Revelation! 666 is Not the Number of the Beast (it's a Devilish 616)

[GameMaster]

http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/this_britain/story.jsp?story=634679


A newly discovered fragment of the oldest surviving copy of the New Testament indicates that, as far as the Antichrist goes, theologians, scholars, heavy metal groups, and television evangelists have got the wrong number. Instead of 666, it's actually the far less ominous 616.

The new fragment from the Book of Revelation, written in ancient Greek and dating from the late third century, is part of a hoard of previously unintelligible manuscripts discovered in historic dumps outside Oxyrhynchus in Egypt. Now a team of expert classicists, using new photographic techniques, are finally deciphering the original writing.

Professor David Parker, Professor of New Testament Textual Criticism and Paleography at the University of Birmingham, thinks that 616, although less memorable than 666, is the original. He said: "This is an example of gematria, where numbers are based on the numerical values of letters in people's names. Early Christians would use numbers to hide the identity of people who they were attacking: 616 refers to the Emperor Caligula."

The Book of Revelation is traditionally considered to be written by John, a disciple of Jesus; it identifies 666 as the mark of the Antichrist. In America, the fundamentalist Christian right often use the number in sermons about the coming Apocalypse.

They and satanists responded coolly to the new "Revelation". Peter Gilmore, High Priest of the Church of Satan, based in New York, said: "By using 666 we're using something that the Christians fear. Mind you, if they do switch to 616 being the number of the beast then we'll start using that."


Too bad for those devil worshipping people and musicians with tatoos and logos featuring 666.

Invalidate'd!

[Typhoid]

I have a random question.


If you worship the devil (Satanism) wouldn't that technically be a sect of Christianity? Because you're encompassing something from one religion, and turning it into your own religion.


I've always wondered that.

[Canyarion]

666 (or 616, whatever), isn't even the number of Satan. The Beast symbolises humans. So they were wrong anyway.

[Happydude]

there is a church of satan now?!?!?!

[Dyne]

there is a church of satan now?!?!?!

Paganism.

It's actually quite popular in Victoria, British Columbia. They have classes at the local university for it, even.

[MuGen]

All this talk about numbers... who knew they had phones back then...
/sarcasm ends

[Kitana85]

Paganism.

It's actually quite popular in Victoria, British Columbia. They have classes at the local university for it, even.
WHOAAAAAAA

Paganism is NOT the Church of Satan! Paganism can be a beautiful form of Nature worship or other form of polytheistic worship... it has nothing to do with worshiping Satan and everything to do with worshiping creation!

The Church of Satan is a SPECIFIC church started by Anton LeVay. For more info on it check out The Church of Satan (http://www.churchofsatan.com/)

[Dyne]

WHOAAAAAAA

Paganism is NOT the Church of Satan! Paganism can be a beautiful form of Nature worship or other form of polytheistic worship... it has nothing to do with worshiping Satan and everything to do with worshiping creation!

The Church of Satan is a SPECIFIC church started by Anton LeVay. For more info on it check out The Church of Satan (http://www.churchofsatan.com/)

Oh, I'm sorry.

[Kitana85]

No worries, a few of my friends are pagan, and they have to deal with stuff like that a lot.

Interestingly, aparently this is not a new finding, according to a Wikipedia entry which can be found here (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Number_of_the_Beast_(numerology)), the number 616 has been known for a while. Early Christian thinker Ireneas used 616 in his writings (which I should have remembered from a class I took). Though this number has been found an accepted, it is used interchangably with 666, which is still going to be the "going number"

[Happydude]

u actually read up on the church of satan (from now on shall be known as COS) yesterday and found that they have nothing to do with the satan we've all come to know and love (:rolleyes: )...i would say COS exists only as a way of making money...i read some of the writings which the guy wrote and it seems to me that it's more of a way of life, rather than a religion...hell...it's not even that, it's more of a personality thing...their rules and things like that are in a way opposite to the 10 commandments (SURPRISE!!!:p). but some are similar to them. i would link you to the page, but i don't remember it, and i have it on my PC at home.

when i get home i'll post a link for whoever wishes to read about it. i would have considered joining if it wasn't for the ridiculous US$200 joining fee. :p

and no, i do not worship/like satan, nore am i goth or even close to it. i just agree with most of the COS's rules.

[MuGen]

I don't think Goth's worship satan if that was what you were implying. I just think Goth's like dark atmospheres and have a comfortability with death.. I guess... I dunno.

In any case, $200 joining fee? Thats utterly ridiculous..

[Happydude]

ok, here is the link: http://members.chello.at/herbert.paulis/Csi.htm

at the bottom is the more detailed information...so far i only read "satansim: the feared religion"

[Kitana85]

the www.churchofsatan.com website, which I posted eariler is the "church's" official site and has much of the same info, just more detailed.

[Happydude]

oh, sorry, didn't see your previous post Kit.

[Professor S]

The Church of Satan is not a religion, but an ethos. Satanists don't actually believe in God or Hell or Lucifer, they just use Satan as an archetype on how you should live your life.

How could they believe that Satan is a good archetype, you say?

Satan, or Lucifer, basically told God to go F himself. He said that he wasn't going to take any more of his **** (the **** was God giving his grace to man). The Prophecy (movie) actually takes a good thematic take on the whole story.

Do, in essence, Satanism is the worship of one's self over all others. If you have the time or inclination, look over the tenants of Satanism. They are quite funny. Its basically a ethos allowing you to justify being an asshole.

As for Paganism, that is a term placed by the Catholic Church (along with the idea of anything non-Christian being the work of the devil) to encompass all non-Christian faiths, and now only is used to identify "cult"-like non-christian faiths, such as Sacred Geometry, The Themic Order fo tthe Golden Dawn, Wicca, Devil Worship and even Khabbalah (jewish mysticism). Most of these religions are honestly quite benign (excluding devil worship) and have little to no affiliation with any of the modern "One God" religions (Christianity, Islam, Jewish).