Beast's real mark devalued to '616'
 

I thought I would search google for my team number and see what kind of stuff came up - Boy was I in for a surprise. These have just been posted since the beginning of May.

http://www.religionnewsblog.com/11134
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/thi...p?story=634679
Has anyone else heard about this?

Re: Beast's real mark devalued to '616'
 

Your flaming 616 logo seems to be all too appropriate. ;) :ahh:

Re: Beast's real mark devalued to '616'
 

I heard about this a week ago on National Public Radio's "Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me" gig. After hearing about it, I immediately grabbed a calculator to see if 616 could be divided, multiplied, rooted, or squared into something interesting. The only math that was really odd was that 616/8 = 77. 7 is thought to be a 'lucky' number, and thus it seemed odd to me that the new beast number could have such a relation.

Oh yeah, another oddball fact: 616 is the area code to Grand Rapids, Michigan according to that same NPR show.(no offense to anyone who lives there.)

-Joe

Re: Beast's real mark devalued to '616'
 

So does this mean that it'll no longer be weird to call FIRST, whose local numbers start with 666?

(Seriously, they do.)

Re: Beast's real mark devalued to '616'
 

The 'fragments' that are attributed to being the oldest sometimes are not

and the new testiment was written in greek

BTW, if you take the ascii code for these letters, with proper upper and lower case:

TheUnitedNations

and ask a computer for a checksum (the sum of the numbers in hex), well Ill give you one guess!

and strangely, I guess we are given a choice in life, because the ascii codes for following letters add up to 666 in base 10:

HOLYBIBLE

go figure?!

Re: Beast's real mark devalued to '616'
 

This article describes the fragment as being from a pile of "previously illegible manuscripts" pulled out of a garbage dump. Think about this--why was it in the dump? Suppose you copied an important document incorrectly, then threw it away. Would people digging in your trash 2,000 years later be getting the right information from your copy??

The Bible is arguably the most controversial book on earth, and people love to come up with new twists on it. Moreover, the book of Revelation is probably No. 1 on the list of books people love to interpret according to their own whims. (If you've never read it, it's a lot of fun--and I guarantee you won't be able to figure it out.) The article describes the book of Revelation as a "political tract." This is an idea which I find strange. It does not square with my own readings of the book, or with the usual Christian interpretations of it.

Be suspicious any time you hear of scholars coming up with a "new" Biblical interpretation that is held by "the majority" of scholars, or that claims to solve a long-standing debate. Watch out for lines such as, "Dr. Aitken said, however, that scholars now believe..." Only two scholars are quoted in the article, and I am sure that there are thousands of Bible scholars who do NOT think that Revelation is essentially political, or that this fragment is important enough to warrant changing the standard biblical texts. Remember, there are no universally recognized certifications for being a "Bible scholar"--and that's a good thing!

So, I wouldn't go worrying about your beloved team number just yet! And, Billfred, I wouldn't worry about FIRST's local phone numbers either, because they all have 7 digits. ;)