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 600, threescore, and six.

Hey listeners, this is Nick from Scripture Central, and today's podcast addresses the question, why did John state that the beast's number is 666?

After being exiled to Patmos, the Apostle John saw a magnificent vision that has since been

placed as the last book of the New Testament. This vision pertains to the historical events of John's

day as well as to the latter days preceding the Second Coming. Because John's vision

frequently uses symbolic language and images, its meanings may not always be immediately apparent.

One of the symbolic terms that John employed involves Jamatria, a Jewish system of thought that assigns a numerical value to a word or phrase.

While this practice may seem odd to modern readers, Richard D. Draper and Michael D. Rhodes point out,

most ancient people did not have a separate numbering system and alphabet.

So letters also served as numbers. As a result, any given name could be translated into a number. The first letter in

Greek and Hebrew, for example, had the numerical value of the number one, and so on. By adding up

the values for each letter, a wide array of numbers could be achieved.

In Revelation chapter 13, John sees a vision of a dragon and a beast who persecute the

Church of God. Regarding the beast, John states, 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 603 score and 6.

This appears to be an example of a specialized use of Jamotria called isocephi,

which is more properly understood as an encoded phrase, name, or idea that is conveyed numerically rather than literally.

It is especially apparent that John's description of 666 is an example of isocephi, given that it is described as being the number of a man.

Lincoln H. Blumel and Thomas A. Weyman identify this phrase as a

loosely adaptable formula to mark Isosephi in a given text. Thus, the number can be viewed as an

encoded message that John's audience, especially those with a Jewish background, may have been

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