The Number 666
Eli wrote asking whether 666 is related to the 666 descendants of Adonikam in Ezra 2:13. Here was my response on 3/5/2017:
Hi Eli
Thank you for detailing the issues, so I could research them. Very interesting indeed. I do think Ezra 2:13 is the best indication of the name of the Anti-Christ referred to in Rev. 13:16. The number 666 appears to mean Adonikam.
In turn, the meaning of Adonikam in Ezra 2:13 may be Lord of the Enemies, not the Lord who is raised. Vitringa, a famous old Hebraist Christian scholar, says it is "Lord of enemies," but others who are not Hebraists have said it means "Lord who rises up," claiming it is grammatically impossible it is "Lord of the enemies." See Ernest William Hengstenberg, Revelation of St. John for those who Search the Scriptures, Vol. 2 (1852) at 52.
Adonikam is typically explained as combining ADON -- LORD with QUM… rising up. See Hebrew names explained at Meaning of Hebrew Names
However, there was formerly present in Strong's Hebrew 138 on Adonijah mention that Ezra 2:13 where Adonikam appears that it means "Lord of Enemies." Here is the screen capture of a Bing search that shows the original Strong's 138. It reads:
https://www.studylight.org/lexicons/hebrew/hwview.cgi?n=138 • Adonijah = "my lord is Jehovah Also Ezra 2: 13, called ("lord of enemies"), (Adonikam], comp, 8:13 Nehemiah 7:18. List of Word Forms. ">
However, the Study Light version of Strong's 138 (Hebrew) does not mention Ezra 2:13 and "Lord of enemies" that was visible in the preview. See link.
Nor is "Lord of the enemies" present in other searches on Strong's 138. See http://biblehub.com/hebrew/strongs_138.htm
The word in Ezra is Adonikam, and is Strongs 140. http://biblehub.com/interlinear/ezra/2-13.htm
Then Strong's 140 gives no meaning to this name … see http://biblehub.com/hebrew/strongs_140.htm
This word Adonikam appears in 3 places: Ezra 2:13, Ezra 8:13 and Nehemiah 7:18… but each time it is talking of the same group… sons of Adonikam.
Yet, it is clear Strong's 138 on Adonijah had at one time -- now deleted -- referred to a contrasting meaning of Adonikam as "Lord of enemies."
It is quite puzzling.
Anyway, the connection to 666 in Revelation is quite obvious. The name Adonikam is the ancestor of 666 children. Ezra 2:13.
The scholar Ernest William Hengstenberg, in Revelation of St. John for those who Search the Scriptures, Vol. 2 (1852) at 52, following Vitringa's lead, explained how strong this should be taken:
In the whole of the Old Testament there is but one instance in which the number 666 occurs with a name. It is said in Ezra ii.13, "The sons of Adonikam 666." The name Adonikam must therefore be the name of the beast. It was admirably fitted for being so.
The point was even better put by Martin Silbrede in his “[Review of] THE BEAST OF REVELATION, by Dr. Kenneth L. Gentry Jr.," The Counsel of Chalcedon 1989 No. 8 at 11, 14. He explains that he prefers
"Vitringa's and Hengstenberg's identification from Ezra 2:13 [that] the name of the Beast is Adonikam. This solution utilizes no extra-Biblical consideration whatsoever, tying together the predicates from the opening verses of Rev. 13 to form the actual name of the Beast: Adonikam-- the Lord rises up, the name of the Beast that rises up from the sea with the name of blasphemy on its heads….
"Though ultimately inconclusive (the correlation could be entirely accidental), the odds of a random match like this between a rare occurrence of 666 in the Old Testament, the name associated with that number, and the actual description of the blaspheming beast rising out of the sea, is extremely remote."
Thus, absent any better theory, this is the most likely. And Adonikam means Lord who rises or Lord of the enemies. I prefer the latter. This would fit the church's reference to those who oppose Jesus' teachings as the ENEMY, and his followers.
