666, 616

In the Book of the Apocalypse, a reference is made to the number "666" (six hundred and sixty-six), the "number of the beast." Some early manuscripts list the number as "616" (six hundred and sixteen), which is a common textual variant. This infamous number is said to be the "number of a man" and the "number of his name" (Rev 13:17-18), which in St. John's day refered to the Jewish practice of "gematria"--the assigning of numeric values to the Hebrew letters of a person's name. Since each Hebrew letter of the alphabet has a numerical value, any person can be identified by a number using gematria.

In the Revelation 13 passage, the apostle instructs the members of the Asia Minor churches to use their wisdom to identify this man (13:18), who is marked for destruction according to the prophecy. Using their number-name system of gematria, the original recipients of the letter would have quickly noted that the numbers matched their imperial persecutor, the emperor-god Nero. Nero's title in Hebrew appears as "NRWN QSR," meaning "Nero Caesar." Taking the value of the Hebrew letters, they calculate as follows:

N=50
R=200
W=6
N=50
Q=100
S=60
R=200
=====
Total 666

When Nero's title is transliterated into Hebrew from a common Latin variant, the calculation becomes 616 (six hundred and sixteen), as noted here:

N=50
R=200
W=6
Q=100
S=60
R=200
=====
Total 616

It was common among the early Christians to associate Nero with the Beast or "antichrist," as his persecution of the apostles and their followers was especially cruel--even claiming the lives of the two most eminent apostles, Sts. Peter and Paul. The first-century Roman historian Tacitus remarks: "[Nero] inflicted unheard-of punishments on those who...were vulgarly called Christians" (Tacitus, Annals 15:44). Many scholars suggest that St. John gives the identity of this man-beast using the gematria numbers so as to allow the Asia Minor churches to identify the emperor-god Nero Caesar without danger of repercussions. Such would be a wise protection for the early Christians, who were living under heavy persecution at the hand of imperial rulers like Nero, who had blamed the Christians for the burning of Rome. In short, the number served as a way of speaking in code concerning then-contemporary figures about whom it would have been politically dangerous to criticize openly.

The following historical quotes, which associate Nero with the apocalyptic endtimes scenario, reinforce the perspective that Nero is referenced in the image of the apocalyptic beast:

"What means the declaration, that the mystery of iniquity already works?...Some suppose this to be spoken of the Roman emperor, and therefore Paul did not speak in plain words, because he would not incur the charge of calumny for having spoken evil of the Roman emperor: although he always expected that what he had said would be understood as applying to Nero." (St. Augustine; quoted by Moses Stuart in Apocalypse)

"As for the Antichrist, there is no question but what he is going to fight against the holy covenant...these events were typically prefigured under Antiochus Epiphanes, so that this abominable king who persecuted God's people foreshadows the Antichrist, who is to persecute the people of Christ. And so there are many of our viewpoint who think that Domitius Nero was the Antichrist because of his outstanding savagery and depravity." (St. Jerome - Commentary on Daniel; notes on Daniel 11:27-30, -- Baker Book House Grand Rapids, Michigan 1958)

"We have still to add to our chronology the following, -- I mean the days which Daniel indicates from the desolation of Jerusalem, the seven years and seven months of the reign of Vespasian. For the two years are added to the seventeen months and eighteen days of Otho, and Galba, and Vitellius; and the result is three years and six months, which is "the half of the week," as Daniel the prophet said. For he said that there were two thousand three hundred days from the time that the abomination of Nero stood in the holy city, till its destruction. For thus the declaration, which is subjoined, shows: "How long shall be the vision, the sacrifice taken away, the abomination of desolation, which is given, and the power and the holy place shall be trodden under foot? And he said to him, Till the evening and morning, two thousand three hundred days, and the holy place shall be taken away. These two thousand three hundred days, then, make six years four months, during the half of which Nero held sway, and it was half a week; and for a half, Vespasian with Otho, Galba, and Vitellius reigned. And on this account Daniel says, "Blessed is he that cometh to the thousand three hundred and thirty-five days." For up to these days was war, and after them it ceased. And this number is demonstrated from a subsequent chapter, which is as follows: "And from the time of the change of continuation, and of the giving of the abomination of desolation, there shall be a thousand two hundred and ninety days. Blessed is he that waiteth, and cometh to the thousand three hundred and thirty-five days." (Clement of Alexandria; The Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 2, p. 334)

F.W. Farrar (1882) states that "all the earliest Christian writers on the Apocalypse, from Irenaeus down to Victorious of Pettau and Commodian in the fourth, and Andreas in the fifth, and St. Beatus in the eighth century, connect Nero, or some Roman emperor, with the Apocalyptic Beast." The theologian adds that "the clue is preserved for us, not only by Jewish Talmudists, and Pagan historians and authors, such as Tacitus, Suetonius, Dion Cassius, and Dion Chrysostom; but also by Christian fathers like St. Irenaeus, Lactantius, St. Victorinus, Sulpicius Severus, and the Sibylline books, and even by St. Jerome, and by St. Augustine." Farrar adds that "nothing can prove more decisively than these references that for four centuries many Christians identified Nero with the Beast." He concludes:

"Beyond all shadow of doubt or uncertainty, the Wild Beast from the sea is meant as a symbol of the emperor Nero. Here, at any rate, St. John has neglected no single means by which he could make his meaning clear without deadly peril to himself and the Christian Church. He describes this Wild Beast by no less than sixteen distinctive marks, and then all but tells us in so many words the name of the person whom it is intended to symbolize." (Farrar; Early Days of Christianity, 5.28.5)