http://www.bravewords.com/news.html?id=27301

It's a site mainly for news of metal bands, but this was interesting and I hadn't heard it elsewhere (and it's not music news).

Discusses how the mark of the beast is not 666, but 616 - as translated in Greek based on a bible from the third century. Who knows if it's correct, but if so - many songs and movies are now invalid.

Discuss

The true mark is 867-5309

There are a lot of similar mis-translations from the bible's original greek and hebrew passages. For example, the word "kill" in the commandment "Thou shall not kill" was supposedly mis-translated from a greek word that more appropriately means "murder." "Thou shall not murder" certainly has a different meaning and different implications than "thou shall not kill."

Good examples of why the Bible should not be taken at face value, even if you're a very religious christian.

Actually, it's Hebrew in the Old Testament. But other than that, you're right.

Actually, it's Hebrew and Aramaic in the Old Testament. But mistakes are destined to occur in such a massive volume, especially due to the piecemeal nature it was translated into. But that doesn't matter if you believe in the divine origin of the text.

I forgot to also mention, in the New Testament, Jesus never uses the word "kill" when he references this commandment. He always says "murder," because apparently, for whatever reason, the word for "murder" here was translated correctly. More proof that there's sketchy things going on in modern day Bible Translations.

Or as my pastor would say, go to the Greek. Fortunately there aren't many things like that.

My pastor says the same thing.

Just to expand a little on the subject, this whole "616" thing has been around for a long time. Some manuscripts read "666", others read "616". What's happened here is that they've discovered a really old manuscript which reads "616", thus strengthening the case for "616" being the original number and "666" the corruption, rather than the other way around.

As far as "kill" goes, the word used in the Ten Commandments is ratsach, which means "to dash in pieces", ie, to kill in the manner of a predatory animal.

A quick search of a concordance revealed five other words translated "kill" (just to compare them). Nakah means "to strike", and harag means "to strike with deadly intent." Shachat means "to slaughter" or "to butcher", ie, to slaughter an animal for food, and tabach means pretty much the same. Lastly, muwth simply means "to die", or "to cause to die".

So while nakah, harag, and muwth could be used to describe murder, they could also be used to describe other kinds of killing (like self-defence, etc). Ratsach, on the other hand, pretty clearly refers to a savage killing of a helpless victim.

Ah, language. A never-ending source of fascination.

I love Hannibal of Carthage.

I never really liked the number 666. Also, what does it mean in Hebrew? That is to say, where they use letters for numbers, what letters correspond with the numbers and do they have some meaning?

They don't mean anything in that way. It's just Satan's number. (Six hundred, threescore, and six) I dunno... like his bank account number?

(And that's greek, too.)

Perhaps Aramic is easier to translate than Hebrew is. Hebrew is one of the more difficult languages out there, especially considering it has no vowels.
You talk to yourself?

Isn't it just

7 - holy number
6 - holy number minus one, symbolizing corrupted holiness (fallen angel?)
3 times 7 - holy trinity
3 times 6 - corrupted trinity, evil

7 represents ressurrection, spiritual completeness, and/or God's perfection.
6 represents man's weakness, manifestation of sin, and/or evils of Satan.
3 represents divine completeness and/or perfection

If they're meant to be combined on these definitions, then you could say that 666 means "perfect evil." But it would seem instead to represent the Antichrist exclusively, and thus 777 represents Christ. Or if your in Vegas, a jackpot.

Isn't God's name is jealous. Or something like that. Wasn' t that caught in some translation problems too?

But the Slipknot song, Heretic's Anthem wouldn't make any sense, if your 555 than I'm 616..??

It does have vowels, they just aren't printed. Aramaic has the same thing, since it would use the same script.