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 Six hundred threescore and six.
Ver. 18. Here is wisdom] That is, work for wisdom, as Revelation 13:10. Here is "the patience and faith of saints."
It is the number of a man] Such as a man, by search, may find out, if he have his wits about him, as we say. Others sense it thus, the whole number of the beast, whatsoever is numbered to belong unto him, is but the number of a man; human inventions and will-wisdom. Men will have it so, and this is the sum of all Popish religion. Or it is called the "number of a man," because men do number. (Mr Cotton.) The philosopher affirms that man is therefore the wisest of creatures because he alone can number, Bruta non numerant. This is an essential difference.
Six hundred threescore and six] Among the many conjectures, that of λατεινος seems to me most probable, as most ancient and authentic. The year of Rome's ruin is by some held to be 1666. It is plain, saith one, Satan shall be tied up 1000 years; 666 is the number of the beast; Antichrist shall so long reign; these two together make the just number. a Luther observeth, that about the year 666, the pope assumed to be αντπευθυνος, uncontrollable. Others observe, that Phocas (that adulterous assassin), Boniface the purchaser of supremacy, and Mahomet the grand impostor, brake forth together about the same time, to the great devastation and hazarding of all Christendom.
a Bernardus asseverat Antichristum futurum meridianum daemonem quia a meridie erit, et ibi sedebit. In Cant. ser. 33.