The Number Of His Name: Interpreting 666
Understanding The Devil's Number In It's Cultural Context
The Number Of His Name: Interpreting 666
Introduction
The Book of Revelation is often viewed today as a book on eschatology. It follows a man named John addressing 7 churches in Asia relating to prophecies about the second coming. It is often sidelined in Christian circles due to some of its stranger prophecies. One such strange prophecy gives us the now-famous number 666. It’s written,
“17 And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.
18 Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; his number is Six hundred threescore and six.” (Revelation 13:17-18, KJV).
This number has given rise to numerous conspiracies. For example, all barcodes produced have the number 3666 encoded into them. Some have taken this to be a sign of Satanic interference in commerce as Revelation predicts.1 This has had an effect on the lives of some workers. The store Hobby Lobby, being owned by Christian Evangelicals is thought to avoid bar scanners for this very reason2
There have been similar speculations surrounding the energy drink, Monster. Each can has a green scratch logo. However, some have claimed that this symbol is secretly not a scratch mark but rather three of the 6th letter Vav. Using the system of gematria (this will be explained soon) Vav gets the value 6. Three vavs makes for 6 6 6—clear proof to some of the satanic regime that secretly controls commerce.
However, we must wonder, what does 666 actually mean? Is it truly some satanic number that is thrown on products to attempt to… be evil? Or can we ascertain what 666 meant in the initial culture that Revelations was written in?
Revelations in Its Cultural Context
Although many view the book of Revelation as a book about the future, many Historical scholars view Revelation as being about the past (that was at the time the present). Most date revelation to the 1st century and place it in the genre of apocalyptic literature3. Although in colloquial English an apocalypse refers to the end of the world, in scholarship apocalyptic literature relates more so to God unveiling certain hidden information to a prophet. Apocalypses are also often highly symbolic.
With this information what can we learn about revelation? Many scholars hold it is a product of first-century culture under the Roman Empire and a critique of Rome at time4
What is Gematria
Every culture has its codes. Modern society has its Caesar Ciphers, base 64s, and A1Z26s. Ancient society had (among many) Gematria.
Gematria, similarly to A1Z26 turns a word into a number. It works as follows: the first letter is worth one, the second two, and so on until the 10th letter. At the 10th letter, letters begin increasing in increments of 10 (10th is 10, 11th is 20th, etc.). This lasts until the 20th letter; at that point, the value increases by 100. It’s important to note that each letter doesn’t represent a digit. Rather you add up the value of the letters to reach a total value5
We see examples of this in archeology. In Pompeii, we find graffiti that reads “I love the woman whose number is 545” and “I love the woman whose number is 51”. In Ephesus, we find inscriptions that read similar phrases such as “The beauty of the woman whose number is 1,475 is remembered”5.
Enter, Nero
If Revelation is truly a polemic against Rome then it is quite rational that Nero, the Roman emperor who was worse to Christians would make an appearance. Through Gematria perhaps it’s provable that Nero appears through the “Mark of the Beast”. In Greek (the lingua franca of the time) Nero's name is “ΝΕΡΩΝ ΚΑΙΣΑΡ” (NERON KAISAR). When one transliterates this into the Hebrew abjad it becomes נרון קסר (NRVN QSR). Now let us apply Gematria to this phrase. נ-50, ר-200 ו-6, נ-50, ק-100, ס-60, ר-200. If we add all these numbers, (50+200+50+100+60+200) we receive 666.
Now this alone is not proper proof. It is possible to make all sorts of nonsense through gematria. Stridor of Sardis displays this in his Epigrams, more specifically Epigram XII.6:
“The numerical value of the letters in πρωκτὸς (anus) and χρυσὸς (gold) is the same. I once found this out calculating casually.”
Clearly, we need more evidence to make a connection through Gematria. However, the text makes it clear that we are supposed to use Gematria. This is seen through quotes from our verses which call 666 “number of his[the beast’s] name” implying that 666 is a stand-in for a name.
Some ancient manuscripts serve as the final piece of evidence needed. In some manuscripts, 666 is not written. Rather 616 is the Mark Of The Beast to these scribes.7 Why? Well, let us assume 666 is a representation of NRVN QSR. The N has a value of 50. If one was dropped it would explain our change. The dropping of an N makes sense when one looks at the Latin spelling of “Neron” which drops the N. Scribes familiar with the Latin translation as opposed to the Greek would have to subtract 50 to reflect the lack of N. This gives strong evidence to suggest that at least to the scribes copying Revelation 666 meant Nero.
Metz, Cade, (2012) Why the Bar Code Will Always Be the Mark of the Beast. Wired
https://www.wired.com/2012/12/upc-mark-of-the-beast/
Ulatowski, Rachel (2023) Why Doesn’t Hobby Lobby Use Barcodes? Conspiracy Theories May Have the Answer! The Mary Sue
Dale Martin 2009 (lecture). "24. Apocalyptic and Accommodation" on YouTube. Yale University. Accessed 22 July 2013. Lecture 24 (transcript) Archived 6 September 2014 at the Wayback Machine
I will not prove that fact in this article as this would take too long and many scholars have already proved such to be likely. Perhaps in a future article, I’ll display why this stance makes sense
The word cab is not 312 but rather 3+1+2 which is 6
Burnett, D Clint (2020) Studying the New Testament through Inscriptions: An Introduction, Hendrickson Academic
This was a well though out article that criticaly anaylsis a number that has become assoicated with the devil. If your intrested to do more resarch on the Jewish alphabet number system, I highly reccomened you take a look at Gematria Refigured By Rabbi Elie Feder.