It’s a number that fans flames in fevered minds. A date with fate that comes around but once, nearly two thousand years since Revelation was put to paper. This book of the Bible is rich with allegorical, apocalyptic references, and 666 is the most memorable of them all. The mythical “Beast”, or anti-Christ, depicted in Revelation, commanded that everyone be marked with the number on the right hand or forehead.
Millions of Americans believe that Revelation literally predicts an impending “end-time”. But biblical historians have shown that the book was focused on the era in which it was written. The Roman emperor, Nero, was a vicious persecutor of the early Christians at the time, and much of Revelation was a screed against him and his kind. The Jews used the letters of their alphabet also as numbers; 666 is the sum of the numeric value of their letters for “Nero Caesar”.
My mild interest in the number is the consequence of my
profession as a minister. But one of my parishioners has to live with it
every day. Talanoa Lesatele is an architect who works at 666 Bridgeway in
For its readers today,
Revelation’s “666” offers a potent metaphor for dis-ease with erosions of our
liberty. How comfortable do we feel with having our phone records
overseen by the “Beast” in
If you are reading this article on or after 6-6-06, you and I were left behind on this foreboding date. We got ditched in the rapture. As for me, how much can I complain about being stranded in Marin, at the cusp of summer?