 2005 9:31 AM
Whatever. I concur with the Church of Satan on this one.
5: Posted by: Jesse | May 3, 2005 8:00 PM
NOT RAGING
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