Revelation 13:18 – DCLXVI, The Number of the Beast

Revelation 13:18 – DCLXVI, 666, The Number of the Beast


There is much symbolism in the New Testament. One example is in the infamous referral to the number of the beast. Some historians have shown a relation to Hebrew numerology and the name of Nero.


I see a multilayer of anti-Roman sentiment especially in the use of the basic Roman numeral system of representing letters for numbers to also identify the beast. "This calls for some wisdom. If anyone has insight, let him calculate the number of the beast, for it is man's number. His number is DCLXVI." - Revelation 13:18


(D = 500 + C = 100 + L = 50 + X = 10 + V = 5 + I = 1) 500+100+50+10+5+1 = 666


Of course one cannot fully discount the numerology attached to the Hebrew alphabet which would possibly have the number of the beast to be a disguised slap at the anti-Jewish, anti-Christ persona in the form of the Roman dictator Nero.


Numbers like words are symbols. They cross reference thought, sound, meaning, and visual expression but in a perhaps more precisely calculated manner. If one is looking for the deepest possible meaning to John's new "riddle of the sphinx", so to speak, one has to probe deeper.


The polyglot language of the Roman world shows us how not one, but many languages, were in use at the time. This is evidenced by examples of slightly pre-Roman artifacts such as the Rosetta Stone. Good communication meant use of many of the best words of many base languages and, or, bold interpretations of other exotic, possibly esoteric languages and communications to convey the new Christian message.


The fishermen of souls were of a varied degree of backgrounds and educations. Their message was meant to reach the greatest possible number of souls. As such, I look at the simplest and the most complicated of people of that era and can say with confidence that the Roman numeral system was known to all the commerce and economies of Ben-Zebedee's world. Beyond the beast being a real person or a real event then, now or in the future, the true number of the beast is a simple and a complicated message.


The complicated answer I leave to the domain of scholars. For me, a simple man in a very complicated modern world, I, a visually oriented person, see the promises of Satan as a large amount, whether it be tallied in money or power etc.


To the ancient world, this was a large number. If one looks at it visually and in the basic six digits of Roman numerics, it is both a large number and a descending number of 500 ranging down to one.


The only thing missing is the Hindu-Arabic concept of zero which I add to my interpretation here.


The promise of Satan and of Evil is great but the promise and reality of the promise in the end equals itself to, or is less than, zero.


(June 6, 1998)




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God Bless Obama and America Too!

Forgive me – the above image has appeared overnight with a strange mixed message as to what it really means. The image has come out of and is being used in the Birther/Deather (Know Nothing) political movement currently in vogue in the nation’s thought flow. The image in any case does not represent love or respect. In the political arena there are no rules.

It is strange but I follow a troubled soul meter regarding the state of the nation.

Whether it be coincidence or the heat in the political atmosphere, the number of people who seek out and read my Number of the Beast Article goes up in days of political unrest.

My article I wrote in a sort of religious stupor over ten years ago in quest of a more personal and perfect spirituality over and above the mere religions and the attempts by men to touch the Deity, in spirit or in words.

Revelation 13:18 - DCLXVI - The Number of the Beast

The Beast is indeed in Town Hall Meetings these days!

When people are searching for absolutes they look for absolutes in the Bible. I long ago concluded that the Bible is a man made book, sometimes inspired by the Deity. The revelation of God through the message of Jesus is something over and above the rest where that divine message is so crudely recorded in that faulty history book of the Bible.

Over and above it being a very poorly written history book, the only other function I can see in the Bible is one of a road map. It may lead you to points on the map literally or points in your individual journey where you may be closest to a spiritual awakening or even come close to step into the presence of God – transcendent – as in a Transfiguration of your life, spirit and spiritual direction toward eternity.

The bible does not predict anything. The bible only holds the predictions of men.

In times of political unrest, the bible will not tell you anything about the vetting process of a nation that at times seems to be half angel and half demon. We lived for centuries as half slave and half free. I knew that the vetting process of this Presidency might be difficult, I could not predict the weird ways, and particularly for people in the traditional South to accept reality in a real life setting after the 2008 election.

The shouts of anger in the crowds in town hall meetings are becoming more openly racist and evil in its content. Time cures everything. The young are more flexible. The old and much of their ingrained hatred is a decade or two away from the grave.

I pray for my nation to be the best it can be. Should be. I rarely get what I pray for.

God bless the nation. God bless the people right or wrong. God inspire and protect.