To fully understand the origins of the number 666 we must have a look at the old Babylonian religion as practised in the time of Daniel.
The Babylonians had 36 supreme gods headed by Marduk, the sun god. The next most important god was his wife the moon goddess; they were the parents of all the other gods. Their eldest son was the next most important and this trio, the father, the mother and the son, were the three main gods.
All the gods each had a number ranging from 1 to 36, starting with the sun god being number one, the moon goddess number 2 and so on.
Babylonian gods were deemed to be evil by nature and were feared by their worshippers, but they (the gods) could be controlled by their numbers or by the sum of their numbers. Thus, the three main gods could be controlled by the number six. 1 + 2 + 3 = 6. Some of you might have guessed by now the sum of the 36 gods is 666. 1 + 2 + 3 … + 35 + 36 = 666. 666 had power over all the gods.
To control all the gods a special 6 X 6 matrix of numbers was used where the numbers were arranged in such way that each row and each column would total 111. 111 X 6 = 666. This can be achieved in many ways. Below is an example of such a matrix.
This matrix (?) was then inscribed on amulets of clay, wood or gold. The golden amulets were deemed to be the most powerful and the bearer of such an amulet was deemed to be very powerful; able to control all the gods.
So where do we come into all of this? This calls for a bit of history.
In the time of the biblical Daniel, when Darius conquered Babylon for Persia in 539 BCE, they brought their own religion and priests along. The Babylonian priests, no longer allowed to practice their religion, were unemployed and left; mostly to Egypt and Perganum where they flourished.
This went on until 133 BCE when the king of Perganum died without a heir and left his kingdom to Rome. The Babylonian priests promptly opened a branch in Rome and again flourished. Very quickly Rome became known as New Babylon! The early Christians also referred to Rome as such. See I Peter 5:13. The Roman emperor became the head of the Babylonian religion.
Then came Christianity. By the time of Constantine (The Great), their numbers have grown and the two religions were in constant conflict with each other. Even amongst Christians there was not much unity, especially about the role of Jesus in the Church. Was He God or human?
Constantine, seeing problems ahead, ordered the leaders of both religions together in 425 AD to formulate one religion under Christianity; as Christianity was on the rise.
Constantine, already the head of the Babylonian religion, also became head of the Christian Church. Just for the record, Constantine was pagan all his life. He was baptised on his deathbed – probably too weak to protest!
Integration was easy. Father, mother and son became Father, Son and Holy Spirit while the lesser gods became the saints in the new Church. A few other pagan rituals were adopted as well. Like moving the Sabbath to the day named in honour of Marduk, the Babylonian sun god.
Almost the entire Rome was converted overnight. My question is: when the Babylonian religion was drawn into the early Church, who was converted to what?
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