What Does Revelation 13:18 Mean in the King James?
Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The beast’s number is presented as something human understanding can count, not a mystery beyond discernment.
THE MEANING
The verse speaks to the reader as an invitation to discernment: even the beast’s number can be counted, and the text calls it a human number. What looms as monstrous comes within the reach of understanding, where its measure can be examined.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It dissolves the belief that a terrifying power must therefore be beyond human discernment. The verse names the number as human and places it under the act of counting.
THE ROOT
ψηφισάτω
psēphisatō
GROWS FROM
ψηφ-
psēph-
Pebble or small stone; by extension, a token used in reckoning or casting a vote.
The Greek verb translated “count” is ψηφισάτω (psēphisatō), from the word family of ψῆφος (psēphos), a pebble or voting token. The response to the beast is an act of calculation: its number is made legible as human, rather than left as nameless terror.
ALSO GROWS
psēphos: Pebble, small stone, or voting token.
ψῆφος
This noun is rendered “stone” in Revelation 2:17, where a white stone bears a new name.
psēphizō: Count, calculate, or reckon.
ψηφίζω
This is the verb used here and in Luke 14:28, where a builder counts the cost; in this verse, the reckoning is directed at the beast’s number.
THE PATTERN
Wisdom meets imposing claims by testing and counting them until their measure becomes visible.
For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it?Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world.The simple believeth every word: but the prudent man looketh well to his going.THE THREAD
He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna, and will give him a white stone, and in the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it.The verb translated “count” shares its word family with ψῆφος (psēphos, “pebble” or “stone”), the noun rendered “stone” in Revelation 2:17. The call to count the beast’s number thus echoes beside the white stone bearing a received name, two distinct images joined by one Greek word family.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us