Why 666 is the number of the beast

The Book of Revelation (the final book of the Bible’s New Testament) mentions 666 as the “Number of the Beast”. But what exactly is the significance of that number?

Revelation and the Beast

The Book of Revelation has been subject to interpretation all through the ages, mainly because of its many cryptic references. The author (who may or may not have been the John wrote the Gospel or the three short letters that are also part of the New Testament - indeed, almost certainly neither of them) describes a vision that is chock full of strangeness and symbolism, much of which is expressed in numerical form, with the number seven being particularly prominent.

Chapter 13 verse 18 reads (in the King James version):

“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 threescore and six”.

Many people have puzzled over this reference, with the general consensus being that it refers to Satan and that there is therefore something fundamentally evil about the number 666. Movies have been made in which people possessed by demons have been found with the number 666 tattooed on their heads. 666 therefore signifies the Antichrist.

So who is the Man referred to in the text?

There is a very straightforward answer to this question, which is the Emperor Nero. It is quite possible that Revelation was written not many years after Nero’s persecution of the Christians following the great fire of Rome in 64 AD. It is possible that Saints Peter and Paul were among the martyrs who died at that time.

That was clearly enough to make Nero a “beast”, and there was also confusion over his apparent death by suicide in 68AD, in that not everyone was convinced that he was actually dead. If Nero had escaped and was still alive, could he be about to return at the head of an army and wreak more chaos?

The message behind the verse in Chapter 13 is that the beast can be defeated if and when he returns, either in the form of Nero or one of his successors, all of whom were evil in the eyes of Jewish Christians.

The clue lies in the number 666. This is Nero’s number because of the coincidence of his Greek name being highly significant in terms the Hebrew system of “number letters”. In Greek, Emperor Nero is “Kaisar Neron” which in Hebrew letters (which do not include vowels) is “qsr nrwn”.

In the Hebrew system, letter q stands for 60, s is 100, r is 200, n is 50 and w is 6. The letters of “qsr nrwn” therefore add up to the number 666.

Sixes and sevens

The significance of this is that the number 7 is particularly powerful within Israelite number symbolism. Seven is the perfect number because it is addition of three – the divine number – and four – the number for the created world. All three numbers keep cropping up as being highly symbolic – three members of the Trinity and four corners of the earth, for example.

The Book of Revelation is addressed to seven churches and there are mentions of seven seals, seven trumpets, and much else besides. The Beast has seven heads because he aspires to match the perfect number, but, as the author points out, he can never do so because his number is a succession of sixes. The message of Revelation is therefore to convince people that God’s people, with the perfect number seven supporting them, will always triumph over the Roman world’s inability to get beyond six.

It may sound like playing with numbers, but to the original readers of Revelation (and many since that time) all this is highly significant.

© John Welford

Could Jesus have been a time traveller?

I have this idea for a novel that would certainly cause more than a little controversy. Of course, it’s always possible that it has already been written and it caused no controversy whatsoever, and if that is the case, please tell me, somebody!

Suppose, just suppose, that Jesus was a time traveller. We all know that time travel is impossible, as far as we can tell, but in a few thousand years’ time, assuming that we haven’t fried ourselves off the planet by then, maybe it won’t be impossible at all. Suppose somebody from the future went back to the year dot (almost literally). How would that person appear to the people he encountered?

Just consider the facts, as far as we know them. A remarkable person appeared in Palestine about 2,000 years ago. Leaving aside all those Christmas stories which have the distinct whiff of myth about them (sorry if this offends anyone), this person appears out of nowhere and starts doing amazing things, like turning water into wine and curing people from terrible diseases. He even manages to cheat death, but then disappears, apparently into thin air, not long afterwards.

We know that some apparent miracles have perfectly rational explanations, given our current level of knowledge. For example, modern methods of artificial respiration would have looked very miraculous at that time, with an apparently dead person coming back to life. There’s an Old Testament story of Elijah doing something very much along these lines – perhaps he was a time traveller too?

What about that “water into wine” miracle? A fairly common trick by modern conjurers is the “magic kettle”. Members of the audience shout out the drink they would like and the conjurer pours it from the kettle for them. A pint of beer, sir? No problem. A glass of red wine, madam? There you go. I don’t know how the trick is done, but I have seen it performed. A barrel of wine when you’ve only got water? Why not?

Mind you, the loaves and fishes miracle has always had a rational explanation for me. There are all those people, who have apparently brought nothing with them, demanding to be given free food. Sorry, says Jesus, I didn’t know that catering for you lot was part of the deal. Is anyone willing to share? Step forward one young lad who has had the foresight to pack a lunch, and does not mind handing it over. Shamed by this example of generosity, the rest of the crowd admit that they have got something after all, and there’s enough for their mates as well. For me, that’s a miracle anyway, with no supernatural explanation needed, and the story has more value when understood in that way.

No doubt there are plenty of other apparently miraculous happenings in the Bible account that can’t be explained at present but might be no problem at all if we fast-forward a few centuries.

However, let’s get back to the plot. The little matter of the promised “second coming” falls into place if my theory is correct. Of course there would be a second coming if a time traveller said so. Scroll forward a few thousand years and there he is again, in his own time.

I’m sure there are plenty of holes in my theory, but, well, it’s a thought, isn’t it?

© John Welford

Adam, Eve and the apple that almost certainly wasn't

The traditional English Christmas carol “Adam lay ybounden” contains the lines:

“And all was for an apple
An apple that he took
As clerkes finden
Written in their book”

The carol dates from the early 15^th century and is just one example of the commonly held belief that the “forbidden fruit” of the Garden of Eden (Genesis Chapter 3) was an apple. However, this is not stated in Genesis, and there have been many other suggestions as to what it might have been.

Fruits mentioned in ancient Jewish texts have included figs, grapes and tamarinds, and some Muslim scholars have suggested that Eve gave Adam an olive. However, this was not an important issue for Jews and Muslims, who have traditionally been unconcerned with pictorial representation of religious scenes, but that was not the case with Christians, for whom a picture was always worth at least a thousand words.

If an artist was going to portray the scene in the Garden of Eden, with Eve being tempted by a serpent to pick a fruit and offer it to Adam, the fruit had to be of a particular kind. In the early church, the grape was preferred in the Latin-speaking west, but the Greek-speaking east preferred the fig.

A third option – namely the apple – gained currency quite early on, possibly helped by the fact that the Latin word “malum” can mean either “apple” or “evil” (although there is a subtle difference in pronunciation depending on which meaning is intended).

As Christianity moved into northern Europe, depictions of apple trees in Garden of Eden scenes became almost universal, as opposed to figs or grapes, which were not common plants in that region whereas apple trees were.

Added to this, the apple had a long history as a mystical symbol, and early Christian missionaries were quite happy to turn a pagan symbol into a Christian one when it suited them to do so.

By the 12^th century, the apple was firmly established in the Christian imagination as the fruit that led to the Fall.

However, one thing that is absolutely certain is that no “clerke” would have found “apple” written in their book, because – if that book was the Bible – it wasn’t!

© John Welford