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Number of the beast

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The Number of the Beast is mentioned in the Book of Revelation of the Christian Bible and has long been accepted to be 666.

Like all numbers, 666 has many mathematical properties, some more interesting than others.

References from the Bible

The Greek manuscripts (actually copies of the prototype which was written in Greek, although others argue that it was written in hebrew) do not literally render the phrase as six-six-six (three Greek words for six in a row -- εξ εξ εξ) but as χξς´ (it is 666 in Greek numerical form) or sometimes six hundred and sixty-six (Greek: εξακοσιοι εξηκοντα εξ):

The Greek text of Codex Alexandrinus of the New Testament reads:

Ὧδε ἡ σοφία ἐστίν· ὁ ἔχων νοῦν ψηφισάτω τὸν ἀριθμὸν τοῦ θηρίου, ἀριθμὸς γὰρ ἀνθρώπου ἐστίν· καὶ ὁ ἀριθμὸς αὐτοῦ ἑξακόσιοι ἑξήκοντα ἕξ.
Hōde hē sophia estin; ho echōn noun psēphisatō ton arithmon tou thēriou, arithmos gar anthrōpou estin; kai ho arithmos autou hexakosioi hexēkonta hex.

Other manuscripts use the Greek numerical form χξς´. It is not clear whether those manuscripts are older or newer than then Codex Alexandrinus.

In the King James Version, Revelation 13:18 reads:

Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred three score and six.

In the Good News Bible, the same verse runs:

This calls for wisdom. Whoever is intelligent can figure out the meaning of the number of the beast, because the number stands for the name of someone. Its number is 666.

The Vulgate also spells out the Number of the Beast:

Hic sapientia est. Qui habet intellectum, computet numerum bestiae. Numerus enim hominis est, et numerus eius est sescenti sexaginta sex.

The Arabic form of the Beast has KFR on its forehead. [1]

Mentions outside Revelation

The number 666 is also seen in the Old Testament book of II Chronicles; verse 9:13 reads (KJV) and in its parallel (1Ki 10:14):

Now the weight of gold that came to Solomon in one year was six hundred threescore and six talents of gold....

The number is also in the genealogy (Ezr 2:13, see also Neh 7:18):

The children of Adonikam, six hundred sixty and six.

Alternative numbers

While most manuscripts of the Bible read six-hundred-sixty-six or 666 for the Number of the Beast in Revelation 13:18, some early manuscripts contain 616 instead. Codex Ephraemi Rescriptus (5th century) and Papyrus 115 (3rd or 4th century). Irenaeus knew about the reading 616, but according to . ISBN 3-438-06010-8. {{cite book}}: Missing or empty |title= (help); Unknown parameter |Author= ignored (|author= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |Publisher= ignored (|publisher= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |Title= ignored (|title= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |Year= ignored (|year= suggested) (help), p. 751, Irenaeus "says that 666 'is found in all good and ancient copies,' and is 'attested by those who had themselves seen John face to face.'" The minuscule manuscript 2344 (11th century) identifies the Number of the Beast as 665.

In May 2005 it was reported that scholars at Oxford University using advanced imaging techniques had been able to read previously illegible portions of an early (third century) version of the Book of Revelation, part of its Oxyrhynchus collection of papyri. The fragment gives the Number of the Beast as 616. Scholars now believe the number in question has very little to do with the devil. It was actually a complicated numerical riddle in Greek, meant to represent someone's name. "It's a number puzzle -- the majority opinion seems to be that it refers to [the Roman emperor] Nero."

Theological interpretations

There are various theories about the meaning of this verse, and there have been many attempts to show that a person is the Antichrist by relating his name to the number 666.

One interpretation is simply that 666 represents humankind in general because of the special significance that the number has in the Bible. Six is known as an "imperfect number" because it is one short of seven, the "perfect number" (seven days in the week, seven tongues of flame, seven spiritual gifts...). So three (the number of the Trinity) sixes is seen as extremely imperfect. Therefore, 666 represents imperfect man, while 777 represents God.

