666 = DCLXVI (merely first 6 roman numerals in order)

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Yamayama

Registered Senior Member
DCLXVI = 666

Just to point out that the no. 666 is actually DCLXVI in roman numerals, and that D,C,L,X,V and I, in turn, are the first six symbols in the roman numerical system in reverse order (i.e. I, V, X, L, C and D backwards). It's like us writing 9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1,0, and then someone coming along to add them all up to get 45!

John (apparently) wrote the book of Revelation in Greek, but I think he quite likely used the Roman system for numbers (…historians feel free to correct me…), as, although the Greeks did have their own numeral system for a while, they were under Roman rule at John's time (Arabic/Indian numerals weren't in use in that region until centuries later).

Perhaps its not the number itself that's significant, but the fact that it can be represented by numbers. And what can be represented by numbers? Wealth of course, in the form of money!
'No one might be able to buy or sell unless they had the mark of the beast (...non-monetary wealth...) or the number corresponding to his name (...monetary wealth...).' (Rev 13.17)

I'm only guessing that the author was using the term to represent wealth, but I do think it's quite likely that he actually wrote DCLXVI

Opinions anyone?

P.S. Apparently χξς is used in some (Greek) versions, but I presume that these are not based on the original Greek.

P.S.S. I'm not a religionist; merely an intrigued observer.
 
Wasnt the number of the beast actually 999 and it got misread in an upsidedown inscription or something? Cant remember where i heard that just thought i'd mention it see if it gets a response.
Yamayama thats rather interesting, i'd never noticed it before, perhaps roman numerals were the first thing that came to mind when he was writing and he just decided to reverse them so not to make it too obvious.
 
Jesus Christ, Sun of God: Ancient Cosmology and Early Christian Symbolism

"The Magic Square of the Sun"

6 32 3 34 35 1
7 11 27 28 8 30
19 14 16 15 23 24
18 20 22 21 17 13
25 29 10 9 26 12
36 5 33 4 2 31

The 6 x 6 magic square of the Sun contains the first 36 numbers arranged in such a fashion so that each line of numbers, whether added horizontally, vertically or diagonally from corner to corner, will yield the "solar number" 111. The entire magic square therefore equals 666, a number which was significant to early Christian mystics. In Hebrew Kabbalah, the names of the intelligence of the Sun and the Spirit of the Sun were designed to equal 111 and 666 respectively. Like 888, 666 is an important musical number, for .666 is the ratio of the perfect fifth, the most powerful harmonic interval
 
The number was actually 616. Mistranslation. A shame it's still widely disseminated as such.
 
Halcyon said:
The number was actually 616. Mistranslation. A shame it's still widely disseminated as such.
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Where did you read that? According to David Fideler, 666 is simply related to harmonic theory.
 
oh yeah, michael, the perfect fifth is a PRIME ratio: 3/2. Anyone want to take stab at what it comes out to? (It's certainly not .666)
 
Michael said:
Where did you read that? According to David Fideler, 666 is simply related to harmonic theory.
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I was refering to the usage of the number in the bible. I got my information from: "The Faith: a History of Christianity," By Brian Moynahan
 
Halcyon said:
oh yeah, michael, the perfect fifth is a PRIME ratio: 3/2. Anyone want to take stab at what it comes out to? (It's certainly not .666)
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Well, perhaps that's how we write ratios today using the standard Arabic numeral system. Anyway, 2/3 is .66666666666666... which is obviously the connection.

For me, I personally can’t say one way or another as I can’t read ancient text. However, I think it’s a fair call to suggest that Christianity is to some extent grounded in pagan writings and ritual and those mystics (such a Pythagoreans) wove numerology and geometry into their explanations of the world. Not only are Pythagoreans famous for their mathematical proofs but also for mathematical modeling of Harmonics and as such I find it plausible that something such as 666 or 111 or 888 or many other important numbers made there way into the later Christian religious themes.

Whether it’s true or not, who knows, but the arguments for pagan numerological influxes into Christianity are resilient.
 
