Author Archives: Dungadin

Mark of the Beast 666

I have an interesting book by an ex-Muslim terrorist who has become a Christian. In his book he puts forth a theory on what glyphs looked like which the apostle John originally wrote in Revelation 13:18 for the mark of the beast. His theory is a visual one, in which you take the Greek abbreviation for 666 found in many of the manuscripts and turn the letters on their side. So take χξς and turn the letters leftward onto their sides, and it looks quite a lot like a famous slogan in Arabic script that is central to Islam.

I am quite sure the theory is not correct, but here are snips of the four earliest Greek manuscripts of this verse that we have:

The abbreviation χ̅ξ̅ϛ̅ for 666 in Papyrus 47:


The abbreviation χ̅̅ι̅ϛ̅ for 616 in Papyrus 115:


The number 666 written out in Codex Sinaiticus (ℵ) as εξακοσιαι εξηκοντα ἕξ


The number 666 written out in Codex Alexandrinus (A) as εξακοσιοι εξήκοντα ἕξ:

I have an updated footnote on this in my Revelation PDF. Download it here.

Angels, Messengers, Priests

We can make angels happy or offended.  Translations compared.

Luke 15:10
“In just the same way, I tell you, rejoicing breaks out among the angels of God over one sinner repenting.”

1 Corinthians 11:10
“for this cause ought the woman to have a sign of authority on her head, because of the angels.”

Ecclesiastes 5:6
“Suffer not thy mouth to cause thy flesh to sin; neither say thou before the angel, that it was an error: wherefore should God be angry at thy voice, and destroy the work of thy hands?”

Daniel 4:17
“The sentence is by the decree of the watchers, and the demand by the word of the holy ones; to the intent that the living may know that the Most High rules in the kingdom of men, and gives it to whomsoever he will, and sets up over it the lowest of men.”

ECCLESIASTES 5:6

ASV
Suffer not thy mouth to cause thy flesh to sin; neither say thou before the angel, that it was an error: wherefore should God be angry at thy voice, and destroy the work of thy hands?

ISV
Never let your mouth cause you to sin and don’t proclaim in the presence of the angel, “My promise was a mistake,” for why should God be angry at your excuse and destroy what you’ve undertaken?

KJV
Suffer not thy mouth to cause thy flesh to sin; neither say thou before the angel, that it was an error: wherefore should God be angry at thy voice, and destroy the work of thine hands?

CSB
Do not let your mouth bring guilt on you, and do not say in the presence of the messenger that it was a mistake. Why should God be angry with your words and destroy the work of your hands?

CEB
Don’t let your mouth make a sinner of you, and don’t say to the messenger: “It was a mistake!” Otherwise, God may become angry at such talk and destroy what you have accomplished.

ESV
Let not your mouth lead you into sin, and do not say before the messenger that it was a mistake. Why should God be angry at your voice and destroy the work of your hands?

GW
Don’t let your mouth talk you into committing a sin. Don’t say in the presence of a ⌞temple⌟ messenger, “My promise was a mistake!” Why should God become angry at your excuse and destroy what you’ve accomplished?

HCSB
Do not let your mouth bring guilt on you, and do not say in the presence of the messenger that it was a mistake. Why should God be angry with your words and destroy the work of your hands?

NASB1995
Do not let your speech cause you to sin and do not say in the presence of the messenger of God that it was a mistake. Why should God be angry on account of your voice and destroy the work of your hands?

NIV
Do not let your mouth lead you into sin. And do not protest to the temple messenger, “My vow was a mistake.” Why should God be angry at what you say and destroy the work of your hands?

NLT
Don’t let your mouth make you sin. And don’t defend yourself by telling the Temple messenger that the promise you made was a mistake. That would make God angry, and he might wipe out everything you have achieved.

NRSVA
Do not let your mouth lead you into sin, and do not say before the messenger that it was a mistake; why should God be angry at your words, and destroy the work of your hands?

OJB
Suffer not thy mouth to lead thy basar into chet (sin); neither say thou before the Malach [of G-d], that it was a mistake. Wherefore should HaElohim be angry at thy voice, and destroy the work of thine hands?

