666

NeroYesterday I blogged about the fact that in Greek, Jesus’ name adds up to 888. In response, a reader asked:

All this brings to 666, the number of the beast. I’ve read somewhere
this backtranslates to Nero, though intentionally without determinism.
Is there a known spelling of Nero that makes the connection in Latin or
ancient Greek?

It is true, though the language isn’t Latin or Greek. It’s Hebrew or Aramaic. These two languages use the same alphabet, though the shapes of the letters are sometimes quite different, and as a result they used the same numbering system. Since first century Jews were Aramaic-speakers, Aramaic is really the more relevant language in this case, but because modern pastors tend to know more Hebrew than Aramaic (since most of the Old Testament is in Hebrew), you often hear that "Nero Caesar" adds up to 666 in Hebrew.

Here’s how it works:

Aramaic and Hebrew did not have vowels in the first century, so words were spelled with consonants. There were different ways one could spell words (in the absence of Webster’s dictionary), and one spelling of "Nero Caesar" (or "Caesar Nero") was NRWN QSR.

Nun = 50
Resh = 200
Waw = 6
Nun =  50

Qop = 100
Samekh = 60
Resh = 200

TOTAL = 666

Now, there’s lotsa folks who have names that add up to 666, so why should one be confident that the emperor Nero was who St. John/God had in mind in the book of Revelation?

Well, in Revelation the beast is described as a leader who demands to be worshipped as a god and who persecutes Christians? Any of St. John’s contemporaries fit that bill? Yep: Nero.

Any reason we should think that it would be one of St. John’s contemporaries? Yep, again: At its beginning and its end, the book stresses it deals with what will happen "soon" (Rev. 1:1, 22:6).

Anything else?

Yep the third: Another spelling of "Nero Caesar" in Aramaic(/Hebrew) is NRW QSR, which leaves off a nun (50), resulting in the total number 616 instead of 666.

It turns out that some early manuscripts of Revelation record the beast’s number as 616 rather than 666.

Somebody back then got it–and was used to a different spelling.

(Note: It’s interesting when you’re taking a class in Aramaic and are learning the numbering system–still in use among Aramaic-speakers today–and all this comes up. Startling confirmation of the solidity of all this.)

Author: Jimmy Akin

Jimmy was born in Texas, grew up nominally Protestant, but at age 20 experienced a profound conversion to Christ. Planning on becoming a Protestant seminary professor, he started an intensive study of the Bible. But the more he immersed himself in Scripture the more he found to support the Catholic faith, and in 1992 he entered the Catholic Church. His conversion story, "A Triumph and a Tragedy," is published in Surprised by Truth. Besides being an author, Jimmy is the Senior Apologist at Catholic Answers, a contributing editor to Catholic Answers Magazine, and a weekly guest on "Catholic Answers Live."

23 thoughts on “666”

  2. I think I read in one of Scott Hahn’s book that 666 could also refer to St. Solomon.
    BTW, Jesus will return soon. Even if he doesn’t return for another billion years, that’s pretty soon compared to eternity. As St. Paul said way back when, we are already in the last days.

  3. In an old Bible of an old parish priest, 666 is explained like this :
    7 is the perfect number and so 6 (7-1) is the number of what is unperfect…
    3 is the nuber of God…
    So 666 is the number of “what is unperfect” trying to be called God, to usupt his title…
    Is it a correct interpretation ?
    That would give a more universal impact than saying it’s such man or such other Cesar (and of course papacy 😉 )

  4. One of my past pastors explained the “end times” in this way. For each of us, the world ends when we die. We need to work to be ready for that. As to the end of the universe, “only the Father knows” as Jesus said. We need to trust His wisdom. It was important because that was in Charleston, SC, where discussion of the “end times” was common conversation and confusing to Catholic laypeople. Now I live in Boston, Massachusetts, where, in some circles, discussion of the “end times” might get you accused of violating separation of Church and State by public proselytizing. I heard some pretty derogatory things about the Pope in Charleston. I have heard some pretty derogatory things about “the Blue Lady”, i.e. homeyard display of statues of Mary, here in Boston. I try and use that to help me remember my own shortcomings. Sometimes I succeed.

