The first prophecy in the Bible is in Genesis 3:15, “I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; He shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.” This is known as the protoevangelium – the first gospel. The verse introduces two elements that are the basis of Christianity—the curse on mankind because of Adam and Eve’s sin and God’s provision for a Savior from sin, the Messiah (anointed one), the one who would take the curse upon Himself.
Of course, we know these prophetic words were given to Adam and Eve after their disobeying God’s one and only restrictive commandment of not eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. For God had commanded Adam after He had placed him in the Garden of Eden, “Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eat thereof thou shalt surely die” (Genesis 2:16-17). We also know from Genesis 3 that the serpent (possessed by Satan) had lied and manipulated Eve into eating fruit from the tree. Eve, in turn, gave some to Adam, and he ate the forbidden fruit as well.
“The enmity – the hostility and hatred – of men and demons, between whom the warfare still continues, begins here. Evil angels and also wicked men are called serpents, and even a brood of vipers (Matthew 3:7), and they war against the people of God, the seed of the church, who are hated and persecuted by them, and so it has been ever since this affair in the Garden.” {1}
Ultimately, however, the seed of the woman refers to Jesus Christ, who was born of a woman. And ultimately, the seed of the serpent (Satan) is the Antichrist (the beast), who will come at the end of the age. Satan’s manipulations brought about the Lord’s death through Judas, the Jewish Sanhedrin, and the Romans (although it was the Father’s plan all along). Christ’s death was considered (by God) only a “bruising of the heel” because He would be resurrected back to (eternal) life, whereas Satan and his offspring will spend eternity in the Lake of Fire, the second death.
The unholy trinity’s (Satan, the Antichrist, and the false prophet) ultimate fate is found in Revelation 19 and 20. “And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone” (Revelation 19:20). One thousand years (plus “a little season”) later, Satan will join the beast and the false prophet in the Lake of Fire. “And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night forever and ever” (Revelation 20:10).
The word “Antichrist“ is translated from the combination of two ancient Greek words ἀντί + Χριστός (anti + Christos). In Greek, Χριστός means “anointed one,” and the word Christ derives from it. “Ἀντί” means not only anti in the sense of “against” and “opposite of,” but also “in place of.” The term Antichrist is found four times in the New Testament, solely in the First and Second Epistles of John (1 John 2:18, 22, 4:3 and 2 John 1:7). An Antichrist is one “who denies the Father and the Son.”
The first mention of the end-times Antichrist of the Tribulation is found in Daniel 7:8 . In this scripture, he is called “the little horn.” In verse 11, he is called “the beast.” In Daniel 8:23, he is referred to as a “king of fierce countenance.” In Daniel 9:26, he is called “the prince who is to come.” In verse 27, he is referred to as a desolator. Daniel 11:36 refers to him as “the willful king.” In the New Testament, 2 Thessalonians 2 has three names or titles for the Antichrist, “the man of sin” (vs. 3), “the son of perdition (vs. 3), and “the lawless one (vs. 8).” As mentioned before, 1 John 2:22 is the first time the name or title “Antichrist” is given to him. Revelation 11:7 comes full circle from Daniel 7:11, as the Antichrist is once again referred to as “the beast.”
After the Rapture, a coalition government consisting of ten kings (and/or regions or nations) will form in the area of Europe and the Middle East in which ancient Rome ruled the world. The Antichrist (the little horn of Daniel 7:8) will be among them but not one of the ten kings, according to Daniel 7:20. He will subdue or kill three of the (ten) kings, according to Daniel 7:8, 20, 24. The fourth beast of Daniel 7 consists of “ten horns that were on its head, and the other horn which came up, before which three fell, namely, that horn which had eyes and a mouth which spoke pompous words, whose appearance was greater than his fellows.” The “other” horn is the 11th king, the Antichrist.
Daniel 7:25 says, “He shall speak pompous words against the Most High, shall persecute the saints of the Most High, and shall intend to change times and law. Then the saints shall be given into his hand for a time and times and half a time” (3.5 years). Regarding changing times and laws, I think the Antichrist will change the calendar from its BC/AD dating system that began with the birth of Jesus Christ to some other anti-Christ date in history. He may even change the day (of the week) of the Sabbath.
