The Meaning of 666, The Reason for the Riddle

[AlfredPersson]

I will prove the following two propositions:

1) 666 is a biblical allusion to a man’s name in the Old Testament: Adonikam.

2) The Holy Spirit inspired this Riddle to strengthen the faith of the generation alive in the End Time that will see Adonikam rise to become the Antichrist Beast.

We solve riddles by heeding its details, and spotting any double entendre hinting at a solution. For example, Samson’s riddle (Judges 14:14) contained the solution, honey eaten from the carcass of a lion (Judges 14:8-9, 18):

So he said to them: “Out of the eater came something to eat, And out of the strong came something sweet.” Now for three days they could not explain the riddle. (Jdg. 14:14) NKJ

The word “lion” in Hebrew (ʾarî) is almost identical to an Arabic word for “honey” (ʾary).-Wolf, H. (1992). Judges. In F. E. Gaebelein (Ed.), The Expositor’s Bible Commentary: Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1 & 2 Samuel (Vol. 3, p. 468). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House.

Lets Solve the 666 Meaning:

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. (Rev. 13:18) KJV

John said 666 is the number OF a man, not the number of a name. That’s double entendre, 666 springs from the man, 666 exists because of what the man is or does, it is not his name in code. We must pay attention to the detail with strictness, John insisted we COUNT to arrive at 666, that is one half of the equation. To solve the riddle we must deduce the missing half of the equation that equals 666 and then determine what man caused that calculation to exist, for it is “OF” him. Therefore Gematria, numerology, symbolic meaning, etc. are completely irrelevant.

Lets review other details to find what else is implied in the wording:

This calls for wisdom: let the one who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man, and his number is 666. (Rev. 13:18) ESV

Christians seek wisdom in scripture, therefore John’s call for it must involve the Bible. Adonikam is the only Bible name of a man 666 and a calculation point to that everyone (3588 ὁ ho) understanding the Bible can find. Once directly (Ezra 2:13) and once after a calculation (Neh. 7:18) subtracting Adonikam’s father who must have had the same name, so 667-1=666 still points to Adonikam. The only reason for the existence of 666 and the calculation resulting in 666, is the man Adonikam so in that sense its the number OF a man named Adonikam, and also the number OF the Beast:

The children of Adonikam, six hundred sixty and six. (Ezr. 2:13) KJV

The children of Adonikam, six hundred threescore and seven. (Neh. 7:18) KJV

Having these two verses point to the same name is like having “two witnesses” establishing the matter (Deut. 19:15).

Adonikam alone is the elegant solution, it alone assembles John’s puzzle following all his requirements and still satisfies his expectation anyone with Bible wisdom will discover the one name he had in mind when he penned this riddle.

Not so Kabbalistic Gematria. The pieces just do not fit, and regardless how it is tweaked, so many names are produced it will never satisfy John’s expectation only one name will result and the probability the reader will pick the name John had in mind is infinitesimal.


Click here for expanded version

 

[Sword]

Who cares get out and help the kingdom . go pray for someone. This is all garbage and nothing to do with what we are called to. People study this nonsense out of bordom. Go to the streets and pray for the needy. So many posts on here about all manner of garbage. What you fav plants ,tv prog, stop this people are dying and we couldnt care less. You might say what can I do I tred, Get alone with God and ask Him to help you see people like He does

 

[AlfredPersson]

Who cares get out and help the kingdom . go pray for someone. This is all garbage and nothing to do with what we are called to. People study this nonsense out of bordom. Go to the streets and pray for the needy. So many posts on here about all manner of garbage. What you fav plants ,tv prog, stop this people are dying and we couldnt care less. You might say what can I do I tred, Get alone with God and ask Him to help you see people like He does

I disagree, its faith building the different reading in Ezra 2:13 (666) and Nehemiah 7:18 (667) was purposeful, God put the difference in the text to inspire this riddle in Revelation, to reveal the Antichrist's name.

You might dispute that, but when a politician miracle working Christian rises up to head a revived Roman Empire and his name is Adonikam, you won't dispute it then. Your faith in the providential preservation of Scripture, in the inerrancy of the Word of God will be strengthened.

 

[Sword]

I disagree, its faith building the different reading in Ezra 2:13 (666) and Nehemiah 7:18 (667) was purposeful, God put the difference in the text to inspire this riddle in Revelation, to reveal the Antichrist's name.

You might dispute that, but when a politician miracle working Christian rises up to head a revived Roman Empire and his name is Adonikam, you won't dispute it then. Your faith in the providential preservation of Scripture, in the inerrancy of the Word of God will be strengthened.

