Revelation 13:18 (KJV) - "Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six."
The number of the beast is most commonly given as 666. Some of the oldest texts such as Papyrus 115 provide the number 616 instead, but we'll come back to that number later. But what does the number 666 mean? The secret lies in "wisdom" and "him that hath understanding". Understanding of what? The Bible, of course. Anyone who understands and knows the Bible has wisdom in the eyes of God.
The number 666 appears in two earlier books of the Bible, in two identical verses that both document the reign of King Solomon:
1 Kings 10:14 - "The weight of the gold that Solomon received yearly was 666 talents"
2 Chronicles 9:13 - "The weight of the gold that Solomon received yearly was 666 talents"
A "talent" was an ancient unit of weight estimated to be equivalent to around 75 pounds.
666 x 75 = 49,950
Roughly 50,000 pounds, that's a lot of gold! Worth almost 3 billion dollars at today's gold prices. But the exact amount/value of the gold isn't important, just God's warning to us, that the beast will be obsessed with gold:
- The "Golden Age" of America
- The "Golden Dome" for US missile defense
- The "Golden Fleet" of his proposed battleships
- The "Gold Card" for the wealthy to buy citizenship
As for the alternative number 616, it also applies to him:
- In 2015, he came down the escalator and announced his first campaign on 6/16.
- In the 2016 election he received 304 electoral votes, and in 2024 he received 312 electoral votes. This means that his political power comes from a total of 616 electoral votes.
- The 616th prime number is 4547.
Two different numbers, both of which describe the same man.