The antagonist, Carpathia, has a fondness for the number 216. It’s the number of his suite, office number and of his plane. Two characters in the series even ask the main character, Rayford Steele, if he’s “figured out why Carpathia likes 216 so much”.
The books have yet to explain the significance. Do you know? Perhaps a chapter and verse of a book in the Bible?
I think you’ve hit the nail on the head. Remember, the books are very Christian. Just check out various 2:16s and find which one suits the character best. Be sure to read the NIV version, though, because I doubt the Left Behind author would have much truck with King James.
Surg, why?
What’s the difference between King James and NIV?
The NIV and KJV are two different translations. The KJV was written around 1610 and therefore uses language that is harder for modern readers to follow. The NIV was developed between 1965 and 1973. Both are translated from the oldest and/or best texts available at the time they were written.
But the meaning of the two texts will be the same. And the verse numbering does not change from translation to translation, so that won’t be an issue either.
I would say to use whatever Bible you prefer. There are many others in addition to those two.
The difference between the KJV and the NIV is that the KJV was written in 1611 or something, and is full of “thou” and such. The NIV is a 20th century translation that placed some pointed emphasis on being readable to current English speakers.
Having read a good amount of both, I can assure you that in the vast majority of verses, there is no difference in actual meaning between the two. I doubt that this 2:16 would have much difference either.
Revelation 2:16 (I got this from Bible.com) is: Repent therefore! Otherwise, I will soon come to you and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth.
It’s referencing wicked people living among the church.
Rev. 21:6 is: He said to me: "It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To him who is thirsty I will give to drink without cost from the spring of the water of life.
So if this is the bad guy’s number, I don’t think it makes a lot of sense to be referencing these verses. Huh.
P.S. Do these books strike you all as being as badly written as they do me? I couldn’t get halfway through the first one. It sounded like it came out of a college freshman writing class. It made Tom Clancy seem eloquent.
The first one was kind of interesting, but then it bogged down. The later books read like they were written by someone who lives in a bunker in Idaho and wears camo. They’ve dragged in just about every survivalist and paramilitary shibbolith there is. No doubt the series will end with the return of Jesus to “rule the nations with an iron hand”; presumably meaning that all the doctors that perform abortions will be executed, and all the gays and lesbians will be “cured” (or else).
Someone ought to write a book or series where under the reign of the Antichrist the Fundies set up their own American Taliban and offer their heartfelt prayers of thanks to God for it.
Another difference is that the King James version was commissioned by King James. And James was gay. The King James Bible is obviously evil. Simple enough, I should think. :rolleyes: Many fundamentalist Christians object to the King James version for that reason.
I’ve also found that the NIV clears up a lot of the more ambiguous passages. Like the bit with Lot. Where Jimmy says the men of the town say “that we may know him”, the NIV says “that we may have sex with him”. Or, at least, the version my not quite fundamentalist friend gave me says that.
Admittedly, I haven’t actually read the books or anything, (and really don’t intend to) but it isn’t going to stop me from making the WAG that 216 is 6 cubed, or 3 sixes … but a covert way of writing them.
Revelation 13:18
-amarinth
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Oh, pah-tooey, Surg. I think James I (James, VI of Scotland) wasn’t liked by Fundies because he hated Puritans.
Then the Gunpowder Plot of 1605 happened and James hated Roman Catholics, too. How about that? Two religious factions in his country and he was against both of 'em. He also preached the divine right of kings and dissolved Parliament in 1611 to prove he didn’t need it.
Plus he was extravagant and played favorites in court. James I was an overall unpopular guy. Sexual preference didn’t need to play a role (although as father of 3 sons and 4 daughters it seems he might be closer to BI than gay).
[/hijack]
In Kabbalistic Judaism, the name of God is 216 letters, IIRC.
That was my thought, because 6x6x6=216. Kind of silly if you ask me, but, well, that’s my thought on the answer. If you really want to know, you can hit up the message boards over at leftbehind.com . Someone over there will know the answer, I’m sure. And while you’re over there, cause some trouble for me, eh?
I haven’t read the Left Behind books, and have no real plans to, but I’m sure the “6X6X6=216” explanation is the correct one. (“216” being a handier number to use than “1.03144248 x 10[sup]28[/sup]”.)