Nah God preserves His word in the heart of believers. Faith needs to mature and it matures as we walk and talk and act like Christ/ The one we always say we are ambasadors for but dont actully believe it. Never saw any of that in the commison. It aint there man.

 

[AlfredPersson]

Nah God preserves His word in the heart of believers. Faith needs to mature and it matures as we walk and talk and act like Christ/ The one we always say we are ambasadors for but dont actully believe it. Never saw any of that in the commison. It aint there man.

Entitled to your opinion. Mine includes the likely context of the end time apostasy, when everything Christian is under total attack and having a bit of fulfilled prophecy would certainly help the church in their time of tribulation.

 

[Sword]

Entitled to your opinion. Mine includes the likely context of the end time apostasy, when everything Christian is under total attack and having a bit of fulfilled prophecy would certainly help the church in their time of tribulation.

How you going to help them in that time?

 

[AlfredPersson]

How you going to help them in that time?

If I'm alive then, I'll be standing with them. However, my exegesis will help them, they will see Bible prophecy fulfilled and will know the exegesis existed before the events, not after as many prefer to do.

 

[Sword]

If I'm alive then, I'll be standing with them. However, my exegesis will help them, they will see Bible prophecy fulfilled and will know the exegesis existed before the events, not after as many prefer to do.

Really how is that going to help them?
And what will you be doing to help today and up until that day comes?

I know what I will be doing up to then and also in that day when it comes if I am still here.

 

[AlfredPersson]

Really how is that going to help them?
And what will you be doing to help today and up until that day comes?

I know what I will be doing up to then and also in that day when it comes if I am still here.

If I revealed that, my left hand knows what my right hand is doing, a no no according to Jesus Christ our LORD.

I do think solving the 666 riddle in a way that inspires faith in God and His Holy Word, is serving our LORD Jesus. He loved me first, so its nothing special I love Him.

 

[Sword]

If I revealed that, my left hand knows what my right hand is doing, a no no according to Jesus Christ our LORD.
.

You can hide behind this if you like , but we both know your stuck. If you knew you would share it and help a brother. But you are causeing confussion. When did sharing become a sin. You are misquoting scripture. He was tsalking about your giving money to the needy. steel sharpens steel and we help each other with truth. We dont hide twist scripture like you are despratly trying to do stop it petes sake man.

 

[Marymog]

The number of the beast is 666 and that this is the number of a man’s name. The pagan Roman Empire was headed by Caesar Nero whose name happened to add up to 666 in the Hebrew system of letters and numbers. The fact is in Hebrew "Caesar Nero" = "NRWN QSR" = N 50 + R 200 + W 6 + N 50 + Q 100 + S 60 + R 200 = 666.

Further confirmation is found in Revelation speaking of the Jewish temple as if it were still operating (11:1), but soon to be trampled by the gentiles, along with the holy city (11:2). Shortly after Nero’s reign the gentiles did invade Jerusalem and trample it which destroyed the temple.
This suggests not only that the beast corresponded to the Roman empire in general and Caesar Nero in particular.

And might I remind you that the book of Revelation itself was written sometime in the early A.D. 60s, during Nero’s reign, just before the Jewish War that led to the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple in A.D. 70.

Historical Mary

 

[AlfredPersson]

The number of the beast is 666 and that this is the number of a man’s name. The pagan Roman Empire was headed by Caesar Nero whose name happened to add up to 666 in the Hebrew system of letters and numbers. The fact is in Hebrew "Caesar Nero" = "NRWN QSR" = N 50 + R 200 + W 6 + N 50 + Q 100 + S 60 + R 200 = 666.

Further confirmation is found in Revelation speaking of the Jewish temple as if it were still operating (11:1), but soon to be trampled by the gentiles, along with the holy city (11:2). Shortly after Nero’s reign the gentiles did invade Jerusalem and trample it which destroyed the temple.
This suggests not only that the beast corresponded to the Roman empire in general and Caesar Nero in particular.

And might I remind you that the book of Revelation itself was written sometime in the early A.D. 60s, during Nero’s reign, just before the Jewish War that led to the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple in A.D. 70.

Historical Mary

I'm a futurist. However, Kaiser Neron =667 so they dropped a letter to make it 666. Not saying there's no precedent for that, but it fails the test of parsimony.

 

[Marymog]

I'm a futurist. However, Kaiser Neron =667 so they dropped a letter to make it 666. Not saying there's no precedent for that, but it fails the test of parsimony.

