I got a kick out of this.

We'll see if this is as entertaining as when all the religious folk freak out when Halloween falls on a Sunday.

my dog was born 6/6/86 so we named him damien

sounds like jesus is a pussy

That Ann Coulter's a classy broad.

From what I've read, the number of the beast may very well be 616, not 666.

http://www.religionnewsblog.com/11134

Satanists, apocalypse watchers and heavy metal guitarists may have to adjust their demonic numerology after a recently deciphered ancient biblical text revealed that 666 is not the fabled Number of the Beast after all.

A fragment from the oldest surviving copy of the New Testament, dating to the Third century, gives the more mundane 616 as the mark of the Antichrist.

Ellen Aitken, a professor of early Christian history at McGill University, said the discovery appears to spell the end of 666 as the devil's prime number.

"This is a very nice piece to find," Dr. Aitken said. "Scholars have argued for a long time over this, and it now seems that 616 was the original number of the beast."

The tiny fragment of 1,500-year-old papyrus is written in Greek, the original language of the New Testament, and contains a key passage from the Book of Revelation.

Where more conventional versions of the Bible give 666 as the "number of the beast," or the sign of the anti-Christ whose coming is predicted in the book's apocalyptic verses, the older version uses the Greek letters signifying 616.

"This is very early confirmation of that number, earlier than any other text we've found of that passage," Dr. Aitken said. "It's probably about 100 years before any other version."

The fragment was part of a hoard of previously illegible manuscripts discovered in an ancient garbage dump outside the Egyptian city of Oxyrhynchus. Although the papyrus was first excavated in 1895, it was badly discoloured and damaged. Classics scholars at Oxford University were only recently able to read it using new advanced imaging techniques.

Elijah Dann, a professor of philosophy and religion at the University of Toronto, said the new number is unlikely to make a dent in the popularity of 666.

"Otherwise, a lot of sermons would have to be changed and a lot of movies rewritten," he said with a laugh. "There's always someone with an active imagination who can put another interpretation on it.

"It just shows you that when you study something as cryptic and mystic as the Book of Revelation there's an almost unlimited number of interpretations."

The book is thought to have been written by the disciple John and according to the King James Bible, the traditional translation of the passage reads: "Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six."

But Dr. Aitken said that translation was drawn from much later versions of the New Testament than the fragment found in Oxyrhynchus. "When we're talking about the early biblical texts, we're always talking about copies and they are copies made, at best, 150 to 200 years after [the original] was written," she said.

"They can have mistakes in the copying, changes for political or theological reasons ... it's like a detective story piecing it all together."

Dr. Aitken said, however, that scholars now believe the number in question has very little to do the devil. It was actually a complicated numerical riddle in Greek, meant to represent someone's name, she said.

"It's a number puzzle -- the majority opinion seems to be that it refers to [the Roman emperor] Nero."

Revelation was actually a thinly disguised political tract, with the names of those being criticized changed to numbers to protect the authors and early Christians from reprisals. "It's a very political document," Dr. Aitken said. "It's a critique of the politics and society of the Roman empire, but it's written in coded language and riddles."

That's hillarious. Hundreds of years of people acting retarded over a set of numbers, and it's not even the right numbers.



I might have to reread Revelations now.

There'll be almost no darkness that night, I might stay up through it, could be very interesting.

Great. Now I'll be scared on both June 1st and June 6th, just to be safe.

And, fuck. The whole month of June 2016 will be scary as hell....

Or not at all.

Yeah, remember how the world ended the last 20 or so 6/6/06's?

Where the fuck did 666 come from? It's not in the bible.

I think through misinterpretation of the some of the writings of Revelation. And like many other myths, there doesn't have to be a grain of truth to something, it seems that whatever the masses believe is "the truth".