RSV
Let not your mouth lead you into sin, and do not say before the messenger that it was a mistake; why should God be angry at your voice, and destroy the work of your hands?

NET
Do not let your mouth cause you to sin, and do not tell the priest, “It was a mistake!” Why make God angry at you so that he would destroy the work of your hands?

1 Corinthians 11:10

ASV
for this cause ought the woman to have a sign of authority on her head, because of the angels.

AMP
Therefore the woman ought to have a sign of authority on her head, for the sake of the angels [so as not to offend them].

CSB
This is why a woman should have a symbol of authority on her head, because of the angels.

ESV
That is why a wife ought to have a symbol of authority on her head, because of the angels.

HCSB
This is why a woman should have a symbol of authority on her head, because of the angels.

MOUNCE
For this reason a woman ought to have a sign of authority on her head, because of the angels.

NABRE
for this reason a woman should have a sign of authority on her head, because of the angels.

NASB1995
Therefore the woman ought to have a symbol of authority on her head, because of the angels.

NET
For this reason a woman should have a symbol of authority on her head, because of the angels.

NKJV
For this reason the woman ought to have a symbol of authority on her head, because of the angels.

NRSVA
For this reason a woman ought to have a symbol of authority on her head, because of the angels.

CJB
The reason a woman should show by veiling her head that she is under authority has to do with the angels.

CEV
And so, because of this, and also because of the angels, a woman ought to wear something on her head, as a sign of her authority.

ERV
So that is why a woman should have her head covered with something that shows she is under authority. Also, she should do this because of the angels.

GW
Therefore, a woman should wear something on her head to show she is under ⌞someone’s⌟ authority, out of respect for the angels.

GNT
On account of the angels, then, a woman should have a covering over her head to show that she is under her husband’s authority.

PHILLIPS
For this reason a woman ought to bear on her head an outward sign of man’s authority for all the angels to see.

KJV
For this cause ought the woman to have power on her head because of the angels.

NLT
For this reason, and because the angels are watching, a woman should wear a covering on her head to show she is under authority.

RSV
That is why a woman ought to have a veil on her head, because of the angels.

CEB
Because of this a woman should have authority over her head, because of the angels.

ISV
This is why a woman should have authority over her own head: because of the angels.

NIV
It is for this reason that a woman ought to have authority over her own head, because of the angels.

GA2329 end of Revelation

I discovered an interesting reading in minuscule GA 2329 in the last two verses of the Revelation of John. This was prompted by the fact that the UBS5 apparatus has a “vid” next to 2329. So I looked at the photograph of the manuscript itself.

Most manuscripts say something like “Yes, come Lord Jesus. May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with all the saints. Amen.” But 2329 skips “May the grace of our Lord Jesus” and instead says ερχου κυριε ιησου χριστε μετα των αγιων σου αμην – “Come Lord Jesus Christ with your saints. Amen.”

Here is a snip from the manuscript:

You can download my translation of Revelation with the Greek text here.

Palmer and Ligatures

In my previous post, I showed why I believed Erasmus’ 3rd and 4th editions read παρ εστιν and not περ εστιν.  I titled the previous post “Hoskier and Ligatures” and questioned his ability to read ligatures.  So this time I will title it “Palmer and Ligatures” since I was the questionable one.

The problem with ligatures is that they can be blurry or tiny in one important detail that makes all the difference.  Such is the case here.  My ligature table and chart is correct, but I was limited to the font I had.  In the font chart, the difference between παρ and περ is quite small:

Today Dr. Maurice Robinson emailed me to say I was incorrect on this.  So I set about to find other examples of Erasmus’ ligatures for παρ and περ.  It turns out that in Erasmus’ ligature for παρ, he has a relatively large alpha letter above, compared to my example in my ligature chart, which was limited by the font.  The ligature for περ in my chart has a small half moon, convexed to the left.  However, in Erasmus, this half moon is larger.  I will give examples below.

In addition, Erasmus’ tail to his Rho letters is a large loop that circles back up diagonally to the left, compared to my chart which has a small, barely discernible loop, whereas in the ligature for παρ there is a large loop.

