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.
Wisdom. Spiritual wisdom is needed to solve the mystery of iniquity, and not be beguiled by it.
Count ... for - implying the possibility of our counting the beast's number.
The number of a Man_1:-1 :e., counted as men generally count. So Revelation 21:17. The number of a man, not of God; he shall extol himself above the Godhead, as the MAN of sin (Aquinas). Though it imitates the divine name, it is only human.
Six hundred threescore and six. A, Vulgate, write the numbers in full; B, merely the three letters standing for numbers, Ch, X, C reads 616; Irenaeus, 328, disciple of Polycarp, John's disciple, maintained 666, which he thought to be contained in the Greek, Lateinos (L, 30; A, 1; T, 300; E, 5; I, 10; N, 50; O, 70; S, 200): or else Teitan. Latin is the language of Rome in all official acts: the forced unity of language in ritual being the counterfeit and premature anticipation of real unity only to be realized at Christ's coming, when all the earth shall "in a pure language ... serve the Lord with one consent" (Zephaniah 3:9). The last Antichrist will have a close connection with his Romish predecessor, and will arrogate all Rome's pretensions, besides others. The Hebrew letters of Balaam amount to 666 (Bunsen): a type of the false prophet, whose characteristic will be spiritual knowledge perverted to Satanic ends.
Revelation 2:14 favours this: also, the fact that the Antichrist here has been shown primarily to oppress the Hebrews. Six is the world-number: in 666, in units, tens, and hundreds. It is next to the sacred seven, which it mimics (Revelation 13:1), but severed from it by an impassable gulf. The wounding to death of the seventh head leaves the beast's world-number six disclosed. It is that of the world given over to judgment: hence, there is a pause between the sixth and seventh seals, the sixth and seventh trumpets. The judgments on the world are complete in six: by the fulfillment of seven, the kingdoms of the world become Christ's. As twelve is the number of the Church, so six, its half, symbolizes the world-kingdom broken. The raising of the six to tens and hundreds indicates that the beast, notwithstanding his progression to higher powers, can only rise to greater ripeness for judgment. Thus 666, the judged world-power, contrasts with the 144,000 sealed and transfigured ones (the Church-number, twelve, squared and multiplied by 1,000, the number symbolizing the world pervaded by God; ten, the world-number, raised to the power of three, the number of God) (Auberlen).
The mark х charagma (G5480)] and name are the same. The first two radicals of Christ, Ch and R, are the first two of charagma, the imperial monogram of Christian Rome. Antichrist, personating Christ, adopts a symbol like, but not agreeing with, Christ's monogram, Ch, X, St: whereas the radicals in 'Christ' are Ch, R, Papal Rome has substituted the Keys for the Cross. So on the papal coinage (the image of power, Matthew 22:20). In 'Christ,' Ch R represent seven hundred, the perfect number. The Ch, X, St represent an imperfect number, a triple falling away (apostasy) from septenary perfection (Wordsworth). A friend, E. L. Garbett, has calculated the numerical value of 3,000 nouns in the Greek Testament, and found just two represent 666 х paradosis (G3862), 'tradition,' the great engine of doctrinal corruption; and euporia (G2142), 'wealth,' that of practice]. Euporia occurs only once (Acts 19:25): in Ephesus, one of the seven towns addressed in Revelation.
The only uncontradicted entry of 666 is (1 Kings 10:14; 2 Chronicles 9:13) the 666 talents of gold that came in yearly to Solomon, and which were among the corrupting influences that misled him. The two horns of the earth beast represent the two phases of idolatry which ever corrupt the Church, literal and spiritual, image-worship and covetousness (Psalms 17:14; Psalms 49:12; Psalms 49:20; Colossians 3:5). The seven heads of the first, the sea-beast, are the totality of capital sins (Revelation 21:8; Revelation 22:15), the "mountains" which lift themselves up against God (Revelation 17:9). Idolatry is the wounded and revived head. Gold, silver, brass, the materials of the first three empires in Nebuchadnezzar's image, and the medium of wealth, have in the fourth kingdom iron added, as the prominent metal of civilization. The children of Adonikam (Ezra 2:13) are 666, but in Nehemiah 7:18; 667: Nehemiah 10:15. Adonijah rose against the Lord's anointed, and so is a type of Antichrist: his name is changed into a curse, Adonikam. The forehead is the seat of avowed intention. The act and the intention are the two ways of worshipping the beast (Revelation 13:16). The heart-worship of money bearing "the image" of the world-power (Luke 20:24) fulfils Revelation 13:15-17. E. L. Garbett takes Revelation 13:5 'Power was given to IT (the mouth) to work forty-two months:' the mouth is not yet given. He quotes Pelletan ('Profession of Faith in the Nineteenth Century'), wherein wealth is addressed, 'Divine Son-Messiah-Redeemer-dumb confidant of God-begotten by mysterious conception, who hast saved man from misery, redeemed the world,' etc. E. L. Garbett denies the identity of the scarlet-coloured beast (Revelation 17:3) and the leopard-like beast here (Revelation 13:2).