More Words At Play. Merriam-Webster's Words of the Week - Oct. Merriam-Webster's Words of the Week - Nov. Time Traveler. Love words? Need even more definitions? Ask the Editors 'Everyday' vs. What Is 'Semantic Bleaching'? So back to the Bible, where in Chapter 13 of The Book of Revelation, it reads: "Let the one with understanding reckon the meaning of the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man.
His number is As the video explains, the English word "reckon" comes from the Greek word for "calculate" or "solve". Well, given the hatred of the Roman Empire at the time, and particularly its leader, Nero Caesar , who was considered to be especially evil, many historians have been looking for references of this in the Biblical text, which was not written in a vaccuum, and was very much a product of its time.
When you actually look at the original text, you'll see that in this passage, the letters of are actually written in Hebrew, which places a higher significance on numbers meaning words and words meaning numbers than ancient Greek.
The writer was very clearly trying to tell us something. And sure enough, if you translate the Hebrew spelling of , you actually spell out Neron Kesar - the Hebrew spelling of Nero Caesar. Unfortunately some Christians have forgotten the original historical context of the number. This secret-code school of reading Revelation and other biblical prophetic books does get one thing right. The vivid images in the book are symbolic, but symbolic to a particular time and place, not shapeable to whatever someone wants them to mean.
Like any passage of scripture , you first have to look at the original meaning. In the case of Revelation, the book was encouraging an embattled Christian community to remain faithful and be wary of conforming too closely to the ways of the hostile world. The number has never had magical powers, good or bad. This article is also available to read in Spanish.
This article appeared in the October issue of U. Catholic Vol.
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