What does 666 mean and where does it come from?

Wow! That is an awesome question! The number “666” is only mentioned once in the Holy Bible and it is in the Book of Revelation in chapter 13, verses 16-18. It reads, “He also forced everyone, small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on his right hand or on his forehead, so that no one could buy or sell unless he had the mark, which is the name of the beast or the number of his name. This calls for wisdom. If anyone has insight, let him calculate the number of the beast, for it is man’s number. His number is 666.”

So, this number represents both the name of the Beast (Satan) and the number of his name. However, the origin of that number or what it signifies isn’t really known.

Many Bible scholars believe that the number “6” is man’s number. It is one number short of God’s number, which is “7”. The number “7” represents perfection. We fall short of God’s perfection so mankind is given the number “6”. Because God presents Himself to us as three persons – God, the Father; God, the Son; and God, the Holy Spirit – the Beast tries to imitate God and so we have the number 6-6-6.

Then, there are all sorts of other theories involving that number, which include using some sort of mathematical formula to determine who the Anti-Christ will be based on a secret code involving the letters of a person’s name. In fact, one group of people who believe this (they’re called numerologists) thought that if you make the letter A = 101, B = 102, C = 103 and so on until you get to Z = 126, the name Hitler equaled 666! Weird, huh? 

Still other numerologists believed that if you used the Hebrew alphabet, as opposed to the American alphabet, the name Nero, who was an evil Roman leader who persecuted Christians, also equals 666. 

The truth is we don’t really know where “666” originated from; we just know that it is the name of the beast or the number of his name and it’s based on man’s number.

How old was Paul when he died?

That is an interesting question since nowhere in the Holy Bible does it specifically give a birth date for Saul of Tarsus or a date for the death of the Apostle Paul. In fact, no other historical book exists that says how or when he died. According to Christian tradition, though, Paul was beheaded in Rome during the reign of Nero around the mid-60s A.D. at Tre Fontane Abbey. Some scholars said it was 67 A.D. and others claim it was in 68 A.D. Still others claim that it was closer to 64 A.D. when Nero burned Rome to the ground. The truth is, no one really knows the exact date and it’s not mentioned anywhere in the Bible.

So, without know when he was born, we really don’t know how old he was. Scholars have speculated that Paul was either in his mid-50’s or his mid-60’s when he died. They base this on when he was a student under Gamaliel learning to be a Pharisee (which would usually be around 13 or 14) and compare it to when he was a Pharisee and then when he converted to Christianity. But, truthfully, no one knows for sure.

Extra Info!!! Below is a suggested timeline for the life of Paul. It's pretty cool. Even though scholars don't all agree on the dates, you can get a pretty good idea of what his life was like.

A walk through the Bible & some of Paul’s experiences –


YEAR, BIBLE VERSES, WHAT HAPPENED?

1 Saul (his Jewish name) is born in Tarsus.

12 – 15 Enrolled in school in Jerusalem (Rabbi Gamaliel)

30 Jesus is crucified!
Saul is made a member of the Sanhedrin (religious board)

31 – 34 Gal 1:13 Saul persecutes the Christian Church in Jerusalem

34 Acts 7:58 – 8:3 Stephen is killed as Saul watches

35 Acts 9:1-9 Saul meets Jesus on the road to Damascus
Acts 9:17-19a Saul is baptized (and later given the Christian name ‘Paul’)

35 – 37 Gal 1:17 Paul goes to Arabia for a few years

37 Acts 9:19b-25 Paul ministers in Damascus

37 Acts 9:26-29 Paul’s first visit to Jerusalem as a Christian

48 – 57 Paul took 3 (and maybe even 4) big missionary journeys

57 – 59 Acts 21:17-31 Begins the story of his arrest and 2 years in prison

59 Acts 27:22-25 An angel visits Paul before the shipwreck

60 – 64 Phil 4:4-7 Paul is imprisoned in Rome; writes Prison Letters
(Ephesians, Philippians and Colossians)

68 Paul is beheaded