Forcing God's Hand With Three Sixes
Earlier today, I came across a nice review of Forcing God's Hand: Why Millions Pray for a Quick Rapture -- and Destruction of Planet Earth, by Grace Halsell. I really appreciated that this review mentioned that "within classical Christian thought, dispensationalism is a fairly recent phenomenon. Its development can be traced to a nineteenth-century minister of the Church of England, John Darby..." I admit that the fact that otherwise intelligent people are still being duped by the shallow and simple-minded proofs of Biblical prophecy continues to fascinate me. However, what I find even more interesting is that Christian Dispensationalists don't have a problem accepting beliefs and interpretations of the Bible that no Christian for 1,900 years ever adhered to, including their early Church Fathers, great sages and renowned theologians. They never seem to address the issue that if all of these Christians for so many centuries were wrong, what does this imply about Christianity and, more importantly, what does this say about God? Ignorance is bliss, as they say. Unfortunately, we have Muslims who—in the name of (allegedly) following the Qur'an and Sunnah—adhere to beliefs that no qualified Sunni scholar for the past 1,425 years ever adhered to...
And while we're on the subject of Biblical prophecy, the Islamic-Awareness.org website posted an article several weeks ago on the New Testament Papyrus P115. What's interesting about this papyrus, which is one of the strongest witnesses to the Book of Revelation, is that it gives the "number of the Beast" as 616 instead of 666. The article mentions that, "Scholars now believe that it is related to ancient Greek ideas about numerology. The letters of a name were ascribed numerical value and added up to give a number; in the case of 666, it is the name of Emperor Nero that adds up to that number. Historians believe that Nero's persecution of Christians in Rome made him a bête noire among the early Christians...But what about the number 616 for the Beast? Working on the principles of numerology, scholars work out 616 indicates the Emperor Caligula, Nero's predecessor. Caligula had had a statue of himself erected in the Temple, the Holiest of the Holies, in Jerusalem which had greatly offended Jews. If the alleged author of Revelation was indeed 'John' and a Jew from Palestine, he would have known this...It should be added that even the number 665 had been ascribed to the Beast in the Book of Revelation. Also, the significance of the number 616 was known to Irenaeus in the second century."
Just in case there any simpletons out there who try to side-step this scholarly difficulty by seeking refuge in simple dogma (i.e. "The Bible says 666 so I believe 666!"), below I've included links to some books and articles that give some history and information on the text of the New Testament. Unfortunately, most Christians are unaware of the fact that the New Testament is an eclectic text that to this very day is being updated by scholars based on the witness of manuscript evidence. However, many Christians, instead of addressing the facts, simply label scholars who actually look at the evidence as "liberals". For example, many modern Bibles omit the story of the woman caught in adultery (i.e. John 7:53-8:11) because it's simply not found in any of the earliest manuscripts of the New Testament (i.e. none before at least 600 AD). Myself and many others are still waiting for a logical and well argued explanation by those who adhere to the dogma of Biblical inerrancy as to why later manuscripts should be believed over older (thus seemingly more authentic) ones. Here are some articles and books that I recommend to those who wants to educate themselves about this important topic:
ARTICLES:
• Criteria Used In Choosing Among Conflicting Readings In New Testament Witnesses, by M.S.M. Saifullah
• Critical Text Of The New Testament: Methodology & Implications, by M.S.M. Saifullah
• Textual Reliability Of The New Testament, by M.S.M. Saifullah and Abdurrahman R. Squires
• On The Textual Sources Of The New International Version (NIV) Bible, by M.S.M. Saifullah and Usman Sheikh
BOOKS:
• The Canon of the New Testament: Its Origin, Development, and Significance, by Bruce M. Metzger
• The Text of the New Testament: Its Transmission, Corruption, and Restoration, by Bruce M. Metzger
• The Text of the New Testament an Introduction to the Critical Editions and to the Theory and Practice of Modern Textual Criticism, by Kurt Aland and Barbara Aland
• The Orthodox Corruption of Scripture: The Effect of Early Christological Controversies on the Text of the New Testament, by Bart D. Ehrman
Enjoy...
Labels: Biblical Studies, Comparative Religion, Theology - Christian
posted by @ 1:06 PM
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As-Salaamu 'alaikum,
A Baptist (who I thought was well-read) once told me that the number 6 represented a man in the numerology of the time, so that the 666 means 6,6,6, as in "a man, a man, a man", not as in "six hundred and sixty-six". He told me this when I mentioned various attempts to make people's names add up to 666. (They did not even have zero at that time.)
wa 'alaykum as-salam wa rahmatullah,
I find it interesting that in regards to Revelation 13:18, Strong's Concordance (a very reputable Christian source) says, "...six hundred and sixty six, the meaning of which is the basis of much vain speculation". Unfortunately for the Baptist that you mentioned, not only does this confirm that the original Greek is "six hundred and sixty six" and not "six, six, six", but it condemns "vain conjecture" much like the Qur'an. Not only did they not have the zero back then, but they wrote the numbers out in longhand in lieu of using numerals. None of this is meant to imply that all scripture (real or alleged) must always be clear and unambiguous, since even the Qur'an has its share of ambiguous verses—and it states this clearly. However, the error of Dispensationalist Christians (amongst others) is basing some of the pillars of their faith on these ambiguous verses. As Qur'an 3:7 says, "...those in whose hearts is a disease follow the part thereof that is ambiguous, seeking discord, and searching for its hidden meanings, but no one knows its hidden meanings except God".
Asalam-u-aleikum,
Interesting stuff!
Is it true that a Christian missionary popularized the notion of 6666 verses in the Quran? I've heard many Muslims say that there are 6666 verses.
Wa 'alaykumu as-salam,
I doubt that this claim originated with Christian missionaries. Personally, I've never heard one of them mention this (not that this proves that they haven't), but I have heard it from a few times from Muslims.
Although no respectable count of how many ayat there is in the Qur'an that I've seen says 6666, it seems that some Muslims think this number sounds like a mystical or magical number, thus they use it as a proof that the Qur'an is of Divine origin.
Needless to say, this is very misguided since the number 6666--which is just one digit off of being the "mark of the Devil" in the minds of some Christians--might cause some people to think that the Qur'an is an evil book, in the end 666 and 6666 are not the same number. It's quite possible that some of these misguided Muslim apologists aren't even aware of the significant of the number 666 amongst some Protestant Christian sects, thus it might just be a naive mistake. End the end, however, based on what I've seen, Muslims are more to blame in regards to claiming that there are 6666 verses in the Qur'an...Allahu 'alim.
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