BEASTLY NUMBERS
GRANT
Graeco-Roman Antiquities & the New Testament
There are things you can tell about an entire ocean even if you have only one cup of water from it. Naturally a scientist would like to have as many cups and as broad a sampling as possible, but even a single cup is of some help. The same is true when investigating the world of the New Testament. You can learn something even from one ancient document, though the explorer of the ancient world would like to have as many documents as possible.
I hope once a week to present a small sample of information that mirrors some aspect of the ancient world surrounding nascent Christianity.
BEASTLY NUMBERS
The book of Revelation is awash with numbers, both small numbers (1) and large numbers (200,000,000), but the number given in Rev. 13:18 is one of the most controversial numbers in the book. Although we conservative believers profess a loyalty to the fruits of Bible archaeology, the ambiguity caused by archaeology concerning the beastly number in Rev. 13:18 could be an unwelcome discovery because of the millenarianism of so many fundamentalist and conservative believers. I refer of course to the fascination with and exploitation of the number 666 in Rev. 13:18. For a long time this number has possessed occult powers among superstitious Christians, since they punctiliously desire to avoid its presence in their addresses, automobile tags, room numbers, and social security numbers [if one reads FAQs on www.socialsecurity.gov it is clear that the US government refuses to assign a SS# that begins with 666].
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| Portion of P115 from the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford University. Used here for educational purposes. |
As the last millennium was drawing to a close an important papyrus kept in the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford was finally published, generations after it had been discovered. Although fragmentary, this papyrus from Oxyrhynchus, Egypt (P. Oxy., vol. 66, no. 4499) is a rich find for the study of the Greek text of the book of Revelation. It contains sections of chapters 2; 3; 5; 6; 8; 9; 10; 11; 12; 13; 14; and 15. For those familiar with textual criticism of the New Testament, this late 3rd century papyrus is numbered P115 by the Institute for New Testament Textual Research in Münster, Germany. The importance of this archaeological discovery is that it confirms the early existence of the number “616” in an actual Greek copy of the book of Revelation as an alternate reading of the number 666. The Church Father Irenaeus mentions the existence of the number 616 in some manuscripts (Against Heresies, Book 5.30.1-3) of his day (AD 180), but rejects those manuscripts because of his preference for 666 based upon his personal numerological beliefs. Those believers who accept 616 out of ignorance will be forgiven, Irenaeus states, but those who prefer 616 in order to help them identify the “Antichrist” will come under the curse of Rev. 22:19 as false prophets and for “taking away” from Scripture. This testimony of Irenaeus ironically supports the case for the antiquity of this reading of 616 since he knows of its existence approximately one century earlier than the evidence provided by P115 itself.
Turning to this newly published resource for the study of Revelation, this papyrological evidence certainly pre-dates many of the manuscripts that are the basis for the reading “666” in Rev. 13:18. Based upon the general character of P115, one needs to consider the possibility that P115 represents the reading closest to the original text in Rev. 13:18. This means that John would have written, “Let the one who has understanding do the math on the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man. And his number is six hundred and sixteen.”
GEOPOLITICAL JESUS
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| Emperor Hadrian |
Forget what you learned in elementary school, what Hollywood has depicted, and perhaps what your Bible Professor might have implied about “flat earth” theories in antiquity. Folks living at the time of the New Testament did not believe the world was flat and had four corners. The prophet John and his contemporaries knew the world was a sphere. In fact, though they may not have known the name of the Greek mathematician Eratosthenes who correctly calculated the circumference of the earth, the people of John’s era lived in a world with projected lines of latitude and longitude.
The repeated depictions of the globe became a natural part of the visual propaganda of Roman imperialism. This globe icon suggested world domination and was disseminated by means of the artwork on coins, jewelry, sculpture, and architecture. This symbol was exploited for the sole purpose of making visible the reality of the Roman doctrine of manifest destiny. The marketing department of the Roman Empire was putting into icons its confidence in the divine blessings of the god Jupiter who had promised “I have given to Rome rule without limit.”
John’s Christology was intentionally crafted to create an alternate perspective of reality, one contrary to the geopolitical orthodoxy of Roman manifest destiny. John’s audacious pronouncement that Jesus is the “ruler of the kings of the earth” (Rev. 1:5) is intended to help overthrow and eradicate Rome’s idolatry of geopolitical dominion. There was often intrigue and hostilities among Roman rulers, the Roman Senate, the Roman military, and the Roman people about who would become the next “ruler of the world,” but not a one of them imagined that Jesus was a candidate for that position. Certainly the doctrine of Roman hegemony would not have allowed there to be a “ruler” over the Roman Emperor.
