666, taken from the Book of Revelation, chapter 13, has been popularised many times over, as in blockbuster movie The Omen, by heavy metal band Iron Maiden and even Sir Andrew’s Phantom of the Opera.

666 has also previously been applied to historic figures as diverse as Nero, Ronald Reagan and Pope John Paul II.

666 - the ever popular three digits for doomsday countdowns.

It looks as though all previous interpretations of the ominous number were wrong. So what about the latest one: Brussels in the hands of the Antichrist? Depending on your political persuasion, you may find this more or less hard to believe. But even the staunchest UKIP voter will start having their doubts, once they face up to the biblical facts.

At the end of the day, it all boils down to good hermeneutics (interpretation) and exegesis (text analysis); it’s all about making good sense of the Bible. And we don’t need to be New Testament scholars to notice the obvious:

For one, the biblical number relates to a person, not an amount of money or a pan-European organisation.

Moreover, the author of Revelation was addressing the church of his day. Christians were being persecuted for their faith. They desperately needed a grand vision of God, a reminder of his ultimate victory over the forces of evil. There’s something distinctly pastoral about John’s message, which was first and foremost addressed to his suffering brothers and sisters in Christ. One way or another, most scholars believe he referred to one or more of the Roman Emperors.

Thirdly, a scrap of manuscript was found a few years ago, which turned out to be the oldest copy of Revelation 13 discovered to date. And, guess what, the number of the Beast was not 666, but 616!  Scholarly opinion is divided, but 616 may have been the number in John’s original manuscript.

Most importantly, church history shows that trying to be too specific about Bible passages that are unclear can get us into all sorts of difficulties. It’s safer to stick with the things that are easy to grasp in comparison; such as the words of warning for casual Christians in Revelation chapters 2 and 3; or the grand portrayal of divine justice and redemption in Revelation 21 – a book that is ultimately less concerned with cryptic doomsday symbols than the clear message of a God who, one day, will dry all tears and make all things new.

If you want to learn more about making good sense of the Bible for yourself, you might like h+, a new course in biblical interpretation for everyone who wants to gain a better understanding of the Bible. Visit hplus.org.uk for more info

Listen to my prayer, O Lord,
and hear my cry for help!
When I am in trouble,
don’t turn away from me!
Listen to me,
and answer me quickly when I call!
Psalm 102.1-2 (GNT) 

Listen to me, Lord, and answer me,
for I am helpless and weak.
Save me from death, because I am loyal to you;
save me, for I am your servant and I trust in you.

You are my God, so be merciful to me;
I pray to you all day long.
Make your servant glad, O Lord,
because my prayers go up to you.
You are good to us and forgiving,
full of constant love for all who pray to you.
Psalm 86.1–5 (GNT) 

Be merciful to me, Lord,
for I am in trouble;
my eyes are tired from so much crying;
I am completely worn out.
I am exhausted by sorrow,
and weeping has shortened my life.
I am weak from all my troubles;
even my bones are wasting away.
Psalm 31.9–10 (GNT) 

How much longer will you forget me, Lord? Forever?
How much longer will you hide yourself from me?
How long must I endure trouble?
How long will sorrow fill my heart day and night?
How long will my enemies triumph over me?

Look at me, O Lord my God, and answer me.
Restore my strength; don’t let me die.
Don’t let my enemies say,
We have defeated him.
Don’t let them gloat over my downfall.

I rely on your constant love;
I will be glad, because you will rescue me.
I will sing to you, O Lord,
because you have been good to me.
Psalm 13 (GNT) 

CC Image from Patrick van IJzendoorn on Flickr

OK, I admit the last series of Downton Abbey wasn’t perfect. There were some awful lines: when Cora looked up from her newspaper and said: ‘Oh my, this Spanish flu news is awful,’ we knew that she, along with half the household, would be on their deathbeds by the next episode.

But who cares? The battle of the bustles was our Sunday night fix and I, for one, can’t wait till Christmas Day. Aside from the drama, suspense and gossip, I think we love Downton because we are all secretly obsessed with how other people live.

