Last year I wrote a couple of blog entries refuting Walid Shoebat’s claim that the word “666″ in the Book of Revelation was actually a misreading of the Arabic phrase “in the name of Allah”, supernaturally revealed to the author who copied the Arabic script as he saw it. Shoebat’s claim was laughable: the word is introduced as a number in the Biblical text; it can be numerologically linked to Nero, which fits the historical context; and the earliest discussion of the text, from Irenaeus in the Second Century, discusses the word as being a number. There is no tradition which sees the word as either Arabic or as some mysterious unknown marking.
Shoebat based his claim on having seen the Codex Vaticanus and the Codex Sinaiticus, and in a presentation to a group of Christian fundamentalists he told them he had seen this:
I discovered that this was apparently meant to represent this rendering:
This has been floating around on the internet for a while, and I was not able to discover where exactly it had come from (one site said “Very Old Text…in glass display at Bob Jones University Library – Greenville, S.C.”, which was less than encouraging). Recently, however, someone sent me a jpeg which confirms that it is from the supplement added to the Codex Vaticanus in sixteenth-century Italy; the Book of Revelation is absent from the surviving ancient codex, so when it reached Italy somebody decided to fill in the missing end. The style of Greek script used would have been unknown to original scribe, and it is completely different from the main body of the codex, which uses “uncial” lettering. A facsimile of the codex printed in 1868 substitutes this section with a typeset version, which at the time was the only one I could see online:
So, does the Codex Sinaiticus offer any better evidence to favour Shoebat’s claim? The digitised text has just been made available on-line, and the answer is, as expected, ”no”. The Codex Sinaiticus actually spells the number out as “six hundred and sixty six”:
In other words, Shoebat’s claim is an epic fail at all levels, and as regards the Codex Sinaiticus he either lied about seeing it or lied about what he saw.
Some other early manuscripts give “666″ as a number rather than as spelt out; the earliest fragment we have, from Oxyrhynchus, uses the “616″ variant of the number:
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The video only compounds the hysterical ignorance and false faith.
Never believe a former terrorist, as he likes to call himself. Just another attention seeker
[...] course, this is yet another farrago of nonsense; as with Walid Shoebat’s crackpot exegesis of the Book of Revelation, this kind of re-interpretation is not warranted by any problem in the [...]
[...] on the rubble of the failed “Soviet Anti-Christ” idea), and his friend Walid Shoebat persuades Christians that the word “666″ in the Book of Revelation is a misreading for “In the Name of [...]
What do you think could the mark of the beast else than badges which people put on their forehead? Hamas is using them Hisbollah is using them they all fight against Israel and according to the bible Jesus will come to defend it , why wouldn´t antichrist with his army using them? This has nothing to do with fiction israel has been attacked several times by his arab neighbours and they would still want to destroy it if they would have the might to do so.
Sinaiticus does spell out the number six-hundred and sixty six.
εξακοϲιαι εξηκοτα εξʼ
Each one of the words: Six Hundred – Sixty – Six
Begins with the characters – lowercase epsilon and lowercase xi
The Epsilon being a Lunate Epsilon in the text – representing the crescent moon
The XI character representing the “Bismillah”
Vaticanus uses the Chi symbol, see Walid Shoebat, representing the Crossed Swords and retains the XI character for “Bismillah”
Further we are exhorted specifically in Acts 19 about the worship of Diana (Artermis – Goddess of crescent moon, characterized riding on a white horse with a bow) in Ephesus in Turkey. We are told that they worship an IMAGE that fell from Heaven!
What is at the Kaaba in Mecca, Arabia? A black stone that fell from the skies!
Regarding Oxyrhynchus
Crossed Swords and Crescent Moon
No mystery there
[...] make our flesh creep with tales of the evils of Islam, and of how the Bible predicts the rise of a Muslim anti-Christ (plus, of course, of how Obama is a secret Muslim). Shoebat’s handler, Keith Davies, [...]
[...] make our flesh creep with tales of the evils of Islam, and of how the Bible predicts the rise of a Muslim anti-Christ (plus, of course, of how Obama is a secret Muslim). Shoebat’s handler, Keith Davies, explains [...]
[...] That he had seen this “Codex Vaticanus and the Codex Sinaiticus”. As one popular Christian blogger pointed out, “ So, does the Codex Sinaiticus offer any better evidence to favour [...]
you got the image from a jpeg a random “friend” sent you? there’s a lot of “could have” and other speculation in this article. Did you review the other evidences that support his claim that the muslim faith is permeated with the same imagery used in the Bible for the coming of the antichrist? You should not dismiss this until you have the whole argument- especially when you are assuming and generating your own sources FOR him. I believe that’s called here-say. This is certainly a persuasive speech rather than an informative one.
Nero had little importance with the intent of the verse- unless you are suggesting that he truly was the antichrist and that now we are living in the thousand years of peace….
Look at the holly land and tell me what you see.. What are the people who are trone out thair homes. Gog magog wil invade the holy land!!! the ashkenazi jews are not decendents of israel!! look it up please!! The ashkenazi jews are decendents of Gog.
[...] (7) The Bible predicts the rise of a Muslim Anti-Christ. [...]