Compounding the difficulty with ligatures is that one same author may use 3 or 4 different ligatures for the same thing.  And in fact Erasmus wrote these 3 different ways, even 2 different ways in one word, see below.

Erasmus’ superscript alpha is relatively large and far to the left.

Mat 4:18  παρὰ  in Erasmus 3:

Matt 1:19 παραδειγματίσαι in Erasmus 3:

Matt 1:19 παραδειγματίσαι in Erasmus 2:

Here I will show Erasmus’ περπερεύεται in 1 Cor. 13:4 in all five editions, from 1 to 5:

Observe that he wrote the word περπερεύεται five different ways!

My table of Ligatures is still correct, and useful. Also, I have corrected my Revelation document. In addition, you can purchase a printed paperback edition of my ligature guide.

Hoskier and Ligatures

EDIT: My next post updates this one, as I was mistaken in this post. But I will leave it for the images and information / illustration of the difficulties of reading New Testament Greek Ligatures.

As I posted before, I am currently busy updating and improving the footnotes to my translation of the Revelation of John, “The Apocalypse of John.” One of the ways I am expanding the footnotes, is specifying which Vulgate manuscripts (not just editions) support what reading. Also, where the Textus Receptus is divided, specifying which editions read what.

In this process, I have found several places in which I disagree with H. C. Hoskier’s collation of the TR editions. I do not know if he was relying on someone else’s collations, or if he looked at the original documents themselves. But the problem lies in understanding the ligatures for letter combinations that are used in Greek cursive manuscripts, including the Greek New Testament editions made by Erasmus, Beza, Elzevir, and Stephens. Now, I possess PDF copies of the original cursive manuscripts of the following “Textus Receptus” editions. All 5 Erasmus editions, the 1550 Stephanus edition, the 1598 Beza edition, the 1624 Elzevir edition, plus the Complutensian Polyglot (1514).

Revelation 17:8 variant- καιπερ εστιν

There is a famous textual variant in Revelation chapter 17 verse 8 where the Textus Receptus disagrees with all Greek manuscripts and reads καιπερ εστιν. However, I found that I disagree with Hoskier regarding the readings of Erasmus’ editions 1, 3 and 4, as follows.

First, a snip showing what Hoskier says:

Erasmus Ed. 1 (1516): Hoskier says και περ is two words, I say one:

Erasmus Ed. 3 (1522) very clearly reads καί παρ, not καί περ:

Erasmus Ed. 4 (1527) very clearly reads καί παρ, not καί περ:

See here the difference- Erasmus Ed. 5 (1535) shows the ligature for περ:

I still offer my chart of Greek cursive ligatures for free (also thanks go to Vernon Eugene Kooy, PhD for his font). These above images and data are now included in my Revelation pdf, downloadable for free.

Armageddon

The word Armageddon is found only once in the Bible, in Revelation 16:16.  “And He gathered them together at the place called in Hebrew Harmagedōn.”

There is a great variety of spellings of the word in the Greek and Latin manuscripts of the New Testament.  But there are two main divisions of the spellings: those with just Magedon, and those with the AR in front.

The earliest Greek manuscripts have αρμαγεδων.  Here is the image snipped from Codex Alexandrinus (Codex A), 5th century:

The Greek New Testament editions read as follows:

Ἁρμαγεδών  Antoniades, Robinson-Pierpont, SBL, and NA28

Ἀρμαγεδών  BG (Byzantine Greek), and TH (Tyndale House)

Ἀρμαγεδδών  TR (Textus Receptus)

The difference between the first two spellings is the “breathing mark” in front of or above the initial vowel.  The first one has a backwards apostrophe, and that is the “h” sound in Greek, so Harmagedon.”  The second and third spellings have a regular-facing apostrophe and so that has no “h” sound, thus Armagedon.

John tells us that it is a Hebrew name, so the Har would be Hebrew for mountain, and Magedō would be the place called Megiddo, mentioned in 2 Chronicles 35:22 and Judges 1:27.  So “Mountain of Megiddō.”  This was a frequent battleground because of a strategic pass and the Megiddo plain below. You can download here the book of Revelation with a fuller accounting of the readings in the Greek manuscripts.

