Edward L. Pothier (July
1991). Against the Numerical Representation 666.
Perhaps the most famous (or infamous) number in the entire Bible is the strange
number six hundred sixty-six, the number of one of the beasts in the thirteenth
chapter of the Book of Revelation. From motion pictures and novels, many people,
even without any real biblical knowledge, are aware that it is a number associated
with evil and danger. Isolated down to the single verse of interest the translated
Biblical text in question is: "This calls for wisdom: let anyone with understanding
calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a person. Its number is six
hundred sixty-six" (Rev 13:18, NRSV).
The purpose of this study is not to add to the enormous literature about the
apocalyptic images and this number. Entire books have been written on this
subject [1]. Rather this study will concentrate only on the
representation of the
number six hundred sixty-six, arguing that to represent it as 666 (triple six) is an
error. Such a representation can mislead modern readers towards false
interpretations. It is a severely anachronistic representation. However, a large
number of modern English translations of the Bible do use this numerical
representation, using numerals rather than words. A non-exhaustive list of those
translations which use numbers includes: the New International Version (NIV), the
Jerusalem Bible (JB), the New Jerusalem Bible (NJB), the Good News Bible (GNB),
the New King James Version (NKJV) and the Living Bible Paraphrased (LBP).
In the Revised New Testament of the New American Bible the text writes the words
out for the number, however the "official" footnote finishes: "It has also
been
observed that '6' represents imperfection, falling short of the perfect number '7', and
is represented here in a triple or superlative form." Nearly every commentary,
whether scholarly or popular or even sensationalist, in at least part of its
explanation of the number, draws attention to some sort of "triple six"
symbolism
similar to that expressed in the revised New American Bible footnote quoted
above.
Writing the number all in OUR numeric symbols, 666, can only increase this
dubious tendency. Despite our immediate, almost instinctive, ability to see six
hundred sixty-six represented as 666, this is a fairly recent phenomenon. The
original readers (or more likely hearers[2]) of the Book
of Revelation (probably
written late in the first century AD in the Koine or common Greek of the time)
would not have seen or heard as specific a repetition of the number 6 as we do in
our 666.
To understand why the number six hundred sixty-six should not be written as 666
requires a study both of our modern representation of numbers and of the
representation in the Greek of the first century AD. While John the writer of
Revelation may have been intending to hide the identity of the "beast" from
those outside, "those with understanding", even in the first century, should
have
been able to calculate (decode) the number and not have to await a much later
numerical representation.
II. Our Modern Decimal Place-Value Numbers
To represent numbers we use a decimal (base-10), place-value system. Using just
the ten Arabic (or more properly Hindu-Arabic or Indian) numerals (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
7, 8, 9, and 0) we can represent an arbitrarily large number. The use of the zero
is especially important in that it enables us (in a decimal system) to need only the
other nine numerals. The same numeral can be used to represent a number of units,
tens, hundreds, thousands, etc. Its position or place in the composite number
determines its actual value.
Because each place in the number represents how many of a "power-of-ten" is
contained in the composite number (including none in some cases), we have a
PLACE-VALUE system. For example, we interpret the number 123 as 1x100 + 2x10
+ 3x1. Similarly, our designated number 666 is 6x100 + 6x10 + 6x1. Without a zero
as a placeholder, however, we would not be able to represent a number like two
hundred nine. But since we do have a zero, two hundred nine can be represented
as 209 = 2x100 + 0x10 + 9x1. This all seems trivial. We learned all this in elementary
school.
However, this relatively modern representation of numbers, like many inventions,
is the endpoint of much evolution and even revolution. At the time of the New
Testament's writing such numbers were far in the future. In the West we received
our numeral system from the Arabs (hence the usual name, Arabic numerals)
through Spain. The Arabs in turn had obtained them from India. The earliest
introduction of these numerals into Spain seems to be at the end of the first
millennium AD, but it was well into the second millennium before they took
control[3]. Until then, i.e. well into the Middle Ages, Roman numerals
were the
standard method until eventually displaced by our current decimal,
place-value
system.[4]
III. Greek Alphabetic Numbers at the Time of the New Testament
Since the Book of Revelation, like the other twenty six books of the New
Testament, was written in Koine Greek in the first or early second century AD,
we must study how numbers were represented at that time in Greek.[5] One early
Greek numeral system, known as Attic numerals, started at Athens and used
symbols for the key numbers 1, 5, 10, 50, 100, etc. The individual symbols of each
type were repeated as often as needed (up to four times) to make up a number's
representation. This can be called a REPETITIVE 1-5 system. This system was
similar to the latter (but more familiar to us) system of Roman numerals except
that it was always additive (repetitive) unlike the Roman numeral system which
has also subtractive forms.[6]
Another system also existed (not surprisingly considering the
independence and
non-cooperation of Greek city states). This system, known as the Ionian or
Milesian (from Miletus in Asia Minor)[7], may have
started in the 6th century BC.
