The number of a man. It is counted as men usually count. Compare ch. xxi. 17, and a man’s pen, Isa. viii. 1. Some explain, a symbolical number denoting a person.
Six hundred threescore and six (y. &<’). Each letter represents a component of the whole number: y = 600; & = 60; s =6. In the earlier MSS. it is written in full, é€axdcv0e éEjxovra é&. The method of reading generally adopted is that known as the Ghematria of the Rabbins, or in Greek, icoydia ~ numerical equality, which assigns each letter of a name its usual numerical value, and gives the sum of such numbers as the equivalent of the name. Thus, in the Epistle of Barnabas, we are told that the name “Incotds Jesus is expressed by the HuMber ooc-we == 1057.9) = Ss o = 200. o— (0: uv — 400; a = 200. The majority of the commentators use the Greek alphabet in computation; others, however, employ the Hebrew; while a third class employ the Roman numerals.
The interpretations of this number form a jungle from which escape is apparently hopeless. Reuss says: “This famous num- ber has been made to yield almost all the historical names of the past eighteen centuries: Titus, Vespasian, and Simon Gioras; Julian the Apostate and Genseric; Mahomet and Luther; Ben- edict IX. and Louis XV.; Napoleon I. and the Duke of Reich- stadt; and it would not be difficult, on the same principles, to read in it one another’s names.” Some of the favorite names are Aareivos, Latinus, describing the common character of the rulers of the former pagan Roman Empire: Nero Cesar; Dio- cletian ; ys’ the name of Christ abridged, and & the emblem of the serpent, so that the sublimated sense is the Messiah of Satan.
CHAPTER XIV. 1. Alamb. Read “the lamb.” See ch. v. 6. Stood (éornx0s). The participle, standing, as Rev.
His Father’s name. Add avtod cal 70 Gvoya [Tis and the name, and render as Rev., His name and the name of His Father.