Yamayama

Completely off subject here. Where did you get your screen name from? Have you ever heard of an old song called "The Yamayama Man?" I just thought it was interesting to see your name since I was just humming that tune to myself a few moments before I saw it.
 
Wasnt the number of the beast actually 999 and it got misread in an upsidedown inscription or something? Cant remember where i heard that just thought i'd mention it see if it gets a response.
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Don't remember hearing that before Lemming3k; you could be right though.

thats rather interesting, i'd never noticed it before, perhaps roman numerals were the first thing that came to mind when he was writing and he just decided to reverse them so not to make it too obvious.
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I don't think he need have necessarily reversed them: he could have written I, V, X, L, C, D - which when added up, would come to 666.

Someone has told me that it was written as χξς (chi xi stigma) in the original greek; if this is true, well then my hypothesis is redundant.

I do think my notion that it represents wealth is consistent with other teachings, however ('You cannot serve both God and Mammoth'). But aaannyway...

I think I must have been suffering from a temporary lapse of insanity to make my forum debut with such a thread - I was under the influence of alcohol at the time. Oh Good Lord :rolleyes: , forgive me. I'm going to have to post something completely unrelated very shortly in order to redeem myself.

Yamayama

Completely off subject here. Where did you get your screen name from? Have you ever heard of an old song called "The Yamayama Man?" I just thought it was interesting to see your name since I was just humming that tune to myself a few moments before I saw it.
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LOL. Unless the name of that song is ingrained somewhere in my subconsciousness from years back, its complete coincidence. It just sprung to mind one day, when I was trying to decide on a nic; more likely got it from a cheap Japanese takeaway I'd say. :D
 
I also read this thing about 666 being false, 999 the correct form. Was it in some thread here at sciforums? I really have to look.

I am suprised that DCLXVI did not join this thread ;)
 
I also read this thing about 666 being false, 999 the correct form. Was it in some thread here at sciforums? I really have to look.
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I saw it on tv but i dont remember much about it just that one line, perhaps there is a thread on the forums about it, i might have a look on the net for something, im intrigued now if someone else has heard it too.
 
Actually, I've just remembered:

As far as I know, arabic numerals weren't introduced until centuries later. If this is the case, then the author wouldn't have represented the number with either 666 or 999.

I'm quite possibly wrong though!
 
Star of Eight has it. The reason why it's held among scholars to be a reference to Nero(And why they didn't pick one of the other million or so names that possibly coincide with the number 666 numerologically) because on some of the oldest transcripts of the manuscripts of that book ever found contain the number 616, which is the numerological equivalent of the more linguistically accurate spelling of Nero's name at the time of transcription. It gives credence to the reference.
 
Both the Hebrews and the Greeks like the romans used a letter based numerical system. So each number was represented by a letter.

There is no reason to think that the original 666 refered to the Roman numeral letters, It is far more likly that they refered to the Jewish and or Greek Letters. The Jewish numerical systen is known as the Gemartria system. Each letter in the Jewish alphabet represents a number. It is by adding the numerical value of all the letters in ones name that you will be able to calculate the numerical value of that persons name.

To demonstrate using the roman numerical systen lets take a name:
I = 1
V = 5
X = 10
L = 50
C = 100
D = 500
M = 1000

Lemming3k= L 50 + M 1000 + M 1000 + I 1 = 2051

So the number of Lemming3k name is 2051 in roman numerals.

All Praise The Ancient Of Days
 
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I have a personal theory that there are 665 wild animal species in the world, and number 666 is a human number (the wild species of human).

Couldn't it be that there is one species of humans that have evolved together with the others but don't share the same moral values? (and thus are wild).

Though this doesn't say much about the name of that species (or that particular human).
 
By any chance can you point me to where you got that number(665) from?
 
666 actually being 999 was in the movie "End of Days" with Arnie. The idea was that (1)999 was going to be the apocolypse, and 666 was transcribed from a dream, since everything is backwards and upside down in dreams.

It seems to me, from this thread, that 616 is the correct (as far as we know) numbering, not 666. So perhaps further speculation should be directed at the #616?
 
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