Other's Attempts at Identifying the Beast

When checking out the following links look for the misuse of the numerical values of the Hebrew and Greek languages. Many of these attempts are, to say the least, far reaching. We are looking for the number to be identified with a male person, not a title of a position (Pope), or a number of a language, or a number of a people, or a number of some system of government, not something to do with a computer or the Internet, not a social security number, but as scripture says:

"Here is wisdom. Let him that has understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred sixty-six."

Notice it is not just three 6s (666), but six hundred sixty-six. If it were three 6s, then the abbreviation for the World Wide Web, www, would equal 666, since each "w" has a numerical equivalent of 6 in both Greek (digamma) and Hebrew (waw).

The true numerical values are found at Hebrew and Greek.

Oldest known information outside the Bible on the Number of the Beast

About 1900 years ago Irenaeus told fellow believers that the
number of the antichrist was six hundred and sixty-six,
and that it was figured by knowing the value of each letter
of the name, "since [Greek] numbers also are expressed
by letters."

The following is from Irenaeus' Against Heresies, Book 5, chapter 30, paragraph 1.
[ St. Irenaeus biography online at the New Advent Catholic Supersite. He lived in the second century.]

CHAP. XXX.--ALTHOUGH CERTAIN AS TO THE NUMBER OF THE NAME OF
ANTICHRIST, YET WE SHOULD COME TO NO RASH CONCLUSIONS AS TO THE NAME
ITSELF, BECAUSE THIS NUMBER IS CAPABLE OF BEING FITTED TO MANY NAMES.
REASONS FOR THIS POINT BEING RESERVED BY THE HOLY SPIRIT. ANTICHRIST'S
REIGN AND DEATH.

    1. Such, then, being the state of the case, and this number being
found in all the most approved and ancient copies(3) [of the
Apocalypse], and those men who saw John face to face bearing their
testimony [to it]; while reason also leads us to conclude that the
number of the name of the beast, [if reckoned] according to the Greek
mode of calculation by the [value of] the letters contained in it,
will amount to six hundred and sixty and six;... since numbers also 
are expressed by letters; so that the Greek letter which expresses 
the number sixty....

 2. These men, therefore, ought to learn [what really is the state 
of the case], and go back to the true number of the name, that they 
be not reckoned among false prophets. But, knowing the sure number 
declared by Scripture, that is, six hundred sixty and six, let them 
await, in the first place, the division of the kingdom into ten; then, 
in the next place, when these kings are reigning, and beginning to set 
their affairs in order, and advance their kingdom, [let them learn] to 
acknowledge that he who shall come claiming the kingdom for himself, 
and shall terrify those men of whom we have been speaking, having a 
name containing the aforesaid number, is truly the abomination of 
desolation. This, too, the apostle affirms: "When they shall say, 
Peace and safety, then sudden destruction shall come upon them."(2) 
And Jeremiah does not merely point out his sudden coming, but he 
even indicates the tribe from which he shall come, where he says, 
"We shall hear the voice of his swift horses from Dan; the whole 
earth shall be moved by the voice of the neighing of his galloping 
horses: he shall also come and devour the earth, and the fullness 
thereof, the city also, and they that dwell therein."(3) This, too, 
is the reason that this tribe is not reckoned in the Apocalypse 
along with those which are saved.(4)

Other's Attempts at Identifying the Beast

Oldest known information outside the Bible on the Number of the Beast

Other Links with Mis-information on the number of the Beast: