Number of the Beast a social "mark". (See also the scholarly accepted year of birth of Jesus about 666 years before as well as the concept of Mawali who were non-Arab Muslims but not treated as other Muslims.) Jehovah's Witnesses believe that the beast identified by the number 666 represents the world's unified governments in opposition to God. The beast is said to have "a human number" in that the represented governments are of a human origin rather than spirit entities. The number 666 is said to identify "gross shortcoming and failure in the eyes of Jehovah", in contrast to the number 7, which
The Number of the Beast (album) Time". In 2001, the BBC made a about "The Number of the Beast" as part of the "Classic Albums" series, which was released on DVD in the same year. Like all of Iron Maiden's album artwork during the 1980s and early 90s, it was painted by Derek Riggs. The cover was originally created for the song "Purgatory", but Rod Smallwood deemed it of too high a calibre for a single release and decided to save it for "The Number of the Beast" album instead. The original 1982 artwork includes a blue sky in the background; this was a mistake by