4 ms·

seriously? If so, what is then meant with the statement about it being "the number of a man"?

AdmiralAsshat 4y ago
The popular theory is that it referred to Emperor Nero. The author was basically telling you, "I'm making an allegory right now. Wink wink, nudge nudge."
- whatshisface 4y ago
  That theory has never made a lot of sense to me because the persecution of Christians wasn't a big secret.
  - lupire 4y ago
    It's generally dangerous to talk about things everyone knows, when the thing everyone knows is how evil the local power structure is.
  - AdmiralAsshat 4y ago
    Two reasons come to mind: 1) There's a long history of it. Gematria was a Jewish technique, then carried over to the early Christian community. There may have been reasons to keep it up as a matter of course, but as you said, with Nero it probably didn't matter: the dude knew everyone hated him. Not just Christians. 2) The purpose of Revelations was meant to comfort the current Christian community at the time by prophesying a future calamity with many parallels to the current calamity. The end of the world brings great destruction, yes, but there is vindication at the end of it all, and hence hope for the community. One thing to keep in mind about the nature of the "anti-Christ" is that it is the opposite of Christ in all ways. Christ was expected to come back at the end of days. So, too, then, was the anti-Christ. If the anti-Christ has never been seen before then "coming back" doesn't quite make sense, but it does make sense if the anti-Christ refers to Nero: he was a complete bastard in his first life, and he's so evil that he will come back at the end of days to persecute Christendom again.
- bloak 4y ago
  I have also heard the suggestion that 666 is an obvious number to pick if you use Roman numerals, being every letter (less than M) once in descending order: DCLXVI. (But why exclude M?) (Trivia: what is the biggest number that is an English word when written as a Roman numeral?)
jollyllama 4y ago
Man is a carbon based lifeform (atomic # 6) According to Genesis, Man was made on the 6th day

The popular theory is that it referred to Emperor Nero. The author was basically telling you, "I'm making an allegory right now. Wink wink, nudge nudge."

whatshisface 4y ago
That theory has never made a lot of sense to me because the persecution of Christians wasn't a big secret.
- lupire 4y ago
  It's generally dangerous to talk about things everyone knows, when the thing everyone knows is how evil the local power structure is.
- AdmiralAsshat 4y ago
  Two reasons come to mind: 1) There's a long history of it. Gematria was a Jewish technique, then carried over to the early Christian community. There may have been reasons to keep it up as a matter of course, but as you said, with Nero it probably didn't matter: the dude knew everyone hated him. Not just Christians. 2) The purpose of Revelations was meant to comfort the current Christian community at the time by prophesying a future calamity with many parallels to the current calamity. The end of the world brings great destruction, yes, but there is vindication at the end of it all, and hence hope for the community. One thing to keep in mind about the nature of the "anti-Christ" is that it is the opposite of Christ in all ways. Christ was expected to come back at the end of days. So, too, then, was the anti-Christ. If the anti-Christ has never been seen before then "coming back" doesn't quite make sense, but it does make sense if the anti-Christ refers to Nero: he was a complete bastard in his first life, and he's so evil that he will come back at the end of days to persecute Christendom again.
bloak 4y ago
I have also heard the suggestion that 666 is an obvious number to pick if you use Roman numerals, being every letter (less than M) once in descending order: DCLXVI. (But why exclude M?) (Trivia: what is the biggest number that is an English word when written as a Roman numeral?)

jollyllama 4y ago

Man is a carbon based lifeform (atomic # 6) According to Genesis, Man was made on the 6th day