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| There was originally a statue of the Emperor Trajan with this globe at his feet. |
Those of us witnessing the so-called “Arab Spring” starting in December 2010 have seen ruler after ruler begin with a dismissive attitude toward his opponents, followed by defiance, then increased repression, but in the end retreating. Rome’s domination of great geographical distance, stretching basically from the Thames to the Tigris, had met more than its match in the early Christian mission. Roman culture was dismissive and then repressive toward Christianity, but in the end it would retreat from a World Ruler who truly holds the planet in his hand. And to make matters worse, this King of kings proclaimed by the subversive prophet John does not even have a Latin name–a reality that John’s opponents could never have imagined.
LEARNING TO CURSE FROM MOSES
GRANT
Graeco-Roman Antiquity & the New Testament
Graeco-Roman Antiquity & the New Testament
There are things you can tell about an entire ocean even if you have only one cup of water from it. Naturally a scientist would like to have as many cups and as broad a sampling as possible, but even a single cup is of some help. The same is true when investigating the world of the New Testament. You can learn something even from one ancient document, though the explorer of the ancient world would like to have as many documents as possible.
I hope once a week to present a small sample of information that mirrors some aspect of the ancient world surrounding nascent Christianity.
LEARNING TO CURSE FROM MOSES
Sometimes ancient documents contain curses against one’s enemies. In one such pagan inscription the author of the inscription calls down a curse upon an enemy using the language of Moses. Much like the magical Greek papyri that employ Mosaic materials in its magic and exorcisms, this Greek inscription relies upon a direct curse from Moses for its own wording. It reads in part, “May God strike this one with difficulty and fever and cold and irritation and blight . . . ,” wording that is identical to the wording of the Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures (LXX) in Deuteronomy 28:22, 28.
Repentance
Repentance is a central aspect of the faith and life of those who follow the Lamb of God wherever he leads. I recently heard a Christian speaker leave the impression that repentance was an experience basically designed for the non-Christian or the very marginal Christian. As we will see, this is patently false from John’s perspective. Furthermore, if preached at all, the idea of repentance in the contemporary North American church often focuses too narrowly on the idea that it entails the changing of one’s mind about who Jesus is rather than the necessity of altering one’s behavior. The behavior of Christians is so very important to Jesus, that five of the seven letters in Revelation begin with Christ pointing out to believers that “I know your works” (Ephesus, 2:2; Thyatira, 2:19; Sardis, 3:1; Philadelphia 3:8; Laodicea, 3:15).
The reason that John’s message about repentance was so challenging to his day as well as to the contemporary Christian is that it casts the net very widely and covers even a lot of believers who have positioned themselves in their own minds beyond the need of repentance. Second, John’s message includes not only what one thinks about Christ, but equally important how one necessarily behaves because of what he thinks about Christ. John Calvin (Commentary on Isa. 55) caught the spirit of repentance not only in its necessary role in salvation, but in its role as a necessary part of the believer’s life.
Hence we infer that the doctrine of repentance ought always to accompany the promise of salvation. . . . And indeed no man will sincerely desire to be reconciled to God and to obtain pardon of sins till he is moved by a true and earnest repentance. . . . Thus repentance embraces a change of the whole man. . . . And if any man boast that he has been changed, and yet continues to live as he formerly did, it will be vain-boasting; for both are necessary, conversion of the heart and change of life.
John the prophet had not been infected with the later misconception that his messages were only given in order to assure Christians about their future victory, “who wins in the End.” This prophetic message had a more subversive purpose to it, both for ancient and modern congregations. John’s message of repentance had to be addressed to an entire congregation like Ephesus (Rev. 2:5) and not only to a handful of backsliders among it, for we learn that its very existence was dependent upon its decision to change its behavior (2:5, “do the deeds you did at first or else”). To another congregation of believers (Pergamum) Jesus demands “repent, or else,” with threats that he himself will come “to make war agains them” (Rev. 2:16). Unrepentant Pergamene Christians will be looking down the wrong end of the same sword that Christ promises to use against “godless heathens” later in the book (compare 2:16 & 19:15, 21). In the congregation at Pergamum Christ wanted to see greater intolerance in their behaviors toward pagan practices. These believers who had already changed their behaviors toward polytheism when they became Christian also had to start being intolerant toward other Christians who were still too sympathetic toward pagan religious and social practices (Rev. 2:14-16). It is certainly subversive to the surrounding culture’s values and to some Christians to affirm that at times Christ accepts nothing less than intolerance from his followers.
The prophet John writes at a time when these seven churches are living in a world of dynamic and pervasive polytheism, evident not only in traditional religions but also the worship of the Roman Emperor. Yet, with all theses “godless heathens” in the vast numerical majority, it is primarily believers and not the non-believers who are told to repent. Five of the seven congregations in Roman Asia are commanded to repent. In addition to Ephesus and Pergamum, forceful messages of repentance were necessary for Thyatira (2:21-22), Sardis (3:3), and Laodicea (3:19). There is a total of 8 occurrences of this word in two chapters of Revelation addressed exclusively to believers, while repentance is mentioned only four times in association with the “godless heathens” in the numerous remaining chapters of the book (Rev. 9:20, 21; 16:9, 11).
