headbang8 said:
I heard this on NPR today, so it must be true.
Apparently Revelation was referring to the emperor Nero, whose name in the original Hebrew (was it Hebrew?) numerologically added up to "six hundred, three-score-and-six." If you spelled it differently, it added up to 616, also another sign of the beast. And the passage surrounding it referred to someone based in Rome lording it over Christians and Jews.
Case closed.
Well, the "six hundred, three-score and six" is in Apocalypse (or Revelations, to you Papists). Some papyrus copies show it as 616 but that may be a transcription error (an easier error in Greek than in English). The Greek letters were used for both letters and numerals, hence "spelling" a number.
Although a popular theory, I don't buy that Nero/Hebrew connection, as John wrote Apocalypse in Greek - working Hebrew in there is a stretch. Of course if it's actually prophecy he might not be expected to understand its real meaning, and maybe Hebrew can worm its way in after all. With Hebrew one can let the kabbalistic tradition loose on it, and anything could happen.
My current favorite is that it means the Web. Sixth letter of the Hebrew alphabet being w (actually, more realistically, v), 666 translates to www.