08 Aug The Number 666 Explained
There is a clear and simple way to understand the number 666 in the Bible. It does however take some background to explain.
In English we have separate symbols for our numbers. So 1 = one, and 2 = two and so on. But in Greek they did not have dedicated symbols for their numbers, they used the letters. So alpha was 1, beta 2, gamma 3 and so on.
When the tenth symbol of the Greek alphabet came along – the letter iota – it meant ten. But when the 11th letter in Greek came – the letter kappa – it didn’t mean 11, rather it meant 20. The twelfth meant 30, the 13th meant 40 and so on.
The 19th letter – the letter rho – was 100. The 20th letter – sigma – was 200 and from that point it counted in 100’s.
Here is an overview of that
So if you wanted to write a number – like 666 as in Revelation chapter 13 – you used actual greek letters to write it. A check of old Greek copies of Revelation will demonstrate this. Here is a screenshot of the English and Greek, and you can see highlighted the three greek letters which comprise 666.
So the uncanny thing about the Greek method of using numbers is that not only do you write a number with letters, but then any word also represent a number too. As well as that any word can be added up so that all its letters total a big number. This is what the author of Revelation was believed to be doing when he said that the beast was a man, whose name 666. In other words, the name of that man either was 666, or it could be added up to 666.
The Emperor Nero was one such person whose name added to 666.
But there is something uncanny. An ancient copy of revelation was discovered – Papyrus 115, and in that version the number of the beast was not 666, rather it was 616.
What happens when you use a numbering system that isn’t the Greek method, but you add up the letters in the name of the same person (Emperor Nero) – in say Arabic? Then you end up with a different number. But then you need to communicate that number (still in Greek) to people who have Arabic descent – that is, they have an actual method of using numbers.
This page in wikipedia explains that the 616 is actually transliterated Arabic. In other words, the number was not calculated in the Greek method, but with Arabic, but then used the Greek alphabet to write it.
The thing of most interest here is that Emperor Nero also calculates to 616 in this alternate language.
Here is a video that explains the same idea – except that it observes the other language was Latin rather than Arabic. Whether Latin or Arabic, the point is that academics have observed that a translation/adjustment was made from 666 to 616 for the sake of the audience who were more familiar with their numbering system than we are today.
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