Smoodock's Blog

John concludes chapter 13 of the Apocalypse by calling his readers’ attention to a system of numbering which could be used to identify the beast. However, the text isn’t very clear about which beast John intends for us to identify, using this system. Personally, I believe the second beast, or the false prophet, is the one who needs to be identified. He seems to be the key to knowing what is taking place in the rest of the chapter.

Notice that John tells his readers that, if they had wisdom, they could count the number of the beast in order to identify who he might be. Perhaps, this has been one of the most abused of the New Covenant Scriptures. People have used it to falsely accuse certain men of being the beast, even though there is nothing in Scripture that would show the beast is a man. The number is 666 and many formulas have been contrived in order to identify this one or that, either in history or in our own times and thereby establish the logic of one’s tale or doctrine.

In ancient times the letters of the alphabet were used as numbers. Each letter referred to a specific number. This is clearly understood in our modern use of Roman numerals. The letter “I” stands for the #1 and three “I’s” would be the #3. The letter “V” refers to the #5 and “X” to the #10 etc. This system is still in use today, but one cannot use Roman numerals to count the number of the beast, because the language of the Bible was written in Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek. Letters in one or more of those alphabets would point to the beast, and since John wrote the Apocalypse in Greek, he probably means to use the Greek language to count and identify the one to whom he points.

Secondly, John tells us it is “the number of a man” (Revelation 13:18), but this doesn’t necessarily mean it points to an individual. It means it is a human number. That is, the number points to things or something concerning man, not a literal beast that had seven heads and ten horns.

An interesting book, which I read (more than once) that concerns this very thing, is Theomatics.[1] It shows how a number of phrases in the New Testament that have a kind of connection to one another also have the same numerical value in the Greek. The authors have a special chapter on the number 666 and list a great many phrases that have a common connection, and they all tally up to 666 or one of its multiples (like 10 x 666 = 6660) within a plus or minus 2. That is anything between 664 and 668 would be considered within the 666 family phrase. For example:

• 2Thessalonians 2:9 – (lying) wonders is τέρασιν in the Greek and adds up to 666 (but all the texts don’t have the final letter “nu” (ν), but the received text does have that letter).
• Revelation 18:3 – “merchants of the earth” is οἱ ἔμποροι τῆς γῆς in the Greek and adds up to 666 (but without counting “the” τῆς).
• Revelation 17:15 – “where the harlot sits” is ἡ πόρνη κάθηται in the Greek, and adds up to 665, which falls within the plus or minus two rule.
• Revelation 17:17 – “the kingdom” is τὴν βασιλείαν in the Greek and adds up to 667, also falling within the plus or minus two rule.
• Revelation 12:12 – “great wrath” is θυμὸν μέγαν in the Greek and adds up to 668, still applicable in the plus or minus 2 rule.
• Colossians 3:6 – “wrath of God is ὀργὴ τοῦ Θεοῦ, and this adds up to 665 (but without counting “the” τοῦ; also the plus or minus 2 rule is applicable.

Of course, nothing here is written in stone, but it does seem very interesting that the phrases mentioned above, not only have a spiritual connection to one another, but also add up to the same number within a variance of plus or minus 2. How common would that be in the writing of any other book? I need to confess that I do not have the wisdom to say definitely what 666 means, but the study done by the authors of Theomatics is intriguing. Notice that the false prophet is the one who does these “lying wonders” (2Thessalonians 2:9) in order to deceive, and the “merchants of the earth” (religious leaders in the land of the Jews) have gotten rich through her deceptions (Revelation 18:3). The waters “where the harlot sits” (Revelation 17:15) points to all the people in the world that she influences and deceives. The “great wrath” of the devil (Revelation 12:12, that expressed itself in the beast’s persecution of the saints who refused to bow to the false prophet’s deceptions during the first century AD, culminated in the saints’ vindication, when “the wrath of God” (Colossians 3:6) was poured out upon their persecutors.[2]

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[1] The book Theomatics was written by Jerry Lucas and Del Washburn.

[2] If you wish to count the Greek letters for yourself see: The Greek Qabalah: Alphabetical Mysticism and Numerology in the Ancient World, page 22 for a list of the Greek alphabet and each letter’s corresponding number.