John’s Book of Revelations (written around 96 AD) is the last book of the New Testament and happens to be the birthplace of the infamous triple digits “666.” As stated in the New King James Version of the Bible (13:18): “Here is wisdom. Let him who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man: His number is 666.” To appreciate who the “beast” exactly is, one must consider the historical context and look back at the events that were unfolding at the time Revelations was written. John has a number of visions and within one these visions he tells us: “Then I saw a beast rising out of the sea, having seven head and ten horns, and on his horns ten crowns, and on his heads a blasphemous name” (13:1). For quite some time, Christians have associated the number 666 to be the designated number of the Antichrist, or the “devil’s number.” This is understandable. John paints a rather terrifying and vivid picture of the coming beast(s) of the apocalypse and the number that marks it.
Yet the Bible has been read, interpreted and digested in a literal sense for hundreds of years by many (still by some). But one doesn’t have to do much digging to find a more mundane explanation as to who the beast the writer is referring to actually is. “Early Christians associated Antichrist with false teachers and disciples and with apostasies and impious denials of God. Some students have identified Antichrist with the Roman Empire or with such rulers as Nero, Titus and Caligula” (The New Harper’s Bible Dictionary). Given that Nero ruled with an iron fist and had an unrelenting aversion for Judaism and early Christianity, the true identity of the beast mentioned in Revelations becomes more clear. The Roman Emperor Domitian was reigning at the time of the book’s composition, but those who suffered and were persecuted under Nero’s rule (54-68 AD) feared he would return again. To further support this notion that Nero is who the author was referring to, let’s take a look at the language used. The original text was written in ancient Greek and if you take the Greek form of the name “Nero Caesar” and write it in Hebrew, where every letter of the Hebrew alphabet has a numerical value and then “calculate” it, you get 666. This ancient system of coding is called gematria. It was used by early Christians who dared not speak out directly against their oppressors and instead opted for using numerical coding to secretly identify and voice their dissatisfaction with a tyrannical ruler.
To add further controversy, some academics argue that the numbers 616 (which appear in early Biblical texts) is fact the original number of the beast and by using the same Jewish coding system you get the Roman Emperor Caligula (37-41 AD). It has been well established that the number “7” is considered to be lucky, so to be called or associated with a “6” is never a good thing. Alternatively, the number 6 is considered a “perfect number,” which in mathematics is one that equals the sum of its divisors (being 1, 2 and 3). Furthermore, in the Genesis creation story, it took God six days to create the world and all of life and on the seventh day he rested. In China, the number 6 or a succession of 6s is favored and can be used to show respect for skilled gamers. In Chinese, 666 can also be tantamount to meaning “things go smoothly.” To all those practicing Satanists and heavy metal bands out there – you may want to rethink getting 666 tattooed on you if you haven’t already done so.
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