Revelation 13:16-18 states:
"He also forced everyone, small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on his right hand or on his forehead, so that no one could buy or sell unless he had the mark, which is the name of the beast or the number of his name. This calls for wisdom. If anyone has insight, let him calculate the number of the beast, for it is man's number. His number is 666."



i *heart* the beast

The Greek manuscripts (actually copies of the prototype were written in Greek, although others argue the originals were written in Hebrew) do not literally render the phrase as six-six-six (three Greek words for six in a row -- εξ εξ εξ) but as χξϛ´ (it is 666 in Greek numerical form) or sometimes six hundred and sixty-six (Greek: ἑξακόσιοι ἑξήκοντα ἕξ). Other early Greek copies including the Oxyrhynchus papyri show the number of the beast to be 616 (chi iota stigma) instead of 666 (chi xi stigma). Lowercase iota and xi are very similar in appearance, so that one is probably a mis-copy of the other. Historians continue to argue as to which was the original.:

The Greek text of Codex Alexandrinus of the New Testament reads: :Ὧδε ἡ σοφία ἐστίν· ὁ ἔχων νοῦν ψηφισάτω τὸν ἀριθμὸν τοῦ θηρίου, ἀριθμὸς γὰρ ἀνθρώπου ἐστίν· καὶ ὁ ἀριθμὸς αὐτοῦ ἑξακόσιοι ἑξήκοντα ἕξ.

Hōde hē sophia estin; ho echōn noun psēphisatō ton arithmon tou thēriou, arithmos gar anthrōpou estin; kai ho arithmos autou hexakosioi hexēkonta hex.
Other manuscripts use the Greek numerical form χξϛ´. It is not clear whether those manuscripts are older or newer than the Codex Alexandrinus.
In the New Jerusalem Bible, Revelation 13:18 reads:

There is need for shrewdness here: anyone clever may interpret the number of the beast: it is the number of a human being, the number 666.
In the New American Bible:

Wisdom is needed here; one who understands can calculate the number of the beast, for it is a number that stands for a person. His number is six hundred and sixty-six.
In the New International Version Bible, Revelation 13:18 reads:

This calls for wisdom. If anyone has insight, let him calculate the number of the beast, for it is man's number. His number is 666.
In the New English Translation Bible, Revelation 13:18 reads:

This calls for wisdom: Let the one who has insight calculate the beast's number, for it is man's number, and his number is 666.
In God's Word, Revelation 13:18 reads:

In this situation wisdom is needed. Let the person who has insight figure out the number of the beast, because it is a human number. The beast's number is 666.
In the New American Standard Bible Revelation 13:18 reads:

Here is wisdom. Let him who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for the number is that of a man; and his number is six hundred and sixty-six.
In the King James Version:

Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred three score and six.
In the Good News Bible:

This calls for wisdom. Whoever is intelligent can figure out the meaning of the number of the beast, because the number stands for the name of someone. Its number is 666.

In the Easy-to-Read Version:

A person who has understanding can find the meaning of the animal's number. This requires wisdom. This number is a number of a man. It is 666.

In the Vulgate, or Latin Bible:

Hic sapientia est. Qui habet intellectum, computet numerum bestiae. Numerus enim hominis est, et numerus eius est sescenti sexaginta sex.

In the New World Translation Bible, Revelation 13:18 reads:

Here is where wisdom comes in: Let the one that has intelligence calculate the number of the wild beast, for it is a man’s number; and its number is six hundred and sixty-six.



The number 666 is also seen in the Old Testament book of II Chronicles; verse 9:13 (KJV) and its parallel in 1Ki 10:14 read:

Now the weight of gold that came to Solomon in one year was six hundred threescore and six talents of gold....
The number is also in the genealogy (Ezr 2:13, see also Neh 7:18):

The children of Adonikam, six hundred sixty and six.

[edit]
666 as a significant number
The simplest interpretation of 666 arises directly out of the text, "it is man's number." Six was considered to be the number of man, of imperfection, or evil. It was probably chosen because 7 was considered to be the number of perfection, of completion (seven days of creation), the number of God. Each digit of 666 falls short of being perfect just as man falls short of God's perfection. Being the number of man it can be taken to be the number of the Antichrist, rather than Satan. The Antichrist is Satan's best counterfeit of the one perfect man, Jesus Christ. Yet the Antichrist falls short in every way.

