Revelation 13:16-18
16 And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads:
17 And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.
18 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 threescore and six.
In the book Book of Revelation Chapter 13:16–18, the Textus Receptus manuscripts of the New Testament, cryptically asserts 666 to be 'the number of a man' associated with the Beast of revelation.. Some manuscripts of the original Koine Greek use the symbols χξϛ chi xi stigma (or χξϝ with a digamma), while other manuscripts spell out the number in words. But there are a few that try to misdirect or say it is another number or put in the margin that some 'authorities' that 'read Six hundred and sixteen.' or 'one early ms has the letters for 616'
But it is clear that it is 666 and today this has become one of the most widely recognized symbols for the Antichrist. Now the number 666 in and of itself doesn’t mean anything bad. Sometimes something might cost 666 dollars, or someone’s address or phone number might contain the numbers '666' and many other examples. But in the Bible this number does have significance, in the final verse of Revelation 13 we find an identifying clue for the Beast: 'Here is wisdom. Let him that has understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred sixty and six.'
So the Bible tells us that this number '666', is the number of a man, symbolized by the first beast of Revelation 13. Notice that “666” is not the “mark of the beast,” but is an identifier, something that helps us to identify who or what that beast is. This Beast is identified elsewhere as Babylon, which brought false worship and confused the people with it. You have to understand that false worship had spread from that to the true God, to the created objects such as the Sun, Moon and Stars. The ancient Babylonian false worship was basically development of star worship of what were created objects they saw. The heavenly bodies were seen as gods and worshipped as a supernatural beings. We find the sun, moon were identified with Shamash, Sin, and the planet Venus with Ishtar, Jupiter was Marduk, Saturn was the war god, Mercury was Nebo, Mars was Nergal, god of the dead as we find in history.
This system of identification was taken over and modified by the Greeks and Romans, using the names of their own deities. But when the Greek sailors and soldiers went to the temples they had to know or identify the "gods" or religious system they were worshiping, so the use of numbers/letter symbols of which "god" the temple was dedicated to or worshipped. We see the same system of identity in use today with the use of symbols on monstrance icons or on books, altars, baptismal fonts, communion hosts, letters which also have numeric meaning.
The use of "IHS" is translated some claim as a symbol for the name of Christ. As Greek has its own alphabet and in it “Jesus” is spelled “ιησυς” and when capitalized it becomes “ΙΗΣΟΥΣ”. The claim is that if you take just the first three letters of this word or “ΙΗΣ” which are the Greek letters “iota”, “eta” and “sigma”. When these letters are converted into modern alphabet it becomes “IHS”. However, no one can explain how these letters came about and their meaning with any certainty or real evidence which "god" they may represent.
The Roman Catholic priests hold up a monstrance during their high mass, and the form of a monstrance is that of a circular window which contain a host, which symbolizes the sun. It is surrounded by a golden rays of the sun emitting all around that circular window which contain "IHS" in the form of a host. This sunburst monstrance with the round host that symbolize the sun encased for the people to adore and venerate and so anytime this pagan sun symbol is viewed by the congregation, they kneel in submission. If you look you find that "IHS" is also the mystery name that the Roman Catholic churches have on their altar, on their vestments, when they say mass. You find this in the definition of "monstrance"...
mon·strance /ˈmänztr(ə)ns/
noun (in the Roman Catholic Church) an open or transparent receptacle in which the consecrated Host is exposed for veneration.
Now only is the symbol also on their host but they claim it becomes or transformed into the actual body of Christ, but we will leave that for another discussion. So letters in Greek had numeric meaning and these letters were used to identify what system of worship or "gods" the temples were dedicated to or followed.
We see in Revelation 13:18: “18 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 threescore and six." The thing that throws most people off is when they look just at the "number of the man" 'anthrōpou' or 'of a human being' and then we are given the number which is 666. The number can represent the system of worship and at the same time show it is led by a "human being" not God, so we see how the number can be used to identify this antichrist entity, which at the same time is represented by a man.
Now as many will argue many other names, such as Nero, or Mohammed, or a king of Israel, none of these can be it as they do not fit the things it does or the length of its power, especially when it comes to the timeline which stretches to the end times. But we have to understand what prophecy in Revelation tells us and it gives us clues to follow of this system of worship which is led by a man..