  5. I find all the 666 speculation quite fascinating, but I’m not really convinced by any of the various arguments. Nero may be the one St. John was referring to — or not. In any case it seems the Nero interpretation has the strongest arguments in its favor, even if I don’t really find it convincing. (One weakness is that Revelation was written in Greek, not Aramaic, and there’s no hint that St. John meant us to dig beneath the Greek language for an Aramaic subsoil to solve the 666 puzzle.) I’m not even sure St. John expected his first readers to recognise the number of the Beast’s name, though that would seem to make sense too. But at least the consensus of the early Fathers seems to link the Beast and Babylon the Great with Rome and the Emperors, even if not much more is clear than that.

  6. Jared,
    Revelation is in Greek, but it’s a very “Semitic Greek” – it’s as it it was written by someone who knew Hebrew (and/or Aramaic) better than Greek. In that light, I don’t think that looking for a Hebrew (Aramaic) word behind something like the “666” is terribly unreasonable. (Seeing the beast whose number is 666 as a Roman ruler is of course also consistent with the recognition that the city – “Babylon” – with whom he’s associated is Rome – which is obvious in light of the book’s comment that the seven heads of the dragon are the seven hills on which the city sits.)

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  8. This is the way I see it:
    Nero Ceasar was an antiChrist during the time John wrote the book of Revelations. What John saw (in the vision) was the ruler of the Roman empire – a.k.a Ceasar setting himself up above everything called Holy.
    Because Nero was a Ceasar, ruler of the Roman empire, and an antiChrist- John numbered his name [NRWN QSR] and it adds up to 666 in Aramaic.
    Rome was the only world empire that was not invaded but came to a fall by itself because it could devided.
    According to the vision of Daniel, just after the legs of iron is the feet of clay mixed with iron. For those of you who do not know it yet- modern day Europe is ancient Rome!
    If Daniels vision of the last world empire is understood as Europe, no wonder the feet are clay and iron mixed… it is devided yet one kingdom.
    The European Union is rapidly becoming that old Roman Empire once more. And the Ceasar of the EU? None other than Javier Solana.
    If “the king that was, is not, and is to come” is a Ceasar, ruler of the Roman empire and an antiChrist then Javier Solana fits that profile exactly.
    If I understand the passage of Rev 13:18 correct, then the mark has nothing to do with 666, but the mark is the mark of the antiChrist, the antiChrist whos name is numbered 666. (ie. the Ceasar of the day)
    Interesting Fact:
    Javier means Enlightened
    Solana means Sunrise
    Any comments will be appreciated :o)
    Thank you.

  9. i was looking up stuff today because i saw a prophecy from stephen hanson from late ’04 that said not only does 666 mean the name of a man or the number of his name but it also is a date that the “man of perdition” would make himself known. so i looked up cnn.com and foxnews.com etc and guess who is presenting a peace treaty agreement backed by the major nations to Iran today 6/6/6 and the news says may bring peace to the Iran nuclear disagreement?
    ANSWER: Javier Solana He is also a member of The Club of Rome… look him up on wikipedia and see if he doesn’t fit the mold.

  10. The number 666 has nothing to do with a name. Revelation Chapters 6-16 Identify the six seals,viles and trumps.The seventh seal,viles and trumps bring Christ.
    As an aside the hidden prefix on all credit cards is six,six,six.
    The mark on your forhead relates to your brain.
    The frontal lobe governs your behavior. If you follow the antichrist you have let him into your frontal lobe

  11. “So that no one can buy or sell unless he has the mark, that is, the *name* of the beast or the number of its name. This calls for wisdom: let him who has understanding reckon the number of the beast, for it is a *human* number, its number is six hundred and sixty-six.”–Rev. 13:17-18

  12. 13:3 states “One of its heads appeared to be fatally wounded, but its mortal wound was healed.” This helps give support to the idea that the number is talking about Nero. Nero commited suicide in June of 68. There were 2 main myths circulating: Nero Redux (“Nero Returned”) and Nero Redivivus (“Nero’s Alive Again”). One says he did not die, but was hiding out. The other says he came back to life.
    For a good discussion on this theory, I suggest David E. Aune’s “World Biblical Commentary: Revelation 6-16” It’s number 52B in the series and can be found on pages 737-740.
    Thanks for the blog. Looks like a good discussion.
    Matt Bronsil