The interpretation adopted by Greek Orthodox theologians is that this number signifies an offense against the name of Jesus Christ. In Greek, Christ is spelled Χριστός (often abbreviated χς in the texts), and 666 is written as χξς'. The letter ξ looks a lot like a spike or a bolt in handwriting, so the number can be interpreted as a stab against Christ. The same interpretation can be given for the number 616 (χις'). In fact, a transcription error of ξ instead of ι (or v.v.) is the most likely cause of confusion between these two numbers, as the two look very much alike in handwriting, and both spellings would fit this symbolism. Another possible symbolism for ξ is that of a serpent, the form the Devil took in the Garden of Eden.

Another interpretation is that 666 is actually some kind of code based on the letters of someone's name. This sparks great public interest since it seems to provide some way to identify the antichrist. Numerologists like to devise clever ways of assigning numbers to letters so that the letters of a name will add up to this symbolic number. Probably the best-known scheme has A=100, B=101, and so on. With this code, the name "HITLER" adds up to 666. Another commonly cited example is President Ronald Wilson Reagan, where counting the letters of his first, middle, and last name lead to 666. While these ideas are intriguing, they usually require many specific preconditions, like having to start with 100, numbering the surname only, etc. (even though in this special case, you can also number a=1, b=2, and so on and decode his initials 'A' and 'H' as 18, which of course equals 6+6+6.) By adapting the rules however, it is possible to connect most if not all names to the evil number. See also Vicarius Filii Dei. More convincing interpretations invoke more than mathematics to prove their point.

For example, scholars who believe the Book of Revelation refers to real people and events argue that the number represents the value of Nero or Neron Caesar (נרון קסר, Nrwn Qsr*) in Hebrew letters, which also have numerical values (note that Hebrew is written from right to left): 

                r    S    q     n   w    r    n 
        666 = 200 + 60 + 100 + 50 + 6 + 200 + 50

As noted above, some early texts of the Book of Revelation use 616 instead, which would represent the alternative Hebrew spelling נרו קסר, Nrw Qsr (based on the Latin form "Nero Caesar"): 

                r    S    q    w    r    n 
        616 = 200 + 60 + 100 + 6 + 200 + 50

In Roman numerals 666 represents all the numbers from 1 to 500 in descending order, namely D (500) + C (100) + L (50) + X (10) + V (5) + I (1), or DCLXVI. Robert Graves suggests in his study of pagan symbolism The White Goddess that this is an acronym for the Latin sentence Domitianus Caesar Legatos Xti Violenter Interfecit, or "The Emperor Domitian violently killed the envoys of Christ".

Another reading in Roman numerals regards DCLXVI as an anagram of DIC LVX, which is then supposed to be an abbreviation of dicit lux, "the light speaks."

In an alternate style of Greek notation for numerals, 6 + 60 + 600 can be expressed as digamma koppa kappa which when superposed into a monogram, form the graffiti form of the labrys very common on roman walls of the time, which is interesting considering what some characterise as misogynist tendencies in the book.

Culture and psychology

Avoiding the number

The number 666 retains a peculiar significance in the culture and psychology of Western societies. Just as many people try to avoid the "unlucky" number 13 (sometimes going to the extent of having a floor 12A in multi-story buildings, or even to skip the 13th floor entirely so that the floor above the twelfth floor is actually called the fourteenth floor. See also floor numbering), so people find ways to avoid the "Devil's number", even in contexts that would seem on first sight to be far removed from superstition.

For example, when the giant CPU manufacturer Intel introduced the 666 MHz Pentium III in 1999, they chose to market it as the Pentium III 667 on the pretext that, since the actual clock speed was 666.666 MHz, 667 was the more accurate approximation—conveniently ignoring their own usual rounding practice: as examples, consider the earlier 66.666 MHz 486-66, the 466.666 MHz Celeron 466, or the later 866.666 MHz Pentium III 866.

In another instance, U.S. Highway 666, "the Highway of the Beast," was renumbered in 2003 after controversy over the supposed reference to the Biblical beast. See [2].

Stanley Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange visually represented Alex (Malcolm McDowell) as the Beast during a scene where he is flanked by two prisoners who are identified as 665 and 667.

