“Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is 666.” (Revelation 13:11-18)
In many alphabets letters also have a numerical value. This is currently most commonly recognized in Latin with I, V, X, L, C, etc. but is also true in other languages including Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek.
Greek Isopsephy and Hebrew gematria are practices based on the number values of the letters in a word. Think of this like a game of Scrabble where the objective is to accumulate the highest score from the individual letters used to make words. In the case of isopsephy and gematria, the objective is to find other words whose total number score match the total word value of your key word. This opens up hidden, i.e. occult, connections between the words. For example, if the letters in my name add up to 55 my friends would compete to find the word with the same number value to associate with me, say, “turkey” if they’re being funny, or “sunlight” if they’re being nice.
If “Nero Caesar” is written in Aramaic – the common language of John’s day – Hebrew gematria derives the number 6 thousand 6 hundred and 6. The value of knowing this is that the number 666 could then be used to refer discretely to the emperor in any conversation that might blow back on the speaker as rebellious.
Since there was so much uproar in Judea against Nero that he sent legions to quell the rebellion, the common practice of gematria would certainly have been used to discretely refer to him and certainly John’s readers in his day would have understood that 666 meant Nero. Theologians generally accept this to be the case.
Kingdom Come 