  13. WWW.
    Lets talk about the most common misconstrued Bible Mystery. The Mark of the Beast. A mystery that has been debated for centuries. My website at http://www.istheBeast.com explains the proof in exhaustive detail. I will recap highlights here. It is a free website, just like all my radio talk shows, press releases of Bible Mysteries and more. Spread the Word! Evangelize!
    The Word of God, as Inspired Scripture harmonizes throughout the Gospels, and the Bible, we just have to see the whole picture. God made everything, so of course His Word can be seen repeating symbolically throughout His World, His Gospels and even His laws of physics. However, the last and final interpretation of this “Mark of the Beast” Bible mystery must be literal. Literal. Literal because John, who wrote Revelation, did not have a series of dreams, like Daniel, but was shown, shown actual scenes of the future by an Angel sent from God. He literally saw what the different Beasts of Revelation looked like. He had first hand knowledge of the Mark, because he “Marked the Beast” with the only thing he recognized when actually seeing a computer monitor with the World Wide Web on, the only consistent characters John saw and knew from his own languages of Hebrew/Aramaic were the http://www.’s at the top of this sea of information. They represented 6, 66, 616, and 666 in the Traditional Hebrew of his time. That was found in Uncle Ricky’s Concordance. Revelation was written in Koin¢e Greek for the Churches of Asia, as requested by God. John thought in Hebrew and had to simply change the Traditional Hebrew into Greek, just as thousands of translations would be done in the future, from one language to the next. His Greek syntax was weak, but still Inspired, and by no little coincidence, there are two references to Hebrew, with Hebrew Proper names in Revelation. Abod¢don in REV 9:11 and Armaged¢don in REV 16:16. These are the key to unlocking the riddle in the phrase, “anyone with a little wisdom can determine the Mark of the Beast.“ John “thought” in Traditional Hebrew, the language of scholars and God. He also spoke Aramaic with his fellows.
    Many people saw Rome as the Beast because John used them symbolically in his “cover story”. The Romans had banished John to the Ilse of Patmos, so we glimpse a part of God’s Plan repeating symbolically. Let us look at what Saint Paul says in the Bible, ‘…he shall be revealed in his own time….accompanied by all the powers and signs and wonders at the disposal of falsehood….by every seduction the wicked can devise, God is sending upon them a perverse spirit…” In his own time, the Web just got here. All the powers, wonders and signs of falsehood, including the seven deadly sins are available on the World Wide Web. Lust, gluttony, sloth, greed, hate, jealousy, vanity. I caught the Beast!
    The World Wide Web was conceived in 1989 as a Global Hypertext Project (HTTP) by Tim Berners-Lee. It was “born” in 1991 with appealing sounds, color, movement and sin. Many of the first websites were pornographic based. Now, arguably, some variation of every sin can be tied directly to the Web. Drugs, murder, gambling, other Gods, just type it in and press search. The Evil One would love to have your Soul.
    You may have more questions, so please refer to the www. proof in the back of the chapter.* This was turned into the Church in 2004, the first Priest who I saw read it, actually taught Revelation. His eyes never left the paper till he was done. Then he immediately started asking me qualifying questions, like, “Do you know when Judgment Day will be?” No one does, except God. After this brief question and answer session he said, “Could be right.” Then as I was walking out, he said a Council may be convened. I told him I would welcome that. So, that really got the ball rolling, but just to speed it up, I mailed it to the Vatican’s appropriate Councils and Commissions. Imagine getting that in the mail.*
    Please see the Ancient Semitic Alphabet; the Hebrew/Aramaic Dictionary; the Proof, the Press Release, the Vatican Breaking News Religion page by EIN News, and my letter to the Vatican.*
    (insert #61-66, 68,69,71,73,74)

  15. it is interesting that when israel took over jerusalem that 40 years later we have this 7 year peace treaty with many nations including israel in the middle east. With a 3 1/2 year checking period! To see how the nations are complying.
    Watch carefully folks, this could be the real thing! unless there is more than one 7 year peace covenant with many nations, that destroys many nations.

