What does 666, the 'mark of the beast' really signify?

[Queen Esther]

TO REASON MATURE BROTHERS AND SISTERS.  -   What is the 666 mark?
The slave says:
Many human beings, in word or deed, symbolically carry this mark that identifies them as "slaves" or "soldiers" of the "beast". (Revelation 13: 3, 4.)
The enemies of God allow the mark of the beast, the mysterious number that contains its name, to be engraved on the forehead and in one hand. This gives them great opportunities for economic and commercial progress, but it brings them the wrath of God and excludes them from the millennial kingdom, Rev. 13:16; 14: 9; 20: 4

QUESTION:
Is this mark irreversible, that is, can it not be erased?
The people of the world have already been marked with the 666 mark of the beast. Remember that the slave teaches that the marking began in 1922 and was renewed in 1945 when the UN came on the scene.
All who receive the mark are condemned to eternal death. Their names are not in the book of Jehovah's life. The problem is that if the masses of humanity have already been condemned to the second death, what is the point of preaching the good news to them?

[Melinda Mills]

(Isaiah 55:6-8) 6 Search for Jehovah while he may be found. Call to him while he is near.  7 Let the wicked man leave his way And the evil man his thoughts; Let him return to Jehovah, who will have mercy on him, To our God, for he will forgive in a large way.  8 “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, And your ways are not my ways,” declares Jehovah. 
 

[Noble Berean]

I see the Mark of the Wild Beast as a symbolic mark that civilians will receive when they throw their support behind the Image of the Wild Beast. In the time of the end, the Satanic one-world government (likely the UN) will demand civilians give their full allegiance to it. This will put true followers of Christ in a trialsome situation, because they can only give their allegience to Jesus Christ.

[JW Insider]

I think the number was actually 616, not 666. Seriously.

[Queen Esther]

JW.ORG....

What Does 666 Mean?

The Bible’s answer :

According to the last book in the Bible, 666 is the number, or name, of the wild beast with seven heads and ten horns that comes out of the sea. (Revelation 13:1, 17, 18) This beast is a symbol of the worldwide political system, which rules over “every tribe and people and tongue and nation.” (Revelation 13:7) The name 666 identifies the political system as a gross failure in God’s sight. How?

More than a label. Names given by God have meaning. For example, God gave the man Abram, which means “Father Is High (Exalted),” the name Abraham, which means “Father of a Crowd (Multitude),” when God promised that He would make Abraham “a father of many nations.” (Genesis 17:5, footnotes) Likewise, God named the beast 666 as a symbol of its defining attributes.

The number six implies imperfection. Often, numbers are used as symbols in the Bible. Seven typically represents completeness or perfection. Six, being one short of seven, can denote something incomplete or flawed in God’s eyes, and it can be associated with God’s enemies.—1 Chronicles 20:6; Daniel 3:1.

Three times for emphasis. The Bible sometimes stresses a matter by stating it three times. (Revelation 4:8; 8:13) So the name 666 powerfully emphasizes that God views human political systems as gross failures. They have been unable to bring lasting peace and security—things that only God’s Kingdom will achieve.
The mark of the beast

The Bible says that people receive “the mark of the wild beast” because they follow it “with admiration,” to the point of worshipping it. (Revelation 13:3, 4; 16:2) They do this by giving worshipful honor to their country, its symbols, or its military might. As The Encyclopedia of Religion states: “Nationalism has become a dominant form of religion in the modern world.” *

How is the mark of the beast placed on someone’s right hand or forehead? (Revelation 13:16) Regarding his commands to the nation of Israel, God said: “Bind them as a reminder on your hand, and they should be like a headband on your forehead.” (Deuteronomy 11:18) This meant, not that the Israelites were to mark their literal hands and foreheads, but that God’s words would guide all their actions and thoughts. Likewise, rather than being something literal such as a 666 tattoo, the mark of the beast symbolically identifies those who let the political system rule their lives. Those with the mark of the beast place themselves in opposition to God.—Revelation 14:9, 10; 19:19-21.

[JW Insider]

1 hour ago, Queen Esther said:

THATS  NEW......   Can  you  explain  why  now  616   -   and  where  do  you  read  that ?

It's not new. The possibility that 616 might be correct, was already acknowledged by a person who was born between only about 15 to 30 years after the apostle John died. At such an early date, every known difference among the Bible manuscripts would have been significant, because there were so few manuscripts of the Bible books at this time, compared to later. So any differences, if not caught right away, could result in a mistake that would be with us for the next 2,000 years.

As it turns out, we don't need the "witness" of the man born as few as 15 years after the apostle John died. The very earliest known fragment of the book of Revelation also says 616, not 666. Note this from Wikipedia:

• Around 2005, a fragment from Papyrus 115, taken from the Oxyrhynchus site, was discovered at the Oxford University's Ashmolean Museum. It gave the beast's number as 616 ????. This fragment is the oldest manuscript . . . of Revelation 13 found as of 2017.^[2][3]Codex Ephraemi Rescriptus, known before the P115 finding but dating to after it, has 616 written in full: ????????? ???? ??, hexakosioi deka hex (lit. "six hundred and sixteen").^[17]

 

• 

• Fragment from Papyrus 115 (P115) of Revelation in the 66th vol. of the Oxyrhynchus series (P. Oxy. 4499).^[16] Has the number of the beast as ???, 616.

