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Originally Posted by hrandani
uh actually the 666 thing is in revelations where you add up the numbers of the pope's title, so that would be its origin, not an application.
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First, back in the time of Revelations, the term "pope" was not even used. In Eastern Churches the term is used to designate priests. In the West, it was initially restricted to bishops but around the fourth century became a distinctive title of the Bishop of Rome, i.e., what we know as the pope.
Second, the although many candidates for the name which counts to 666 (given assigning certain numerical values to Hebrew or Greek letters), the most convincing one is actually for Emperor Caesar Nero. Moreover, given (i) that Revelation was authored during the Christian persecutions by the Roman government and (ii) the other images surrounding in the same chapter, it is likely that the 'Second Beast' is the Emperor.
Of course, individuals are free to give this historical evidence whatever weight they want in their own analyses.