The Mystery Number 666, who is it?
John now provides his readers with an identification of the Beast in a very different form: Rev 13:16 - Rev 13:18 (NIV) 16He also forced everyone, small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on his right hand or on his forehead, 17so that no one could buy or sell unless he had the mark, which is the name of the beast or the number of his name. 18This calls for wisdom. If anyone has insight, let him calculate the number of the beast, for it is man’s number. His number is 666.
John would not give the members of the seven churches a puzzle that they could not solve. Part II section which follows shows that 666 had nothing to do with the Pope of Rome. For John to make this apocalyptic message against the Pope and the Catholic Church would have made no sense to the first century Christians as there were no popes at this time in history. John made it clear that the “time” of the prophecy was “near”. It was not a distant 2000 years later.
Titus Flavius Domitianus
MostBible expositors give us two candidates from Imperial Rome, Nero and Titus Flavius Domitianus. My choice is Domitian, (A.D. 81-96) the very Roman Emperor who was beginning to demand that his citizens worship him, virtually as a god, at the very time that John penned his prophecy. This simple historical detail is beyond all quibble. Most importantly, his official title in Latin was
Imperator Caesar Domitianus Augustus Germanicus. This was rendered as
Autokrator Kaisar Dometianos Sebastos Germanikos for his Greek-speaking subjects. And in turn, for their coins, this abbreviated to A.KAI.DOMET.SEB.GE=666 (1+20+1+10+4+70+40+5+300+200+5+2+3+5).
How could they possibly miss John’s point, or even look elsewhere,
with the very coins with his picture jangling in their pockets had his picture! And of course Domitain's name added up to 666. It is significant that, contrary to
every other explanation of 666 of which I am aware,
the Domitian employs every last letter of his official title in Greek in summing to 666! One of the threats facing the NT Christians was economic. They would not be able to buy or sell.
Rev 13:16 - Rev 13:17 (NIV) 17so that no one could buy or sell unless he had the mark, which is the name of the beast or the number of his name.
http://www.usask.ca/antiquities/coins/domitian.html
Obverse: Head of Domitian laureate, encircled by CAES DIVI AVG VESP F DOMITIANVS COS VII.
Reverse: Minerva advancing brandishing javelin in right hand and holding shield in left hand. S C to left and right in field.