What looks like XIC in the fragment is actually Greek for "xis" which are the numerals for 6+10+600 or 616. But to show that this was no simple copyist error, the verse also spells out the word for 616 in the way that we spell it out in English as "six-hundred sixteen" (oder auf Deutsch "sechshundert sechzehn"). In the text of the manuscript in Greek this is spelled out as "hexakosioi deka hex" as already noted above. Irenaeus, the man born as few as 15 years after John, preferred 666 to 616, but provides the evidence that he already saw the number 616 in manuscripts in the same generation as the apostle John. Irenaeus said:

• Such, then, being the state of the case, and this number being found in all the most approved and ancient copies [of the Apocalypse], and those men who saw John face to face bearing their testimony [to it]; while reason also leads us to conclude that the number of the name of the beast, [if reckoned] according to the Greek mode of calculation by the [value of] the letters contained in it, will amount to six hundred and sixty and six; that is, the number of tens shall be equal to that of the hundreds, and the number of hundreds equal to that of the units (for that number which [expresses] the digit six being adhered to throughout, indicates the recapitulations of that apostasy, taken in its full extent, which occurred at the beginning, during the intermediate periods, and which shall take place at the end), - I do not know how it is that some have erred following the ordinary mode of speech, and have vitiated the middle number in the name, deducting the amount of fifty from it, so that instead of six decads they will have it that there is but one. [I am inclined to think that this occurred through the fault of the copyists, as is wont to happen, since numbers also are expressed by letters; so that the Greek letter which expresses the number sixty was easily expanded into the letter Iota of the Greeks.] - Adv. haer. 5.30

The Bible manuscript (P115) is not the only manuscript in which the 616 is found. Wikipedia also says:

• Although Irenaeus (2nd century AD) affirmed the number to be 666 . . . theologians have doubts about the traditional reading^[13] because of the appearance of the figure 616 in the Codex Ephraemi Rescriptus (C; Paris - one of the four great uncial codices), as well as in the Latin version of Tyconius (DCXVI, ed. Souter in the Journal of Theology, SE, April 1913), and in an ancient Armenian version (ed. Conybeare, 1907). Irenaeus knew about the 616 reading, but did not adopt it (Haer. v.30,3). In the 380s, correcting the existing Latin-language version of the New Testament (commonly referred to as the Vetus Latina), Jerome retained "666".^[14][15]  

The P115 mss is probably from 225 C.E. to 250 C.E.  Here, below, is how "666" was written in the Codex Vaticanus (between 350 and 400 C.E.):

• 

So either version has the potential to be correct. But the earliest evidence we have is for 616, not 666. Also we can think about whether it was more likely that a mnemonic number like 666 would more likely turn into a non-mnemonic 616 or would it be more likely that a non-mnemonic would be retained as a mnemonic. In the study of the history of textual changes, the difficult is simplified more often than the simple is made more difficult.

In this case, however, there is an even better explanation as to why both 666 and 616 were both known at such an early date in the history of the manuscripts of Revelation. But that's another story, that is not necessary for this discussion.

[TrueTomHarley]

Where is @James Thomas Rook Jr. when you need him with the Far Side cartoon showing Satan furious with the painter for painting 999 on an interior room. "Well, I'll be," the fellow says, scratching his head. "I guess I was holding the blueprint upside down."

[Melinda Mills]

In any case 666 or 616 both show up imperfection emphasized as against 7 which is said to represent heavenly perfection  and 10 which is representing earthly perfection. Then we have Isaiah 40:8 and 1 Peter 2:24,25  which gives the commitment of Jehovah God to preserve his "sayings" (through John). And we can see that he has done that well, with just a few minor variations being allowed. I am typing this from memory.

[James Thomas Rook Jr.]

16 hours ago, TrueTomHarley said:

Where is @James Thomas Rook Jr. when you need him with the Far Side cartoon showing Satan furious with the painter for painting 999 on an interior room. "Well, I'll be," the fellow says, scratching his head. "I guess I was holding the blueprint upside down."

Sorry, I was busy with a bowl of unlabeled M&Ms sent to me by Mars Candy Company for a new "M" design.  I had been drinking and was putting "3"s, "W"s, and "E"s on them.

 

[James Thomas Rook Jr.]

Print an 50mm upper case"M" on a piece of paper and look at it.

Then rotate it 90 degrees clockwise, and look at it.

Rotate again 90 degrees clockwise, and look at it.

Then rotate another 90 degrees clockwise,  and look at it.

M, 3, W, and an E .

It's a visual joke.

[Mic Drop]

Hmmm

[TrueTomHarley]

On 11/24/2017 at 12:02 AM, JW Insider said:

Around 2005, a fragment from Papyrus 115, taken from the Oxyrhynchus site, was discovered at the Oxford University's Ashmolean Museum. It gave the beast's number as 616 ????. This fragment is the oldest manuscript . . . of Revelation 13 found as of 2017.^[2][3]Codex Ephraemi Rescriptus, known before the P115 finding but dating to after it, has 616 written in full: ????????? ???? ??, hexakosioi deka hex (lit. "six hundred and sixteen").^[17]

It is arcane reasoning like this that led the Jurassic Park scientists to attempt recreation of certain other wild beasts, with disastrous results, particularly in the sequels.