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[badstar]

Some companies cash in on upcoming 666 frenzy

Beware June 6, 2006: The apocalypse, the Antichrist, death metal and Ann Coulter will all be among us.

*sigh*

So I don't have a Bible handy, and I don't know where to look for it, but I heard once that the "number of the beast". if you did the math correctly is actually something like 31660 or somehting like that. Can anyone debunk or substantiate?

Over the years, I've had a number of customers who have added items to purchases to avoid paying $6.66. I used to have a coworker who would make a comment "That's not a good number to have" every time someone had three consecutive 6's in their serial number, phone number etc.

And Anne Coulter is just arrogant and annoying. Ooooh, the alliteration. They picked 6/6/06 for the release date before the book had a working title. It's her "little tribute" to liberals.

I'll stop now before I go into a rant about the conservative versus liberal war and those who's primary joy seems to come from making digs at the other side.

Comments

[blaisepascal]

The American Standard Version translates it as "Six hundred and sixty and six". New International says "666". New American Standard says "six hundred and sixty-six" with a footnote that one early ms reads 616. The Amplified Bible says "666". "The Message" says 666. New Living Translation says 666, with a footnote that some manuscripts say 616. King James' translators got it as "Six hundred threescore and six". The English Standard Version goes for 666, with a footnote about some manuscripts saying 616. The Contemporary English version says it's "six hundred sixty-six". The New King James drops the archaic language and goes straight for 666. The 21st Century King James goes back to six hundred threescore and six. Young's Literal Translation has 666. The Darby Translation has "six hundred [and] sixty-six.", I'm not sure where the bracketed "and" comes from. New Life Version is interesting: It gets 666, but it says it's a name, not a number. The Holman Christian Standard Bible says his number is 666, but footnotes it with " One Gk ms plus other ancient evidence read 616". New International Reader's Version goes with 666. The Wycliff New Testament goes with six hundred sixty and six. The World English New Testament moves the "and" to get six hundred and sixty-six. Finally, the UK version of the New International Version is 666.

From what I've read, it's generally accepted among biblical scholars that the whole 666 thing was an attack on a living person too powerful to name. Using gemmatria, or converting letters to numbers and adding them up, you can convert virtually any name into a number. Some of the translations of the entire passage (Revelations 13:18) I read to get the listing above are pretty clear about that. For instance, "The Message" translates the verse as "Solve a riddle: Put your heads together and figure out the meaning of the number of the Beast. It's a human number: 666." A more typical translation (say, NIV) reads "This calls for wisdom. If anyone has insight, let him calculate the number of the beast, for it is man's number. His number is 666.", which can be seen to be very similar.

I don't have any copies of ancient Greek manuscripts containing Revelation, nor can I read ancient Greek, so I don't know exactly what terms John used in describing the number. But the translations seem to be fairly consistant on it being 666, or possibly 616.

Of course, while many suspect that Nero was the solution to the riddle, it's hard to say now exactly whom was referred to. John didn't leave us an answer key.

[nofate301.livejournal.com]

see, I'm looking forward to June 6, cuz that's when the Omen remake comes out. i LOVED the movies, and still haven't seen the 4th one.

as to whether the devil's comin...I don't know. But fuck if he shows up, I hope he brought some dip.

[linzbinz.livejournal.com]

Yah, when I mentioned in my LJ that I was flying back to NM on the 6th, people freaked...

[resident-geek.livejournal.com]

And Anne Coulter is just arrogant and annoying. Ooooh, the alliteration.

Actually it's just an awesome array of assonance. :) (Alliteration == consonants. Assonance == vowels.)