The number 666 is the number of the beast in Revelation, the last book of the Bible:

This calls for wisdom: let the one who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man, and his number is 666. (Revelation 13:18)

The “beast” in Revelation is a symbol for a person or organization which persecutes the people of God. For years, Bible scholars have puzzled over what the number means. It has been linked with an extraordinary array of organizations and people including the Ku Klux Klan, Pope Leo X, Martin Luther, and Henry Kissinger!

Some interpretations

Many of the suggested interpretations use the numerical value of letters. For example, in Greek the first nine letters represented the first nine natural numbers: a=1, b=2, g=3, d=4, e=5, etc. The second nine letters represent 10,20,…,90, and the remaining letters are used to denote 100,200,… A similar system exists for Hebrew letters.

  1. An early suggestion along these lines involved the name “Nero Caesar“. Nero was the perpetrator of extreme persecution of the Jews and Christians, burning them as human torches in his garden parties and forcing them to fight to the death against lions and other wild animals. If you write the Latin name “Nero Caesar” in Greek, then transliterate it into Hebrew (using a rather unusual spelling) and add up the letters, you get 666! Hmmm. Perhaps a little contrived. Furthermore, it is likely that Revelation was written 30 years after Nero died.
  2. It has also been noted that “The Latin Kingdom” when written in Greek totalled 666. The Latin or Roman empire was often persecuting Christians and Jews.
  3. A related idea which has gained widespread popularity was proposed by Irenaeus in the second century after Jesus. He suggested the magic word was “Lateinos“. In Greek, the letters of the word sum to 666. However, an unusual spelling is required: it would normally be spelt without an e. Those favouring this idea see the word as a symbol of the Roman empire or Roman Catholic church, both of which have become famous for their attempts to destroy alleged heretics.
  4. Another idea implicating the Roman church involves the Pope’s Latin title “VICARIVS FILII DEI” which means “in place of the Son of God”. Adding those letters which are Roman numerals gives V+I+C+I+V+I+L+I+I+D+I = 5+1+100+1+5+1+50+1+1+500+1 = 666.
  5. Other scholars have noted that the numerical value of “Jesus” in Greek is 888 (again using a faulty spelling). So each digit is one more than the number 7 which appears to symbolise perfection in the Bible. So 666 is thought to be a contrast to Jesus and intended to symbolize someone falling short.
  6. More information along these lines is at Wikipedia

What does the Bible say?

Apart from the number 666, the Bible describes the beast as having great power over the whole world, being worshipped by many people, blaspheming God, persecuting God’s people, and controlling trade. In Revelation 17, the beast is ridden by a prostitute! It is ultimately destroyed by Jesus Christ when he returns to earth.

Usually the best way to interpret the Bible is to allow it to intepret itself. There are three other references to the number 666 in the Bible. One (Ezra 2:13) says that Adonikam had 666 descendants in a census taken in about 538 B.C. This is probably irrelevant. The other two (1 Kings 10:14 and 2 Chronicles 9:13) are almost identical:

The weight of the gold that Solomon received yearly was 666 talents.

Solomon was a great king of Israel from 960 B.C. to 931 B.C. While this reference appears rather obscure, it is interesting that Solomon was involved in extensive trading of gold, silver, gems, ivory, cinnamon, spices, wine, oil, wheat, cattle, sheep, horses and chariots (see 1 Kings 10 and 2 Chronicles 9). These are almost exactly the same as the things traded by the prostitute who rides the beast (see Revelation 18:11-13). It is possible then, that the number 666 was intended to be a clue pointing to the extensive international trade network of the beast, similar to that of Solomon thousands of years before.

Whichever, if any, of these interpretations is correct, the main point of the passage is clear enough. It was written to encourage God’s people in the face of persecution and to prepare them for the second coming of Jesus when he will overthrow the governments of the world and set up a new worldwide government.

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34 Responses to What does the number 666 mean?

