The Number 666 – A Blessing in Disguise?
The number 666 has been linked to scary scenes and hideous demonic beasts which have spooked the fraught nerves of the laity for almost two thousand years. Superstitions have abounded at the sight of that ominous number - it was viewed as a symbol of the devil and every vile tyrant who ever stalked the earth, beginning with the Roman Emperor Nero. You may be glad to hear that the terrible evil image of the number is at an end.
I have discovered that the number 666 was a compass which pointed to the most sacred rituals in the Old Testament – a place where wonderful knowledge of the heavens lays hidden.
What is Behind the Menacing Façade?
We can at last analyze the number 666 in the context in which it was quoted and look at what lay behind the menacing façade. The quote about 666 was in the Book of Revelation and it read as follows:
“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. Ch. 13:18)
It stated that 666 was the number of the beast and also the number of a man. It was strange how the opening phrase was a declaration of wisdom and in the Bible it was identified with King Solomon who was renowned for his wisdom. The second phrase in the quote about 666 stated “let him who has understanding,” There was a similar phrase relating to Solomon in the first Book of Kings where it stated that “God gave Solomon wisdom and understanding exceedingly much.” (First Kings Ch. 4:29) As you can see the two similar phrases would suggest that Solomon was the intended target.
Have you heard of a biblical search engine? It is like an internet search engine but it allows you to look up the listings of particular words or numbers instantly in the Bible. I entered the number 666 into the search engine and lo and behold it stopped with King Solomon, where it stated as follows:
“Now the weight of gold that came to Solomon in one year was six hundred threescore and six talents of gold.” (First Kings 10:14)
The number 666 was listed with Solomon, albeit as gold treasure. I hit the return key again and the search engine stopped in the second Book of Chronicles where it repeated about the weight of gold that came to Solomon in one year as six hundred and threescore and six talents of gold. (Second Chronicles Ch. 9:13) Thus, a firm link to Solomon and wisdom had been established with the number 666.
I hit the return key again and the search engine stopped in the Book of Ezra where the verse listed the number of men who returned from exile in Babylon as follows: “The children of Adonikam, six hundred sixty and six.” (Ezra 2:13) The numbers of the children of a man named Adonikam who returned to Jerusalem were 666. We therefore have linked 666 with Solomon via the word wisdom and have also seen it was the number of a man named Adonikam.
Discovering ‘The Beast’
The next part of the quest is to identify why it was called the number of the beast. Immediately following the listing of 666 in the Book of Revelation the text referred to a lamb on Mount Sinai and four beasts. There was also a reference to the word “Firstfruits” in the verses . I entered the word Firstfruits into the search engine and one of the places where it stopped in the Old Testament was in Chapter 28 of the Book of Numbers. It turned out that the Firstfruits was a ceremonial feast offering and it involved ritual sacrifice. And guess what was offered for sacrifice? It was four beasts. Those beasts were bullocks, rams, lambs, and goats. The link to those four beasts was strengthened as it particularly stressed that all of the beasts were to be “without blemish.” In comparison, the four beasts in the Book of Revelation were “not defiled” and “without fault.”
There were many more sacrificial offerings of bullocks, rams, lambs, and goats made by Moses and they were all outlined in great detail in Chapters 28 and 29 of the Book of Numbers. Those sacrifices were made on the anniversary of the Passover and on the First Day of the month and on many other different days of the month. The number 666 was quoted as ‘the number of the beast,’ but how could it relate to all of those different animals or beasts which were sacrificed? Because the number of the beast was outlined in the singular term of ‘beast’ rather than the plural with ‘beasts,’ it was possible that the number indicated the presence of what is known as a checksum.
A checksum is where lists of individual numbers or items are all added up together and their combined total is a quick number to check later if there is still the same number of items. A simple example of a checksum is where the guide on a tour bus counts the number of people who disembark from the bus at a tourist stop and it does not matter if they are men, women, or children. They are all just counted as neutral numbers.
The guide later counts all of the tourists when they return to the bus to ensure that they are all there. If the number falls short of the target, the task is to identify who has not returned by holding a roll call. The checksum therefore is a rapid snapshot method of making sure that the numbers all add up and nobody is left behind.
The target for the checksum was with all of the beasts, which were sacrificed in Chapter 28 and 29 of the Book of Numbers. Therefore, I conducted the sums and it involved multiplications and additions of all of the animals that were sacrificed on all those various days of offerings. It also included fractional weight of flour and oil, which were mingled with the meat of the animals. To conduct that checksum was a nightmare, but I finally worked out the total and it came to 1,997.25.
This result was a tiny fraction less than three times the number 666 at 1,998. The total was relevant since there were three listings of the number 666 in the Old Testament and now three times 666 had emerged as the total number in those sacrificial offerings. It was called ‘the number of the beast’ in singular terms because all of the beasts had been counted in the checksum as neutral numbers irrespective if they were bullocks, rams, lambs, or goats.
The number 666 has proven to be a blessing in disguise where three times that number, at 1,998, acted as a checksum total to prove that all of the individual numbers and fractions in those divine holy offerings in the Book of Numbers had retained their original values intact. How intellectually advanced those biblical mathematicians were in future-proofing the numbers in those sacred offerings. In the process, the number 666 had cast off the evil shroud to step into the light, pure in heart and gentle as a dove.
The Number 666 in the Realm of the Stars
The number 666 also served a second function, and strangely, it involved an equation related to solar time and what is called sidereal time. To understand the equation it is necessary to explain the measurement of time.
Our everyday calendar is based on the solar year and it is measured against a fixed point on earth and it is 365.242 days long. In contrast, the sidereal (‘Sidereal’ is the Greek for star) year is measured against a bright star in the heavens and it is 365.256 days long. Therefore, the sidereal year is approximately 20 minutes 10 seconds longer than the solar year.
Before the invention of mechanical clocks around the 14th century AD it would have been impossible for the ancients to accurately measure the solar and sidereal years. However, the following computations will show that the biblical writers were truly inspired because they knew precisely the length of both solar and sidereal years.
There are three main numbers in the equation, and these are 666 together with the number 1,260 from the Book of Revelation where it was cited as a period in days. (Rev. Ch. 12:6) There is also the number 2,300 as a period of days from the Book of Daniel. (Dan Ch. 8:14) Those three numbers have been the source of every oddball theory for thousands of years with the latter two linked by eccentrics to predicting the future. There was however a real purpose for those numbers, which I found out when I performed the following calculation on a calculator:
When 1,260 days was multiplied by 666 and the result divided by 2,300 days the outcome was 364.852174 days. This result was just a fraction of a day short of the calendar year of 365 ¼ days.
The next step is to show how the biblical writers projected out the difference in time between the solar and sidereal years over the period of one thousand years. In that period, the tiny shortfall multiplied out to just over a period of 13 months. But amazingly, to correct the leap period error involved the calendar periods of one year, one month, one week, one day, and one hour.
All those calendar periods were listed in the Book of Revelation. In Chapter 9 of that book there was the following sentence:
“Which were prepared for an hour, and a day, and a month, and a year, for to slay the third part of men.” (Rev. Ch. 9:15)
The sentence listed the normal intervals of the calendar with a year, a month, a day, and an hour. All that was missing was the period of a week. However, the period of a week was cited separately in the context of twice 3 ½ days elsewhere in the book. (Rev. Ch. 11:9, 11)
The sentence above had stated “ for to slay the third part of men” and it reminded me how Moses had three thousand men slain for worshipping the golden calf. One third of those men would be one thousand and so I looked for the number of one thousand in the Book of Revelation. There were six individual listings of one thousand and they were with the periods of 1,000 years. (Rev. Ch. 20) The complete indices of an astonishing equation relating to time had emerged.
The result from the computation in the equation above involving 666, 1,260 days and 2,300 days was 364.852174 days. I then multiplied that result by one thousand and the outcome was 364,852.174 days or almost one thousand years. The next step had the touch of a divine wand where by adding on the periods of one year, one month, one day and one hour as cited in the Book of Revelation, the following result was evident:
The result was 365,248.886 days and it rounded up to 365,249 days.
The period of one week had not featured in the equation because it was listed separately from the other calendar periods. But now the divine wand will sparkle again where one week will be applied to produce two remarkable results. By adding on one week of seven days to 365,249 days, the outcome was 365,256 days. This was one thousand sidereal years to the exact day.
By subtracting the period of one week of seven days from 365,249 days and the result was 365,242 days. This was one thousand solar years to the exact day.
Was this brilliant cosmic equation part of the keys to the kingdom of heaven which Jesus promised Peter? Can you imagine the perseverance the biblical mathematician had to endure in order to identify the three principal numbers of 666, 1,260 days, and 2,300 days in that equation?
That the target of one thousand solar years and one thousand sidereal years was achieved with all of the unique elements of the calendar with one year, one month, one week, one day, and one hour was a miraculous feat of inspired numerical engineering.
666 As a ‘Secret Doorway’
The number 666 has opened up a secret doorway to reveal the first instalments of a sacred calendar system, which was outlined in the equation on solar and sidereal time. It was only the beginning because 666 had also led us to those sacrificial offerings in the Book of Numbers and also Solomon and Ezra where there were similar burnt offerings. It was the number of animals to be slaughtered - which was the real target for they proved to be the indices of a sacred almanac which effectively was the calendar of the gods.
The exercise has shown that the numbers in the Bible were an intelligent part of scripture and they were equally as important as the written word. These initial findings finally led me to identify a magnificent archive of celestial data which formed when the various sets of numbers in the Bible were assembled together like the pieces of a giant jigsaw. The evidence suggests that the celestial data once belonged to the biblical prophets and they had used it to chart out how the predicted Messiah would be born at the time of a bright star over Bethlehem.
The findings have the potential to revolutionize the debate between science and religion. It can provide a dialogue between people and nations, open the eyes of scientists, dazzle skeptics, and empower the clergy who have persevered against the odds.
Top Image: Detail of ‘The Number of the Beast is 666’ (1805) by William Blake. Source: Public Domain
To learn about those biblical wonders, go to Michael Hearns’ website: www.sevenbiblewonders.com. Twitter: @mhearns2018
Mind. Blown.
Wow, unbelievable. Thank you for your explanation.