Rev 13:18 This calls for wisdom: Let the one who has insight calculate the beast’s number, for it is man’s number, and his number is 666.
There have been two main ways of explaining this number.
1. The number of Nero
This is been the identification traditionally and in much recent scholarship.
In Greek and Hebrew, numbers were written using letters of the alphabet in the 1st century, and in that language the letters making up ‘Nero Caesar’ add up to 666.…
1:1 From the elder, to an elect lady and her children, whom I love in truth (and not I alone, but also all those who know the truth), 1:2 because of the truth that resides in us and will be with us forever.
Does this refer to a person and her offspring, or to a church and its constituent members? Although certainty is not possible, the latter option is to be preferred.
Some early writers were undecided. …
What about the curse of Jeconiah (Jer 22:24-30)?
22:30 The LORD says,
“Enroll this man in the register as though he were childless.
Enroll him as a man who will not enjoy success during his lifetime.
For none of his sons will succeed in occupying the throne of David
or ever succeed in ruling over Judah.”
According to 1 Chron 3:17 Jeconiah had seven sons (1 Chron 3:17).
So what does it mean that none of them would occupy the throne of David? …
Heb 2:9 – ‘We see Jesus, who was made lower than the angels for a little while, now crowned with glory and honor because he suffered death, so that by God’s grace he would experience death on behalf of everyone.’
Summary
An alternative reading has ‘apart from God’ (χωρὶς θεοῦ), instead of ‘by God’s grace’ (χάριτι θεοῦ). The evidence for this alternative reading is weak.
In detail
Hagner thinks that the evidence for the accepted reading is ‘overwhelming’. …
3:10 My aim is to know him, to experience the power of his resurrection, to share in his sufferings, and to be like him in his death, 3:11 and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.
The word for ‘resurrection’ – exanastasis – is used only here in the NT (the usual word being anastasis). But Paul’s meaning is detected not by the use of this word but (according to F.F.…
“And if I go and make ready a place for you, I will come again and take you to be with me, so that where I am you may be too.”
What does our Lord mean, when he speaks of ‘going’ and ‘coming again’?
There are two main interpretative options:
(a) ‘I am going to heaven to prepare a place for you there, and at my parousia I will return and take you there, so that you will be with me for ever.’…
“There are many dwelling places in my Father’s house.“
Various alternatives need to be considered.
(a) Temple?
Kanagaraj suggests:
‘The phrase “my Father’s house” could denote the temple (Jn 2:16). Possibly there is a temple motif here that identifies the Father’s house as a heavenly temple into which Jesus, the high priest, will enter with his own blood after his death and resurrection to offer eternal redemption (Heb 9:12, 24).’
Gundry notes that:
…‘Most interpretations of Jesus’ statement have it that he’s referring to heaven.
Luke 1:26 In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town of Galilee called Nazareth, 1:27 to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, a descendant of David, and the virgin’s name was Mary. 1:28 The angel came to her and said, “Greetings, favored one, the Lord is with you!”
‘Rejoice, you who enjoy God’s favour!’ (JB);
‘Hail, thou that art highly favoured’ (AV);
‘Hail, O favoured one’ (RSV),
‘Greetings, favoured one!’…
Verse 8 forms a stangely abrupt ending to the Gospel. And yet, many of the oldest and best manuscripts do not have vv9-20.
According to Edwards, this presents ‘the gravest textual problem in the NT.’
Steve Wells (Skeptic’s Annotated Bible) thinks that believers find this longer ending ’embarrassing’. But no: they find it puzzling, but not embarrassing. Nearly every translation and modern commentary discusses the issue, agreeing with more or less certainty that the text is ‘doubtful’ in its authenticity.…
20:1 Then I saw an angel descending from heaven, holding in his hand the key to the abyss and a huge chain. 20:2 He seized the dragon—the ancient serpent, who is the devil and Satan—and tied him up for a thousand years. 20:3 The angel then threw him into the abyss and locked and sealed it so that he could not deceive the nations until the one thousand years were finished. (After these things he must be released for a brief period of time.)…
