Is the number 666 the mark of the Antichrist?

Protopresbyter Dimitrios Athanasiou | September 8, 2025

 

 

All numbers without any distinction whatsoever, thus also the number 666, are neutral, that is: it is not reprehensible, it has no essential power, it encompasses no supernatural energy, it contains nothing hidden, and it is not satanic.

The Orthodox Church has never taught that the number 666 is “dangerous” and therefore should be approached with “caution,” supposedly because it constitutes the “name” of the Antichrist or represents him or symbolizes him or functions as his emblem or symbol.

The Holy Interpreters, speaking of the “name” of the Antichrist, never drew our attention to the supposed danger, and indeed in a timeless manner (even before the coming of the Antichrist), of the number 666; on the contrary: by pointing out that it corresponds to many names, they clearly annul the notion that 666 is supposedly the “identity of the Antichrist,” since the number of an identity is unambiguous: that is, it is one and unique for each person.

“If, by chance, the same number can be found in many names—for if there are many names that are found to have the same number—then which of them shall the one who is to come bear? This shall be the question.” (St. Irenaeus of Lyons, PG vol. 7 (B), col. 1206A)

“For we find many names contained in this number, such as, to speak for example, the name Titan, which is an ancient and glorious name, or the name Evanthas; for this too is encompassed by the same number, and many others can also be found.” (St. Hippolytus, PG vol. 10, cols. 769C–772A / On Christ and the Antichrist, § L)

The pious servants of God never feared the number 666; they never removed from the books of Holy Scripture and the Patristic Texts the page numbered 666; they never refused to read the Synaxaria, where in the lives of the Saints the number 666 is mentioned; they were never scandalized by the accounts of the Old Testament which use the number 666 (2 Esdras 2:1 and 13); they never avoided entering a house or hotel room with the serial number 666; they never faced a dilemma when it came to resting in a seat on a ship, train, airplane, hall, etc., with the number 666; they never hesitated to perform mathematical operations which would yield the number 666. Finally, Holy Tradition never characterized the number 666 as supposedly “ominous,” i.e., evil. Only Judas is characterized as ominous because of his wicked deeds, as Saint Nikodemos the Hagiorite says.

Therefore, the recent and widely spread number-phobia regarding the neutral and blameless number 666 is unfounded and testifies to a superstitious and prejudiced mindset, which is impermissible.

 

Greek source: https://fdathanasiou-parakatathiki.blogspot.com/2025/09/666.html

 

See also "The Recent Proliferation of 'Antichristology' and Its Perilous Side-Effects: Proposals for Curing the Eschatological Fear of Marks (Seals) and Numbers":

https://www.imoph.org/pdfs/2011/02/08/E20110208aYpomnemaEsxat2010A%20Folder/E20110208aYpomnemaEsxat2010A.pdf