Speaker 1: Welcome to Brainstuff, a production of iHeartRadio, Hey brainstaff Lauren Bogelbaum. Here,
Speaker 1: would you buy a used car from someone if their
Speaker 1: current license plate ended in sixty sixty six? Or take
Speaker 1: a job at an office tower in New York City
Speaker 1: with the address six six six Fifth Avenue. After all,
Speaker 1: sixty six six is the infamous number of the Beast.
Speaker 1: Allegedly a Satanic code for evil. It comes up in
Speaker 1: all kinds of fictional horror media as a sometimes literal
Speaker 1: mark of Satan. In the New Standard American Bible, the
Speaker 1: Book of Revelation thirteen eighteen reads, here is wisdom, Let
Speaker 1: him who has understanding calculate the number of the beast,
Speaker 1: For the number is that of a man, and his
Speaker 1: number is sixty sixty six. From that biblical prophecy, it
Speaker 1: sure sounds like sixty six six is u's lucky number,
Speaker 1: But when you dig deeper into the Bible and its
Speaker 1: historical context, there's evidence that the author of Revelation was
Speaker 1: using numbers to send his early Christian readers a coded message.
Speaker 1: In the Bible, the beast refers to an evil looking
Speaker 1: creature that the author of Revelation saw rising out of
Speaker 1: the earth. In an apocalyptic vision Revelation thirteen eleven through eighteen,
Speaker 1: this creature could perform miraculous things, a demand that everyone
Speaker 1: be marked with its name or number, to buy and
Speaker 1: sell anything, and kill those who did not worship it.
Speaker 1: Over the centuries, scholars have wondered whether this beast referred
Speaker 1: to someone who has come and gone, has yet to come,
Speaker 1: or to no one person in particular. The Book of
Speaker 1: Revelation was originally written in Greek, the language of the
Speaker 1: Christian world in the first and second century CE. At
Speaker 1: that time, they weren't using the numbers that we use today.
Speaker 1: Our Arabic numerals are based on Indian mathematics that were
Speaker 1: already in the works back then, but wouldn't be fully
Speaker 1: developed for another few centuries. Instead, to represent numbers, each
Speaker 1: letter of the Greek and Hebrew alphabet was given a
Speaker 1: numeric value. For example, alpha equals one, beta equals two,
Speaker 1: and Pi equals eighty. The Greek speaking Christians reading Revelation
Speaker 1: would have been very comfortable reading letters as numbers. They
Speaker 1: also would have been comfortable turning numbers back into letters
Speaker 1: thanks to a practice called isopsophy. Isopsophy loosely means equal
Speaker 1: in numeric value. It was a popular way of playing
Speaker 1: with words in the first century and thereabouts. The trick
Speaker 1: was to add up the numeric value of the letters
Speaker 1: in one word and then find another word or phrase
Speaker 1: that added up to the same number. Numerically equal words
Speaker 1: or were thought to have a special connection. One of
Speaker 1: the best known for century isoce fees comes from the
Speaker 1: Roman historian Spetonius quote a calculation new Nero his mother slew.
Speaker 1: In this case, the emperor's name Nero equals one thousand
Speaker 1: and five, which is the exact value of the phrase
Speaker 1: his mother slew. Four Romans who suspected that this ruthless
Speaker 1: emperor had murdered his mother. This isoce fee was proof.
Speaker 1: Archaeologists have discovered ancient Roman graffiti that substituted numbers for names.
Speaker 1: For the article, this episode is based on How Stuff Works.
Speaker 1: Spoke with Thomas Weyment, a classics professor at Brigham Young University.
Speaker 1: He said, there's graffiti at Smyrna and Pompeii that says
Speaker 1: I love her whose number is one thousand, three hundred
Speaker 1: and eight. That's pretty common and hopefully everyone did their
Speaker 1: math correctly and could make the connections. Some Biblical scholars
Speaker 1: believe the author of Revelation intended for six sixty six
Speaker 1: to be an isosophe to be solved by his first
Speaker 1: century readers. A Wayman explained, the author says, this is
Speaker 1: the number of a man, which is a classic isosophy formula.
Speaker 1: Christians would have known right away. This is a coded message.
Speaker 1: Revelation is famously cryptic. In apocalyptic writings, an angel or
Speaker 1: other heavenly messenger often reveals their meaning through coded speech.
Speaker 1: Weyman said, as a reader, you're seeing something through the
Speaker 1: eyes of the visionary, and he's telling you. You need
Speaker 1: to make sense of this. That's part of your experience
Speaker 1: and participation in the vision. According to most scholars, six
Speaker 1: six six was a coded reference to Nero, a beastly
Speaker 1: emperor who brutally persecuted early Christians in the Roman Empire.
Speaker 1: To solve the isosophy and equate in your o to
Speaker 1: six sixty six, you must use the full name Caesar
Speaker 1: Nero in Greek, then pourt it to Hebrew. The transliteration
Speaker 1: of Caesar Nero to Hebrew gives you letters that add
Speaker 1: up to six sixty six. Interestingly, some early manuscripts of
Speaker 1: Revelation have the number written as six one six instead
Speaker 1: of six sixty six. The standard explanation is that Caesar
Speaker 1: Nero is written differently in Greek versus Latin, which was
Speaker 1: another language spoken by early Christians. In the Latin version,
Speaker 1: the letters only add up to six one six. Haustuffworks
Speaker 1: also spoke with James M. Hamilton, a professor of biblical
Speaker 1: theology at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. He sees powerful
Speaker 1: symbolism in the repetition of the number six for a
Speaker 1: person on a spiritual journey. He explained that in biblical symbolism,
Speaker 1: seven represents completeness or perfection, and only Jesus Christ achieved
Speaker 1: true perfect so if Jesus had a symbolic number, it
Speaker 1: would be seven seven seven. Hamilton thus sees the number
Speaker 1: of the beast as a warning sign for Christians to
Speaker 1: beware of Satan's quote cheap imitation of Christ. Hamilton said,
Speaker 1: that's the best Satan can do, one short of perfection.
Speaker 1: For Hamilton, those false Christs raised by Satan could take
Speaker 1: the form of a corrupt emperor like Nero, or even
Speaker 1: modern cultural norms that rebel against God. In God's sight,
Speaker 1: he said, if participating in that culture entails worshiping false
Speaker 1: gods or denying something that the Bible teaches Christians need
Speaker 1: to say, I'm not going to take the number or
Speaker 1: name of the beast. Today's episode is based on the
Speaker 1: article six sixty six meaning Angel number or the Devil's
Speaker 1: digits on HowStuffWorks dot Com. Written by Dave Ruse. Brainstuff
Speaker 1: is a production of iHeartRadio in partnership with HowStuffWorks dot Com,
Speaker 1: and it's produced by Tyler Klang. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio,
Speaker 1: visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen
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