Why does everyone think that 666 is the number of the beast? Most bibles should have a footnote that states that older manuscripts said 616. Any that don't are obviouly lacking. How did such confusion come to exist, and which one is actually correct? I personally think that older manuscripts are to be more trusted than the comparably newer ones.
Note of interest. In the series Left Behind, which by the way has heresy slipped neatly in the cracks, they use the number 216, being the cube of 6 to correspond to the beast's number. A door in my father's garage randomly has that number imprinted on it. Also my sister thought it was super bad that her three names each have 6 letters.
the thing is, they say that the son of 666 is 333. THis is brought up in voodoo culture. and the deity of bad luck and death is Devallia and it's number is 666. Devallia and devil sound a lot the same, and as you can see this superstition reaches across almost all cultures. I believe it is a metaphorical reckoning used as a teaching aide to make people into good people. because how coincidental is the number 666 appearing in a poly-deity context also existing in a single deity religion. Obviously when read between the lines, the beast doesn't actually appear rather it just a metaphor for when a judgment day, if that does actually appear
