the corner office

This theory has been around since Irenaeus (two generations from John, the author of Revelation) wrote about it in the 2nd Century. Albert Barnes wrote in the 19th Century:

"it is expressed by the characters  = 666. There can be no doubt that this is the correct number, though, in the time of Irenaeus, there was in some copies another reading -  = 616." (Revelation 13:18)

Jamieson, Fausset, Brown's Commentary states: "Irenaeus, in the second century, disciple of Polycarp, John’s disciple, explained this number as contained in the Greek letters of Lateinos (L being thirty; A, one; T, three hundred; E, five; I, ten; N, fifty; O, seventy; S, two hundred)."

Thanks, Chris. The one thing I don't understand is this - what's the significance of the numbers? A common argument is that the numbers referred to Nero's name (although I've seen that disputed too) - but be it a person or a supernatural devil, what's the reason/mapping?

Not sure if I know exactly what the deal is with people trying to pinpoint its significance. I've seen a LOT of misinterpretations. I saw in a book one time that a VISA card = 666 because "VI is 6 in Roman Numerals. S was 6 in ancient Egypt. A was 6 in Sanskrit. VISA, see, is 666." That's a quote from this site:

http://www.cassiopaea.org/cass/666.htm

Anyway, from my understanding you can't just say that something with 3 6's = 666 (Ronald Wilson Reagan was an example of this because each of his names has 6 letters...). The 666 is literally "six hundred sixty six" in the Greek. Some have pointed it to Nero while others leave it as Lateinos and there are many other plausible objects.

I believe people just want to be able to point to something tangible and claim that it represents the prophecy. This is part of human nature, I guess. I believe that part of John's reason for not disclosing the true nature of the mark may have been twofold - (1) the original readers knew what it meant or (2) it really wasn't for us to know. I don't believe that we need to be worried too much about it because, from the language of Revelation, Christians will all know when the mark becomes reality.

Remember, the mark is only a symbol that is on the person's forehead or right hand. While "forehead" or "hand" may also be symbolic, Revelation seems pretty clear that we will have no question when this happens.