So you are taking the translation of a person who "over 40 years ago was homeless bumming money for drugs" and accepting it over 2,000 years of Christian teaching?

Good for you.

Mary

 

[AlfredPersson]

So you are taking the translation of a person who "over 40 years ago was homeless bumming money for drugs" and accepting it over 2,000 years of Christian teaching?

Good for you.

Mary

That's unfair, I'm not that guy anymore.

And you cannot prove it was the interpretation of the early church.

As for Nero, its not elegant therefore very likely wrong:

this solution asks us to calculate a Hebrew transliteration of the Greek form of a Latin name, and that with a defective spelling.

Mounce, R. H. (1997). The Book of Revelation (p. 262). Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.

 

[Marymog]

That's unfair, I'm not that guy anymore.

And you cannot prove it was the interpretation of the early church.

As for Nero, its not elegant therefore very likely wrong:

this solution asks us to calculate a Hebrew transliteration of the Greek form of a Latin name, and that with a defective spelling.

Mounce, R. H. (1997). The Book of Revelation (p. 262). Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.

The book of Revelation is explicit in stating that it concerns events that will happen "soon" (1:1, 2:16, 3:11, 22:6, 7, 12, 20). This means that the majority of the events of the book of Revelation should take place shortly after the book was written.....likely in the A.D. 60s.

Does Adonikam fit that timeline?

Curious Mary

 

[AlfredPersson]

The book of Revelation is explicit in stating that it concerns events that will happen "soon" (1:1, 2:16, 3:11, 22:6, 7, 12, 20). This means that the majority of the events of the book of Revelation should take place shortly after the book was written.....likely in the A.D. 60s.

Does Adonikam fit that timeline?

Curious Mary

Yes, but that can't mean everything happens right away, John himself says there is a thousand years separating the time Satan is locked up, and his release:
2 And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years,
3 And cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season.
(Rev. 20:2-3 KJV)

So some things already happened, some happen quickly and others are in the future:

19 Write the things which thou hast seen, and the things which are, and the things which shall be hereafter; (Rev. 1:19 KJV)

Some of those things "hereafter" may have happened very quickly after John wrote, but its clear lots of things could not have happened yet, like locking up Satan and releasing him and New Jerusalem coming down from heaven. Those things are yet future.

The coming of the antichrist, and the coming of Christ are yet future.

 

[skyangel]

Foolish carnal minded people obviously do not comprehend that the thing which WAS is the same thing as still IS and also WILL BE in the great eternal CYCLE of ETERNAL LIFE.
There is no new thing under the sun and never will be.
Ecc 1:9 The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun.

The antichrist WAS already in the world at the time the writers of the bible wrote what they did.
1 John 2:18 Little children, it is the last time: and as ye have heard that antichrist shall come, even now are there many antichrists; whereby we know that it is the last time.

1 John 4:3 And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world.

Antichrist is not some mysterious person who is going to come in future. It is a SPIRIT which was in the world in the past, is still here in the world at the present time and will continue to be in the world as long as there are people preaching a false Christ in the world and causing people to think Christ is a man who will appear in future and antichrist is also a man who will appear in future. Neither Christ nor antichrist are men. They are both spirits which were, are and always will be in this world. Past present and future.
Those who look for a person are thoroughly distracted by the invisible people they are looking and waiting for. They are blind to the SPIRIT of antichrist which continues to lead them into idolising a man. They follow a false Christ and are not even aware that their own carnal mind has deceived them.

 

[AlfredPersson]

Foolish carnal minded people obviously do not comprehend that the thing which WAS is the same thing as still IS and also WILL BE in the great eternal CYCLE of ETERNAL LIFE.
There is no new thing under the sun and never will be.
Ecc 1:9 The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun.

The antichrist WAS already in the world at the time the writers of the bible wrote what they did.
1 John 2:18 Little children, it is the last time: and as ye have heard that antichrist shall come, even now are there many antichrists; whereby we know that it is the last time.

1 John 4:3 And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world.

Antichrist is not some mysterious person who is going to come in future. It is a SPIRIT which was in the world in the past, is still here in the world at the present time and will continue to be in the world as long as there are people preaching a false Christ in the world and causing people to think Christ is a man who will appear in future and antichrist is also a man who will appear in future. Neither Christ nor antichrist are men. They are both spirits which were, are and always will be in this world. Past present and future.
Those who look for a person are thoroughly distracted by the invisible people they are looking and waiting for. They are blind to the SPIRIT of antichrist which continues to lead them into idolising a man. They follow a false Christ and are not even aware that their own carnal mind has deceived them.