Daniel 8 is a prophecy concerning two antichrists. The first part of Daniel 8 concerns Antiochus Epiphanes, a Greek/Syrian who set himself up to be God and committed the first abomination of desolation in the second Jewish Temple in 167 BC. Daniel 8:24 begins the transition to the future Antichrist of the Tribulation (aka Jacob’s trouble), who comes from the revived Roman Empire (the fourth beast).
“And in the latter time of their kingdom, when the transgressors are come to the full, a king of fierce countenance, and understanding dark sentences, shall stand up. And his power shall be mighty, but not by his own power: and he shall destroy wonderfully, and shall prosper, and practice, and shall destroy the mighty and the holy people. And through his policy also he shall cause craft to prosper in his hand; and he shall magnify himself in his heart, and by peace shall destroy many: he shall also stand up against the Prince of princes; but he shall be broken without hand” (Daniel 8:23-25).
Daniel 9:27 prophesies about the “prince who is to come” (out of the old Roman Empire) and the final seven years before Christ’s second coming. In the middle of the week (seven years), he will emulate Antiochus Epiphanes and commit another abomination of desolation in the newly built third temple in Jerusalem. “And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate” (Daniel 9:27).
Daniel 11:21 – 35 records Antiochus Epiphanes’ rule in Syria and Palestine (the new name given to Judah). Beginning with verse 36, it records future events of the Tribulation and concerns the Antichrist. Daniel 11:45 mentions the Antichrist coming to Judah with his army. Daniel 12:1 continues with Israel’s plight at this time. “And at that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people: and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time: and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book.”
Daniel 12:11 records the second abomination of desolation (and the time when the daily sacrifice will be taken away) and the length of Jacob’s trouble (from the a.o.d. to the end of the Tribulation).” “And from the time that the daily sacrifice is taken away, and the abomination of desolation is set up, there shall be one thousand two hundred and ninety days.” Jesus spoke of this abomination of desolation at the end of the age in Matthew 24:15 (and Mark 13:14), “Therefore when you see the ‘abomination of desolation,’ spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place” (whoever reads, let him understand), then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains.”
Paul also prophesies about the Antichrist and the temple in Jerusalem during the end times. “Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition, who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God” (2 Thessalonians 2:3-4).
The “enmity” of Genesis 3:15 between the serpent (or Satan the dragon) and his “seed” and the woman’s seed (the children of Israel) is prophetically fulfilled in its final form in Revelation 12. “Now, when the dragon saw that he had been cast to the earth, he persecuted the woman who gave birth to the male Child.” According to verse 14, this will occur during the mid-point of the seven-year Tribulation (aka Great Tribulation), and God will supernaturally protect them for 3.5 years. “And the dragon was enraged with the woman, and he went to make war with the rest of her offspring, who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ” (Revelation 12:17).
It is at this point in time when John the Revelator “sees” (has a vision) the same “beast” that Daniel first “saw” in Daniel 7. “Then I stood on the sand of the sea. And I saw a beast rising up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and on his horns ten crowns, and on his heads a blasphemous name. The dragon gave him his power, his throne, and great authority” (Revelation 13:1-2). The sea is usually symbolic of the Gentile nations, whereas the earth represents Israel.
“And I saw one of his heads as if it had been mortally wounded, and his deadly wound was healed. And all the world marveled and followed the beast. So they worshiped the dragon who gave authority to the beast; and they worshiped the beast, saying, ‘Who is like the beast? Who is able to make war with him?'” (Revelation 13:3-4). This head wound is mentioned in Zechariah 11:17, “Woe to the worthless shepherd who deserts the flock! May the sword strike his arm and his right eye! May his arm be completely withered, his right eye totally blinded!” The Antichrist will recover from this deadly wound but will be physically impaired.
According to verse 5, this beast, the Antichrist, will have sole power over the world for 3.5 years (42 months) as he will, at this point, have killed three of the ten kings, and the remaining seven will have relinquished their power and authority to him. This is the prophetic fulfillment of Daniel 7:24-25, which Daniel recorded over 2.5 millennia ago. “It was granted to him to make war with the saints and to overcome them. And authority was given him over every tribe, tongue, and nation. All who dwell on the earth will worship him, whose names have not been written in the Book of Life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world” (Revelation 13:7-8).