The Attic system was fading out of use, disappearing almost entirely in the time
of the Roman Empire. The Milesian alphabetic numeral system was officially
adopted in Athens in the first century BC.[8] By the time
of the New Testament
we need only consider the Greek alphabetic numeral system. Although the Greeks
had ways of representing numbers in the thousands and also those above ten
thousand (myriads), we will only consider how they represented numbers up to
nine hundred ninety nine. These Greeks, like us, used a decimal system but,
unlike us, they did not use a zero number[9]. Thus,
although it was a decimal
system, it was not a place-value system. Therefore more symbols were needed
than just the nine (plus zero) which we use. To represent the numbers up to our
999, they needed 27 different symbols: nine for the units 1, 2, ..., 9; nine for the tens
10, 20, ..., 90; and still another nine for the hundreds 100, 200, ..., 900. For symbols
they used the letters of the Greek alphabet. However, an immediate problem
arose since the Greek alphabet contained only 24 letters. To fill in the missing three,
they used old obsolete letters from previous alphabets and, somewhat confusingly,
these were interspersed with the regular letters. The following table show the
assignments[10].
TABLE OF NUMERICAL VALUES OF GREEK LETTERS
Note the obsolete letters in brackets in the table: digamma for 6, koppa for 90,
and sampi for 900. The koppa and sampi will not affect us further except that the
presence of koppa for 90 pushes letters such as rho, sigma, etc., one position
down. The digamma at 6, however, will be directly relevant for the representation
of six hundred sixty-six. This letter also became known as stigma (note the "t")
because the form of writing it looked like the ligature (writing together) of the two
Greek letters sigma and tau, roughly corresponding to our s and t. [ If not done
carefully, it can even look like just a sigma, which would be an error.] For most of
the rest of this study this obsolete letter pushed into service to represent the
numeral for 6 will be referred to as stigma. Now to represent a number in
alphabetic symbols in the first century AD[11] Greek
writers could just use the
individual symbols concatenated together similarly to how we do it. Because
there was no zero, more possible symbols were needed (the 27 listed above).
However, to represent a number which has a zero in our representation, they
would need less characters.
Our number 123 would be represented the three letter symbols (rho)(kappa)
(gamma). Our number 209 could be represented by only two letters (sigma)(theta)
and 300 by only one letter (tau). To distinguish letters used as numbers from
normal letters a horizontal line was usually written above the letter-numbers or
sometimes just a tick mark[12]. It should be noted that
the order of the letters
needed to represent a number is not important, since this system is not a place-
value system. Most often, however, the highest valued letter would be put first.
Thus to represent our number of interest, six hundred sixty-six, rather than using
three identical characters (666) as we do in our decimal PLACE-VALUE system, a
first century Greek writer (if not spelling out the words just as we also can) would
use three distinct characters (chi)(xi)(stigma)!
IV. Gematria and Isopsephia
At the risk of transgressing the self-imposed restriction of concentrating on how
the number six hundred sixty-six should be/was represented, a mention of
Gematria must be made. Since in the Greek alphabetic numeral system described
above, every letter of the Greek alphabet (and three which were not then even
used as regular letters) also had a numerical value, it would be possible to give
any word, name or phrase a composite numerical value by adding together the
numerical values of the individual letters. And if a thing is possible, it is likely
to be done.
The Jewish rabbis had a similar procedure since the 22 letters of the Hebrew
alphabet were also used to supply the first 22 characters of the 27 needed to
represent numbers up to 999 in their Hebrew system. The twenty second (and last)
letter represented the value 400. The remaining numerical values of 500, 600, 700,
800, and 900 needed either special "final forms" of some letters or simple
additive
representations where 500 would be represented by combining the letters for 400
and 100, etc.[13] The important result was that every
letter of the Hebrew alphabet
had a numerical value and by adding together the numerical values of the
individual letters a composite numerical value of a word was determined.
