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

[Matthew9969]

Well we are pretty close to gas being $6.66 per gallon.

 

[TrueTomHarley]

It will be $6.16 first however and @JW Insiderwill be celebrating and blowing off the prophesy cannons in when that happens.

[Pudgy]

 

[Witness]

1 Cor 13:1 - "This will be my third visit to you. "Every matter must be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses."

Two or three witnesses can fully establish truth guided in Holy Spirit.  The dichotomy of this is 666, three witnesses who establish lies by the spirit of demons.  

Rev 16:3 - Then I saw three impure spirits that looked like frogs; they came out of the mouth of the dragon, out of the mouth of the beast and out of the mouth of the false prophet.

This "number" is the number of a man, (Rev 13:18) and its location would be where the "man of lawlessness" is found - with the two Beasts of Revelation 13. (2 Thess 2:3,4)

 One Beast is the false prophet (Rev 13:11,12), the first Beast,(Rev 13:1,2)  is the organization that this composite of men exercises its authority "in behalf of" the organization/Beast. (Rev 13:12)

The Beast's "image" is spirit-directed, which requires an identifying mark.  If that mark is rejected, disfellowshipping, a spiritual "death" ensues.  Rev 13:14-17

This beast holds captive, the "saints"; actually making war against them through deceit.  Rev 13:5-7,10; Col 2:8

How does it make war with the anointed?  By the elders trampling down these living stones and replacing them as God's priests.  (Isa 43:10; 1 Pet 2:5,9; 1 Cor 3:16,17; Dan 11:31,32; 12:7; Mark 13:14; 2 Thess 2:3,4; Rev 11:1,2)

Look no further, JWs are under the influence of 666, just as long as you bear the "mark" of slavery to "Jehovah's organization" and tune in to the lies spoken by false prophets/false teachers.  (Matt 24:24,25)  This blasphemy is about the anointed of Christ, not political rulers or religions in the world.  

Don't be deceived. 2 Thess 2:8-11

[Mic Drop]

 

[TrueTomHarley]

8 hours ago, Mic Drop said:

 

Hmm. From those replies are also found this:

and this.

Not that our people put much truck in them, but they are curiosities. 

We have explained it that 7 is a number frequently conveying heavenly perfection, 6 (one short) conveying earthly imperfection, and anything three times are as for emphasis. For example, should Pudgy say anything outrageous the way he does (how much can I push this?) you might respond: 

Therefore, 666, is more or less ‘doing things the human way’ emphasized, deliberately rejecting godliness. The number used in Revelation can be taken that the overall world will go that way, posing a real test for anyone who doesn’t.

[Moise Racette]

On 1/7/2023 at 11:24 AM, Witness said:

Look no further, JWs are under the influence of 666, just as long as you bear the "mark" of slavery to "Jehovah's organization" and tune in to the lies spoken by false prophets/false teachers.  (Matt 24:24,25)  This blasphemy is about the anointed of Christ, not political rulers or religions in the world.  

Don't be deceived. 2 Thess 2:8-11

I would have to say by this comment, that apostates are the ones being influenced by the mark 666, NOT god's organization, since that would entail Christ being a false prophet all along according to this poster misconception. Therefore, that mark is a measure of things to come as a downfall for humanity. 

I will agree on the last part of this poster. Readers should not be deceived by apostate views and understanding.

[Pudgy]

 

[Moise Racette]

If it was just for the sake of the number, then this would present a problem for, bible understanding.

(1 Kings 10:14, 15) 14 And the weight of the gold that came to Solʹo·mon in one year amounted to 666 talents of gold, 15 besides that from the merchants and the profit from the traders and from all the kings of the Arabs and the governors of the land.

(2 Chronicles 9:13, 14) 13 And the weight of the gold that came to Solʹo·mon in one year amounted to 666 talents of gold, 14 besides that brought in by the merchants and the traders and all the kings of the Arabs and the governors of the land who were bringing gold and silver in to Solʹo·. . .
 

(Ezra 2:2-14) . . .The number of the Israelite men included: 3 the sons of Paʹrosh, 2,172; 4 the sons of Sheph·a·tiʹah, 372; 5 the sons of Aʹrah, 775; 6 the sons of Paʹhath-moʹab, of the sons of Jeshʹu·a and Joʹab, 2,812; 7 the sons of Eʹlam, 1,254; 8 the sons of Zatʹtu, 945; 9 the sons of Zacʹcai, 760; 10 the sons of Baʹni, 642; 11 the sons of Beʹbai, 623; 12 the sons of Azʹgad, 1,222; 13 the sons of Ad·o·niʹkam, 666; 14 the sons of Bigʹvai, 2,056;
 

[JW Insider]

On 1/16/2023 at 6:42 AM, TrueTomHarley said:

We have explained it that 7 is a number frequently conveying heavenly perfection, 6 (one short) conveying earthly imperfection, and anything three times are as for emphasis.

It's a little easier for modern readers to accept our theory than it would have been for readers and listeners at the time Revelation was written. It's very easy for modern readers who use Arabic numerals like we do in Western and Arabic-influenced nations.

