[B-Greek] Rev 13:18
Daniel Gleason
info at revelationjesuschrist.com
Tue Jul 6 19:45:02 EDT 2004
Arie Dirkzwager wrote: It is possible that I missed a message or deleted it
too soon. But I did not find the explanation that ARIQMOS is anarthrous here
because normally the predicate does not have the article. So we can
translate "It is a number" and "It is the number". The second translation
seems the right one, because the word number had been mentioned before.
The word number is mentioned three times in this verse. The first and third
time with the definite article, the second time without. I disagree that the
second instance should be translated as "it is the number" and this is my
reasoning:
First, the verse has to be seen as a riddle. I think we can all agree on
that. The word beast is used as a pejorative label for the man in question.
The beast has no name. The word beast is simply an insult word. It's like
someone calling Hitler a dog. The author gives us the number 666 at the end
of the riddle but he clearly says in the middle of the verse that this
number is "a-number of-a-man." I interpret this to mean that the number 666
is part of the man's number. Therefore, his number must be greater than 666.
Remember, the riddle says the man's number has to be counted (calculated).
In my earlier post I said this was a tricky verse. There is a lot of word
play going on here. I just don't see how people can read this verse and not
even consider that the man's number is not 666. People have been beating
this dead horse for over 1900 years now. It's like looking for WMD in Iraq.
Open your minds and start looking at some alternate theories.
Now lets look at the first clause "Here is the Wisdom." What does that mean?
Folks, I'm going to make an educated guess here. It is my contention that
"Here" means verse 13:18. It is also my contention that "the wisdom" means
"the number of the man" ... the thing that needs to be counted.
Here is my suggestion. Convert the Greek letters of the verse to numbers and
start counting. Come on, anyone that passed 3rd grade can do this. If you
start seeking you just might find an answer that pops out at you.
Daniel Gleason
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