Downton represents a world where the toffs had it good. They were waited upon (dear Carson); cleaned up after; (inconvenient dead Turkish men); and lusted after (get down Branson, Sybil is too good for you). The downstairs lot, though, just had to get on with it. The family silver still shone – come war, unwanted pregnancies or murder trials. Servitude was their lot. They got on with because they knew their place.

Far from being an aberration, Edwardian values are pretty common in whatever period of history you choose to look. The New Testament is full of different groups of people who were either revered or loathed by others. The mutual distrust and loathing between Romans and Jews was what made Monty Python’s Life of Brian so funny.

The real story of Zacchaeus, in the gospel of Luke, shows us how utterly despised Jewish tax collectors were. They were seen as traitors working for the Roman Empire and yet Jesus calls this short and unpopular tax-collector down from a tree and tells him he is coming for tea.

Although people are horrified, Jesus couldn’t care less. In his eyes no one is untouchable – and that means lepers, prostitutes and Samaritans.

I suppose if Jesus appeared in the Christmas episode of Downton, he would marry Lady Sybil and Branson; take tea with Daisy; then tell the Dowager Countess that money and status count for nought – then again, I’m not sure even Jesus is that brave!

CC Picture from Lightmash on Flickr

The BBC reports that ‘the most coveted prize in particle physics – the Higgs boson – may have been glimpsed’.  In the media, this elusive particle has been nicknamed ‘the God particle’ – despite the fact that the physicists involved in the research intensely dislike the term (‘it has nothing to do with God’, one said).

Whilst some people would like to draw up some kind of clash between God and the Higgs boson, I actually think the long and expensive search for this immensely important and potentially valuable discovery is more like the sort of thing Jesus would use as material for one of his parables.

In his parables, Jesus draws on events and situations around him, things his audience would know about – just like the hunt for the Higgs boson is for many of us now.  And it’s a story of people searching for something precious, something hard to find, something that could change everything – just like several of Jesus’ parables.

Have a look at, say, the parable of the pearl of great value (Matthew 13.44-46), or the lost coin (Luke 15.8-10).  If Jesus had been born in 21st century Britain, rather than 1st century Palestine, don’t you think we might have had a ‘parable of the hunt for the Higgs boson’?

 “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls, who, on finding one pearl of great value, went and sold all that he had and bought it.”

Picture cc from -Dreamflow- on Flickr

I gave in to the hype and bought Skyrim over the weekend.  I’m now thinking I might do a play-through where I try to abide by the 10 commandments.

As 21st century readers, I’d suggest we’re not always great at picturing/understanding how these sorts of biblical scenes would play out or what it would be like to receive those commandments in their original, ancient context.  Now, I’m not saying the world of Skyrim is anything like the world of Moses and the Israelites in Exodus, but it’d just be interesting to try and explore them in a different world than 21st century Britain and see how they play out.  Mind you, Skyrim – like Exodus – does seem to have plenty of stone tablets, idols and so on!

Has anyone done a 10 commandments setup already?  If you play the game, what ‘code’ does your character live by?  Who do you make the ‘authority’ in how you behave in-game?

UPDATE: I realised that one commandment in particular could cause serious difficulty in the game: ‘do not kill’. However, here’s one guy running a character with exactly that motto – he’s made it to level 9 without killing a single thing.

Picture cc from itspaulkelly on Flickr

From the write-up on the back of The Wire series 1 box set: ‘told from the points of view of both the police and their targets, the series captures a universe where easy distinctions between good and evil, and crime and punishment, are challenged at every turn’.

Now go read some of Jesus’ parables – like the good Samaritan, in Luke 10, or the shrewd manager, in Luke 16 – or things like the pronouncements in Isaiah 44 & 45 about God calling and equipping Cyrus, the king of Persia and not a Jew, and tell me the Bible doesn’t do the same thing of ‘challenging easy distinctions’.