John, who penned the Book of Revelation, wrote this about the Beast: "He causes all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hand or on their foreheads, and that no one may buy or sell except one who has the mark or the name of the beast, or the number of his name. Let him who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man: His number is 666" (Rev. 13:18).

There are all sorts of nonsensical speculations being thrown out nowadays on how to identify the number of the beast, i.e., 666. In contrast, the writings of the early Christians make it crystal clear that the phrase, "the number of his name," had a concrete meaning to John's readers—it was not something strange or speculative to them.

The key to the correct understanding of the number 666 is the phrase in Revelation 13:18 that refers to "the number of his name." You see, neither the Greeks nor the Romans had numbers as we know them today. Rather, their letters of the alphabet were also their numbers. (In contrast, today we use Arabic numerals.)

The writings of the early Christians make it quite clear what John meant by the "number of his name" and the mark of the beast. We don't have to do speculative guessing. If you would like to learn more, we encourage you to listen to the following message about the number 666 and the mark of the beast: