Blog to discuss the book "The Apocalypse - Letter by Letter: A Literary Analysis of the Book of Revelation" and current events that point to the events described therein.
From Chapter 19 of Apocalypse - Letter by Letter:One of the customs of ancient Greece, in the days of Simonides, Sophocles, Socrates, Democritus, Aristophanes, Aristotle, and Alexander, was to be generally known by ONE NAME. Hence, the available evidence favors the suspicion that the Beast will use only one name. The use of the number 666, instead of the Beast's name, implies something yet more appalling: either the general Christian population, especially, Europe, shall have become ignorant of the number's significance or, if not ignorant, completely complicitous with the Beast and False Prophet, out of cowardice or malice. John's words probably impute both motives,
"And it [the Beast from the Earth] makes all...so that they give [to] themselves a mark..." [Apoc. 13:16]
No, I have not erred in translation, As for the mark of the number, there are two possibilities: either it will be the Arabic numerals "666", or the Greek letters for numbers, "XES
" [majuscules], but, most likely, "xes" [miniscules]. To keep aesthetical consistency, the anti-Christians will most likely choose the latter in miniscules.[Editorial note: In the book, a Greek font is used. Blogger does not have this font so I used S when the actual letter is not an S. If you get the book, you will see the actual letter. Also, XES is only an example and is not to be taken as a statement of the actual name of the beast.]
