The Meaning of 666, The Reason for the Riddle

[Alfred Persson]

I will prove the following two propositions:

1) 666 is a biblical allusion to a man’s name in the Old Testament: Adonikam.

2) The Holy Spirit inspired this Riddle to strengthen the faith of the generation alive in the End Time that will see Adonikam rise to become the Antichrist Beast.

We solve riddles by heeding its details, and spotting any double entendre hinting at a solution. For example, Samson’s riddle (Judges 14:14) contained the solution, honey eaten from the carcass of a lion (Judges 14:8-9, 18):

So he said to them: “Out of the eater came something to eat, And out of the strong came something sweet.� Now for three days they could not explain the riddle. (Jdg. 14:14) NKJ

The word “lion� in Hebrew (ʾarî) is almost identical to an Arabic word for “honey� (ʾary).-Wolf, H. (1992). Judges. In F. E. Gaebelein (Ed.), The Expositor’s Bible Commentary: Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1 & 2 Samuel (Vol. 3, p. 468). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House.

Lets Solve the 666 Meaning:

Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six. (Rev. 13:18) KJV

John said 666 is the number OF a man, not the number of a name. That’s double entendre, 666 springs from the man, 666 exists because of what the man is or does, it is not his name in code. We must pay attention to the detail with strictness, John insisted we COUNT to arrive at 666, that is one half of the equation. To solve the riddle we must deduce the missing half of the equation that equals 666 and then determine what man caused that calculation to exist, for it is “OF� him. Therefore Gematria, numerology, symbolic meaning, etc. are completely irrelevant.

Lets review other details to find what else is implied in the wording:

This calls for wisdom: let the one who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man, and his number is 666. (Rev. 13:18) ESV

Christians seek wisdom in scripture, therefore John’s call for it must involve the Bible. Adonikam is the only Bible name of a man 666 and a calculation point to that everyone (3588 � ho) understanding the Bible can find. Once directly (Ezra 2:13) and once after a calculation (Neh. 7:18) subtracting Adonikam’s father who must have had the same name, so 667-1=666 still points to Adonikam. The only man directly causing 666 to exist and also the calculation resulting in 666 to exist, is the man Adonikam. As John thus says he is the Beast, 666 is the number OF the Beast also:

The children of Adonikam, six hundred sixty and six. (Ezr. 2:13) KJV

The children of Adonikam, six hundred threescore and seven. (Neh. 7:18) KJV

Having these two verses point to the same name is like having “two witnesses� establishing the matter (Deut. 19:15).

Adonikam alone is the elegant solution, it alone assembles John’s puzzle following all his requirements and still satisfies his expectation anyone with Bible wisdom will discover the one name he had in mind when he penned this riddle.

Not so Kabbalistic Gematria. The pieces just do not fit, and regardless how it is tweaked, so many names are produced it will never satisfy John’s expectation only one name will result and the probability the reader will pick the name John had in mind is infinitesimal.


Continues on my site:
http://endtimenews.net/666-meaning/[/url]

[liamconnor]

[Replying to post 1 by Alfred Persson]

I do not see why Adonikam of Ezra and Neh should have received such an ignominious office in Revelation.

[Alfred Persson]

[Replying to liamconnor]

He didn't, he's long dead. The mouth of the revived Roman Empire beast's name will be Adonikam.

Its interesting to note the alternate meaning of Adonikam's name:

Ezr. 2:13, called �ֲדֹנִיקָ� (“lord of enemies�), [Adonikam], comp. 8:13; Neh. 7:18.

Gesenius, W., & Tregelles, S. P. (2003). Gesenius’ Hebrew and Chaldee lexicon to the Old Testament Scriptures (p. 14). Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software.

[liamconnor]

[Replying to liamconnor]

He didn't, he's long dead. The mouth of the revived Roman Empire beast's name will be Adonikam.

Its interesting to note the alternate meaning of Adonikam's name:

Ezr. 2:13, called �ֲדֹנִיקָ� (“lord of enemies�), [Adonikam], comp. 8:13; Neh. 7:18.

Gesenius, W., & Tregelles, S. P. (2003). Gesenius’ Hebrew and Chaldee lexicon to the Old Testament Scriptures (p. 14). Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software.

I am aware that he is (and was, at the time of Rev.) long dead. I am simply pointing out that if a figure of history were to be selected as representative of the anti-christ, other names would come to mind: Cain, Ahab, Nero. If I were writing a prophecy about the end times, I would make allusions to Hitler or Stalin, not Grover Cleveland.

[Alfred Persson]

[Replying to post 4 by liamconnor]


You're not getting into the spirit of John's challenge, its a riddle for all who understand the Bible and have a critically thinking mind. The ancients didn't have video games etc to occupy them, they had the Bible. They often used words to imply ideas that are more than the words themselves do.

