In order to solve the enigma of number 666 it is necessary to completely understand the entire sense of the whole Chapter 13 of the Book of Revelation.
For me relevant meanings of narration are related to the two Beasts appeared in that Chapter: the Beast that raises up from the sea represents the
Roman Empire while the Beast raising up from the earth is the image of the Emperor exerting all
his powers at the moment in which John is working on the Book of Revelation
The only useful
help that John provides in order to solve the enigma is the information that 666 number is a “number of a
man”(Rev 13:18). In light of the same theme some authors let us note that according to the expression “metron anthrōpou” (“human
scale” Rev 21:17) related to the height of one hundred and fourty four arms of eschatological Jerusalem walls, John states “anthrōpou ho estin anghelou” that literally sounds as “of
man means of angel”. It is argued that this passage of the book would demonstrate that the Apocalypse of John is fully inserted into the apocalyptic literary genre in which some animal species often represent certain categories of
men, or people, monsters and imaginary
animals symbolize demons while the “
men” are instead the angels. Rev 21:17, then, is called upon to deny that the term “number of a
man” reported in 666 is to mean a human character and to support, however, regards to an angelic entity or even an angel shaped one that is to say satanic.
To counter these observations what should be noted is that throughout the Book of Revelation, the term “
men” in the plural form always indicates unequivocally human beings. In the other two places where “
man” occurs in the singular form it indicates definitely a human person: in Rev 1:13 in the midst of seven candlesticks, the person “like unto a Son of
man” is indeed a divine creature but manifesting himself through human appearance, while in Rev 9:5 to the plague of locusts on the fifth trumpet is given such a power to obtain an agony as “of a
scorpion when it stings a
man”: the reference is then aimed to a person made of flesh and blood who has feelings of pain, not certainly to an angel. This leads to the conclusion that in Rev 21:17 the expression “metron anthrōpou ho estin anghelou” can be translated less literally “according to the measure currently in use among
men adopted by the angel”: the angel employs a units of measure in use among
men in order to be understood from these. Thus, the argument inferred from Rev 21:17 is refuted to support the view that the “number of a
man” mentioned in Rev 13:18 is to be referred to an angelic entity.
The research is then reported among
men. In addition to the elements analyzed in the previous Chapter, that lead us to believe that the
Roman Empire is hidden behind the Beast rising from the sea while the Emperor behind the one rising from the earth, we must now examine other details, always from Chapter 13 of Revelation, which not only allow us to be confident that the second Beast alludes to the
imperator, but let even know the precise identity.
A first indication of what stated above can be taken from the fact that the Beast rising from the earth “doeth great signs, that he should even make fire to come down out of heaven upon the earth in the sight of
men” (Rev 13:13). Well, as to miss in this inside a significant reference to the Great Fire of
Rome hanged by
Nero in the year 64? As well as the Beast rising from the sea with
his head beaten to death and then healed emulates the miracle of the resurrection of
Christ, so the Beast rising from the earth emulates another miracle, that of Elijah that
had brought fire down from heaven to burn the animal offered in sacrifice (1Kings 18, 20-40). But once again there is no step forward to the pathetic parody of the original miracle: as a matter of fact the Beast rising from the earth is, indeed, a result even more misguided and disastrous being symptomatic of the fallacy of
his teachings and the wickedness of
his heart.
Nero, in fact, falsely blamed the Christians for the Fire of
Rome,
writing the page of the first large-scale
Christian persecution, among the victims
Peter and Paul can be also named.
The parody of the miracle of the fire of Elijah referred to a specific episode in
Nero’s, can be juxtaposed to the imitation of the miracle of the resurrection of
Christ put in place by the
Roman Empire as a whole force, able to resume the designation of
Claudius as Emperor after the heeling caused by the killing of
Caligula: the parallelism made by John between the two historic situations and the wonders, respectively Elijah’s and Jesus’s, is undeniable and its understanding allows us to seize irony attached to the rough imitation of the original miracle.
The conclusion we reach to, on the other hand, is perfectly compatible with the hazardous situation that, as all commentators argue, John perceives as imminent for Christians and that suggests a persecution: here is the clue that it has nothing to do with the persecution of
Domitian, as held by most scholars, but of
Nero’s. The matricide Emperor, therefore, seems to be the one who “put to death all who refused to worship the statue of the beast” (Rev 13:15).
But, in addition to provide an indication that we have just said, John is responsible for making it possible to identify the Emperor he alludes about following to the enigma on the mark of the Beast and on the equivalence between the mark, the Beast name and the number of
his name. Said enigma is contained in versicles 16-17 of Chapter 13, certainly among the most obscure of all of the Revelation: “(the beast rising from the ground) causeth all, both small and great, rich and
poor, free and bond, to receive a mark on their right hand, or upon their forehead, and that no
man might buy or sell, save he that hath the mark, the name of the beast or the number of
his name”.
It has been widely argued about how to read this passage. If the mark on the forehead is generally interpreted as the corresponding satanic seal on the foreheads of the elected (Rev 7:4 and 9:4), more arduous seems to be the explanation of the mark on the hand. Very unlike is the argument where John refers to the fact that fugitive slaves were forehead branded with the name of their master: no hand marks are reported and the image is not suitable for those that don’t flee.
Neither are convincing the explanations that make reference to the Emperor’s name branded on soldiers’
hands, or simply to the
act of the right hand and the
head bow of those who sacrified the Emperor.
Other authors emphasize the allusion to the commercial and mercantile activities and talk about the relationship between manual
work and commerce, the satanic control of the right hand, the one to be more involved in commercial transactions, but
still cannot identify any specific situations of the ancient business practice that could explain the text itself.
There are those who propose to see in the detail of the name of the Beast from the sea, as on everyone’s right hand or forehead, a reference to phylacteries (tefillim) of the
Jewish tradition which consist of strips of parchment or papyrus bearing
Biblical passages rolled up and locked in small boxes bound to turn around the
head and left hand. With this John would run into controversy with Judaism that has not adhered to Christianity and that is why, they used to mark on the hand and forehead no longer the word and the name of God, but the name and number of the Beast, direct expression of Satan. Apart from different detail of the hand to which the phylacteries were tied (to the left and not to the right), this reference to Judaism is alien in a context that seems to refer with certainty to the
Roman Empire.