This procedure is called gematria. In Greek the equivalence of gematria is
sometimes called isopsephia (from the words for "equal" and
"count"[14]) since
one of the uses was to make connections between two words or phrases which
had equal numerical calculations[15]. Although gematria
was often thought to be
primarily a Jewish practice, its use in the Greco-Roman sphere is known[16]
(with
the numbers often given in the Greek alphabetic system described previously). It
is the most likely source for the numerical value of the number of the beast in Rev
13:18. It was known even in the ancient world that, while it is extremely easy to go
from a word, name or phrase to a composite number (one only has to add together
the numerical equivalents of each letter), it is impossible to UNIQUELY reverse
the process. Having a number does not enable one to get back to the word, name
of phrase, unless one has extra information. Like a machine with a ratchet or some
form of animal traps, some procedures only work in one direction. V. Greek NT
Readings of Rev 13:18 Having described above the Greek alphabetic number
system, it is now possible to look at how Rev 13:18 is represented in the Greek
New Testament.
Until the Greek NT was first printed in the early 16th century, each copy of each
book in the NT was written by hand. Variations were introduced, either
accidentally or deliberately. Since we no longer have the absolute original
autograph copies as they came from the hands of the authors, a process of textual
criticism must take place.[17] Textual criticism is both
the art and science of taking
all the evidence as found in all the various existing copies and attempting to
reconstruct, as well as possible, what the original text was.
There are two major modern critical editions of the Greek New Testament which
serve as a DE FACTO "standard text." They are the Nestle-Aland twenty sixth
edition (NA26) and the United Bible Societies Greek New Testament third edition (UBSGNT3)[18]. These are not independent critical editions
since they share
common editors and agree on the text readings included in the text itself. They
differ in punctuation and typographical features as well as in the documentation
of textual variants of different manuscripts. In the "standard" modern critical
edition the verse we are considering is given (using a transliteration scheme
which enables the reproduction of Greek text in Roman letters) as:"ho:de he:
sophia estin. ho echo:n noun pse:phisato: ton arithmon tou the:riou, arithmos gar
anthro:pou estin, kai ho arithmos autou hexakosioi hexe:konta hex." (Rev 13:18,
NA26) In this verse one sees several times the Greek word for number (arithmos)
from which we get our English word arithmetic.
What is most important for our consideration is the last three words which are the
Greek words representing six hundred, sixty, and six. As can be seen from the
transliteration, they all begin with "hex", which is the Greek prefix which
comes
into English in such words as hexagon and hexameter. So when the number words
are written out in the Greek text, i.e. not in just the alphabetic numerical symbols,
a Greek reader sees a identical start to each of the words ("hex"), just as an
English
reader sees a "six" in the English words. In addition to the scholarly
reconstruction
of the "best", i.e. as close to original as possible, text (obviously to some
degree a
matter of opinion based on the evidence and scholarly presuppositions), a critical
edition also shows how the various manuscript readings differ. The NA26 edition
does this through a set of symbols in the text itself (omitted in the above
transliteration) and a compact set of "footnotes" which detail each variant,
listing
the variant readings and telling which manuscripts (using a standard notation for
the names of the manuscripts) contain which reading(s). The variants and the
manuscripts which contain them are listed for the number words at the end of Rev
13:18. A text for the three words exactly matching that of the critical text is
contained in the fifth century manuscript Codex Alexandrinus. A very slight
variant involving only some insignificant grammatical endings is recorded for
some more manuscripts, including the fourth century Codex Sinaiticus. (Another
important fourth century manuscript Vaticanus is now incomplete, missing all
of the Book of Revelation and some other books at the end of the NT). A major
different reading (from the reading of the critical edition text) is recorded for
another fifth century manuscript, Codex Ephraemi Syri Rescriptus, which contains
the number six hundred sixteen instead of six hundred sixty-six. There is also
another single late manuscript which contains a reading of six hundred sixty
five![19] Of particular interest to us are a set of manuscripts which
are recorded
as affirming the reading for the number included in the critical text. These are
the manuscripts which, instead of writing out the words for the number, use the
Greek alphabetic notation, i.e. the three Greek letters (chi)(xi)(stigma). The
manuscripts so listed are P47 (a papyrus manuscript, hence the P in the name,
from the third century, known as Chester Beatty III), a tenth century manuscript
known as 051, and the "Majority-text" symbol (which indicates many late
Byzantine manuscripts). P47 is from the third century and is the oldest manuscript
of the Book of Revelation. It contains parts of chapters 9-17. We will consider its
readings for numbers in Rev 13:18 and neighboring verses in the next section.