End of Days, directed by Peter Hyams, supposes as a plot point that the number represented in Revelation was actually seen upside down in a dream and should have actually been 999. This ignores the reality that Arabic numerals were probably not invented until ca. 400 CE, and only reached the Middle East by 670 CE, whereas Revelation is considered to have been written in the first century AD.

The Omen and its sequels (a series of horror films about the Antichrist) have the Mark Of The Beast found under the hair as an apparent birthmark on the scalp of the character Damien Thorn. The movie was released on 6 June, 1976 - the sixth day of the sixth month, that is.

While the association is not clearly Satanic in nature, and usually is not construed to promote Satanism, a reference to the number "666" may be the cause for the controversial assignment of the "Parental Advisory" designation to the HIM album Razorblade Romance, generally considered innocuous as it contains no profanity or sexually explicit language.

In Robert A. Heinlein's book, Number of the Beast, "666" is actually six to the sixth to the sixth power, which in the novel is the number of all possible dimensions/universes.

The British heavy metal band Iron Maiden have made an album titled The Number of the Beast. The title track quotes from the Bible and the lyrics refer to "six six six - the number of the beast". Flotsam and Jetsam made a song called "6 Six VI". There exists an Australian band called Deströyer 666. Entombed have made an album called DCLXVI - To ride straight and speak the Truth (DCLXVI is the roman number for 666).

There is a band called "Aphrodite's Child" (Vangelis and Demis Roussos a.o.) who had a record out in 1971 named "666" - pop music about the Revelation of John.

The gothic-with-opera-influences band Saviour Machine created the Legend album series about the end of times, of which the fifth track of Legend part II is called 'The Mark of the Beast'.

ESPN, Sports Illustrated, and Yahoo! give the Slovakian-born ice hockey player Miroslav Šatan the ID number of 666 in their databases, likely as a joke about his last name, which is similar to Satan.

The relatively popular, and controversial Xenosaga video game series thus far features three characters named Albedo, Rubedo (Jr.), and Nigredo (Gaignun), and as U.R.T.V. are the 667th, 666th, and 669th clones of Dmitri Yuriev respectively.

It is often quipped that 667 is "the Neighbour of the Beast" although this is possibly country-dependent as 668 (and 664) would be next property on the same side of the street in most, but not all, countries (assuming that the neighbours referred to are next-door neighbours). There are also at least two filk songs on this topic. Additional quips suggest that 1-888-666-6666 is "the Toll-Free Number of the Beast", $665.99 is "the Retail Price of the Beast", 00666 is "the ZIP Code of the Beast", 0.666 is "the Number of the Millibeast", 6.5013 is "the natural logarithm of the Beast", 333 is a devil doing a half-assed job, the root of all evil being √666 = 25.8068, etc

6.66, One Hundredth of the Number of the Beast is the name of the only song by the fictional Australian rock band Salmon Hater. Adam Spencer and Wil Andersen, then hosts of the Triple J [3] radio breakfast show, invented the band as a joke one morning. A fan of the show soon composed this song for the pretend band, and a video clip was also made later. Now with the speculation that the number 616 is the real number of the beast, it has come to light that 616 used to be the country number and area code of Canberra, the Capital of Australia, and home to the nation's Government. However the area code was changed from 6 to 2 in 1997.

The final book and third book in the Before They Were Left Behind series of is scheduled to be released on June 6, 2006, or the sixth day of the sixth month of the sixth year.

Speculation and trivia

Former U.S. president Ronald Wilson Reagan had six letters in his first, middle, and last name. He also lived in Bel-Air California, in house number 666 on his block, until wife Nancy Reagan had it changed to 668. Another interesting numerological oddity regarding Reagan, is that the sum of the enumerated phrase "Ronald Reagan President and Chief Executive of the United States of America" equals 666. Some Rastafarians and others believed he was the Beast. Other Christian groups led by Herb Peters and Constance E. Cumbey point the finger at Javier Solana. Coincidentally, the Ayatollah Khomeini of Iran referred to Reagan, and the U.S. in general, as "the Great Satan."

Nelson Mandela's Robben Island prisoner number was 46664.

The first Apple Computer, the Apple I was sold for $666.66.

Add the numbers up on a roulette table 1+2+3 etc up to 36, and it makes 666. Some say Roulette is the game of the devil invented by a monk

Stanley Kubrick (director of 2001: A Space Odyssey) died 666 days before January 1 2001.

0.666 is approximately two-thirds of one whole, one short of all three thirds. Because three is the number of the trinity, it may be that the number is meant to represent being in communion with God only in the mind and spirit (but not the body). A recurring theme in most Christian Bible versions of the latter chapters of Revelation is Satan's attacks upon the human body.

A widespread conspiracy theory concerns the EAN or UPC bar codes, instituted in 1974, and found on most consumer products. The "control codes" in the left, middle, and right of the code appear on initial inspection to represent the number "6". Because of this, all EAN/UPC codes (so the theory goes) contain the number 666. One interpretation of the Book of Revelation indicates that the Number of the Beast is required for all business transactions — a role that the EAN/UPC code certainly fits. Also the inventor of the UPC code, George J. Laurer, has six letters in his first, middle, and last name [4], and, as of 2004, exactly 666 prefixes (out of possible 1000) are assigned in the EAN-13 namespace [5]. (Unfortunately, the control codes only appear to represent the number six if one is unaware that both the black bars and the spaces in between them are used to encode information.)

The anti-impotence drug Viagra has a molecular weight of 666.7 g/mol.

All Garda (police) station phone numbers in Dublin, Ireland start with 666. Although this sounds like an urban myth, it can easily be confirmed by looking at their web site. [6]

The A666 is a main road from Pendlebury to Langho in England. In the 1980's that prompted CB radio users to codename it "The Devil's Highway".

In the Dutch translation of Dan Brown's best-selling novel Angels and Demons (translated title Het Bernini Mysterie), the discussion of 666 is on page 333. 333 is 666 divided by 2. The numbers 2 and 5 have special significance to the Illuminati, a group that is pivotal to the novel's plot.

The lead guitarist of the band Gorillaz, Murdoc Niccals, was born June 6th, 1966.

The octal number 666 is widely used in setting up authorizations in the Unix Operating System. It offers limited access (read and write) as opposed to the all privilege granted by number 777 (read write and execute). This matches the Revelation ('13:17 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. ') in that this could be a way to allow or disallow people to buy anything (the Mark of the Beast as a personal body mark easily readable by automated cashiers in a cashless society).

This also leads to speculations that software manufacturer Microsoft, and its founder, Bill Gates, are evil [7], as Bill Gates, evaluated in ASCII, sums up to 663, which, when added with 3 (his complete name is William Henry Gates III,) becomes 666. Counting the space as one, Windows 95 also sums to 666.

The sixth letter of the Hebrew alphabet is "waw" (or "vav"). This is the closest approximation of the English letter "w". Also in the Hollerith Card (sometimes called an IBM Punch-Card) a zero zone punch and a six numeric punch in a column signified the letter W. Thus the ubiquitous acronym "www" could be the Number of the Beast. Also, the number 6 in Roman numerals is represented as VI. 666= VIVIVI which has been suggested that visions from the past, mistook it for WWW.

As of January 14 2005, the IP address of the Python programming language web site, www.python.org, is 194.109.137.226. If you add up the 4 octets, you get 666. [8]

The internet access provider firm Demon Internet http://www.demon.net/ has many telephone numbers (voice, and computer dialup) that contain 666, and sometimes sequences of three copies of other digits.

Another speculation is that computer=666. If we encode the English alphabet where every letter is a multiple of 6: a=6, b=12, c=18, ..., z=156 then we have "computer" = 666 = (3*6)+(15*6)+(13*6)+(16*6)+(21*6)+(20*6)+(5*6)+(18*6). Since "beasts" such as oxen, horses and donkeys were used as machines in ancient times, one can infer “beast” in modern times meaning "machine" or "computer". Since computers were developed by English speaking people it is plausible that the numerical decoding should be via English, such that one interprets “leading the development” as “riding the head of the beast”.

See also

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