Is the 'Number of the Beast' an Ancient Riddle?

mark of Satan. In the New Standard American Bible, the Book of Revelation thirteen eighteen reads, here is wisdom, Let him who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, For the number is that of a man, and his

number is sixty sixty six. From that biblical prophecy, it sure sounds like sixty six six is u's lucky number, But when you dig deeper into the Bible and its historical context, there's evidence that the author of Revelation was using numbers to send his early Christian readers a coded message. In the Bible, the beast refers to an evil looking creature that the author of Revelation saw rising out of

the earth. In an apocalyptic vision Revelation thirteen eleven through eighteen, this creature could perform miraculous things, a demand that everyone be marked with its name or number, to buy and sell anything, and kill those who did not worship it. Over the centuries, scholars have wondered whether this beast referred to someone who has come and gone, has yet to come, or to no one person in particular. The Book of Revelation was originally written in Greek, the language of the

Christian world in the first and second century CE. At that time, they weren't using the numbers that we use today. Our Arabic numerals are based on Indian mathematics that were already in the works back then, but wouldn't be fully developed for another few centuries. Instead, to represent numbers, each letter of the Greek and Hebrew alphabet was given a numeric value. For example, alpha equals one, beta equals two, and Pi equals eighty. The Greek speaking Christians reading Revelation

would have been very comfortable reading letters as numbers. They also would have been comfortable turning numbers back into letters thanks to a practice called isopsophy. Isopsophy loosely means equal in numeric value. It was a popular way of playing with words in the first century and thereabouts. The trick was to add up the numeric value of the letters in one word and then find another word or phrase that added up to the same number. Numerically equal words

or were thought to have a special connection. One of the best known for century isoce fees comes from the Roman historian Spetonius quote a calculation new Nero his mother slew. In this case, the emperor's name Nero equals one thousand and five, which is the exact value of the phrase his mother slew. Four Romans who suspected that this ruthless emperor had murdered his mother. This isoce fee was proof. Archaeologists have discovered ancient Roman graffiti that substituted numbers for names.

For the article, this episode is based on How Stuff Works. Spoke with Thomas Weyment, a classics professor at Brigham Young University. He said, there's graffiti at Smyrna and Pompeii that says I love her whose number is one thousand, three hundred and eight. That's pretty common and hopefully everyone did their math correctly and could make the connections. Some Biblical scholars believe the author of Revelation intended for six sixty six to be an isosophe to be solved by his first

century readers. A Wayman explained, the author says, this is the number of a man, which is a classic isosophy formula. Christians would have known right away. This is a coded message. Revelation is famously cryptic. In apocalyptic writings, an angel or other heavenly messenger often reveals their meaning through coded speech. Weyman said, as a reader, you're seeing something through the eyes of the visionary, and he's telling you. You need to make sense of this. That's part of your experience

and participation in the vision. According to most scholars, six six six was a coded reference to Nero, a beastly emperor who brutally persecuted early Christians in the Roman Empire. To solve the isosophy and equate in your o to six sixty six, you must use the full name Caesar Nero in Greek, then pourt it to Hebrew. The transliteration of Caesar Nero to Hebrew gives you letters that add

up to six sixty six. Interestingly, some early manuscripts of Revelation have the number written as six one six instead of six sixty six. The standard explanation is that Caesar Nero is written differently in Greek versus Latin, which was another language spoken by early Christians. In the Latin version, the letters only add up to six one six. Haustuffworks also spoke with James M. Hamilton, a professor of biblical

theology at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. He sees powerful symbolism in the repetition of the number six for a person on a spiritual journey. He explained that in biblical symbolism, seven represents completeness or perfection, and only Jesus Christ achieved true perfect so if Jesus had a symbolic number, it would be seven seven seven. Hamilton thus sees the number of the beast as a warning sign for Christians to

beware of Satan's quote cheap imitation of Christ. Hamilton said, that's the best Satan can do, one short of perfection. For Hamilton, those false Christs raised by Satan could take the form of a corrupt emperor like Nero, or even modern cultural norms that rebel against God. In God's sight, he said, if participating in that culture entails worshiping false gods or denying something that the Bible teaches Christians need to say, I'm not going to take the number or

name of the beast. Today's episode is based on the article six sixty six meaning Angel number or the Devil's digits on HowStuffWorks dot Com. Written by Dave Ruse. Brainstuff is a production of iHeartRadio in partnership with HowStuffWorks dot Com, and it's produced by Tyler Klang. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.