666 - The number of the man
By Orlando Fedeli - Unpretentious yet ingenious explanation of the number of the beast (or the number of the man)
He that hath understanding, let him count the number of the beast.
For it is the number of a man: and the number of him is six hundred sixty-six.
Apocalypse 13, 18
How many interpretations have been given to the famous number of the beast from Apocalypse (Book of Revelations)! Some are naive interpretations, others are arbitrary. Many with far-fetched “kabbalistic” calculations exuding quackery!
What we are about to present is not intended to be the “true interpretation” or the “definitive interpretation”, but only an interesting explanation made many years ago by a physicist, a friend of ours, which at least has the merit of making the ridiculousness of so many other exegesis evidently silly.
The question of the symbolic value of numbers in Holy Scripture is a very delicate one. It is indisputable that God — who made everything with measure, weight and number — often uses numbers to teach us profound truths. The saying that the number of the beast is the number of man, and that this number is easy to calculate, is proof of this.
Although the numbers used in Holy Scripture do indeed have an objective symbolic meaning, it is very easy, on this basis, to slip into a subjective and imaginative interpretation, and from there to fall into the abysses of Pythagoreanism and esoteric numerology.
Despite these dangers — against which we want to warn the reader — and with no greater pretension than to show the ridiculousness of certain disheveled exegesis of the number 666, we expose what our unpretentious physicist friend taught us so many years ago.
He told us — who was a great reader of the ancient Fathers, both Greek and Latin — that in order to glimpse something of the real meaning of the number 666, it is necessary to take into account the fundamental meaning of numbers in Scripture.
The number 1: God
He explained to us then that the number 1 symbolizes God, because only God is absolutely one and absolutely simple. With this, he avoided the Pythagorean explanation that one represented God because it was the principle (first) of numbering. Which could lead to the false idea that, just as all numeration follows from 1, so too the creatures would have come out of God. Which is a statement tinged with pantheism.
The number 2: Creature
The number two would represent the creature, which is always composed of act and potency, essence and existence, substance and accident.
The number 3: Spiritual Order
The three symbolizes the spiritual order, since God, pure spirit, is Triune through His Persons. Angels, spiritual beings, are ranked in 3 orders, each with 3 choirs. The first order, which contemplates the purposes of God, encompasses the choirs of Seraphim, Cherubim and Thrones; the second order, which comprises the means to be used to achieve the ends desired by God, is formed by the Virtues, Dominions and Powers; finally the third order of angelic beings is formed by Principalities, Archangels and Angels, who carry out what the higher orders show them to do.
The human soul also has 3 powers: intelligence, will and sensitivity. And the syllogism consists of 3 sentences.
The number 4: Material Order
The (number) four, in turn, represents the material order, since all material order is always proportionate, and the proportion is constituted by four elements: a/b = c/d. Also in material space four directions (or cardinal points) are distinguished (north, south, east and west), and, in time, the year is divided into four seasons. Finally, the ancients distinguished four elements in the material sphere: earth, water, air and fire.
The number 10: The Law
According to the ancient authors, these first four numbers (one, two, three, four) were the fundamental ones, which, added together, give the total 10, (the) number of the commandments and the law. That is why, they said, the ten commandments of the God who is One (one) were given to the human creature (two), so that they may have spiritual order (three) and material order (four).
The number 6: Viewed as perfection in the parts
The number six is the first whose prime components added or multiplied together always give six as a result: 1 + 2 + 3 = 6; 1 x 2 x 3 = 6.
For this reason six is called perfect in parts. Why, God made the world in six days, and everything He created, He saw that the thing was perfect. The Creation made in 6 days, is perfect in its parts, like the number 6.
The number 7: Wholeness
The number seven — is well known — means wholeness. In fact, when the Apostles asked how many times they should forgive the offender, Christ replied that they should do it 70 x 7 times, to mean always, everytime. Seven symbolizes totality because it is composed of 3 + 4, meaning total order; spiritual order (3) and material order (4). Therefore, this number fits well with Christ, God and Man, who contains all order, divine and human. It is therefore not without reason that the Apocalypse presents Christ as “he who has the seven spirits of God” and who walks between the seven lampstands
And I saw: and behold in the midst of the throne and of the four living creatures and in the midst of the ancients, a Lamb standing, as it were slain, having seven horns and seven eyes: which are the seven Spirits of God, sent forth into all the earth.
Apocalypse 5, 6
The number seven corresponds to many totals.
There are seven sacraments, three imprint character (Baptism, Confirmation and Holy Orders) and four do not. Seven are the virtues, three of which are theological (Faith, Hope and Charity) and four are cardinal. Seven are the gifts of the Holy Spirit and seven are the capital vices. There are seven colors, three of which are fundamental and four are the result of their combination. Seven are the notes of the (musical) scale, and three of them form a harmonic. Seven were the subjects of the medieval school, divided into: Trivium (logic, grammar and rhetoric) and Quadrivium (arithmetic, geometry, music and astronomy), with the Trivium being formed by the sciences that govern the formation and manifestation of thought and the Quadrivium studied creatures from a mathematical angle. The number seven can be formed with 6 + 1 = 7, and so it signifies perfection in parts with God.
The number 6: Viewed as pretentious order without God
In opposite sense, 7 - 1 results in 6, and so 6 is total order without God. Now, the claim to total order without God is the dream of naturalism. Which is a big falsehood, since “without God we can do nothing” ( John 15, 5).
So the 6 signifies the false, and hence 666 would represent the three times false; 666 would be the ultimate falsehood. And just as it is said of God “Holy, Holy, Holy”, of the anti-Christ it can be said “false, false, false”. The Apocalypse says that this number will be marked on the forehead and hand of the followers of the antichrist, and that, without this mark, no one will be able to buy or sell. Having the mark of the beast on the forehead and hand means, most likely, having the ideas of the antichrist and doing his works. It doesn't mean that they will have the number materially written on their forehead and hand. 1
This ingenious explanation — se nom vera, bene trovata2 — of a physicist with no desire to be an exegete has, in our view, something true, although it cannot be presented as the solution to the mystery of the number of man. Which is easy to calculate, according to Revelation. Easy for the wise. Difficult for us, who are neither exegetes nor even physicists, but simple faithful.
Orlando Fedeli
Note from the translator: In “De Romano Pontifice”, Book III, Chapter IX, Saint Robert Bellarmine says that the mark of the Antichrist will be visible mark that can be worn in the forehead or hand.
Note from the translator: se nom vera, bene trovata is the italian for If not true, it is well thought (constructed)