Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

SIX HUNDRED SIXTY-SIX

The “human number” of the beast of the Apocalypse according to Rev. 13:18. This riddle has perplexed popular and scholarly readers alike. Because 666 is “a human number,” and because Greek and Hebrew characters had numerical values, many have tried to identify a person’s name with the number.

One popular solution has tied the name to the emperor Nero (54-68 c.e.), noting that a transliteration of Caesar Nero into Hebrew (neron qesar) yields a numerical value of 666. This approach is especially intriguing because Revelation apparently alludes to a popular myth that Nero would return after his death (Rev. 13:3; 17:8, 11; cf. Sib. Or. 4.137-39; 5.33-34, 93-110). It also explains those ancient witnesses in which the number is 616: Latin pronunciation would omit the final n of Neron, which has a numerical value of 50, leading to the value 616.

The allusion may characterize the emperor Domitian (81-96), within whose reign most scholars date Revelation, as a second Nero, associating Domitian with Nero’s brutal persecution of Roman Christians and Jews in 64. Similar identifications in Revelation label Rome as Babylon (Rev. 16:17–19:3) and apply the biblical names Balaam and Jezebel to two Christian prophets (2:14, 20).

Theologically oriented readings follow a symbolic rather than mathematical logic. In the late 2nd century Irenaeus suggested that since six precedes the perfect number seven, 666 embodies the original, present, and final revolts against God (Adv. haer. 5.28.2). Others have contrasted 666 with 888, the numerical value of Jesus in Greek.

Greg Carey

Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

SIX HUNDRED SIXTY-SIX

Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible (2000)