Just believing what John said, the spirit of antichrist (Paul's mystery of iniquity) was present then, but Antichrist shall come:

Little children, it is the last time: and as ye have heard that antichrist shall come, even now are there many antichrists; whereby we know that it is the last time. (1 Jn. 2:18 KJV)

Children, it is the last hour, and as you have heard that antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have come. Therefore we know that it is the last hour. (1 Jn. 2:18 ESV)

John wasn't prophesying, he was teaching. Comparing what was happening then, to what will happen in the end time when Antichrist arrives, it will be the same as what that church was experiencing. He calls that unique time when the Antichrist arrives "the last hour". He's pointing to it saying "this is how it will be, just like it is now".


TARES filled with the spirit of antichrist left the fellowship, to form their own new and exciting miracle working church. They were the forerunners of these people:

22 "Many will say to Me in that day,`Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?'
23 "And then I will declare to them,`I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!' (Matt. 7:22-23 NKJ)

In "that day" of Judgment, many former Christians (TARES) will appeal to Jesus "we did signs and wonders in your name and we still love you, lord lord". Christ will reject both propositions, that they ever did anything by the Spirit of Christ, or that they knew Him, both were a strong delusion. They did what they did by the "energia of satan" (2 Thess. 2:9-12), the "spirit of antichrist".

 

[Sword]

So that is about twenty times you mention satan and once you mention Christ what do you think stick in people heads when you repeatedly say antichrist that many times. And mention Christ once. Who are you giving the glory to? I dont know why you are filled with talking about him. and not so much in a hurry to mention Him. Like I said already you are not called to this garbage. There is no mention in the commision for this. Adverts repaet the same thing over and over for a reason. You are advertising the weasal continually in here. This is a place supposed to be about Christ and Christian living.

 

[skyangel]

Just believing what John said, the spirit of antichrist (Paul's mystery of iniquity) was present then, but Antichrist shall come:

Little children, it is the last time: and as ye have heard that antichrist shall come, even now are there many antichrists; whereby we know that it is the last time. (1 Jn. 2:18 KJV)

Children, it is the last hour, and as you have heard that antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have come. Therefore we know that it is the last hour. (1 Jn. 2:18 ESV)

John wasn't prophesying, he was teaching. Comparing what was happening then, to what will happen in the end time when Antichrist arrives, it will be the same as what that church was experiencing. He calls that unique time when the Antichrist arrives "the last hour". He's pointing to it saying "this is how it will be, just like it is now".


TARES filled with the spirit of antichrist left the fellowship, to form their own new and exciting miracle working church. They were the forerunners of these people:

22 "Many will say to Me in that day,`Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?'
23 "And then I will declare to them,`I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!' (Matt. 7:22-23 NKJ)

In "that day" of Judgment, many former Christians (TARES) will appeal to Jesus "we did signs and wonders in your name and we still love you, lord lord". Christ will reject both propositions, that they ever did anything by the Spirit of Christ, or that they knew Him, both were a strong delusion. They did what they did by the "energia of satan" (2 Thess. 2:9-12), the "spirit of antichrist".

Most professing believers do what they do in the spirit of antichrist. Especially when they teach that antichrist and Christ are individual people who will arrive on Earth in the flesh in future but are not on Earth in the flesh today.

As I said Foolish carnal minded people obviously do not comprehend that the thing which WAS is the same thing as still IS and also WILL BE in the great eternal CYCLE of ETERNAL LIFE.
There is no new thing under the sun and never will be.

It is always the "last hour". Every hour is the "last" hour once it has passed. This hour we are in now is the "last hour" before the new hour arrives. When the new hour arrives it will be the last hour before the next hour arrives.
This week is the present week today but it will be last week next week because it will be replaced with the week which is to come.
Therefore we are actually living in the last week today but you will not call it last week till next week.
The same principle applies to any Christ or antichrist which is to come in future. It is no different to the Christ or antichrist which is already here today.
LIFE (Christ) WAS and IS and IS TO COME for all eternity and the way LIFE comes in future is no different to the way LIFE comes today or tomorrow. Today WAS and IS and IS TO COME for ever. Yesterday WAS and IS and IS TO COME forever. Tomorrow also was and is and is to come for ever. The Spirit of Life in the flesh on Earth (Christ) also was and is and is to come forever the same way as the Spirit of Life came in the flesh on Earth in the past.
There is no new thing under the sun.

People who are waiting for some fantastic spiritual phenomenon to happen in literal clouds one day and expecting a GodMan to float down to Earth in the flesh in future are suffering from a strong delusion. They are lost in fantasy land and believing religious fiction.