In the Textus Receptus manuscripts[1] of the New Testament, the Book of Revelation (13: 17–18) cryptically asserts 666 to be “man’s number” or “the number of a man” associated with the Beast, a hostile creature that appears briefly about two-thirds into the apocalyptic vision. 666 has become one of the most widely recognized symbols for the Antichrist or, alternatively, the devil.
The number 666 is purportedly used to invoke Satan and some people avoid anything related to this combination of numbers. This is known as hexakosioihexekontahexaphobia, see other phobias here. It is related to triskaidekaphobia, or fear of the number 13.
Often, numbers are used as symbols in the Bible. Seven typically represents completeness or perfection. Six, being one short of seven, can denote something incomplete or flawed in God’s eyes, and it can be associated with God’s enemies.—1 Chronicles 20:6; Daniel 3:1.
The Bible sometimes stresses a matter by stating it three times. (Revelation 4:8; 8:13) So the name 666 powerfully emphasizes that God views human political systems as gross failures. They have been unable to bring lasting peace and security—things that only God’s Kingdom will achieve.
In the Bible, 666 is the number of talents of gold Solomon collected each year (see 1 Kings 10:14 and 2 Chronicles 9:13), and the number of Adonikam’s descendants who return to Jerusalem and Judah from the Babylonian exile (see Ezra 2:13).
666 is the sum of all the numbers on a roulette wheel (0 through 36). It’s the molar mass of the high-temperature superconductor YBa2Cu3O7[2]. In China, 666 can mean “everything goes smoothly” (the number six has the same pronunciation as the character 溜, which means “smooth”. 666 Fifth Avenue, which was bought for $1.8 billion in 2007, was the most expensive real estate deal in New York’s history.
666 is the sum of the first 36 natural numbers (1 + 2 + 3 + … + 34 + 35 + 36 = 666), and thus it is a triangular number[3]. The Roman Numeral for 666, DCLXVI, has exactly one occurrence of all symbols whose value is less than 1000 in decreasing order (D = 500, C = 100, L = 50, X = 10, V = 5, I = 1).
Revelation Chapter 13: Verses 11-18
11 Then I saw a second beast, coming out of the earth. It had two horns like a lamb, but it spoke like a dragon.
12 It exercised all the authority of the first beast on its behalf, and made the earth and its inhabitants worship the first beast, whose fatal wound had been healed.
13 And it performed great signs, even causing fire to come down from heaven to the earth in full view of the people.
14 Because of the signs it was given power to perform on behalf of the first beast, it deceived the inhabitants of the earth. It ordered them to set up an image in honor of the beast who was wounded by the sword and yet lived.
15 The second beast was given power to give breath to the image of the first beast, so that the image could speak and cause all who refused to worship the image to be killed.
16 It also forced all people, great and small, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hands or on their foreheads,
17 so that they could not buy or sell unless they had the mark, which is the name of the beast or the number of its name.
18 This calls for wisdom. Let the person who has insight calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man. That number is 666.
Footnotes
- Textus Receptus manuscripts are a Greek New Testament that provided the textual base for the vernacular translations of the Reformation Period. It was a printed text, not a hand-copied manuscript, created in the 15th century to fill the need for a textually accurate Greek New Testament. As the Christian message was carried abroad, the books of the New Testament were not only taken along but also translated into the languages of the people to whom the message was given. In the transmission of the text, copies were made, mostly by Christians who were not trained in the art of the task; therefore, not too much attention was given to the correctness of the copies. As the number of copies in the different languages proliferated, it became apparent that many differences and discrepancies were found in the various versions.
- Yttrium barium copper oxide (YBCO) is a family of crystalline chemical compounds that displays high-temperature superconductivity; it includes the first material ever discovered to become superconducting above the boiling point of liquid nitrogen (77 K) at about 92 K.
- A triangular number or triangle number counts objects arranged in an equilateral triangle. Triangular numbers are a type of figurate number, other examples being square numbers and cube numbers. The nth triangular number is the number of dots in the triangular arrangement with n dots on each side and is equal to the sum of the n natural numbers from 1 to n. The sequence of triangular numbers, starting with the 0th triangular number, is 0, 1, 3, 6, 10, 15, 21, 28, 36, 45, 55, 66, 78, 91, 105, 120, 136, 153, 171, 190, 210, 231, 253, 276, 300, 325, 351, 378, 406, 435, 465, 496, 528, 561, 595, 630, 666…
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