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Archaeology Brings Us Closer to John’s Context

March 8, 2013 12:02 am / 4 Comments

It has been assumed for years by leading NT scholars that the oldest archaeological artifacts that can be traced back to early Christians were produced after AD 180 [Graydon F. Snyder, Ante Pacem: Archaeological Evidence of Church Life Before Constantine, rev. ed. 2003].  Therefore, many do not know that it is time to abandon that earlier assumption in light of relatively recent discoveries in Asia Minor.  Now there is earlier evidence, earlier by two generations than was previously thought, and this new material culture pertains to one of the seven congregations to whom John wrote.  Equally significant, this archaeological material reflects some of the facets of the Johannine practice of numerology.  Any one of these three aspects about this new artifact, its date, its location, or its numerology, would justify posting this evidence, but the combination of all three of these relating to the book of Revelation is extremely noteworthy.

The evidence comes from the area of graffiti excavated by archaeologists working in early Roman Smyrna (modern Izmir, Turkey), and the evidence is dated no later than AD 125.  Prof. Roger Bagnall, former professor of classics and history at Columbia University and now Director of the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World (ISAW) at New York University, reported these findings recently in his important work Everyday Writing in the Græco-Roman East [Sather Classical Lectures, University of California Press; Reprint edition 2012].

Bagnall reports that there are graffiti found in layers of plaster in the Roman basilica in Smyrna, and one of these layers of plaster can be dated precisely to AD 125, using a Roman era date contained in the plaster.  The layer dated AD 125 is the “uppermost layer of plaster” and it “follows that the earlier layer or layers of plaster, and the inscriptions on them, must date before 125.”

Basilica in Roman Smyrna Basilica in Roman Smyrna, Ian W. Scott
Under the basilica of Smyrna 3

In the plaster pre-dating AD 125 Bagnall mentions “a most remarkable graffito” which “can only indicate a Christian character.”

Before reproducing the information given by Prof. Bagnall, some might need a brief refresher course in the Graeco-Roman technique of numerology known as isopsephism, since it is impossible to understand this graffito without this.  Even if you are conversant with the details of biblical numerology, you might have slept through the lecture and demonstration about isopsephism in seminary.  The term isopsephism comes from the Greek word ἰσόψηφα [=isopsephism] which means “of equal numerical value.”  The presupposition for isopsephism to work and have meaning is the fact that “each letter of the original Greek alphabet . . . serves also as a numeral,” (Peter Parsons, City of the Sharp-Nosed Fish. Greek Papyri Beneath the Egyptian Sand Reveal a Long-Lost World, 2007, p. 205) thereby making it possible to assign a numerical value to words as also happens in gematria.  Isopsephism is a technique where two words, or a word and a phrase, or a word and a letter of the alphabet had the same numerical value.  Thus, to give one example, the Greek word “Amen” [=ἀμήν] has the numerical value of 99 [ἀ=1; μ=40; ή=8; ν=50].  According, we have early Christian documents which end with the term “Amen” given in its numerical amount, 99.  Now we can appreciate the meaning and significance of this new discovery that brings the modern interpreter of Revelation closer to the world of John and his congregations.

Discovered at Smyrna was the following Greek wording:

ἰσόψηφα                         “Of equal value”

κύριοϲ     ω                       “Lord     800″

πίστιϲ     ω                        ”Faith     800”

Putting this in the context of ancient Smyrna and its community of believers, we see an artifact standing chronologically between John’s admonition to the congregation at Smyrna that, “the devil is about to throw some of you into prison so that you may be tested” (Rev. 2:10) and the brutal martyrdom of Polycarp, Bishop of the congregation in Smyrna (ca. AD 155).  If the church in Smyrna continued to experience suffering in the time between John and Polycarp, it would be difficult to imagine two other words more important to a suffering congregation than the words “Lord” and “faith.”

The close correlation of these two pregnant theological terms through the technique of isopsephism clearly shows the outlook of the believer who scrawled this isopsephism because of his or her association of them.  Contrary to what many scholars affirm, I have yet to be persuaded that this use of numbers is all about “secret code” coming from a persecuted and marginalized sect.  Rather isopsephism here is a technique for the association of beliefs, ideas, values, etc that stand in an essential relationship to each other and whose fuller meaning is manifested through this association.

In the next post, deo volente, I will give some more historical evidence about modern misconceptions about the use of numbers by those early Christian believers, especially “secret code” interpretations.