Blessings,
Bro. Doug
Contributor Brian
Hello!
I am writing in response to a piece written by a Brother Doug concerning the number 666 and it's relation to Ezra 2:13, and the name of Adonikam.
I will not venture to say whether Brother Doug is right or wrong, the servant of the Lord does not argue; I am only putting forth what I believe the Lord revealed to me in His word on this subject. The readers can simply consider the information.
Rev. 13:18 says:
"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."
So, the mystery of the "mark" has to do with a beast, it is the number of a man, and the number is 666.
Consider 1 Kings 10:14-15:
"The weight of gold that came to SOLOMON yearly was 666 talents of gold, besides that from the traveling merchants, from the income of traders, from all the kings of Arabia, and from the governors of the country."
So here we have a man, Solomon, and a number, 666; which had to do with the gold he was paid annually in tribute.
What about the "beast symbology?
Now the beast which I saw was like a leopard, his feet were like the feet of a bear, and his mouth like the mouth of a lion. The dragon gave him his power, his throne, and great authority.
- Revelation 13:2
This symbology comes from the book of Daniel:
‘Those great beasts, which are four, are four kings which arise out of the earth. But the saints of the Most High shall receive the kingdom, and possess the kingdom forever, even forever and ever.’
- Daniel 7:17-18
1 Kings 10:18 says Solomon took his tribute gold and created a great throne:
"Moreover the king made a great throne of ivory and overlaid it with pure gold."
Interestingly, there were six steps leading up to Solomon's throne, with six lions on either side of each step.
6 lions, 6 steps, 6 lions. 666.
"Twelve lions stood there, one on each side of the six steps; nothing like this had been made for any other kingdom."
- 1 Kings 10:20
So why pick on Solomon? Wasn't he blessed by God with more wisdom than any king of his time? Yes. He used that wisdom to write the Bible's book of Proverbs. But what happened later in his life?
1 Kings 11:1-2
But King Solomon loved many foreign women, as well as the daughter of Pharaoh: women of the Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Sidonians, and Hittites—from the nations of whom the Lord had said to the children of Israel, “You shall not intermarry with them, nor they with you. SURELY THEY WILL TURN AWAY YOUR HEARTS AFTER THEIR GODS.” Solomon clung to these in love.
Also, right after we read in Rev.13 of the mark of the beast, we are shown a contrasting mark in the next chapter.
Rev. 14 speaks of 144,000 victorious on Mt. Zion (whom I believe to be symbolic of all the saved in Christ Jesus. See Heb. 12:22-24) with God's seal and name on their foreheads, and who "HAVE NOT DEFILED THEMSELVES WITH WOMEN." This also seems to reference Solomon, and his descent into the idolatry of his wive's pagan religions.
"For it was so, when Solomon was old, that his wives turned his heart after other gods; and his heart was not loyal to the Lord his God, as was the heart of his father David. For Solomon went after Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, and after Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites. Solomon did evil in the sight of the Lord, and did not fully follow the Lord , as did his father David. Then Solomon built a high place for Chemosh the abomination of Moab, on the hill that is east of Jerusalem, and for Molech the abomination of the people of Ammon. And he did likewise for all his foreign wives, who burned incense and sacrificed to their gods."
- 1 Kings 11:4-8
Therefore the Lord said to Solomon, “Because you have done this, and have not kept My covenant and My statutes, which I have commanded you, I will surely tear the kingdom away from you and give it to your servant.
- 1 Kings 11:11
So, the mark, the number, the beast, the man. What does it all mean?
I believe it to be a strong warning, pointing to Solomon's error as an error to avoid at all cost.
A warning to never turn our worship away from the One true and living God to that which is not God. Nor to follow the leadership of anyone who does so, lest the kingdom be lost to us, marked for judgement.
Note: King Solomon's disobedience in his later years resulted in the nation of Israel being torn apart. Read 1 Kings for his story, and to confirm what I've told you is true.
Blessings in Christ,
Brian
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