Is there a special meaning in this verse?

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donna369

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my mother asked about this years ago and never got an answer. now i’m asking. is there a special meaning or is it just a coincidence.

1 Kings 10:14 NIV
14 The weight of the gold that Solomon received yearly was 666 talents,
 
Seven was a number which often represented completion, fullness or perfection. Six fell just short of perfection or failed to reach completion. As an example, the 7th day was the day of rest.

Forty years I loathed that generation;
I said: “This people’s heart goes astray;
they do not know my ways.”
Therefore I swore in my anger
“They shall never enter my rest.”
(Psalm 95:10-11)

Not “entering into God’s rest” meant living perpetually in the sixth day, never coming to the fullness of completion or never reaching perfection.

King Solomon tried to multiply horses and gold and wives as a means to happiness, security and peace in spite of God’s strict warning not to do so. Hence the tripple sixes. Solomon had so much gold, horses and wives that he was really, really, really stuck in the sixth day, never reaching perfection or security, never entering into God’s rest, always restless and looking for more, never satisfied.

-Tim-
 
Hi Donna,

This passage immediately follows the one on the Queen of Sheba, who came to visit Salomon to check on his wisdom. She brought with her “gold in enormous quantitities” and countless other treasures.

The passage is also followed (v. 24) by the following :
Everyone wanted to be received by Salomon to benefit from the wisdom that God had put in his heart, and each one brought a present : gold vases and silver vases, clothîng, weapons horses and mules, and this year after year.
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So you can see that, at this point, his riches are linked to his wisdom and not to his vices.

I do not see any reason for 666 other than 666.

Verbum
 
It is quite plausible that one layer of the symbolism of the number of the beast in the book of Revelation is a reference to this Old Testament number. Perhaps we are meant to associate Solomon’s wealth with his moral and spiritual corruption, and this is in turn used as a symbol of the Beast’s moral and spiritual corruption.

Of course this does not rule out other layers of meaning, such as the famous hypothesis that the number stands for the name of Nero Caesar.
 
Verbum said:
Hi Donna,

This passage immediately follows the one on the Queen of Sheba, who came to visit Salomon to check on his wisdom. She brought with her “gold in enormous quantitities” and countless other treasures.

The passage is also followed (v. 24) by the following :

So you can see that, at this point, his riches are linked to his wisdom and not to his vices.

I do not see any reason for 666 other than 666.

Verbum
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Yes, but we have the benefit of historical perspective which allows us to know that Solomon really did go corrupt. We could interpret his great wealth as a sort of turning point, a consequence of his early wisdom but also a cause of his later folly. Even if the Old Testament authors did not connect Solomon’s wealth to his idolatry in this way that doesn’t mean the book of Revelation does not make this connection.
 
Aelred_Minor said:
Yes, but we have the benefit of historical perspective which allows us to know that Solomon really did go corrupt. We could interpret his great wealth as a sort of turning point, a consequence of his early wisdom but also a cause of his later folly. Even if the Old Testament authors did not connect Solomon’s wealth to his idolatry in this way that doesn’t mean the book of Revelation does not make this connection.
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I agree with Mr. Minor here. It is clear that the Old Testament writers connected Solomon’s wealth to his idolotry but went so far as to connect not only his wealth but his harsh rule with the entire nation of Israel’s lack of trust in God.

Solomon was wise but God himself told Israel what would happen if they asked for a king.

**He will take your sons and assign them to his chariots and horses, and they will run before his chariot.
He will also appoint from among them his commanders of groups of a thousand and of a hundred soldiers.
He will set them to do his plowing and his harvesting, and to make his implements of war and the equipment of his chariots.
He will use your daughters as ointment-makers, as cooks, and as bakers.
He will take the best of your fields, vineyards, and olive groves, and give them to his officials.
He will tithe your crops and your vineyards, and give the revenue to his eunuchs and his slaves.
He will take your male and female servants, as well as your best oxen and your asses, and use them to do his work.
He will tithe your flocks and you yourselves will become his slaves.
When this takes place, you will complain against the king whom you have chosen, but on that day the LORD will not answer you." **
(1 Samuel 8:11-19)

All of Solomon’s wealth didn’t come from just gifts. He was a harsh ruler and God himself warned Israel that this would happen if they asked for a king like the other nations.

We have to understand that God was to be Israel’s King. Unlike the other nations who had earthly kings, God himself was to lead Israel, but over and over and over Israel refused to listen, refused to trust that God would lead them out of Egypt, lead them through the desert, feed them, lead them in battle, protect them from enemies, grant them what he promised and give them rest.

