Satanic symbol 666 comes from the Bible. In the revelation of John ch. 13, art. 18 we read: “Here is wisdom. He who has intelligence, count the number of the beast, for it is a human number; his number is six hundred and sixty-six."
Commentators do not have a single interpretation, but with regard to who is meant in this riddle. But almost everyone agrees that the so-called "gematria" may be a mechanism by which one can try to solve this riddle.
Gematria is an ancient method by which numerical and literal values are correlated to understand the hidden meaning of a word. Gematria is based on the fact that both classical Greek and Hebrew did not have special numerical designations, but instead used letters in the sign meaning.
Following this principle, the first letter of the alphabet corresponds to the numerical value "one", the second letter to the numerical value "two", and so on. Therefore, every word in both languages can be read as a group of numbers. If we further count the amount, we get a number that corresponds to a word. In the case of names, we get the so-called "human number".
These numbers were used in cases where direct naming (naming) was not convenient or seemed dangerous.
The inscription found in the city of Pompeii is a convincing example of this. This inscription reads (translated from Greek): "I love the one whose number is 545". In this way, the beloved could find out that this inscription was addressed to her, but for other people it remained hidden, in particular, which of the many Greek girls was specifically meant.
It is suggested that the same should be done with respect to the biblical human number in Revelation 13.18. The author probably did not want the name to be revealed to strangers, so he hid it. At the same time, for the Christian brothers, the name that stood behind the numbers was revealed without difficulty.
But already in the second century Saint Irenaeus confessed that he did not know what kind of person was meant by this number. He suggested three solutions, none of which, in the light of today's research, is completely satisfactory. In the course of history, numerous more or less satisfactory solutions have been proposed.
Promotional video:
Historians rush to the rescue
Others mentioned the Pope, John Knox, Martin Luther and Napoleon, who were assigned the number of the beast 666. During World War II, someone gave birth to the idea that if we start with the letter "a" and take it for "100" numerical value, that is, in this case "6" will correspond to the number "101" and so on, then the total sum of Hitler's name will also be 666. But of all these decisions, one seems to be the most probable: if we write down the name Caesar Nero (this is the Greek form His name) in Hebrew letters, the numerical value of this word will be 666.
In addition, this assumption is well supported by the fact that one of the most authoritative biblical manuscripts under the code "C" (this is Ephraim, the fifth century) instead of 666 gives the number 616, since this number corresponds to the Latin form of the name of Nero. In this case, both versions correspond to the numerical value of his name, and therefore the beast in the text stands to designate one of the most cruel persecutors of the Church. In this case, however, it is not so important to decide which of the answers to this riddle is correct.
Gematria itself was later developed into numerous number-oriented forms of magic. Already the ancient Greek temples were built in accordance with certain gematric relations. Later, various ideas were used many times, but built on gematric principles. For example, not only were words with the same amount calculated and used for philosophical conclusions, but the messages of the Spirit were compared with the numerical values of their names and rechecked against the keywords of their messages.
Paranoia around the code
In recent years, some fundamentalist and charismatic groups have tried to ascertain the imminent reign of the Antichrist by the fact that all goods are now barcoded. They find the number 666 in the barcode itself and give it a connection with the quoted passage of the Revelation of John. Each group of lines in the code stands for a digit. Two thin lines correspond to the number 6. As if by chance, the entire code is divided by three double lines, which closely resemble two thin lines corresponding to a six.
Thus, the entire code is divided into three sections. From this, such religious groups conclude that the three double lines in the scanner marking, in fact, are the number of the beast, and the use of the barcode is not accidental, but embodies the implementation of what is said in the passage from Revelation, which says that no one will be able to buy or sell if he does not have the number of the beast.
Of course, one could immediately reject this statement as religious fanaticism. But let's try to check if there are serious grounds for such an interpretation?
To do this, we will have to go back to the way the Greeks and Jews wrote numbers and numbers. The Greeks and Jews used the decimal system, but they used it differently than we did, since neither one nor the other had the meaning of "zero." Despite the fact that it was a decimal system, it was missing the position now occupied by zero. Therefore, to operate the decimal system, they needed more characters than we do today in a system where there are nine characters for numbers plus zero.
For numbers up to our 999, they needed twenty-seven different signs, namely, nine signs for simple numbers from 1 to 9, nine for tens - from 10 to 100 and nine more - for hundreds - from 100 to 900. Because they do not have there was zero, they could not, like us, write tens and hundreds with the same symbols, and increase their significance by adding zero and thereby changing the position of the symbol within the number.
This means that they could not use the same symbol, for example, to designate three, thirty and three hundred. Based on this, when writing the number 666, it is absolutely impossible to repeat the six three times, but they had to use different letters, of which the first meant six hundred, the second sixty, and the third six.
Based on this, we come to the conclusion that any speculation based on the threefold repetition of the six is correlated with the modern, today's spelling and has nothing to do with the actual biblical number.
Author: T. Novotny
Source: “Interesting newspaper. Magic and mysticism №6 2012
