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

The number 666 has been adopted by modern horror media as a demonic symbol, but what (or whom) does this number really refer to? Learn about the Book of Revelation and ancient wordplay via numbers in this episode of BrainStuff, based on this article: https://history.howstuffworks.com/history-vs-myth/666.htm

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to Brainstuff, a production of iHeartRadio, Hey brainstaff Lauren Bogelbaum. Here,
would you buy a used car from someone if their
current license plate ended in sixty sixty six? Or take
a job at an office tower in New York City
with the address six six six Fifth Avenue. After all,

(00:24):
sixty six six is the infamous number of the Beast.
Allegedly a Satanic code for evil. It comes up in
all kinds of fictional horror media as a sometimes literal
mark of Satan. In the New Standard American Bible, the
Book of Revelation thirteen eighteen reads, here is wisdom, Let

(00:45):
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

(01:08):
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

(01:31):
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

(01:53):
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

(02:16):
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

(02:42):
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

(03:04):
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

(03:28):
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

(03:50):
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

(04:14):
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

(04:37):
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.

(04:57):
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

(05:19):
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

(05:39):
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

(06:03):
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

(06:27):
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

(06:47):
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,

(07:09):
visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen
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