Apocalypse at Waco—Could the Tragedy Have Been Averted? - The BAS Library
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Apocalypse at Waco—Could the Tragedy Have Been Averted?

FBI spurns advice of Bible scholars

By James D. Tabor

The government doesn’t understand, I said to myself as I watched the drama of the Branch Davidians at Waco, Texas, unfold on CNN day after day. Was there anything I could do to help, I wondered. As my frustration mounted, I decided to offer my services to the FBI, which by this time had taken over for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. It was clear to me that the drama at Mt. Carmel, as David Koresh called his Branch Davidian compound, was being played out as a fulfillment of the New Testament Book of Revelation—and the […]

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Footnotes

1.

The Hebrew letters are rsq ÷wrn (neron kasar), which yield: n=50; r=200; w=6; ÷=50; q=100; s=60; r=200. In some Greek manuscripts of Revelation the number is 616, which would be neron spelled without the final ÷, which has the value of 50.

2.

Roy W. Hoover, “How the Books of the New Testament Were Chosen,” BR 09:02.

3.

See Steven Friesen, “Ephesus: Key to a Vision in Revelation,” BAR 19:03.

Endnotes

1.

See Leviticus 8:10–13, in which Aaron is anointed by Moses as the first priest of Israel, and 1 Samuel 10:1 in which Saul becomes the first king.

2.

See Josephus. The Jewish War 6.310–314.