I know-it is from the last book of the NT (Apocalypse). It is (supposedly) the “number of the beast”-I saw it on a Vermont license plate yesterday. Is it some kind of anagram? Exactly what is its significance?
Relevant passage from Revelation:
The significance is that all commerce will be denied to anyone who does not submit to the antichrist. This submission will be signified by bearing the name or number of the beast. So, the choice in that interpretation is “choose God and starve or choose the antichrist (beast) and be able to buy food”.
The fascination, I think, derives from the unsolved riddle aspect. There has been much speculation over the millennia about who (or what) the number represents, but no one knows for sure. The same reason that the identity of Jack the Ripper still gets so much attention today, people become obsessed with solving what they see as a puzzle.
In Hebrew, letters have numeric values. If you write Emperor Nero in Hebrew, the letters add up to 666.
Eschatological literature like Revelation has multiple meanings, so it is difficult to give an exact answer.
Regards,
Shodan
Yes. Further, no matter how the numbers are arranged, they remain 666. Spooky.
. . . And several dozen other people.
Maybe the Antichrist will be a cabal of 666 proposed candidates.
In War and Peace, Tolstoy has Pierre working numerology and concluding that l empereur Napoleon worked out to 666 precisely – if he left the “e” out of “le”.
I’ve seen proofs that HITLER = 666, and someone has pointed out that the number of letters in RONALD WILSON REAGAN are 6 6 6.
If you work at it, you can get any of your enemies’ names or titles work out to 666 somehow. Or maybe even your friends. (Trust no one)
666 = Number of the Beast
668 = Next-door Neighbor of the Beast
999 = Number of the Australian Beast
665.9997856 = Number of the Beast on a Pentium
0.666 = Number of the Millibeast
1010011010 = Binary Number of the Beast
29A = Hexidecimal of the Beast
00666 = Zip Code of the Beast
Form 10666 = IRS Tax Form of the Beast
666-66-6666 = Social Security Number of the Beast
1-666-666-6666 = Phone Number of the Beast
1-866-666-6666 = Toll-Free Phone Number of the Beast
1-900-666-6666 = Live Beasts, available now! Only $6.66 per minute!
I’ve had the number 666 come up a few times in my life. My favorite was when I went to register my dog at the city hall of a small town. I turned over the forms from the vet and my driver’s license and the clerk took the next tag off the wire loop. “Oh, this is number 666.” she looked at me anxiously, “I can get you a different tag. If you don’t like that number.”
I’m Catholic, we don’t hold with that 666 shit. I just told the lady, “No that’s fine, she’s a devil dog, it’s the perfect tag.”
The explanation I admire the most – and believe almost not at all – is from Robert Graves, who, in “The White Goddess,” said that DCLXVI, 666 in Roman numerals, is an abbreviation for the Latin sentence “Domitianus Caesar Legatos Xti Violenter Interfecit,” or “The Emperor Domitian violently killed the envoys of Christ.”
Graves was one of the great masters of making up really plausible garbage.
If you take the phrase “CUTE PURPLE DINOSAUR”, change all the U’s to V’s, and count the Roman numerals, they add up to 666. So obviously, Barney is the beast.
Yes, but Nero has another distinction: the original number was 616, and a variant spelling of his name fits that, too. In fact, it’s guessed that people who knew the code changed it to the more common version of his name.
There are also historical reasons to interpret Revelation as a coded allegory about Rome, so the head of the Empire (and symbolic enemy of all Christians) fits more than other candidates.
I rolled a 666 in my bowling league last week. Actually had people tell me I should have fouled on the last shot so that I wouldn’t have the devil’s number and get bad luck all week long.
I had great fun pulling out my driver’s license and showing them that the last three digits are 666, and telling them that I’ve this number since I was 15 and it hasn’t bothered me a bit.
I don’t get it.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pentium_FDIV_bug
Original Pentium processors had a bug that meant they would calculate decimals incorrectly.
2.823474223 = Log of the Beast
-0.80916994375 = Sin of the Beast
0.0015015015… = The Beast doing a headstand
I have read that when the Reagans left Washington and moved back to California, the address of the house they bought was 666 St. Cloud. They had it changed to 668.
I always thought that if someone was so upset about 666, that just calling it 668 wouldn’t change the inherent “evilness” of the place, but I guess the Reagans didn’t feel that way.
My understanding of French is that when you have le preceeding a word beginning with a vowel sound “le” and “la” become " l’ ". Kind of like in English it is “a radish” but “an apple”.
Many places don’t have a 13th floor because of that same reasoning. Skipping one and calling it the 14th floor does not change that it is the 13th floor.