Instead of trusting God and letting God rule, they wanted a king like the other nations, and God warned Israel of the consequences. Solomon’s harsh rule was simply the result of Israel’s refusal to trust God, and Solomon’s son Rehoboam was 100 times worse, even causing a civil war.

The same promise exists for us if we don’t allow God to be our King.

And the number 6 is not there by accident or coincident. 6 represents incompleteness or imperfection. 666 means extreme imperfection. On the sixth day God worked. He was not done. On the 7th day he rested. His work was done, and he blessed it. Solomon never got to that 7th day. He was perpetually in the sixth day.

-Tim-
 
With regard to 666 representing extreme imperfection, there may be something to that but we do have to remember that Indian/Arabic numerals had not been introduced to the region then, so the number six hundred and sixty-six would not have been conceptualized as three consecutive sixes to quite the degree that we think of it that way.
 
TimothyH said:
Seven was a number which often represented completion, fullness or perfection. Six fell just short of perfection or failed to reach completion. As an example, the 7th day was the day of rest.

Forty years I loathed that generation;
I said: “This people’s heart goes astray;
they do not know my ways.”
Therefore I swore in my anger
“They shall never enter my rest.”
(Psalm 95:10-11)

Not “entering into God’s rest” meant living perpetually in the sixth day, never coming to the fullness of completion or never reaching perfection.

King Solomon tried to multiply horses and gold and wives as a means to happiness, security and peace in spite of God’s strict warning not to do so. Hence the tripple sixes. Solomon had so much gold, horses and wives that he was really, really, really stuck in the sixth day, never reaching perfection or security, never entering into God’s rest, always restless and looking for more, never satisfied.

-Tim-
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i read this explanation to my mom verbatim. she has never been able to get anybody to speak on it. in fact, it seemed nobody else had ever noticed it. she was very excited about this and we both feel that it makes sense.
as for what numerals were in use at the time, the jewish people had always had a belief in certain numbers having special meaning. as well, we need to think about the time it was actually written as well as the time it writes about.
i believe it does have meaning, as the bible relies on itself throughout to drive points home. the old and the new are tied together.
 
Aelred_Minor said:
With regard to 666 representing extreme imperfection, there may be something to that but we do have to remember that Indian/Arabic numerals had not been introduced to the region then, so the number six hundred and sixty-six would not have been conceptualized as three consecutive sixes to quite the degree that we think of it that way.
Click to expand...
This and the fact that in some manuscripts the Number of the Beast is given as “six hundred sixteen” (616; hexakosioi deka hex in Greek; also written XIC) instead of “six hundred sixty-six” (hexakosioi hexēkonta hex, XΞϛ). No, it’s not “six-six-six.” :cool:
 
TimothyH said:
And the number 6 is not there by accident or coincident. 6 represents incompleteness or imperfection. 666 means extreme imperfection. On the sixth day God worked. He was not done. On the 7th day he rested. His work was done, and he blessed it. Solomon never got to that 7th day. He was perpetually in the sixth day.
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Not exactly on-topic, but a lot of stuff can have positive or negative meanings, like the lion or the snake or the morning star, which are both applied to Jesus and Satan (i.e. the Lion of Judah or the bronze serpent vs. the devil prowling about “like a roaring lion” or the “ancient serpent, called the devil and Satan”). Six can also have a positive connotation: there are after all six letters in Iēsous (Jesus’ name in Greek).
 
John 6:66–the people who quit following Jesus couldn’t get past MATERIAL reality just like Solomon couldn’t!
 
Aelred_Minor said:
Yes, but we have the benefit of historical perspective which allows us to know that Solomon really did go corrupt. We could interpret his great wealth as a sort of turning point, a consequence of his early wisdom but also a cause of his later folly. Even if the Old Testament authors did not connect Solomon’s wealth to his idolatry in this way that doesn’t mean the book of Revelation does not make this connection.
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!Also, King Solomon was famous for his great wisdom And responsible for building the great Temple to the glory of God - He was a type of Christ !
1Kings 10;14 marks the moment of his downfall, after which he was a type of
Antichrist . The horses were intended to have an army to act independently
of God, the foreign wives introduced idolatry and the vast amounts of gold
a symbol of avarice ? It paints a picture of how the very best can become the worst. The Book of Revelation makes a reference to wisdom- "Let him who has wisdom calculate the number of the beast " I think its saying that human wisdom must be connected to Jesus who is the True Wisdom !
 
Jerry-Jet said:
John 6:66–the people who quit following Jesus couldn’t get past MATERIAL reality just like Solomon couldn’t!
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I think that’s more of a lucky coincidence considering that the books of the Bible did not originally have chapter-and-verse divisions.
 
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