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number relating to a man. Thus fierpov, not r'o /xsrpov, cli. xxi. 17. The particle yap , for , stimulates us, affording hope, nay, even the key, for solving the number. For immediately afterwards both the quality of the number reckoned is indicated, namely, that it is the number of a man ; and the quantity of the number reckoning, namely dclxyi. I have professedly given the more laborious calculation of this number in my German Exegesis of the Apocalypse, and indeed especially in the Introduction, § 43. I will here give some scattered fragments, by means of certain aphorisms, accompanied by their own illustrations : but I should wish the severer demonstration itself to be sought from that exegesis.
§ 1. It is correctly read in Greek s^uxocia s^xovra gg, in the neuter gender ; 1 but in Latin it is also truly read , sexcenti sexaginta sex, in the masculine gender. — Many copies have the numeral letters This in Latin is DC. LX. VI. There is no vestige of any proof to show, that, in expressing numbers, the prophets and apostles, and first copyists, made use of numeral letters. On the contrary, there is reason to suppose that they did not make use of them : for these numerals would have been a hindrance in the public reading of the lessons. Undoubtedly, whether John denoted the number by or wrote it out in full, it was necessary for the reader , who was sent from Patmos into Asia, to know, whether it was to be pronounced in the masculine or the neuter gender. It will be worth while to refer to and consider Irenceus , Book v. ch. 29 and 30. From thence you may collect, that even then the number of the beast had been described in Greek and Latin by numeral letters, and yet not by all writers. I have shown in the Apparatus, p. 826, that Irenseus wrote his works in Greek, but with this intention, that they might immediately after be translated by others into Latin ; and therefore that he had reference alike to the Latin and Greek MSS. of the New Testament. Wherefore he treated of the number of the beast in such a manner, as that it should agree at once with the Greek and Latin reading. The Alexandrian Copy in Greek, and the Latin translator, as in other places, so in this, agree with one another : for in the former there are £gaxoV/o/ s^xovra gg, and in the latter, sexcenti sexaginta sex. The translator, as I conceive, did not trouble him- self as to the sense, in which he either read it masculine in Greek, or rendered it so in Latin : but the Greek copyist seems to have
1 Ah Vulg. have gfasxo'ovo/ e%vi>couToc. eg: so Lachm. B has : so Tisch. Orig. 3,414a has C has g| ciKooia bUo, gf. Iren. 326 writes, sexcentos sexa- ginta sex. In 328 also he expressly opposes Uku, and upholds e %vjkovtoc. — E.
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