Y’know how B16 just dropped his title "Patriarch of the West"?
The place that he dropped it from was the list of official titles he has in a book known as the Annuario Pontificio ("Papal Yearbook") that the Vatican publishes every year.
If you want to look up the pope’s official titles, this is the place to go.
So how about the Seventh-Day Adventist (and others’) claim that one of the pope’s titles is Vicarius Filii Dei ("Vicar of the Son of God") and that this adds up to 666 in Latin?
Well, t’aint so!
For a start, we can quibble about whether they’ve done their Latin math right. When you put a smaller number to the left of a bigger number, it subtracts rather than adds. IV is 4 in Latin, not 6, and VICARIVS FILII DEI has a IV in it, which would pull the total down to 664. Also, if you let IL count as 49 instead of 51 then the number comes down to 662.
But we don’t need to go there, because if you look at the pope’s official titles, Vicarius Filii Dei ain’t one of ’em!
Above is the page from the 2004 Annuario listing the pope’s official titles. Because this edition is a couple of years old, it lists John Paul II as the reigning pope, and it still has Patriarca Dell’Occidente ("Patriarch of the West") listed as a title.
BUT IT DOES NOT HAVE VICARIUS FILII DEI (or its Italian equivalent; this page in the Annuario is in Italian rather than Latin).
The closest it comes is Vicario di Gesu Cristo ("Vicar of Jesus Christ"). In Latin, that would be Vicarius Jesu Christi. So what does Vicarius Jesu Christi add up to?
Let’s see. . . .
VICARIVS IESV CHRISTI = VI (6) + C (100) + IV (4) + I (1) + V (5) + C (100) + I (1) + I (1) = 218
So there you have it: The number of the pope’s main, official title (the one in big bold print in the Annuario) is 218. (Unless you want to count IV as I + V, in which case it would be 220).
Not so scary after all, huh?
Of what is 218 the mark? Surely it’s the mark of something!
It is the mark of the Successor of Saint Peter…AAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!!! 🙂
Wasn’t it one of your articles, Jimmy, that pointed out that Ellen G. White adds up to 666 in some language or another?
“Vicar of Jesus Christ Son of God” is there, Jimmy. You just can’t see it without special glasses (that are for sale for the low low price of $ 66.66, order now, supplies are limited).
But what if you count VIC as V + IC instead of VI + C? Then you’d get 216. (But then if you count the IV as I + V then you’re back to 218, but that’s just silly…)
maybe you could count the VIC as C – IV (94) and come up with a total of 206…
Sorry. VIC as C – VI would be the 94…
“Of what is 218 the mark? Surely it’s the mark of something!”
Yes, it is! If you live in Philly.
http://www.club218.com/
Well, lets see, 2*109=218
109 is prime, you can read all about it here.
And here is where you can read all about the number 2.
Wikipedia is at times great (and somewhat insane)
218 in:
binary: 11011010
base3: 22002
base5: 1333
octal: 332
base13: 13A !!The Pope’s Apartment Number?
hex: DA
base19: B9 !!Hmm..maybe Dan Brown should see this, its a reference to Benedict the ninth somehow.
base20: AI !!I get it, the pope’s an alien computer bent on world domination and the conclave called at the end of a pope’s life is just the transfer to a new body.
I added up all the numbers here, and know what I got? l0l,l0l,l0l……drum roll……get it?
Hmmm. VICARIVS FILI(I) DEI—”fili” is a better genitive for “filius” than “filii”—may not be listed in the Pontifical Yearbook as one of the Pope’s official titles, but one cannot say that it is not an accurate unofficial title. And I would suppose that all the Holy Father’s titles began as unofficial ones, only later to be adopted and made official by papal use.
Couldn’t you put all this fuss about Latin numerals under the heading of numerology/divination – which we know to be a Dark art?