Because, as listed above, the majority of the manuscripts (mostly late Byzantine
miniscule manuscripts) include the representation of the number six hundred
sixty-six by the three letters (chi)(xi)(stigma), the text presented in another modern
(but non-standard) edition called not surprisingly THE GREEK NEW
TESTAMENT ACCORDING TO THE MAJORITY TEXT, does so also.[20] Note
that there is a major disagreement in presuppositions about the value of various
manuscripts and manuscript groups between the editors of this edition and those
of the standard editions.[21]
The so-called Textus Receptus which acted as the standard from the 16th
century
(the actual term first being used in the 17th) until well into the 19th century when
modern critical editions started to displace it, was an evolution of early printed
editions of the Greek NT. Its printed text also used the (chi)(xi)(stigma) notation.
The main textual basis of this edition was only a handful of fairly late manuscripts,
a subset of the majority text. VI. Papyrus P47 in Detail on the Numbers of Rev
13:18 As mentioned above, P47 is the oldest extant manuscript which contains part
of the Book of Revelation. However, its method of representing the number six
hundred sixty-six (using Greek alphabetic numerals) is not the one selected by
the "standard" critical text (which spells out the number words).The textual
apparatus of NA26 shows other variations of P47 from the usual text, even in
other places in Rev 13:18.
Although the use of a modern printed critical edition of the Greek New Testament
is within the ability of anyone who can read the Koine Greek, the potential of
looking at actual copies (reproductions) of individual manuscripts is slight. Even
many theological libraries would not have the printed (published) editions which
would contain photographs of the desired manuscript. In this case we are lucky
because Kurt and Barbara Aland in their widely available textbook (pun-intended)
THE TEXT OF THE NEW TESTAMENT (in both the first and second English
editions of 1987 and 1989) include a Plate 23 on page 90 which shows Rev 13:16-
14:4 of P47. (Note that the caption of this plate is incorrect in that it attributes P47
to
the second century whereas in other places in the book they give the usual third
century date). As mentioned in the description of the Greek alphabetic number
system above, the usual way to signal that letters are being used as numerals is by
a horizontal line above the letter-numbers. (A horizontal line can also mean
something else.) On the ninth line down from the top of this fragment (all line counts
will exclude what might be counted as the first line which seems to include only one
character at
the very top of the plate) we can see the first horizontal line overscore. This is
indeed over the three letters (chi) (xi) (stigma) which represents the six hundred
sixty-six of Rev 13:18. Verse 14:1 starts immediately afterward (no gaps or
separations in such manuscripts), a clear reminder that the chapter and verse
divisions which we find so essential in locating and referring texts are late
additions, many centuries after the books of the NT were written. Two lines further
down the overscore is above the letters (rho) (mu) (delta). This is for the alphabetic
numeral representation of the one hundred forty four thousand. In this P47
manuscript, at least, the number (one hundred forty four) is written out in the Greek
alphabetic mode. The word for "thousands" is written following these
"digits".
The same (rho) (mu) (delta) again with overscore also occurs four lines from the
bottom of the fragment picture. As an example that the horizontal line above letters
does not always indicate a Greek alphabetic number representation, note the three
letters (pi)(rho)(sigma) on line 12 that also have the horizontal line above them.
This, however, is not a number. The order is reversed from the usual descending
order (which is still possible) and two of the letters would stand for different
hundreds (100 and 200). This horizontal line above letters serves to signal that this
is a NOMINA SACRA, a form of abbreviation used in some Christian Greek
scriptures for certain COMMON "theological" words[22]. This is the abbreviation
for patros the Greek word for father (in genitive case), as in "the name of his
father"
(Rev 14:1).VII. Translating the Numbers of Rev 13:18 How should one translate the
numerical words at the end of Rev 13:18? If you consider the text to be translated
to be that of the "standard" critical edition's text: "hexakosioi
hexe:konta hex", with
the numbers written out as words, then the English translation should also certainly
have the number words written out such as "six hundred sixty-six." Even the
structure of the repeated Greek "hex" word beginnings goes over nicely into
English "six" word beginnings. There is no justification, in this case, to use
the
numeric representation 666. A question MIGHT be raised if the text which is to be
translated is as in P47 manuscript or in the "Majority Text" or in the Textus
Receptus, i.e. the number represented as the three Greek letters (chi)(xi)(stigma).
