What is the history behind 666 being the "number of the beast"?

Question

How did this particular number come to have this reputation?

Answer 1

I saw a presentation on the History Channel not that long ago which makes perfect sense about this. Revelation was written in Greek, and at that time, there was a "code" which used numbers to represent different letters in a name. when you added up the numbers, it represented a different name. Also at that time, one of the most hated men in the world was Nero. He had put his own bust in the temple of Solomon, and turned it into a temple to himself. He was dead, but the current emporer was claiming to be a reincarnation of him. By using the Greek code, the number for Nero was 666. There was another spelling of his name which would have made it 626, and an early version of Revelation has been found which doesn't use 666, it uses 626. Revelation was written by John of Patmos to 3 separate churches, and it seems more reasonable that he was writing to warn them of the danger of dealing with the Romans than telling them what might happen hundreds or even thousands of years in the future.

Answer 2

It comes from the Book of Revelation in the Christian BIble:

Revelation 13 14, 16-18: "And he deceives those who dwell on the earth because of the signs which it was given him to perform in the presence of the beast, telling those who dwell on the earth to make an image to the beast who had the wound of the sword and has come to life.
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And he causes all, the small and the great, and the rich and the poor, and the free men and the slaves, to be given a mark on their right hand or on their forehead,

and he provides that no one will be able to buy or to sell, except the one who has the mark, either the name of the beast or the number of his name.

Here is wisdom Let him who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for the number is that of a man; and his number is six hundred and sixty-six."

From Wikipedia:
"The Number of the Beast is a concept from the Book of Revelation of the Christian New Testament. The Number is 666 in modern texts, although 616 appears instead in one ancient source. The meaning of the number is debated. Some scholars contend that the number is a code for the Roman Emperor Nero, a view that is supported by the Roman Catholic Church.

Futurist Christian eschatology typically holds that the Mark of the Beast is one way in which the Antichrist will exercise power over the Earth during the period of Tribulation. Exact interpretations of this vary widely."
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It would seem that opinions are divided as to what "666" really signifies, but its association with someone evil is unanimous.

Answer 3

I wrote about this in my blog a few months ago:
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I’ve heard a lot of hoop-la about today’s date, June 6th, 2006 or 6/6/06. So many people that do not fully understand what this set of numbers mean relate it to the end of the world.

What does this widely talked about number mean? It comes from the Bible, the Book of Revelation specifically. When you read the Bible, any number you see has a meaning and or purpose to it. The number 6 is man’s number, the day man was created. The number 666 is the sign of the Beast, or the Anti-Christ, the person(s) that come to power during the 7 year Tribulation.

A lot of people believe that during the Tribulation people will have to have a mark on their forehead or hand to be able to purchase food or items, this is true, but not necessarily a physical mark. In the Old Testament people who worshiped God or false gods referred to having a mark on their forehead, this was a spiritual “mark” not a physical one. This is one of the reasons why the Anti-Christ wants everyone to have this mark, he wants to be worshiped. The mark on the hand will probably be so sort of pledge of allegiance to the beast and or a device that allows you to purchase items.

That’s a very quick summary of the 666 mark, I may at some point write an article on it for my Christianity section. I hope that you have learned something- if you have any questions or comments, let me know!

Answer 4

That is what Revelation says. Interestingly enough, as several scholars have noted, if one applies gematria to the full name of Nero, he gets 666. I first saw this in a collection of essays by Isaac Asimov. In Greece and in Rome, the alphabets were used for numbers. You are probably familiar with Roman numerals. There are various mystic systems of using numbers, e.g. numerology and gematria. Nero killed most of his relatives including his mother on the third attempt for fear they were plotting against him. He certainly wouldn't hesitate about killing Jewish slaves who criticized him or Rome, so Revelation is in obscure language that Jews understand, but Romans hopefully won't. I know Greek and Roman history well, so I see many references to Rome in the part of Revelation that mentions the beast and its number. If I had been Nero and saw Revelation, I'd have exterminated those hateful Jews for daring to say such things about me and my empire. Luckily for them, the Jews were insignificant to Rome. People with less understanding of history say Revelation is about things happening now. They've said that for centuries.

Answer 5

there is no history! Its simply written in the bible... I forgot the exact book and number... but i can remember it like this "you add up a name of this man and you will get 666" something like that...

Jed B
Webmaster
http://yeastinfectiontreatment.wordpress.com/

Answer 6

the actual number is actually 616 but 666 just started sounding better throughout the many many years...

Answer 7

it is written in the book of Revelations, something about it being the mark of the beast.

Answer 8

From what I see, this portion of Revelation was extracted from a work of fiction

Answer 9

Because this is what is related in the Book of Revelation.