The Beast (Revelation) had just disappeared to Parthia and would one day reappear. Finally, the readers of Revelation were told to "calculate the number of the beast, for the number is that of a man; and his number is six hundred and sixty-six" (Rev. 13:18). John did not expect that his readers "who had understanding" to have any difficulty identifying the beast, since they could simply calculate the meaning of this number. "Neron Kaisar" (the Greek rendering, documented by archaeological finds), when transliterated into Hebrew נרון קסר (Nrwn Qsr) had a number of 666. The variant number 616 found in some manuscripts of
The Number of the Beast (song) In spite of this, it remains one of the band's more popular songs, reaching No. 18 in the UK singles charts, and has been performed on almost all of their concert tours. Additionally, the song has been covered numerous times and has appeared in several video games and films. According to the song's writer, bassist and band-founder Steve Harris, it was inspired by a nightmare he had after watching the film "", in addition to the poem "Tam o' Shanter" by Robert Burns. The song opens with a spoken word passage, read by English actor Barry Clayton, which quotes Revelation