Here there might be some justification for using what would be the "English"
equivalent, namely the number 666. This would carry the FORM of the original
text (that the representation was numerical) but it might not carry over the original
MEANING if the extra new symbolism of an identical, repeated, numeral overrode
the meaning of a given numerical quantity.
We would have no way in English (using our decimal place-value numbers) to be
able to indicate that the original Greek numerals used to represent the number were
all different. A translator's footnote would be a possibility, but a footnote is only a
footnote. VIII. Irenaeus' "Against Heresies" and the Sibylline Oracles The two
works
considered in this section are both post-NT and are semi-leftovers, slightly
marginal to the main development of the study. They are included here since one is
an early discussion on the number of the beast and the other is an example of
gematria on Jesus' name. Irenaeus was the bishop of Lyons in the last half of the
second century who wrote an apologetic work entitled AGAINST HERESIES
(Adv. haer) which has survived in a Latin translation, although the original was in
Greek. In several places in the fifth "book" of this work he dealt with the
number of
the beast in (what we call) Rev 13:18, eventually making several elaborate
(unsuccessful) hypotheses for reversing the gematria and getting a name back from
the number six hundred sixty-six.(Adv. haer 5.30.2) [23] In
several passages he
mentions the repeated "sixness" of the number six hundred sixty-six: "that
is, six
times a hundred, six times ten and six units."(Adv. haer 5.28.2). In another passage
he wrote "... according to the Greek mode of calculation by the [value of] the
letters
contained in it, will amount to six hundred and sixty and six; that is, the number of
the tens shall be equal to that of the hundreds and the number of hundreds equal
to the units (for that number which [expresses] the digit six being adhered to
throughout...)" (Adv. haer 5.30.1) The last passage in particular might lead one to
see Irenaeus thinking similarly to the modern representation of 666. However, this
is no more than an artifact of the Greek system being a base-10 system (although
not place-value) and the words for six hundred, sixty, and six all beginning with
"hex" in Greek.
In Adv. haer 5.29.2 Irenaeus shows how (in his scheme of the beast being a
recapitulation of all evil) the number of the beast contains the six hundred from the
age of Noah when the flood started to wipe out the evil at that time (Gen. 7:6). It
contains the sixty from the height of the idolatrous image that the king
Nebuchadnezzar set up (sixty cubits according to Dan 3:1). And the six of the
number is from the six-cubit breadth of the same statue. Thus in this case he is
more interested in a breakdown along the lines of the individual Greek letter
numbers. But overall, Irenaeus, although he admits that many names are capable
of yielding the number, is most interested in making his attempts at decoding the
gematria. Unfortunately, less than a century after the Book of Revelation, he is
unable to be successful.
An example of Greek gematria which is able to be decoded (because enough extra
information is given) is included with the Sibylline Oracles. The Sibylline Oracles
are a complicated anthology, with problems due to different sources and times. In
a Christian interpolation in Book 1, there is a description of a gematria based on the
name of Jesus (in Greek Ie:sous) in the form of a "prophecy" after
the fact:[24]
324 Then indeed the son of the great God will come,
325 incarnate, likened to mortal men on earth,
326 bearing four vowels, and the consonants in him are two.
327 I will state explicitly the entire number for you.
328 For eight units, and equal number of tens in addition to those,
329 and eight hundreds will reveal the name
330 to men who are sated with faithlessness. But you, consider in your heart
331 Christ, the son of the most high, immortal God. (1:324-331) Just using the standard
numerical substitutions for the letters of Jesus' name one gets the result that
Ie:sous --> 10+8+200+70+400+200 = 888 in our decimal system [and could be
represented as (omega)(pi)(eta) in the Greek alphabetic number scheme]. Nothing
more seems to made about the eights. The same type of comments made in much
of this study about the 666 representation follows for this 888.
IX. Summary
This study has attempted to argue against using the anachronistic numerical
representation 666 for the number of the beast in Rev 13:18 because such a
representation could not have been made for many centuries after the Book of
Revelation was written. Any interpretation based on this exact representation
would have to be highly suspect. In Section II (on the newness of our number
system) the facts were just stated and some references given in the Notes in case
more details are desired. Knowing that the current system of representing numbers
is quite late is important to the argument of this study, but the details are not.
Even if the uncertainties were several centuries, no difference in the implications
would result. Section III dealt with how first century Greek writers represented
numbers by letters with an obvious side effect, namely gematria, described in
Section IV. Section V dealt with the Greek NT text readings of Rev 13:18 and
Section VI was a hands-on workout (if the Alands' book was available) with the
P47 manuscript in and around Rev 13:18. Section VII repeated objections to
translating the number in Rev 13:18 as 666, with a possible softening of objection
if the three Greek letter reading is being translated. Section VIII dealt with two
post-NT texts, marginally connected to the main development of this study. The
purpose of this entire study was not just a cantankerous attack on the use of the
numerical 666 representation of the number of the beast. It might partly be that,
but it is also an attempt to remind us interpreters of the Bible that nearly 1900 years
have passed since the last books of the NT were written. Even if we share the
same basic Christian faith as the original writers and readers/hearers, we live in a
vastly different cultural and intellectual situation. A tendency to read the texts
through our modern eyes makes us susceptible to modern prejudices and
anachronisms, even in something as simple as how a number is represented. --
NOTES --
[1]. There is a more than 300 page book: David Brady,
THE CONTRIBUTION OF
BRITISH WRITERS BETWEEN 1560 AND 1830 TO THE INTERPRETATION OF
REVELATION 13.16-18 (Tubingen: J. C. B. Mohr, 1983) RETURN
[2]. Probably all of the New Testament books were
originally read aloud. This may
especially be true of the Book of Revelation with its repetitive cycles and heavenly
choruses Also see Rev 1:3, 22:18. RETURN
[3]. For a detailed description of the evolution of
our current number system and
how it gradually made its way to the West see such works as: Graham Flegg (ed),
NUMBERS THROUGH THE AGES (London: Macmillian Education, 1989) 88-130.
Georges Ifrah, FROM ONE TO ZERO: A UNIVERSAL HISTORY OFNUMBERS
(New York: Viking, 1985) 428-497.Karl Menninger, NUMBER WORDS AND
NUMBER SYMBOLS: A CULTURAL HISTORY OF NUMBERS (Cambridge: MIT
Press, 1969) 389-445. RETURN
[4]. Incidently, some modern apocalyptic fanatics (or
"prophecy" students) who are
most alarmed at the number 666 and worry about large computer-based control
systems that the Beast will use should perhaps worry about a hexadecimal based
system (base 16) rather than the decimal based 666 number. In the modern
computer hexadecimal number system a number is represented using 16 possible
"numeral" symbols: our usual 0-9, then 6 additional "numerals": A=10,
B=11,
C=12, D=13, E=14, F=15. In hexadecimal notation instead of having units, tens,
hundreds places one has units, sixteens, two hundred fifty-sixs places. Thus six
hundred sixty-six is represented as 29A (hexadecimal) since decimally 666=
2x256 + 9x16 + 10x1. RETURN
[5]. The relevant sections in the works in [3] are:
Flegg, NUMBERS THROUGH
THE AGES, 88-101.Ifrah, FROM ONE TO ZERO, 261-274.Menninger, NUMBER
WORDS AND NUMBER SYMBOLS, 268-274.Also see O.A.W. Dilke,
MATHEMATICS AND MEASUREMENT (London: British Museum Publications,
1987) 13-16. RETURN
[6]. A subtractive form means that sometimes a number
such as 9 is represented as
IX, with the smaller unit (I) preceding the larger (X) meaning one less than 10,
rather than additively as VIIII meaning four more than five. Interestingly, the
Roman numeral system, which uses the symbols I, V, X, etc., for 1, 5, 10, etc., gives
a peculiar representation for our number of interest: six hundred sixty six. Since
666 = 500+100+50+10+5+1, in Roman numerals it is represented as DCLXVI, using
every symbol through D (=500) once and only once. RETURN
[7]. Miletus is mentioned in the NT (but with no
numerical connection) in Acts
20:15,17 and 2 Tim 4:20. RETURN
[8]. Menninger, NUMBER WORDS AND NUMBER SYMBOLS,
268.Dilke,
MATHEMATICS AND MEASUREMENT, 14. RETURN
[9]. Later, the Alexandrian Greek astronomer Ptolemy
(2nd century AD) used a
symbol similar to zero in some astronomical tables, but it never seemed to be
developed by the Greeks. RETURN
[10]. Bruce M. Metzger, MANUSCRIPTS OF THE GREEK
BIBLE: AN
INTRODUCTION TO GREEK PALAEOGRAPHY (New York: Oxford University
Press, 1981) 7-9. RETURN
[11]. These alphabetic numerals have mainly fallen
out of modern Greek which
uses the regular decimal Arabic place-value numbers. They are still used, perhaps
similarly to how we use Roman numerals, to annotate items in a list. An example
of useful non-library research was the discovery on the wall of a local Greek
pizza/submarine sandwich shop of a 1987 map of Greece. Around the edge was a
table of the land areas of various political regions of Greece. Although the
numbers for the areas were written in Arabic numerals, the labels beside the names
of the regions used Greek letters: alpha, beta, etc. Interestingly, at the sixth location
the two Greek letters (sigma) and (tau) were used, obviously from the old stigma.
