666

So, I’m doing some study on the book of Revelation. 

Numbers play a role in that book.  Particularly the number 666.  Some say this related to the evil one – Nero.  At the very least, the number appears to have been understood as dealing with a bad person.

In that day and age, the number was sufficient to lead to a known commodity.  A know person.  A known thing.  Your name could be calculated out as a number.

Recently at lunch, around a table of 14, I asked if we had a favorite number.

As we went around the table, the greatest response is that we had never thought in terms of a number that we liked.  Some came up with numbers attached to sports jerseys, or years of age, or childhood memories.

But overall, our culture has little place for numbers beyond statistics.  There is something mystical about a number being attached to us as a person.  We can’t explain how the number makes us feel, or what it makes us do.  But the number out of Revelation, 666, somehow symbolizes evil.  A number 888 symbolizes completion.  This I do not necessarily understand, but I know history records these uses of numbers.

Interesting that the base of much scientific study, hard numbers, can also be the base of mystery, soft numbers attached to people!