Alternately, 666 can be seen as representing the trinity of evil, perhaps, Satan, the Antichrist and the false prophet.

[edit]
666 as a name or word
Another interpretation is that 666 is actually some kind of code based on the letters of someone's name or a word. This sparks great public interest since it seems to provide some way to identify the Antichrist. Numerologists like to devise clever ways of assigning numbers to letters so that the letters of a name will add up to this symbolic number. Probably the best-known scheme has A=100, B=101, and so on. With this code, the name "HITLER" adds up to 666. Another commonly cited example is President Ronald Wilson Reagan, where counting the letters of his first, middle, and last name lead to 666. While these ideas are intriguing, they usually require many specific preconditions, like having to start with 100, numbering the surname only, etc. (even though in the former case, you can also number a=1, b=2, and so on and decode his initials 'A' and 'H' as 18, which of course equals 6+6+6.) By adapting the rules however, it is possible to connect most if not all names to the evil number. See also Vicarius Filii Dei. More convincing interpretations invoke more than mathematics to prove their point.

For example, scholars who believe the Book of Revelation refers to historical people and events argue that the number represents the value of Nero or Neron Caesar (נרון קסר, Nrwn Qsr*, pronounced "Neron Qesar") in Hebrew letters, which also have numerical values under the form of numerology called Gematria (note that Hebrew is written from right to left):
r s q n w r n
666 = 200 + 60 + 100 + 50 + 6 + 200 + 50
As noted above, some early texts of the Book of Revelation use 616 instead, which would represent the alternative Hebrew spelling נרו קסר, Nrw Qsr (based on the Latin form "Nero Caesar"):
r s q w r n
616 = 200 + 60 + 100 + 6 + 200 + 50
For the representation of the o vowel by the consonant letter waw, see Mater lectionis.
It should be noted that the Book of Revelations was not written in Hebrew or Latin but in Greek, and virtually any name can be turned into 666 or 616 by first using an "alternative" spelling of that name in one arbitrary language and then translating that word into a second arbitrary language and then using an arbitrary set of numerology rules.
Assuming the original Number of the Beast was 616, and that it represented a person's name, a more likely guess would be "Caligula" Gaius Caesar. "Gaius Caesar" written in Greek in it's Greek form and using Greek numerology rules results in the value 616.:

g a i u s k a i s a r
616 = 3 + 1 + 10 + 70 + 200 + 20 + 1 + 10 + 200 + 1 + 100
According to translator's comments in the New English Translation (NET) Bible[[1]], a few manuscripts read 616, and there are several other numerical variations. Irenaeus' mentions manuscripts having 616 but he rejects the idea that "the number of the Beast" represents a name at all. Irenaeus suggested the number indicates that the beast is the sum of all apostate power, unrighteousness, wickedness, deception, and false prophecy.
The reading 616 is intriguing since the conversion of Nero Caesar's name in Latin by way of Hebrew gematria comes out to 616. But for this very reason it is suspect because such a reading seems motivated by the fact that it conforms more closely the Latin spelling of Nero Caesar.

In Roman numerals 666 represents all the numbers from 1 to 500 in descending order, namely D (500) + C (100) + L (50) + X (10) + V (5) + I (1), or DCLXVI. Robert Graves suggests in his study of pagan symbolism The White Goddess that this is an abbreviation for the Latin sentence Domitianus Caesar Legatos Xti Violenter Interfecit, or "The Emperor Domitian violently killed the envoys of Christ".
Another reading in Roman numerals regards DCLXVI as an anagram of DIC LVX, which is then supposed to be an abbreviation of dicit lux, "the light speaks."

you're a wierd dude..i seriously hope that you did not type all that

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Number_of_the_Beast

Wiki
wiki wiki wiki

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Number_of_the_Beast

i still *heart * the beast

National Geographic lied to me?

Me too... black chicks sometimes have nice cans

http://www.whiteshark.pwp.blueyonder.co ... ni%202.jpg

Tyra Banks is white.