In European languages or Arabic, the number six-hundred-sixty-six would look like this: 666.

But in the Greek of Revelation the number was written to look more like χξϛ  or in the oldest manuscript of Revelation and a couple of others the number is XIC. which is not 666 but 616. 

In Latin, just as an analogy, it would look like DCLXVI. One of the oldest Latin translations, however, has it as DCXVI. And to show that this wasn't just a copyist error, the number was also spelled out in the Latin words for "six hundred and sixteen" not just the Roman numerals for 616.

Irenaeus knew about the 616 reading as early as 180 CE, which is even earlier than any known Bible manuscripts of Revelation, but he preferred the number 666, and considered 616 to be a copyist's error. 200 years later (380) Jerome made a new translation into Latin and "corrected" the DCXVI to DCLXVI.

In Hebrew it could look like this: (MSV or TRSV).  [Mem [600] Samekh [60] Vav [6] or Tau [400] Resh [200] Samekh [60] Vav [6] ]

But what's even more interesting is that we can't take a number like 616 and make it mean the same thing no matter how we position the numerals. (661 does not equal 166 does not equal 616) But in Greek you could write the number as XIC, CIX, IXC, XCI etc, and it would always say 616. Same in Hebrew. In fact, in old Hebrew documents and even now, certain order exceptions are common or preferred. Note this from  https://smontagu.org/writings/HebrewNumbers.html

The numerical value of each letter is fixed and not determined by position, so reordering a number will not change its value. This may be done when a number spells out a word with negative connotations (e.g. 298: RESH TSADI HET is the Hebrew for “murder” so it is sometimes written as RESH HET TSADI), or when the reordered form has especially positive connotations (e.g 18: YUD HET is often written as HET YUD, the Hebrew for “alive”). Unlike the previous exception, using the regular form in these cases is not considered an error.

If the last two digits of a number are 15 or 16, they should be expressed not as YUD HE (10+5) and YUD VAV (10+6), but as TET VAV (9+6) and TET ZAYIN (9+7). This is done to avoid a close resemblance to the Tetragrammaton (four-letter name of God) YUD HE VAV HE. Although this convention is originally derived from religious practice, it is universally used even in completely secular contexts.

It's obvious, then, that readers of Greek and Hebrew were even more alert to recalculations of numbers, or the words that might be conveyed. After all, most words could also just be a more convoluted way to convey a number. For example, some say that Matthew is putting special emphasis on the Davidic line when he breaks up the generations from Abraham to Jesus into groups of 14. In Hebrew, the word "DAVID" is also a way to write the number 14. Other Jewish writers did this type of thing regularly.

Here's some info from Wikipedia:

... 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). In the 380s, correcting the existing Latin-language version of the New Testament (commonly referred to as the Vetus Latina), Jerome retained "666".^[13][14]

 

Fragment from Papyrus 115 (P115) of Revelation in the 66th vol. of the Oxyrhynchus series (P. Oxy. 4499).^[15] Has the number of the beast as χιϛ, 616.

Around 2005, a fragment from Papyrus 115, taken from the Oxyrhynchus site, was discovered at the University of Oxford's Ashmolean Museum. It gave the beast's number as 616 (χις). This fragment is the oldest manuscript (about 1,700 years old) of Revelation 13 found as of 2017.^[2][3]Codex Ephraemi Rescriptus, known before the Papyrus 115 finding but dating to after it, has 616 written in full: ἑξακόσιοι δέκα ἕξ, hexakosioi deka hex (lit. "six hundred and sixteen").^[16]

Papyrus 115 and Ephraemi Rescriptus have led some scholars to regard 616 as the original number of the beast.^[17] According to Paul Louis, "The number 666 has been substituted for 616 either by analogy with 888, the [Greek] number of Jesus (Gustav Adolf Deissmann), or because it is a triangular number, the sum of the first 36 numbers (1+2+3+4+5+6+...+36 = 666)".^[18]

[Pudgy]

…. Let the Reader beware ….

[JW Insider]

The most common explanation for how the number χξϛ would have been calculated as a man's number by Jewish Christians who heard or read Revelation is this:

To see it, go to https://www.gematrix.org/?word=csr+nrn and type in the following if you have or can switch to a Hebrew keyboard and type this person's name:

נרון קסר

Calculate the man's number and it will show this:

 

For fun, you can also type in the alternate spelling of the same name in Hebrew characters:

נרו קסר

You will get this:

It just happens, of course, perhaps by coincidence, that those were the two most common ways to spell the name of the first "beast" said to "stand on land and sea" (from the city on 7 hills) who also persecuted Christians in the first century. He was the emperor who falsely blamed the Christians for the burning of Rome, and which resulted in the immediate persecution and torture and murder and burning alive of thousands of Christians.

The two ways to spell his name were pronounced Caesar NERON (666) or Caesar NERO (616).

[Compare "Solomon:" Hebrew SHLOMO and Hellenized form SOLOMON.]