If the Lord’s name refers to a purely spiritual reality, which it does, then so does the beast’s name and number.
This position is supported from the immediately following vision in 14:1 of saints with Christ’s and God’s name “written on their foreheads.” The direct placement of this verse shows a parallel contrast is meant between the beast’s name (i.e., his number) and the Lord’s name. None involves any kind of literal gematria calculation: for example, 24 elders, 7 seals, 144,000, 3.5 years, 2 witnesses, 7 heads, and 10 horns. Numbers throughout Revelation have figurative significance and symbolize some spiritual reality. If the number were intended to be identified with some ruler by means of such a literal calculation, it would be a rare exception from the way numbers are employed elsewhere in the book. The reason for so many proposals, as one commentator says, is that it is easy to turn a name into a number, but complicated to deduce the right name from a number. None of the many proposed solutions using the literal gematria form of calculation is ultimately satisfactory because there are so many names, ancient and modern, which could equal the number. All attempts to identify the number with the literal calculation of some individual’s name encounter difficulty because of the metaphorical manner in which language and numbers are used in the book. (More than 100 names were proposed in Britain between 15.) Last century the names of Kaiser and Hitler, among others, have also been calculated to equal 666.
Unsuccessful attempts have been made to identify the number with other Roman emperors, or combinations of emperors. ” as he uses the phrases “in Hebrew” or “in Greek” in 9:11 and 16:16, when he wants to draw the readers’ attention to certain significance. Additionally, if John were using gematria, he would have alerted his readers by saying something like, “the number in Hebrew (or Greek) is. Most commonly, the number has been identified with Nero, on the basis of a Hebrew transliteration of the title “Nero Caesar.” However, this option flounders on confusion concerning the exact Hebrew spelling of Caesar, and does not fit the fact that John’s readers were largely Greek-speaking, and that Nero had many titles other than Caesar. Attempts have been made to alter spellings and incorporate titles to try to make a multitude of names fit, but nothing conclusive has emerged. The problem is that no clear identification can be made linking 666 with any particular ancient historical name.
This is one of the most debated verses in the entire Book of Revelation because of widespread disagreement over the identification and meaning of the number 666. The most common line of interpretation is that of gematria: in the ancient world, letters of the alphabet often substituted for numerals (our numerical system derives from the later Arabic mathematicians).
Let him who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for the number is that of a man and his number is 666.”
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