There is need for shrewdness here: anyone clever may interpret the number of the beast: It is the number of a human being, the number 666 (Rev 13.18 New Jerusalem Bible).
The beast is identified with a man. “It is the number of a human being”.
The beast was allowed to speak arrogant and blasphemous things, and it was given authority for 42 months (Rev. 13.5).
Nero was the first of the imperial authorities to persecute Christians. The persecution under Nero started in 64AD, and lasted until his death in June 68AD, which is about three and a half years or 42 months. Apollonius of Tyana records that Nero was called a “beast”. He killed most of the apostles. John miraculously escaped from a boiling pot of oil and was later sent on exile to the island of Patmos where he wrote the book of Revelations. Per Suetonius, Nero had one boy named Sporus castrated, and then had sex with him as though he were a woman. Nero killed his wife and mother and beat his mistress to death. He started the great fire of Rome where thousands perished. His image was on every coin of the Roman Empire.
The beast is the Roman Empire. Its mark is the number of a person, the number 666. The mark of the Roman Empire is a man whose name is the number 666. The beast is an empire and at the same time it is a person.
What was commonly expressed in the ancient world during the domination of the Roman Empire is “Caesar is Rome and Rome is Caesar”. This meant that a ruler and his empire were the same.
In the ancient world, there were no separate set of symbols representing number value. Letters of the alphabet carried numerical value. The 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet all had number value just as the 24 letters of the Greek alphabet each had a number equivalent.
The Greek version of the name and title transliterates into Hebrew as
and yields a numerical value of 666, as shown:
Nro Qsr pronounced in Hebrew “Neron Kaisar”
In English language, this is pronounced as Nero Caesar.
Nero Caesar is the name with the number 666. He is the mark of the beast. All those who follow the false prophet (Roman Catholic and Islam) worship him and spiritually bear his mark (666) on their foreheads or hands.