[B-Greek] Textual question (WAS: Rev 13:18)

Carl W. Conrad cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Tue Jul 6 21:55:05 EDT 2004


Forwarded for: Frank Daniels <EgwEimi at aol.com>
Message-ID: <117.34f42909.2e1c9f21 at aol.com>
Date: Tue, 6 Jul 2004 20:34:41 EDT
Subject: Re: [B-Greek] Textual question (WAS: Rev 13:18)

Anthony wrote:

I have read that in the text of Revelation 13:18, the oldest manuscripts do
not spell out the number 666, but simply have three Greek letters: CXS. My
UBS v.2 does not support this.

Actually, that should be CXF'
(digamma or stigma [final sigma], not plain sigma).

UBS 3-4 does show an alternate reading here, found
in p47 and some other manuscripts.  P47 is the oldest
manuscript of that section of Revelation and might
very well carry the correct reading, especially since
the use of the letters as numerals was very common.
In my transcription of the verse (earlier), I have
been presumptuous enough to suppose CXF' to be
the original reading.

C = 600
X = 60
F = 6

In numeral form, this is a straightforward 666.
If original, it also tells the readers to use letters as
numbers when calculating the number of the wild
animal's human name, but that fact is probably
something that they were used to already.

A saying recorded at the time (in this case,
about Nero Caesar) was:


"Add the numerical values

Of the letters in Nero's name,

And in 'murdered his own mother'

You will find they are the same."

(Suetonius, The Twelve Caesars, Nero 39,
translated)

Since Nero HAD murdered his own mother,
this was a humerous jab at the emperor who had
done that very thing -- perhaps a way of saying
that he was destined to kill mommy.  (Note:
this was brought up at least once on B-Greek, in
April, 2000.)  Similar "rhymes" and word games
exist with other expressions.  For example (and
digressing a bit), some say that the reason why
the lineage of Jesus in Matthew's account is
simplified into groups of fourteen generations is
because the Hebrew consonantal form of "David"
adds to 14 if calculated numerically.
This can be verified, but we don't know the
author's rationale for certain.

Anyway, CXF' might very well be the original
reading, instead of the spelled-out form.

Frank

Frank Daniels
EgwEimi at aol.com




More information about the B-Greek mailing list