A brief etymology of the Number of the Beast

The British music magazine Kerrang! shared a fun piece over the holiday looking at the history and etymology of that most Metal of numbers: 666. While the novelty of it is clearly sparked by heavy metal bands with a Satan-loving schtick, writer Mike Rampton actually does some pretty interesting work digging into historical attempts to translate and interpret the ol' Number of the Beast:

Theologians increasingly believe that the actual number of the beast given in the earliest surviving versions of The Bible is in fact 616, and over the years it was changed due to a) repetition being cool; (b) repetition being cool; and c) the number 888 being associated with Jesus and the all-six version following suit because of d) repetition being cool. — Read the rest