  1. US sister says:

    666 is a man’s number (imperfect to the 3rd degree) 7 is perfection

  2. The bible I think a theory is the Peter and the authors who wrote revelation misunderstood what beast meant, such as woman. See, 666 means Read Write, no execute in group, account, and other or world. Peter is hallucinating like but he was seeing the future, as this planet I am on is 2969i stands for iteration, part of the juliet set, a fractal that I saw after my stroke, and in 2006 and 2007 and 2014 see a soul can’t just exist in one time and we don’t own our own souls, souls are what makes creation possible. The life energy is a soul, and souls can exist anywhere and all the time in past, present and future. Therefore, your soul is a collective energy packet, just think of tcp/ip, a brain packet our brains is life and it’s almost magic to me for using minerals to solve a question I had with god, and I think I am going to write more into my books for the old mighty of god, for my sequence of finding God, and then Country, and then family, and I lost my family and learing country for the chaotic trip I did not controlled with medically proscribed drugs, the manic and disasters of what I did. Before that Day , august 6th, 2014, the day my wife made the decision to move without me the day I returned tried to, return a cane for ST Vincent Hospitals who took me off of next of kin affecting a future for my father who I was totally dissed by the nursery and it sucked. I blew up, and did 6 felonies, and when i was in jail for 13 days straight with no one to talk to except for my friends, Robbin Williams whom i was being chocked like feeling when I found him in my cell. He talked he said you must be purgatory after he freaked out looking at my face in the toilet mirror thing that have in Jail. And he is still here but I gave him only 777 access Read write and execute when I need help, not to make me like a joke, or an actor but I have issues with acting I am real, and speak the truth, i’ve seen people around me act and to be a good actor I guess you have to be a good lier and lieing cheating, and stealing is against my rules and i stood by the three rules until I was baptized Catholic easter 2011, and confirmed catholic. Now I haven’t been doing mass and time has come past and god is mad at me for allowing my feelings interfere with others and myself of misangment. I see his might god that is, in the aruguments that my kids have been dealing with my wife who is living in my dad’s rental home, and hte house I own has no kids. Anyway, the beast is woman, and Hillary Clinton might win for first female president, and she will have 777 rights, and 666 is all I give actors like Robbin Williams for now, I gave 777 or 776 to the kings and they took control of my vessel, Charlie’s vessel and broke my hand and destroyed my house, I was not on any drugs with this involvement and I had just read access and felt that pain, but write access was disabled on that day, August 6th, and execute privileges were denied and I ended up trying to sacrafice my body by acting like car jacking but really I gave a blirt of life to this fellow who was on the other side of this reality, on earth I gave him my car keys to the Subaru which now a chick a thief, a slut has my car keys and car, and I am waiting now for hours to report my car stolen. Woman is 666 in the old testatment and new testment, and my third testament of after revelations. The end of the story and earth will soon become hell, and we haven’t built the machine for the doors operatoin system whihc is a trinary octal system a quatum, computer that runs on radacative waste and it’s decay. That is the only thing that iteration planet fun is good for, the rest of the magic tricks must be turned off before we run out of time to solve a problem with a super nova that is to close to comfort that is 86 ly if less, that is to much radiation and our atmosphere will die, and we will be like the moles in my back yard, inside the earth presured life and no fruit, alge meals, and life will be hell until we find another planet.

    Revelations in the bible tells me this through the sacred scrollls. And holy bible means holy as in the brain for people who listen to voices, they have schizophrenia well, that is souls squeeze inside those holes ,and you forgive your trespassers who trespass against you and not lead you to ..well. I can’t forgive my tresspassers who got 777 writes on my body. Doors, operation system is all about permissions.. for everlasting life, as we burn souils, we burn knowledge, and we need that knowledge available for who is going to fix the van allan radiation belt.

  3. robert lee mclendon says:

    the meaning of 666 is this the first 6 represents man and satan, add the next you get 12 which means unity add the last you get 18 which means change. when the false messiah comes forth he will use the name YAHSHUA not jesus. the mark of the beast will not be forced as most think but offered as the kingdom the main leaders in religion know this and are all about the show. what ever you faith is do not accept the mark of the beast. 12unitedtribes

  4. Rico says:

    The bible says the beast is the 8th king. The current pope is the 8th since vatican was instated.

    • J.Correa says:

      Hey lets try some algebra. x/6 x 6/6. x=6. Ummmm? a forth 6. 6x6x6x6=1296.
      1296 days or approximately 3.5 years. I think the best course of action is, repent and give
      fruits worthy of repentance. We do not know when the Lord is coming. And yes. Its a number of man or human, imperfect. Man without God is a Royal mess.

  5. J.Correa says:

    Sorry Rico it was intended for the general public.
    Hey lets try some algebra. x/6 x 6/6. x=6. Ummmm? a forth 6. 6x6x6x6=1296.
    1296 days or approximately 3.5 years. I think the best course of action is, repent and give
    fruits worthy of repentance. We do not know when the Lord is coming. And yes. Its a number of man or human, imperfect. Man without God is a Royal mess.

  6. J.Correa says:

    I use to think that the Roman Catholic was the Babylon described in revelation. This great city of the future, is more like the United States of America. Ugly uh? Think about it for a while. And the Popes the Antichrist. Food for thought.

  7. Judith Ann Olive Maness says:

    6 is the number of man. The bible is about polarity: two trees, two seeds, two women, two cities. One is diametrically opposed to Christ Jesus. One is adversarial. LIke positive and negative, one cannot exist without the other. Serpent’s seed vs God’s seed. Old Covenant Jerusalem vs New Covenant Jerusalem. Hagar vs Sarah. Paul explains this polarity in Gal chapters 3 & 4. The law is your ADVERSARY. Those of faith have the seal of God in their foreheads vs those of the law who had the mark of their foreheads and hands. Man built the temple in the image of man and brought man’s wages into it. The law forbid making images of things in heaven and earth and worshiping them. Those ‘idols of wood and stone’ were worshiped instead of their Messiah. The ‘cube’ of the temple is a 3 dimensional city vs the cube of the heavenly city,Jerusalem. Amulets worn by pagan priests contained the magic cube of numbers on one side that totaled 666. Man has always thought he could bring his own wages to God to be justified, when God said we are ‘justified FREELY’ by faith and faith alone. 666 is the mark of the beast and those who have it do not enter heaven. Sacrifices and offerings are an abomination. THEY were dead men walking. Vessels of God’s wrath (the law brings wrath) . The Whore of Babylon.

    Isaiah 55:1 “Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost.

    Proverbs 23:23 Buy the truth, and don’t sell it. Get wisdom, discipline, and understanding.

  8. David Holland says:

    Papyrus P115, one of the oldest copies of Revelation actually shows the number to be 616.

  9. Anwar Brilliant Osborne says:

    6th Vial, 6th Trump, 6th Seal

  10. Timothy Sealander says:

    6 seal 6 trump 6 vial. Read the book the 7 angles of seals trups vials.

  11. Lucy Brown says:

    The word mark is in reference to an indentured slave who would choose his mark the mark is your masters mark. You are either a slave for Christ or a slave to the world and Satan. There is no trickery just a simple choice.

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