'Some Greek scholars dispute the text of even Revelation - the number of the beast may in fact be 616.'

Next week the date will be 06/06/06. Should we be worried? Not really, says Andrew Chapman

Let's begin at the beginning: the whole 666 myth stems from a line in Revelation 13:16-18 - "And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name. 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." (King James Version)

...though in fact 666 as a number also appears in I Kings 10:14 and II Chronicles 9:13 (Solomon had 666 talents of gold), plus Ezra 2:13 (Adonikam's children) and Nehemiah 7:18 (though there he has 667!).

Also, some Greek scholars dispute the text of even Revelation - the number of the beast may in fact be 616! One common interpretation is that the number represents the name of a person. Both Greek and Hebrew have numerological traditions where different letters of the alphabet represent different numbers.

Gematria

According to the rules of gematria (qabbalistic Hebrew numerology), for example, the letters of 'Nrwn Qsr' - the Hebrew transliteration of 'Neron Caesar' (the emperor Nero) - add up to 666 (or indeed 616 by an alternative spelling). Other Roman emperors who have been singled out for Beast status include Caligula and Domitian.

Modern times have seen modern interpretations, too, such as the 'six letters times three' of Ronald Wilson Reagan. Computer ASCII code gives 666 for William Henry Gates III - better known as Bill Gates.

And down the ages Martin Luther and Hitler have all been accused - using a different number system every time, of course.

Even the word "computer" has been calculated to represent 666 - though ths clearly didn't trouble Apple, whose first computer, the Apple I, was priced at $666.66.

The line "no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark" has even prompted many Christian fundamentalists to assert that bar codes are in fact the beast, many of which contain the black bars for the number 6 three times.

Commercialism

More broadly, commercialism in general is regarded by some as the Beast. On a lighter note, people have tried to joke about the whole business: 665 is the 'older brother of the beast', and 665.95 the retail price of the beast, for example.

666 is also an American brand of cough syrup. The number 666 inevitably appears often in popular culture, usually with some assumed Satanic connotation. In Anthony Burgess' A Clockwork Orange, the police officers are numbered 665 and 667.

In Pulp Fiction, 666 opens the briefcase. The chandelier in A Phantom of the Opera is Lot 666. There's also a reference in Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith - the Clone Army kill the Jedi Knights after being issued Order 66. The remake of the horror movie The Omen is due to be released on 6th June this year.

In maths, 666 is an interesting number: it is the sum of the squares of the first seven prime numbers, and the sum of all the numbers on a roulette wheel. Maybe that helps gamblers in China, where 666 is regarded as a lucky number.

Superstition of the number has led to various quiet amendments to publicly used numbers: for example, Highway 666 in the US was renamed Highway 491 in 2003, and Intel's Pentium III processor was given a clock speed of 667MHz in 1999 despite normal practice suggesting it should be 666.

Fear of the number even has a name: hexakosioihexekontahexaphobia!

However, 6/6/6 dates have come and gone before and history as usual suggests we should be more afraid of people than numbers.