Christians,what is the meaning of 666?

Question

In Judaism is it a sacred number. In the Vilna Gaon's commentary of the Book of Zohar he states that "the number 666 contains hidden within it exalted and lofty messianic potential." There is even a neighborhood in jerusalem of orthodox jews called "Meah Shearim" because the numerical value is 666. Speaking of the jewish messiah,are you folks aware of what jewish scripture says about what happens when "King messiah" actually arrives? It sounds just like Revelations,and I don't mean the part about christ. Do you feel 666 refers to King Messiah?

Nobody is responding to the fact that it is sacred to jews. Curious.

Jocko,google up Ohr Somayach /Ask the Rabbi / Six Six Six. It is pivotal to jewish messianism.

Do any of you even understand the question? i don't mind being disagreed with but i do mind "answers" that have no recognizable response to the question. So jews are lying when they quote the Vilna Gaon on 666?

Answer 1

666 is a number. Numbers, by themselves, have no real significance other than what we assign to them.

I know in Kabbalah, the number 666 is a good number. It has significance from the phrase "Now I pray, let the Lord of my Lord be great." (Numbers 14:17) Vilna Gaon's commentary in the 1700s stated that the number 666, which was "hidden within" has "exalted and lofty messianic potential." Whatever that means, I have no clue. And not sure most do either.

However, in Judaism's literature, there are a lot of references to "6" in regards to the universe. There are 6 directions - North, South, East, West, Up, Down. The world was created in 6 days. 666 is "6" three times. Repeating something 3 times shows its strength and completeness.

If Revelation were never written, Christians too might view "666" as a "good number" (as if numbers can be good or bad).

But in Christian Scriptures, 666 takes on a different meaning. We find it in Revelation 13:18:

"This calls for wisdom. If anyone has insight, let him calculate the number of the beast, for it is man's number."

This is important because we see it's not talking about the physical universe. It's not talking about some bar code that is going to be embedded in our skin. It's talking about a man--a person. So we know it's not referring to the Jewish explanation above about the physical universe. It is referring to a man. And, in this story, a beast of a man (to use figurative language...LOL)

" His number is 666." (NIV)

Revelation 13:17 tells us that this number is "the number of his name."

So who is this 666? Iraeneus is the first commentator we know of to write on it. He speculated the name was probably Greek and came up with some names whose numerical value equaled 666. There is a problem here, though. At the time Revelation was written, the Christians were not under tyrrany from the Greeks, but from the Romans. So it probably points to some Roman leader whose value adds up to 666.

If we translate the name "Nero Caesar" from Greek into Hebrew, the gematria value is 666. For more information on Gematria, look at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gematria

There are also some other signs that it was probably Nero. Revelation was actually written during the reign of Domition. At that time, Domition was thought of by the Christians as being like a 2nd Nero. Nero persecuted the Christians and Domition was even more ruthless. Nero, in essence, was being brought back by the 2nd beast. And, as revelation states, the numbers add up.

It's interesting how culture puts so much significance on numbers sometimes. Numbers are a symbol and a symbol is used to express an idea. What is important and holy to one group may be the exact opposite to another - because it has a different meaning to that group. A Jewish person not too familiar with Eastern religions may feel extremely uncomfortable walking into a temple in Taiwan and seeing a swastika. But here, it's a holy symbol. Obviously means something different in the Western world. But that doesn't mean one is more "right" than the other. They're just different meanings attached to it.

Matt

EDIT: To answer Daisy Indigo's statement, that's not really true. There are old manuscripts that say 616 in them. But it seems to originally be 666. The main reason cited for 616 is because when we change the name "Neron Caesar" to "Nero Caesar" (more Latin) we drop the final "n." So the older manuscripts, where people understood this, changed it to match how they would understand the number. I think the confusion came because 616 is in old documents...but its not in our oldest ones nor in the majority of them. Either that or it was a mistake. But nobody goes with the minority of newer manuscripts when trying to figure out the original. You either go with what the majority say or what the older ones we have say.

Answer 2

666 is the number of the antichrist, the end times figure who will arise with the purpose of opposing God and God's people. 666 is the gamatria of the name of the antichrist. In Greek and Hebrew there are no numeric characters. There are only alpha characters. For example, the letters a, b, c, d, e, f, etc. are alpha characters. The numbers 0, 1, 2, 3, etc., are numeric characters. They are different -- except for the letter "o" and the number "0". When the Greeks wanted to write a number, they used letters for numbers. The Greek letter "alpha" had the numeric equivalent of 1. The next letter "beta" has the numeric equivalent of 2, and so on. (CARM has a chart of the Hebrew and Greek numeric equivalents if you are interested in more information.) Therefore, whenever a word in Greek is written, because the letters are also numbers, every word has a numeric value. This numeric value is called a gematria. The Greek word for Jesus (IhsouV) has a mathematical equivalent of 888. Also, the Greek word for fish is 1224. What the Bible is saying is that the future antichrist will have a name that when it is written in Greek, its numeric equivalent will be 666.

Answer 3

666 is the numerical number of the Pagan Roman Emperor Nero, who viciously persecuted Christians.

Answer 4

666 THE MEANING OF ''IMPERFECTION''
in the old times the six meant imperfect, but when something was really imperfect it didnt exist the ''really imperfect'' so they would just say it three times to clarify that is really imperfect. 666 =Diablo /Devil

Answer 5

Jewish 666

Answer 6

No, I don't think that is the case. There was no known Jewish tradition regarding 666 when the book of Revelation was written. It probably refered to Nero (even though the Beast was actually Domitian).

Answer 7

no...

Rev 13:18 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 threescore and six.

its the bad guys number....

666 = DCLXVI in roman numerals.

Answer 8

I just know the number is sacred to orthodox Jews. I suppose that does raise the possibility that the reference in Revelations is to jews or that what is obscurely implied is that the jewish messiah is the antichrist. It would make sense,given judaism's intense hostility toward christianity. But why not state it openly? Perhaps when revelations was written - the 1st century - jews in Rome still had too much influence in the Royal Court for an open statement; besides,the christians of that era may have understood this as a reference to jews due to then-common usages of phrase that later were obscured by history. To that one person above,on the term "King Messiah" I am currently reading a book called "The Messiah Texts" by Raphael Patai (a jewish scholar) that quotes numerous Talmudic references using the term "King Messiah". (Wayne State University press,1979).

Answer 9

They have discovered ancient writings that prove that the number 666 was a typo, the correct number is 616.

That's really true, look it up.

Answer 10

When I worked at Big Boy it was the price of a fish sandwich, onion rings, and a large Coke - $6.66 (including tax)

Answer 11

In roman numerals "666" looks just like "www" - the internet, the anti-christ?

One day - we will all need the internet - the mark of the beast - to "buy and sell" and conduct all business transactions.