For example, look up Janus parallelism. It occurs often in the OT, and in fact also appears in Mt. 16:18. Christ used both meanings of PETROS, the Greek meaning and the Hebrew/Aramaic meaning calling Peter (PeTeR 6363) the first born of the confession of Christ and a rock (lively stone) from whose belly living water would flow out in lesser to greater analogy to Christ, the PETRA massive Rock (that Moses struck) from which came living water for the people to drink in the wilderness, and today.

[liamconnor]

[Replying to post 5 by Alfred Persson]

You're not getting into the spirit of John's challenge, its a riddle for all who understand the Bible and have a critically thinking mind. The ancients didn't have video games etc to occupy them, they had the Bible.

I fancy I do have a critically thinking mind. For instance, you just said that the ancients had the bible; but of course, the ancients did not, but rather the ancient Jews.

They often used words to imply ideas that are more than the words themselves do.

I am aware of many literary devices of the biblical authors, including numerical ones. Matthew's genealogy seems interested in the number 14: 14 generations. 14 is the numerical value of David's name in Hebrew, and Jesus as Davidic king is an important theme of Matthew's gospel. Luke's genealogy gives 77 names--a number representing completion. It ends with "Adam, son of God" only to be followed by Jesus' temptation in the wilderness. The symbolism is poignant. Both Adam and Jesus represent Mankind. Jesus, the Son of God, the New Adam, must (like the old Adam) confront Satan; but where the old Adam failed, the New Adam succeeds.
All of this makes perfect literary sense to me.

And much of Revelation makes perfect sense: his selection of Babylon to represent Rome is fitting--Babylon being the kingdom and region for Israel's exile.

What does not make sense is the selection of such an obscure and morally innocuous figure as Adonikam for the important literary position of representing the Anti-Christ. We have great examples of the O.T.: Abraham, Moses, David; we have great infamous figures: Cain, Pharaoh, Ahaz. Adonikam hardly fits in here.

[Alfred Persson]

[Replying to post 5 by Alfred Persson]

You're not getting into the spirit of John's challenge, its a riddle for all who understand the Bible and have a critically thinking mind. The ancients didn't have video games etc to occupy them, they had the Bible.

I fancy I do have a critically thinking mind. For instance, you just said that the ancients had the bible; but of course, the ancients did not, but rather the ancient Jews.

They often used words to imply ideas that are more than the words themselves do.

I am aware of many literary devices of the biblical authors, including numerical ones. Matthew's genealogy seems interested in the number 14: 14 generations. 14 is the numerical value of David's name in Hebrew, and Jesus as Davidic king is an important theme of Matthew's gospel. Luke's genealogy gives 77 names--a number representing completion. It ends with "Adam, son of God" only to be followed by Jesus' temptation in the wilderness. The symbolism is poignant. Both Adam and Jesus represent Mankind. Jesus, the Son of God, the New Adam, must (like the old Adam) confront Satan; but where the old Adam failed, the New Adam succeeds.
All of this makes perfect literary sense to me.

And much of Revelation makes perfect sense: his selection of Babylon to represent Rome is fitting--Babylon being the kingdom and region for Israel's exile.

What does not make sense is the selection of such an obscure and morally innocuous figure as Adonikam for the important literary position of representing the Anti-Christ. We have great examples of the O.T.: Abraham, Moses, David; we have great infamous figures: Cain, Pharaoh, Ahaz. Adonikam hardly fits in here.

Unless that will be his actual name, then it makes perfect sense.

You suppose he would use symbolic names, but why? The challenge is not to count to a symbolic name, but to the name.

Much of Revelation is symbolic, but its not all symbolic.

[JP Cusick]

I will prove the following two propositions:

1) 666 is a biblical allusion to a man’s name in the Old Testament: Adonikam.

2) The Holy Spirit inspired this Riddle to strengthen the faith of the generation alive in the End Time that will see Adonikam rise to become the Antichrist Beast.

Continues on my site:
http://endtimenews.net/666-meaning/

I see this as another demonstration as to how Bible prophesy can be so useless and misleading.

You say it strengthens faith - but how?

It does not give any info on how to live a better life, it does not tell how to improve our character.

What that really does is just to condemn so future person based only on their name, and that name is to expose the person as antiChrist, and are we to look for that name in English or in Hebrew or in just any language?

In the Gospel Jesus declares that people will not believe a person risen from the dead - so it would be presumptuous and sinful of anyone to believe a person to be antiChrist based on their name?

[Alfred Persson]

[Replying to post 8 by JP Cusick]

I waited for you to edit this. Still waiting.

[marco]

Adonikam alone is the elegant solution, it alone assembles John’s puzzle following all his requirements and still satisfies his expectation anyone with Bible wisdom will discover the one name he had in mind when he penned this riddle.

Just as significant is the fact that from MONDAY we can make a couple of anagrams and it often defeats folk to find them. So John is giving a pointless puzzle to be pointlessly solved hundreds of years later. What has the beast to do with it all? Does it mean we have been given a beastly word puzzle?

It cannot surprise us that the misnamed Revelation throws up nonsense, like the limericks of Edward Lear.