Vulgate Manuscripts

In my ( David Robert Palmer ) translation documents, I provide a critical apparatus in the footnotes, indicating what ancient Greek, Latin and other manuscripts support which Greek text reading.  However, I have up to this point been dissatisfied with the citations of Latin Vulgate manuscripts.  I had been getting them from the footnotes of the Nestle-Aland and United Bible Societies’ editions, and also from, in the case of Revelation, on which I am currently working, H. C. Hoskier.

The problem I have with the Vulgate citations is that they are citing “editions.”  They are not citing particular manuscripts of a certain date, but editions of all of them.  For example, right now I am revising and expanding my footnotes in the Apocalypse of John.  Quite often, the Textus Receptus and the King James Version have a reading that is found in no Greek manuscript, but only in one edition of the Vulgate, the “Clementine” edition, which is indicated by the sigla vg cl in the apparatuses.  The majority reading in the same variant set may be supported by vg ww,st .  The st stands for Stuttgart, which comes from a 5th century edition.  The ww represents another critical edition, the Wordsworth-White.

Would it make a difference to you if you learned that the Clementine Vulgate dates from the year 1592, and was made for Pope Clement VIII?  But, this Vulgate too, is an edition which seeks to ascertain the earliest text, especially of Jerome, and has been updated with revisions, to a final edition in 1995.

It gets murky when I try to cite the Latin evidence.  A given Latin manuscript can be “Vetus Latina” or “Old Latin” in some books of the New Testament, while in Revelation or some other book, its text is considered “Vulgate” text.

So, for the Vulgate in Revelation I do use the sigla found in the UBS and NA footnotes for the Stuttgart, Wordsworth-White, and Clementine editions, but I also indicate when Hoskier or Tischendorf lets us know the readings of specific Vulgate manuscripts.  These are:

am – Codex Amiatinus, beginning of the VIII century
fu – Codex Fuldensis 541-546
tol – Codex Toletanus  950
dem – Codex Demidovianus XIII
harl – Codex Harleianus, second half of the IX century
lipss – 3 Leipzig Latin mss cited in Tischendorf 8th Edition

You can download my latest edition of the Revelation of John here.

Lilith?

Here are 50 Bible versions’ rendering of Isaiah 34:14

KJ21 the satyr; the screech owl
ASV the wild goat; the night-monster
AMP the hairy goat; Lilith (night demon)
AMPC the [shaggy] wild goat; the night monster
Bishops the wylde: the Lamia
Brenton satyrs: satyrs
BRG the satyr; the screech owl
HCSB wild goat. the screech owl
CSB wild goat. the night birds
CEB the goat demon, Lilith
CJB billy-goats; Lilit [the night monster]
CEV demons, creatures of the night
DARBY the wild goat; the lilith
DRA the hairy ones, the lamia
ERV Wild goats. Night animals
EHV wild goats. Creatures of the night
EXB wild goats. Night animals
Geneva the Satyr, the screech owl
GW Male goats. Screech owls
GNT demons. The night monster
ICB wild goats. Night animals
ISV goat-demons. Liliths
JUB the satyr; the screech owl
KJV the satyr; the screech owl
AKJV the satyr; the screech owl
LSB The hairy goat; the night creature
LEB a goat-demon; Lilith
MEV the wild goat; the screech owl
NOG Male goats. Screech owls
NAB satyrs; the lilith
NASB The goat. the night-bird
NASB95 The hairy goat; the night monster
NCB wild goats, the nightjar
NCV wild goats. Night animals
NET wild goats. nocturnal animals
NIRV Wild goats. Night creatures
NIV wild goats; the night creatures
TNIV wild goats, the night creatures
NKJV the wild goat; the night creature
NLV The wild goats. the night-demon
NLT Wild goats, night creatures
OJB sa’ir (wild goat), lilit (night creature)
RSV the satyr; the night hag
NRSV goat-demons; Lilith
ESV the wild goat; the night bird
TLV the goat-demon— the night monster
VOICE demons, Lilith herself
WEB the wild goat. the night creature
WYC an hairy, Lamia
YLT the goat, the night-owl