The Antichrist will have an accomplice in his evil reign. “Then I saw another beast coming up out of the earth, and he had two horns like a lamb and spoke like a dragon” (Revelation 13:11). As the earth represents Israel, this second beast could be a Jew. He is called a “false prophet” in Revelation 16:13 and 19:20, as he will preach a Satanic gospel as if it’s from the Lord. “And he exercises all the authority of the first beast in his presence, and causes the earth and those who dwell in it to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed” (Revelation 13:12).
The false prophet receives power from Satan to perform great signs (which is what the Jews wanted to see from Jesus during his first advent), “so that he even makes fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men. And he deceives those who dwell on the earth by those signs which he was granted to do in the sight of the beast” (Revelation 13:13). This replicates Elijah calling down fire from heaven (three times, in 1 Kings 18:38 and 2 Kings 1:10, 12). Satan, Antichrist, and the false prophet are the unholy trinity from hell.
The false prophet commissions an “image” to be made of the beast who was wounded by the sword and lived. “He was granted power to give breath to the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak and cause as many as would not worship the image of the beast to be killed” (Revelation 13:15). I believe this will be easily accomplished with the technology of artificial intelligence.
“He causes all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hand or on their foreheads, and that no one may buy or sell except one who has the mark or the name of the beast, or the number of his name” (Revelation 13:16-17). We now have the technology to insert a chip or a digital tattoo to fulfill this prophecy. “Here is wisdom. Let him who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man: His number is 666″ (Revelation 13:18).
Last year, about this time, I wrote an article called, Textual Variants and Isopsephy in the New Testament in which I discussed how there are four primary competing Greek sources to use for translating the New Testament: the Critical Text, the Majority Text, the Western Text, and the Textus Receptus. The science of assembling these manuscripts is called “Textual Criticism. In this current article, we will look at Revelation 13:18 in the Critical Text and the Textus Receptus (including the KJV).
“In the centuries following the publication and popularization of the King James Version (KJV) of the Bible, biblical scholars discovered additional, older copies of the Greek texts. As they studied these new findings, and as further research brought new understanding to light, they compiled an updated version of the Greek text. This updated version is called the Critical Text, and it continues to be updated and revised as new evidence is gathered. Westcott and Hort’s The New Testament in the Original Greek is an example of the Critical Text from the late nineteenth century. Nestle and Aland’s Novum Testamentum Graece, currently in its 28th edition, is the most recent version.” {2}
A couple of popular examples of Critical Text translations are the New American Standard Bible and the English Standard versions. A couple of popular examples of Textus Receptus translations are the King James Version and Young’s Literal Translation.
Although the number 666 in Revelation 13:18 shows up in most English Bibles, many versions use the words for 666 instead, aka six hundred sixty-six or six hundred threescore and six. The Critical Text manuscripts used the three Greek words, ἑξακόσιοι (hexakosioi), ἑξήκοντα (hexékonta), ἕξ (hex) to spell “six hundred sixty-six.”
However, the Textus Receptus texts (such as Scrivener’s Textus Receptus 1894) used the three Greek letters, χ ξ ϛ, in this verse as numerals (for their isopsephy values) to represent the number 666. The isopsephy of the 24th Greek letter, χ, is 600. The isopsephy of the 14th Greek letter, ξ, is sixty. The isopsephy of the obsolete Greek 6th letter, ϛ, is six. The numerical sum of these three Greek letters is equal to six hundred and sixty-six or 666.
Many scholars think this could be a form of Greek shorthand that found its way into the New Testament. Many times, when a scribe was taking notes from the author, they would use this “shorthand” method of just using a few letters for words. They would come back later and spell out the entire word. If the letters have the supralinear stroke above them (ⲭ̅ⲝ̅ϛ), then they were to be construed as numbers and not letters in a word.
As I mentioned in I AM, the Great Mathematician – Part II, the three Greek letters of Digamma, later called Stigma, (ϛ) with a value of 6, Koppa (ϟ) with a value of 90, and Sampi (ϡ) with a value of 900 had fallen out of usage as letters of the alphabet by the time the New Testament was written. The Stigma letter is the only one of these three letters that are used in the New Testament, and it is only found once in the Greek Textus Receptus texts in Revelation 13:18.
Using the three letters as numerals in this verse is the only time in the N.T. (Textus Receptus versions) where letters are used strictly as numerals and for their numerical values (Greek isopsephy) and not to spell out a word.
