Biblical scholars believe the mystical number of the beast, 666, was not a magical demonic code but actually just a cryptographic political jab at the Roman Emperor Nero.

A closer look

Biblical scholars believe the mystical number of the beast, 666, was not a magical demonic code but actually just a cryptographic political jab at the Roman Emperor Nero. In ancient Hebrew gematria, letters have numerical values, and spelling out Nero Caesar conveniently adds up to exactly six hundred and sixty-six. So modern people are out here panicking over barcodes, monster energy drinks, and license plates because of a two-thousand-year-old inside joke about a terrible politician. It is like if historians in the year 4000 formed a doomsday cult around a sarcastic tweet about a modern president and started looking for its hidden spiritual meaning in their daily groceries