Hey everyone, welcome to Mythology Explained.
In today’s video, we’re going to discuss the number 666: it’s inclusion in the New
Testament, why it’s considered an evil number, and the various explanations of its meaning;
this last through two of the four lenses of eschatology, the branch of theology that’s
focused on death, final judgment, and the afterlife: specifically, at Preterism and
Idealism.
Let’s get into it.
There isn’t any explanation given in the Old or New Testament that delineates why the
number 666 is an evil number or why it is associated with the Beast of the Book of Revelation.
Naturally, the conspicuous absence of any canonical explanation makes for fertile ground
for competing theories to emerge.
The theories we’ll be considering in this video are that of the preterist, which holds
the number 666 to be a numerical code that alludes to Emperor Nero, and that of the idealist,
which believes the number 6 to be an affront to the number seven, the number of completeness
and perfection, as based on God creating the universe in six days, then taking the seventh
to rest.
We’re going to start things off with a passage from chapter 13, the chapter in which the
number 666 is written, from the Book of Revelation, the last book of the New Testament.
Here it is: “And I beheld another beast coming up out
of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon.
And he exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him, and causeth the earth and
them which dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed.
And he doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in
the sight of men, and deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles
which he had power to do in the sight of the beast … And he causeth all, both small and
great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads:
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[, 666].”
In the Mispar gadol variation of gematria, each of the 27 characters of the Hebrew alphabet
is given a value between 1 and 900, which you can see on screen.
Gematria still features prominently in contemporary Jewish culture, and systems that function
similarly also exist in other languages and cultures, such as: isopsephy, used by the
Greeks, and abjad numerals, which is Arabic in origin.
Basically, each letter in a word or phrase is assigned a numerical value; then, an arithmetic
exercise can be conducted whereby the corresponding numerical value of each letter is tallied
into a greater total number, in the aggregate becoming surreptitiously symbolic of a given
word or phrase.
This sort of addition was commonly espoused by Preterism, the lens of eschatology that
asserts the prophecies of the Book of Revelation as having already been fulfilled in the past.
Here’s how this works: if you write Nero Caesar in Greek, you get, here in English
and spelling phonetically, Neron Kaisar; then, if you transliterate Neron Kaisar from Greek
to Hebrew, you get, again using the Latin alphabet, Nron Qsr.
Finally, Nron Qsr written in Hebrew is spelled Resh, Samekh, Qoph, Nun, Vav, Resh, Nun.
If you add the corresponding numerical value of each of these characters using Gematria,
the amount you get is 666, the number of the Beast.
Adding further credence to Nero being the figure whom the number 666 refers to are his
Greek coins, which have his face and the Greek rendering of his name on them.
Let’s review the last couple lines from this quote with these coins in mind: “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[, 666].”
Now, we’re going to go through the same process, but this time beginning in Latin.
If you write Nero Caesar phonetically in Latin, you get Nero Kaisar, as the C was a hard C;
then, if you transliterate Nero Kaiser from Latin to Hebrew, you get, using the Latin
alphabet, Nro Qsr, which, if written in Hebrew, is spelled Resh, Samekh, Qoph, Vav, Resh,
Nun.
Here, if you add the corresponding numerical value of each of these characters using Gematria,
the amount you get is 616, not 666; however, rather than categorically disqualifying gematria
as a plausible theory in explaining the significance of 666, it points the discussion towards an
interesting bit of information that pertains to a 3rd century fragmented manuscript of
the New Testament.
You see, while 666 is generally accepted to be the number of the Beast given in the Book
of Revelation, it falls short of being the only number associated with the Beast in each
version of the Book of Revelation.
In Papyrus 115, a collection of 3rd century fragments that culminate into part of the
Book of Revelation, the number associated with the Beast isn’t 666, but 616, which
is the sum reached when applying Gematria to the Hebrew transliteration of Caesar Nero
from Latin.
There have been a number of hypotheses postulated to explain this inconsistency - the simplest
being a mere scribal error - but one of them is that, using gematria, each number is a
circumspect expression of Emperor Nero’s name, thus equating him with the antichrist
by embedding his name, the numerically represented Hebrew translation of both the Latin and the
Greek version, into Christian Scripture.
Now, before we move on to the second theory covered in this video, we should spend a quick
moment discussing Emperor Nero, specifically, why he was such a notorious and nefarious
figure that the preterist perspective identifies him with the Antichrist in Christian scripture.
Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus, or, as he was known at birth, Lucius Dominitus
Ahenobarbus, was the fifth emperor of Rome, living from 37 to 68 AD.
Although he was popular with the imperial Roman army, particularly with the Praetorian
Guard, as well as with the common class, he was despised by the aristocracy.
His untimely death at the young age of 30 came about when he committed suicide, the
course he chose after the Roman Senate condemned him to die a slave’s death, in large part
the result of the negligence, extravagance, and debaucheries for which he had become infamous.
Nero’s wicked reputation in the Christian community largely stems from his actions following
the Great Fire of Rome, which happened in the month of July in the year 64 AD.
There was much conjecture circulating that pertained to Nero’s culpability of and response
to this fire.
One conspiracy claimed that Nero ordered the fire started during a theatrical production
of the Trojan War, the idea being that the very real fire as a backdrop would accentuate
the Sack of Troy enacted on stage.
None of the more appalling theories were substantiated, and Tacitus, a Roman historian and politician,
who lived from 56 to 120 AD, found that Nero was actually in Antium, a coastal town south
of Rome, during the fire, and that he took charge of the relief effort upon his return.
However, Tacitus also wrote that, to insulate himself from blame, Nero set the Christians
up as a scapegoat, blaming them for starting the fire.
Following this accusation, many Christians were brutally persecuted: ripped apart by
beasts, burned alive, and crucified.
Here, Tacitus claims that Nero’s motivations weren’t rooted in the pursuit of justice,
but by sadism, by a perverse penchant for cruelty.
In fact, after Nero’s suicide in 68 AD, there was a pervading fear, especially in
the Eastern provinces of the empire, that he would return to once again mercilessly
persecute Christians, torturing and tormenting them.
By contrast to the preterist perspective, the idealist view rejects the notion of the
number 666 being a gematrian code for Emperor Nero, dismissing the idea that the number
666 is a code for any historical figure.
Per the rationale of the idealist, there’s a plethora of names that add up to 666 and
that, moreover, the whole process of assigning numerical value to names and phrases is muddled
by the necessity of translating between languages and the arbitrary adding of titles and modifiers
to ensure names add up to the correct sum.
Idealists believe the Book of Revelation to be a font of allegorical and symbolic information,
not a series of metaphors and allusions that accounts for what happened in the past or
what will happen in the future.
This outlook also applies to the number 666, a number idealists believe to be evil and
sacrilegious by dint of it, being a mockery of the number of perfection.
You see, God created everything in the universe in six days, subsequently taking the seventh
day to rest.
Because of this seven day process, the number seven, in Judaism and Christianity, is considered
the number of completeness and perfection.
Therefore, because the number six is one short of seven, it can be seen as an unholy number,
representing the antithesis of God and goodness - this concept made all the more wicked and
egregious by the number 666, which repeats this unholy number three times in row.
And that’s it for this video!
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