However, there are several times in Revelation where the Textus Receptus used the Greek letter Α to represent Alpha and Ω for Omega, or in the C.T. texts, the Greek word Ἄλφα” for Alpha and Ω for Omega was used. However, these letters are not used as numerals as are the three letters of Revelation 13:18. It’s unclear as to why the C.T. Texts would incorporate a letter to represent Omega and not Alpha. Instead, Alpha is spelled out.
The verse gets even murkier in light of the text of the earliest known copy of Revelation. A fragment of the text in the Papyrus 115 (a collection of highly mutilated fragments, dated 225-275 AD) is one of the earliest manuscripts of this portion of the Book of Revelation. It records 616 in shorthand (χ̅ι̅ϲ̅) instead of 666 (ⲭ̅ⲝ̅ϛ) as the number of the beast, and some textual critics think 616 may be the original number. However, I believe 666 is the correct number as 6 represents man, and three (the number of divine perfection) sixes (666) represent man attempting to be God.
“Irenaeus, bishop of Lugdunum (Lyons) in what is now southeast France, commented on Revelation 13:18 in Against Heresies, Book 5, chapters 29-30. In chapter 30, as Irenaeus focuses on the meaning of the number of the beast, he mentions that six-hundred-and-sixty-six is the number that is “found in all the most approved and ancient copies,” and he states that “those men who saw John face to face” have testified to its genuineness.
From the second century onward, Revelation 13:18 has been understood as a reference to the numerical value of the letters in the name of the Antichrist. Although the number 616 has some early support, Irenaeus’ testimony in favor of 666 has tremendous weight: not only is he the earliest writer to comment on the verse, but he specifically states that he consulted ancient manuscripts – ancient in the 180’s! – to confirm that they did indeed have the number 666. Therefore, the reading “666” should confidently be regarded as the original text.” {3}
If the Textus Receptus is the correct text of Revelation 13:18, why did John use the three letters as numerals to represent the number 666 and not spell out the words (for other numbers) as he did elsewhere in Revelation and the other books that he wrote? One of the letters, the sixth letter of the Greek alphabet, stigma (previously known as digamma), was even obsolete at the time he wrote Revelation. Interestingly, the name stigma (στίγμα) is originally a common Greek noun meaning “a mark, dot, puncture,” or generally “a sign,” from the verb στίζω. By all rights, John should have spelled out the Greek word for “six” instead of using an obsolete letter as a numeral. Does that mean that the extant C.T. manuscripts are the correct texts of this verse (and the entire Book of Revelation) and not the Textus Receptus? Not necessarily.
It is my belief that John used these letters as numerals for their isopsephy value as an example of how the Antichrist’s name will be reckoned in the same manner. Each letter and its numeric value can be added up for the total sum number of the beast’s name, which will be six hundred and sixty-six (or 666) in its Greek form, Greek being the language of the Revelation. I believe John wanted to use the obsolete stigma letter as a sign (or a clue) regarding the mark of the beast. I think the mark could be three stigma letters, ϛ ϛ ϛ, representing 666. That is the reason John didn’t spell out this particular number. For this reason, I like the Textus Receptus and the King James version of Revelation 13:18.
The Antichrist’s absolute reign will only last for 3.5 years, about the duration of Jesus’ ministry. Whereas the identity of the Antichrist is unknown (and probably won’t be known until he confirms a seven-year covenant with Israel and the many), his fate is sure. “And he shall plant the tents of his palace between the seas and the glorious holy mountain; yet he shall come to his end, and no one will help him…. I watched then because of the sound of the pompous words which the horn was speaking; I watched till the beast was slain, and its body destroyed and given to the burning flame” (Daniel 11:45, 7:11).
The 888 (isopsephy of Ἰησοῦς/iēsous) Son of God/Son of man, Jesus Christ, will destroy the 666 man of sin, the Antichrist, and the false prophet. “And I saw the beast, and the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against him that sat on the horse, and against his army. And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone” (Revelation 19:19-20).
“It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God” (Hebrews 10:31).
Randy Nettles
Endnotes:
{1} What is the protoevangelium? | GotQuestions.org
{2} Which Good Book?
{3} The Text of the Gospels: Revelation 13:18 and the Number of the Beast