  16. The only reason why it’s such a big deal is because Nero Caesar killed innocent people who prayed to god and Jesus. Hitler killed many Jews because of their race and left the people who were christen. Nero was a work of the devil or might just be the devil, not just because of his name but also because of what he did. His name adding up to 666 are just another reason to believe that he was the devil.
    Its all about what you believe, if you don’t believe it then fine, you don’t have to but when you make a website because it bugs you so bad, its another way of saying “I have nothing better to do with my life and I’m not mature enough to accept what other people think.”

  17. “Hitler killed many Jews because of their race and left the people who were christen(sic).”
    Actually, Hitler killed about 6 million Jews and about 8 million Gentiles in his concentration camps. (St. Maximillan Kolbe comes to mind).
    “It’s all about what you believe…”
    With most of us here, it’s all about facts.

  18. It is interesting. However, though Nero was a crappy ruler he didn’t really do anything extraordinarily evil.”Well, in Revelation the beast is described as a leader who demands to be worshiped as a god and who persecutes Christians?” Because that is unlike any other ruler Rome had known. Or any other world rules for that matter. (sarcasm folks) Also, another point I like to think of when there are these types of things is that even with Nero kinda the beginning of the end for Rome – The fall of Rome itself was not a major crisis in the totality of the human race. It was a time of turmoil for many but humanity and society went on, reformed and more mature. Does it say to us that if Rome could not last than America, so styled after Rome, could not last?? Nothing lasts. Even if it indicative our own psychological fears of the fall of our current powers, imagine the fall of America. Begining of wars and insanity? Funny, America intact seems to be acomplishing that just fine with a fully formed government. Now if we want to discuss how 666 could imply a fear of change, well that’s on course I think.
    Thinks change. Life will go on. . .

  20. Does name Barack Obama add up to 616?
    1. 2005 Oxford U. confirms 616.
    2. From Apostles: 2 Greek characters which stands for Christ and 1 figure for the serpent: Barack, baracka, badarak (most holy) Hussein (beautiful) Obam (fallen)
    3. Mother Stanley was atheist and is deceased ovarian cancer.
    4. Father killed in car accident.
    5. Drug use as teenager. Did not know his own identity.
    6. Went to Comm. College then
    Columbia Univ and Harvard (what a jump!)
    7. 616 zip code Illinois.
    8. Wants Universal Health Care not National. Has met with World health U.N. Universal health care will it mean : if you have the number you get health care?

  21. If John was choosing numbers that SOUNDED like the name of the beast, what would it be?

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  23. the numbers can’t be pronounced in that way.
    they are composed of – Chi (600) Xi (60) s (6)
    chi = Ba”ch”: This is the same sound as “ch” in “Bach”, which does not sound like “ch” in “chair”. Like the German “ach!
    xi – bo”X”
    sigma = s (or stigma, a joining of sigma and tau at the end of a word)
    (s, V):There are two forms for the letter Sigma. When written at the end of a word, it is written like this: V. If it occurs anywhere else, it is written like this: s.
    In the Greek of the phrase in the bible, it’s thus:
    arithmos autos hexakosioi hexEkonta hex
    NUMBER OF-it SIX-hundred sixty SIX
    I think there are at least two interesting things about this – one, the letters are also used for the Greek “messiah” (christ) and even in modern times we use Xmas for Christmas (x = Christ) AND, the use of the word “stigma” meant a mark, and still means a similar thing to us today. Therefore, Revelation was talking about a mark on those who worshipped this person (that is the final s letter) and the other two letters are in the name used in religion for Jesus Christ:
    In Eastern Orthodoxy, the most widely used Christogram is a four-letter abbreviation, ICXC — a traditional abbreviation of the Greek words for “Jesus Christ” (i.e., the first and last letters of each of the words ΙΗΣΟΥΣ ΧΡΙΣΤΟΣ — written “IHCOYC XPICTOC” with a transliteration of the lunate sigma common in medieval Greek as “C”). On icons, this Christogram may be split: “IC” on the left of the image and “XC” on the right, most often with a bar above the letters (see titlos), indicating that it was a sacred name. It is sometimes rendered as “ICXC NIKA”, meaning “Jesus Christ Conquers.”
    “ICXC” may also be seen inscribed on the Ichthys. In the traditional Orthodox icon of Christ Pantokrator, Christ’s right hand is shown in a pose that represents the letters IC, X, and C. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christogram)
    So this actually means a false or alternate messiah (an anti-christos – another christ) Maybe we will see the sign used someday.

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