16 And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads:
17 And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.
18 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 threescore and six.
In the book Book of Revelation Chapter 13:16–18, the Textus Receptus manuscripts of the New Testament, cryptically asserts 666 to be 'the number of a man' associated with the Beast of revelation.. Some manuscripts of the original Koine Greek use the symbols χξϛ chi xi stigma (or χξϝ with a digamma), while other manuscripts spell out the number in words. But there are a few that try to misdirect or say it is another number or put in the margin that some 'authorities' that 'read Six hundred and sixteen.' or 'one early ms has the letters for 616'
But it is clear that it is 666 and today this has become one of the most widely recognized symbols for the Antichrist. Now the number 666 in and of itself doesn’t mean anything bad. Sometimes something might cost 666 dollars, or someone’s address or phone number might contain the numbers '666' and many other examples. But in the Bible this number does have significance, in the final verse of Revelation 13 we find an identifying clue for the Beast: 'Here is wisdom. Let him that has understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred sixty and six.'
So the Bible tells us that this number '666', is the number of a man, symbolized by the first beast of Revelation 13. Notice that “666” is not the “mark of the beast,” but is an identifier, something that helps us to identify who or what that beast is. This Beast is identified elsewhere as Babylon, which brought false worship and confused the people with it. You have to understand that false worship had spread from that to the true God, to the created objects such as the Sun, Moon and Stars. The ancient Babylonian false worship was basically development of star worship of what were created objects they saw. The heavenly bodies were seen as gods and worshipped as a supernatural beings. We find the sun, moon were identified with Shamash, Sin, and the planet Venus with Ishtar, Jupiter was Marduk, Saturn was the war god, Mercury was Nebo, Mars was Nergal, god of the dead as we find in history.
This system of identification was taken over and modified by the Greeks and Romans, using the names of their own deities. But when the Greek sailors and soldiers went to the temples they had to know or identify the "gods" or religious system they were worshiping, so the use of numbers/letter symbols of which "god" the temple was dedicated to or worshipped. We see the same system of identity in use today with the use of symbols on monstrance icons or on books, altars, baptismal fonts, communion hosts, letters which also have numeric meaning.
The use of "IHS" is translated some claim as a symbol for the name of Christ. As Greek has its own alphabet and in it “Jesus” is spelled “ιησυς” and when capitalized it becomes “ΙΗΣΟΥΣ”. The claim is that if you take just the first three letters of this word or “ΙΗΣ” which are the Greek letters “iota”, “eta” and “sigma”. When these letters are converted into modern alphabet it becomes “IHS”. However, no one can explain how these letters came about and their meaning with any certainty or real evidence which "god" they may represent.
The Roman Catholic priests hold up a monstrance during their high mass, and the form of a monstrance is that of a circular window which contain a host, which symbolizes the sun. It is surrounded by a golden rays of the sun emitting all around that circular window which contain "IHS" in the form of a host. This sunburst monstrance with the round host that symbolize the sun encased for the people to adore and venerate and so anytime this pagan sun symbol is viewed by the congregation, they kneel in submission. If you look you find that "IHS" is also the mystery name that the Roman Catholic churches have on their altar, on their vestments, when they say mass. You find this in the definition of "monstrance"...
mon·strance /ˈmänztr(ə)ns/
noun (in the Roman Catholic Church) an open or transparent receptacle in which the consecrated Host is exposed for veneration.
Now only is the symbol also on their host but they claim it becomes or transformed into the actual body of Christ, but we will leave that for another discussion. So letters in Greek had numeric meaning and these letters were used to identify what system of worship or "gods" the temples were dedicated to or followed.
We see in Revelation 13:18: “18 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 threescore and six." The thing that throws most people off is when they look just at the "number of the man" 'anthrōpou' or 'of a human being' and then we are given the number which is 666. The number can represent the system of worship and at the same time show it is led by a "human being" not God, so we see how the number can be used to identify this antichrist entity, which at the same time is represented by a man.
Now as many will argue many other names, such as Nero, or Mohammed, or a king of Israel, none of these can be it as they do not fit the things it does or the length of its power, especially when it comes to the timeline which stretches to the end times. But we have to understand what prophecy in Revelation tells us and it gives us clues to follow of this system of worship which is led by a man..
