666 - The Number of the Beast?

Numbers are the playthings of an able conspiracy nut. This has been proven through numerous phenomena, like the famous “23”, or the numeral which is alluded to being the year the world ends, 2012.

Of course, one can argue that 2012 is only thought to be the year the world ends because that is when the Mayan calendar ends, the cause of that most likely being that the Mayans died out before they could continue the calendar. Just one spooky piece of trivia - 2012 can be separated into a sum, 20+1+2. If you are incapable of doing simple maths, the answer to this equation is 23. For a conspiracy nut, that is a literal red alert. But, neither 23 nor 2012 is the issue here. No, the real number I want to crunch is the notorious 666.

I doubt there is anyone on here that does not know the lore behind 666, but for the sake of explaining, I shall briefly go over it. 666, in the Christian religion, is supposed to be the sign of the Devil. It is the satanic number that is most recognised in modern society - and if you enjoy a bit of satirical humour, it might as well be Beelzebub’s phone number. Also, according to the movie “The Omen”, a birthmark in the shape of three sixes joined together at the tops in a circular arrangement symbolises the child of Satan or human incarnation of the Antichrist.

But brushing past modern lore - where did 666 originate?

Most people would say it comes from the last book in the bible, Revelations. In this section of the bible, the number 666 applies to “the number of a man” associated with the beast. This “beast” appears for a short time in Revelations, about two-thirds through. The text then challenges the reader to figure out the symbolism of the number:

”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.”

Now, this is where most people would immediately point and shout “Satan!”.

Not so. You see, after Christ supposedly came and departed, the Hebrews were a hunted people. The Romans were out to get these “Christians”, and many Hebrews were killed in the attempted eradication of this new Jewish sect. To protect themselves, they created a code, a way to warn each other when trouble was on the way. This code was based on numerology. 666 was the number used to represent the Emperor Nero. To get to this numeral, Nero’s name was presented in Greek (for those who are interested, the translation is Kaisar Neron. The name was then transformed into Hebrew, where the numeric value held true. Of course, I am not intelligent enough to explain this fully, but the equation all boils down to the Hebrew letters valuing as follows: q=60, s=100, r=200, n=50, w=6.

The simple conclusion to this is that 666 was never Satan’s number, and was only ever used to safely warn of a emperor so tyrannical he may as well have been the Antichrist.

But, for the sake of conspiracy nuts everywhere, let me leave you with one very strange fact. Also using numerology, the name “Hitler” can also be broken down to the numeral of 666. Coincidence? That is how I dismiss this - although, for the likes those who believe in the phenomena of 23, it may signify something a lot more sinister.