Religion with Numbers

January 3, 2012 5:16 pm / 6 Comments

     I have not forgotten that I promised in September 2011 to provide some material on the issue of isopsepha as it pertains to Revelation.  One of the reasons I have waited is that there are recent publications containing new examples of isopsepha, and I wanted these new archaeological materials to go into my material on isopsepha in this blog; so, please practice the fruit of patience, s’il vous plaît.
     What does John’s reliance upon numbers tell us about his theology and, therefore, his spirituality.  Many modern Christians, at least in the West, have little patience with numerology and regard it as quasi-superstition.  Whether numerology whets your spiritual palate is beside the point.  Any reading of Revelation that includes the desire to understand its author, as opposed to using the prophecies of John for ventriloquy, cannot miss John’s pervasive reliance upon numerology.
     John’s numerology includes both cardinal and ordinal numbers.  Examples of the former would include references to “seven congregations” (Rev. 1:11), “high wall with twelve gates” (Rev. 21:12), and “one hundred forty-four thousand” (Rev. 14:3).  The use of ordinal numbers is seen in the references to “a third of the sea became blood” (Rev. 8:9), the “fourth living creature” (Rev. 4:7), and “the Lamb opened the seventh seal” (Rev. 8:1).
     So, why are there scores of numbers weaved throughout John’s highly structured prophecies?  One of the obvious reasons is that John, like Jesus before him (Matt. 19:28; Luke 22:30), relied upon theologically significant numbers preserved in the Jewish Scriptures.  As a Scripture guided Jew, Jesus knew that you cannot spend much time in Scripture without seeing the controlling use of the number twelve to describe the people of God; the same point was self-evident to James who described believers as “the twelve tribes who are dispersed abroad” (James 1:1).
     Another example of John’s Scripture guided numerology is seen his use of the broadly synonymous phrases, “forty-two months” (Rev. 13:5), “time and times and half a time” (Rev. 12:14), and “twelve hundred sixty days” (Rev. 11:3).  All of theses point to a three and one-half year period, mentioned in Daniel, during which God allows his elect to be defeated by enemies.  This is certainly the meaning of these numbers in Revelation.
     Not all of John’s numbers, however, are as obviously guided by Jewish Scripture.  The number seven, for example, was popular also in Graeco-Roman religion and philosophy.  One non-Christian author of the second century AD mentioned his own conversion to a pagan religion in these words, “Seven times I plunged my head under the waves, since the divine Pythagoras pronounced that number to be very especially suitable in sacred rites.  Then with a tear-stained face I prayed to the all-powerful goddess.”  The earlier, famous Roman statesman, author, and philosopher Cicero makes a comment about the “music of the spheres” and their reflection of the seven distinct sounds –– “a number which is the key of almost everything.”   
     This widespread belief in the significance of numbers comes from the conviction of ancient peoples that there is a unity in the physical universe, the cosmos, that is manifested in numerical relationships.  This unity in the cosmos was evident, for example, in audible musical tones, in mathematics and geometric relationships, and in the natural sciences in the observations of astronomy.  One of the reasons that numbers were a lodestone for the religion and philosophy of ancient peoples is that most of them, unlike the modern Christian West, embraced the idea of the unity (but not necessarily the uniformity) of the universe.  For the most part they did not bifurcate religion from the other forms of truth in their experiences.  In fact, this impulse toward a theory of a unified cosmos was so strong and widespread that some in the time of John spoke of “one god,” albeit not the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob or in the way Christians understand “monotheism.”  Examples of this can be seen in the many inscriptions to a singular god or in the “Hymn to Zeus” by the philosopher Cleanthes [
http://www.utexas.edu/courses/citylife/readings/cleanthes_hymn.html]
.  
     John and many other ancient Christians embraced a holistic view of reality that did not truncate truth by assigning only overtly religious books or liturgical activities to God’s domain.  For John, mathematical realities such as numbers reflected divine realities, just as creation and Scripture did.  It is little wonder that in the theology of the prophet John even “personified” nature conspired with God to bring about his judgments against wickedness (Rev. 6:16).  When it was time to locate the person who could “open the book and to break its seals” (Rev. 5:1-3), it is possibly significant that the search does not begin in Jerusalem, but goes to every creature “in heaven or on the earth or under the earth” (Rev. 5:3) before coming to the slain Lamb.  It seems to me that It would be appalling for John to see the modern Christian bifurcation between “science and religion” or learn of the notion that all real truth is only “religious truth.”
     The reliance on numbers evident in Revelation depicts a spirituality so comprehensive of the cosmos, its structures and its realities – both seen and unseen, that there can be no room for surprise when John’s vision of God’s final consummation of all reality is depicted as a new cosmos, or in Jewish idiom, a new heaven and new earth (Rev. 21:1).
 

BEASTLY NUMBERS

September 28, 2011 10:43 pm / 11 Comments

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].
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.” 
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