But what’s this about “fundies” not liking the KJV? Sure, your more modernistic fundies use the NIV or whatever, but there’s a more hidebound wing of fundamentalist Protestantism which in fact clings to “King James Onlyism” (See, for example, 7 Reasons why you should only use the Authorized Version!!) Of course, there’s probably been something of a backlash among non-KVJ-Onlyist fundamentalists who, tired of being called Dupes of the Papist Whore of Babylon and Handmaidens of Satan by the KJV-Only crowd, may have transferred some of that enmity to the KJV itself.
Lumpy: *Someone ought to write a book or series where under the reign of the Antichrist the Fundies set up their own American Taliban and offer their heartfelt prayers of thanks to God for it. *
Ursula K. LeGuin’s new SF book The Telling has something like that as part of its historical background (not very much detail about it, though).
I have to confess that I have no idea what an American Taliban is.
And I never heard that James was gay or anything close. What’s the evidence for this?
I might also point out that even if it’s true, it has no bearing for me on, well, anything. If the Bible’s true, it is so independently of whatever James was doing on the sly.
Taliban: the name of the party in Afghanistan through which the most fundamentalist and extremist mullahs govern that country, demanding adherence to a cultural view of Islam that is not actually found in the Qu’ran.
American Taliban: one (of many) names given to the idea that the most extreme elements of the Religious Right might gain control of the U.S. government and impose a theocracy that demands adherence to a a cultural interpretation of Christianity that is not actually found in the Bible. (Margaret Atwood used that scenario as the basis for her novel A Handmaid’s Tale, although she did not refer to the theocracy as a “Taliban.”) Religious Right proponents who declare that this is a “Christian” nation and everyone else, here, is only allowed to exist at the suffrance of the “real” American Christians feed these notions. It is a dystopian plot device that is unlikely to ever come to pass. (Sinclair Lewis included an early version of that notion in It Can’t Happen Here in 1936.)
I am not sure where Surgo came up with his statement regarding opposition to the KJV (rumors regarding King James to the side). I have never met a Fundamentalist who opposed the KJV. A few may prefer other translations, personally, but every one I have met holds the KJV in respect.
The Taliban is the oppressive Islamic regime(thoecracy) in Afghanistan. The fundies(I am one, and take no offense at the term) take the Bible literally, so too does the Taliban. One of the most well known aspects is their policies towards women. Women are allowed no jobs, no property, and no rights, essentially. A house with women living in it may have no clear windows(they have been covered/blocked in all such houses). Women may not see a male doctor, but no women can practice medicine. Women must be fully covered when they venture outside. They look at the world through a piece of mesh in their outfit(I don’t remember the correct name right now.) The penalty for many supposed ‘offenses’ by women can be death.
Do a search for “Taliban”, and you will get numerous hits with information.
Another good book that shows a potential example of an “American Taliban” is The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood. Excellent book.
and don’t forget the theocracy set up by the Prophet, Nehimiah Scudder, in a book by Heinlein (title escapes me at the moment.)
“If This Goes On–”. More of a novella than a book; you can find it anthologized in The Past Through Tomorrow. Incidentally, it was written in 1940, well before the rise of the most recent incarnation(s) of the Religious Right.
I started the first book, got into the whole sci-fi “where did they go” thing, and finaly droped about a third of the way through. I’m a pretty run-of-the-mill christian, through probably a little more intelligent and skeptical than many, but this book really started alienate itself from me with its underlying “you better listen or you’ll be screwed like these people” vibe. I couldn’t appreciate the message behind the story as presented in this context.
So please humor me, what about this book did those of you who seem to like it find so interesting? Is there something that us twice-a-year-ers have missed that gives this book any real literary value outside of it’s fundi-christian demographic?
Well, I don’t know how the rumor got started, but I recall at least one thread where homosexuality was discussed and King Jimmy was brought up as a gay man that was forced to be straight. So I’m not alone there.
And, tracer, you just don’t know the right kind of fundamentalists. I’ve met a few kooks that thought he was the antichrist, and recall a few sites that say much the same thing. Not exactly “many”, but they’re not necessarilly alone.