The list then continued with single letters up through the tenth entry (iota), then
double letters up to the fourteenth and last element, represented by (iota)(delta).
RETURN
[12]. Metzger, MANUSCRIPTS OF THE GREEK BIBLE, 9. RETURN
[13]. Ifrah, FROM ONE TO ZERO, 252-259. RETURN
[14]. The Greek verb pse:phizo:, often translated
"calculate" or "count", comes from
the noun pse:phos (pebble), since pebbles were often used for counting and
calculating. The verb is used in Rev 13:18. RETURN
[15]. Ifrah, FROM ONE TO ZERO, 291-310. RETURN
[16]. Adolf Deissmann, LIGHT FROM THE ANCIENT EAST
(Grand Rapids: Baker
Book House, 1978 [reprint of 1927 English edition]), 276-278. RETURN
[17]. Two of the standard introductions to the
textual criticism of the Greek New
Testament written by editors of the main critical editions of the NT are: Bruce M.
Metzger, THE TEXT OF THE NEW TESTAMENT: ITS TRANSMISSION,
CORRUPTION AND RESTORATION 2nd ed. (New York: Oxford University Press,
1968). Kurt Aland and Barbara Aland, THE TEXT OF THE NEW TESTAMENT
(Grand Rapids: William D. Eerdmans, 1987 based on German edition of 1982).
RETURN
[18]. Standard modern critical editions: NA26: Kurt
Aland, Matthew Black, Carlo
M. Martini, Bruce M. Metzger, and Allen Wikgren (eds), NOVUM
TESTAMENTUM GRAECE 26th edition (Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft,
1979). UBSGNT3: Kurt Aland, Matthew Black, Carlo M. Martini, Bruce M. Metzger,
and Allen Wikgren (eds), THE GREEK NEW TESTAMENT 3rd edition (New York:
United Bible Societies, 1979). RETURN
[19]. All descriptions and dates of manuscripts in
this summary are from tables in
NA26 or in Aland and Aland, THE TEXT OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. RETURN
[20]. Zane Hodges and Arthur L. Farstad (eds), THE
GREEK NEW TESTAMENT
ACCORDING TO THE MAJORITY Text 2nd ed (Nashville: Thomas Nelson
Publishers, 1985). RETURN
[21]. D.A. Carson, THE KING JAMES VERSION DEBATE: A
PLEA FOR REALISM
(Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1979) contains a sane discussion on the subject.
The title indicates that the topic of the book is broader than just the majority texts.
other critical editions. The King James Version was translated from a Textus
Receptus type text which has similarities to, but is not identical to, the Majority
text as compiled today. RETURN
[22]. Metzger, MANUSCRIPTS OF THE GREEK BIBLE, 36-37.
RETURN
[23]. The quotations for ADV.HAER will be taken from
the translation of Irenaeus'
"Against Heresies" in the ANF series Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson
(eds), THE ANTE-NICENE FATHERS (ANF) (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans,
1979 reprint of 1885 ed). RETURN
[24]. J.J. Collins translation of "Sibylline
Oracles" in James H. Charlesworth (ed),
OLD TESTAMENT PSEUDEPIGRAPHA vol. 1 (New York: Doubleday, 1983) 342.
RETURN
====================================================================== Edward L. Pothier Physics
Department / Northeastern University /
Boston, MA 02115 ===============================================================
