As the year closed, my Bible reading took me across Revelation 13:18, “Wisdom is needed here. Let the one with understanding solve the meaning of the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man. His number is 666.” This number has had an ominous tone throughout the years. People try to avoid sales totals of $6.66, we don’t like 666 on the odometer, June 6th, 2006 was an unlucky day. For Christians, especially those who believe a pre-tribulation rapture of the church, we do not have a reason to fear this number. Yet it makes us uncomfortable. After all, it is the mark of the beast, an evil number. Or is it???
As I was reading, there was a footnote for the verse and when I read the note it said, “Some manuscripts read 616.” Wait? What? I’ve never heard such nonsense! It is indeed true. Some manuscripts don’t read the number 666 at all but instead they read 616. In fact, the oldest extant manuscript containing Rev. 13:18 is a papyrus fragment called P115. This fragment reads 616 as the number of the beast. Already at the time of the church father Irenaeus (A.D. 130–202), the church was aware of this “variation” between 666 and 616 in biblical manuscripts. Irenaeus writes about it at some length in Against Heresies 05.30.1. Irenaeus defends 666 as the correct number (as do most scholars today), and dismisses 616 as being the error of a copyist, which very well may be the case.
It isn’t just about the number. John said it takes one with understanding to calculate the number of the beast and it is a man. Over the years I’ve read many try to make a prediction. It has been assigned to the likes of Nero, various popes, Bill Gates, you name it. Apparently we haven’t found anyone with understanding to accurately calculate the name. Regardless, the number 666 remains a shadowy reminder of all that is evil and to be feared.
Johann Michael Altenburg was a German theologian and composer. Altenburg was a pastor during the 30 year war. The Thirty Years’ War was a conflict primarily fought in Central Europe from 1618 to 1648; estimates of total military and civilian deaths range from 4.5 to 8 million, mostly from disease or starvation. In some areas of Germany, it has been suggested up to 60% of the population died. In the middle of the chaos of the war, a massive plague wiped out half of his congregation, including his wife and ten of his children. In 1631 he was forced to flee the city in which he lived because of the war. In response he wrote his most famous hymn. “O Little Flock, Fear Not the Foe.”
In a hymnal called Lutheran Service Book (LSB), you can find this hymn by turning to hymn 666. I can just see the editors of this hymnal as they make a conscious decision to assign the hymn to this wicked number. Recognizing the power we have in Christ over Satan, this hymn sticks its tongue out at Satan’s attempt to frighten the saints.
Verse 3 is especially inspirational:
As true as God’s own Word is true.
Not earth nor hell with all their crew
Against us shall prevail.
A jest and byword are they grown;
God is with us, we are His own;
Our victory cannot fail.
1 John 4:4-6 tells us, “But you belong to God, my dear children. You have already won a victory over those people, because the Spirit who lives in you is greater than the spirit who lives in the world. Those people belong to this world, so they speak from the world’s viewpoint, and the world listens to them. But we belong to God, and those who know God listen to us. If they do not belong to God, they do not listen to us. That is how we know if someone has the Spirit of truth or the spirit of deception.”
What foes bring fear to your life? Is it sickness, poverty, pandemics, government going the wrong direction, family discord, societal degradation, crime, injustice? Whatever face your fear wears; whatever foe makes you shrink, Michael Altenburg would affirm, Little Flock, Fear Not the Foe.
