Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!wuarchive!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!sdd.hp.com!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!ames!haven!decuac!e2big.mko.dec.com!bacchus.pa.dec.com!decwrl!hayes.fai.alaska.edu!accuvax.nwu.edu!nucsrl!telecom-request
From: Clayton Cramer <optilink!cramer@uunet.uu.net>
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: Re: 666 and Ignorant People
Message-ID: <10714@accuvax.nwu.edu>
Date: 10 Aug 90 17:08:18 GMT
Sender: news@accuvax.nwu.edu
Organization: Optilink Corporation, Petaluma, CA
Lines: 47
Approved: Telecom@eecs.nwu.edu
X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu
X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu
X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 10, Issue 559, Message 10 of 12


In article <10619@accuvax.nwu.edu>, jbaltz@cunixf.cc.columbia.edu
(Jerry B. Altzman) writes:

> [Moderator's Note: Certain people -- a hybrid type of Fundamentalist
> Christian actually -- of which there seem be to several million in the
> United States alone, have long believed that '666' was an evil number,
> based on their reading of selected scripture. These people get NASTY
> when they think they have found an agent of Satan somewhere, based on
> the use by that person of some number involving '666'. It could be
> part of a street address or telephone number. 

A little more detail on this, so that you'll have a better understanding 
and can point out the ignorance that these sorts are operating under,
the next time your 666 phone number attracts unwanted attention.

Revelation 13:18, in describing the Antichrist (in terms that sound
much like a modern totalitarian state) says:

    Here is wisdom.  Let him who has understanding calculate the
    number of the beat, for the number is that ofa  man; and his
    number is six hundred and sixty-six.

In the first century A.D., there was a type of numerology called
*geametria* (a corruption of the Greek word for geometry), in which
the letters of the alphabet were assigned different numeric values,
and the name of a person was calculated to a particular number.  (You
may recognize a similar superstitious practice alive today).
Depending on the value of the different letters, there are a number of
names that comfortably totaled "666", including the Emperor Nero's
full name.  (Nero was the inventor of urban renewal, though his
techniques for clearing cities have been improved upon since then).

(There is considerable debate among Christian theologians today
whether Revelation was intended to refer to Nero's persecution of
Christianity, or had a longer term significance -- certainly, putting
Nero's name in the text would have caused even more difficulties for
the early church than they already had).

But note that the number itself wouldn't be blatant!  The person who
sees "666" as evidence of the Antichrist doesn't even under- stand
what Rev. 13:18 refers to!  


Clayton E. Cramer
{pyramid,pixar,tekbspa}!optilink!cramer