666
Since there is a lot of talk about today’s date, I thought we would do a little review on the significance and some history of 666
The number 666 as a representation of evil comes from the Bible in Revelations 13:18 and 14:11 and is reverenced in a few other passages.
Revelation 13:18 (New International Version)
18This calls for wisdom. If anyone has insight, let him calculate the number of the beast, for it is man's number. His number is 666.
Revelation 14:11 (New International Version)
11And the smoke of their torment rises for ever and ever. There is no rest day or night for those who worship the beast and his image, or for anyone who receives the mark of his name."
In verse 13 above, it talks about calculating the number of the beast and specifically says it is man’s number. Over the years and recently because of publicity and movies like the “Omen”, the number 666 has become synonymous with the antichrist.
But what is some of the history behind this number?
In biblical times around the time of the prophet Daniel in the city of Babylon, the Babylonians were known to worship many gods and were considered the principle developers of astrology. They had 37 supreme gods with one being superior and ruling over the others. Their belief system involved numbers as they felt they could identify and possibly control the gods with numbers. They assigned a number to each of the lesser gods up to 36. When you add each number from 1 to 36 you get 666 and this was assigned to the supreme god.
Because there was always fear of the god’s wrath, they made amulets with 6 x 6 matrices of the numbers 1 to 36. This was done because they believed by wearing the amulets, they would provide protection. The numbers were arranged on the amulet so that all the rows, columns and diagonals summed to 111 and the total of all the rows or columns summed to 666.
Creating amulets like these seems to have continued well past the time of Jesus as archeologists have discovered amulets with Latin inscriptions indicating the Romans practiced this as well.
In addition to the Babylonians, there existed an ancient numbers game referred to as gematria. Each letter of the alphabet was given a numerical value and names could therefore be encoded as numbers.
Problems arise because many names can have the same total number depending on the scheme of how it is set up. A good example is Adolph Hitler who in certain numerical schemes circulating on the internet, his total sums to 666.
But to John’s original readers in biblical times it must have pointed to a name that was commonly known and Nero Caesar has been suggested in literature. It has been pointed out by Robert Mounce that "this solution asks us to calculate a Hebrew transliteration of the Greek form of a Latin name, and that with a defective spelling" and when transliterated directly from Latin into Hebrew, the result is 616 which may be why some manuscripts of the bible actually recorded the number as 616.
Irenaeus noticed this in the late second century and recorded it in his “Against Heresies 5.30.” So it is fairly certain that the scribes who copied the book of Revelation were familiar with gematria, and it may well have played a part in John's writing of the book of Revelation. Even so, it is unlikely to ever be proven and may never find a universal acceptance.
Other thoughts related to the numbers 666 is the relation to the common theme in Revelations and the interest in the number seven as the number of completeness or perfection. The number 666 falls short of the magic seven three times over and as William Hendriksen (1939:182) said, it defined its message as "failure upon failure upon failure."
There are many other mathematical interpretations with the numbers 666, but they are all speculation. The important thing for all to remember is the number is meant to characterize the beast; not identify the beast. If it was originally meant to point to Nero Caesar, than the mark characterizes qualities considered evil like those of Caesar whom they felt was evil.
So, historically, this practice probably started with the Babylonians in some form or fashion and has been carried through history until today.
The number 666 as a representation of evil comes from the Bible in Revelations 13:18 and 14:11 and is reverenced in a few other passages.
Revelation 13:18 (New International Version)
18This calls for wisdom. If anyone has insight, let him calculate the number of the beast, for it is man's number. His number is 666.
Revelation 14:11 (New International Version)
11And the smoke of their torment rises for ever and ever. There is no rest day or night for those who worship the beast and his image, or for anyone who receives the mark of his name."
In verse 13 above, it talks about calculating the number of the beast and specifically says it is man’s number. Over the years and recently because of publicity and movies like the “Omen”, the number 666 has become synonymous with the antichrist.
But what is some of the history behind this number?
In biblical times around the time of the prophet Daniel in the city of Babylon, the Babylonians were known to worship many gods and were considered the principle developers of astrology. They had 37 supreme gods with one being superior and ruling over the others. Their belief system involved numbers as they felt they could identify and possibly control the gods with numbers. They assigned a number to each of the lesser gods up to 36. When you add each number from 1 to 36 you get 666 and this was assigned to the supreme god.
Because there was always fear of the god’s wrath, they made amulets with 6 x 6 matrices of the numbers 1 to 36. This was done because they believed by wearing the amulets, they would provide protection. The numbers were arranged on the amulet so that all the rows, columns and diagonals summed to 111 and the total of all the rows or columns summed to 666.
Creating amulets like these seems to have continued well past the time of Jesus as archeologists have discovered amulets with Latin inscriptions indicating the Romans practiced this as well.
In addition to the Babylonians, there existed an ancient numbers game referred to as gematria. Each letter of the alphabet was given a numerical value and names could therefore be encoded as numbers.
Problems arise because many names can have the same total number depending on the scheme of how it is set up. A good example is Adolph Hitler who in certain numerical schemes circulating on the internet, his total sums to 666.
But to John’s original readers in biblical times it must have pointed to a name that was commonly known and Nero Caesar has been suggested in literature. It has been pointed out by Robert Mounce that "this solution asks us to calculate a Hebrew transliteration of the Greek form of a Latin name, and that with a defective spelling" and when transliterated directly from Latin into Hebrew, the result is 616 which may be why some manuscripts of the bible actually recorded the number as 616.
Irenaeus noticed this in the late second century and recorded it in his “Against Heresies 5.30.” So it is fairly certain that the scribes who copied the book of Revelation were familiar with gematria, and it may well have played a part in John's writing of the book of Revelation. Even so, it is unlikely to ever be proven and may never find a universal acceptance.
Other thoughts related to the numbers 666 is the relation to the common theme in Revelations and the interest in the number seven as the number of completeness or perfection. The number 666 falls short of the magic seven three times over and as William Hendriksen (1939:182) said, it defined its message as "failure upon failure upon failure."
There are many other mathematical interpretations with the numbers 666, but they are all speculation. The important thing for all to remember is the number is meant to characterize the beast; not identify the beast. If it was originally meant to point to Nero Caesar, than the mark characterizes qualities considered evil like those of Caesar whom they felt was evil.
So, historically, this practice probably started with the Babylonians in some form or fashion and has been carried through history until today.
posted by Anonymous at 6:07 AM
2 Comments:
Babe Ruth, Barry Bonds and Hank Aaron all have 666 career home runs.
And a few more after that.
I drank 666 beers in Belgium once, including Lucifer, Duvel, Satan and Beelzebub.
Barry Bonds has given himself 666 injections of dianabol (sp?), and more!
Babe Ruth ate 666 hot dogs, and more!!!
Roz Tate
PS. Who's the most awesome ancient Mesopotamian of all? Sargon of Akkad!!! What a cool name!
PSS. The real 6/6/6 occurred 2000 years ago, in AD 6. (using todays calendar)
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