In the Revelation of St. John (xiii. 18) we read: —

“Let him that hath understanding, count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man, and his number is, Six hundred three score and six.” (Some ancient authorities read 616 instead of 666.)

Scientific commentators are probably this time agreed that the name to be “counted” must be found by “gematria,” i.e. we must look for a name the letters of which, taken separately in their ordinary values as numerals and added together, will make of the sum of 666 or 616. Now it has been generally assumed by exegetists hitherto that gematria was a specifically Jewish form of the numerical riddle, and therefore attempts have often been made, especially in recent times, to solve the number 666 or 616 by means of the Hebrew alphabet. As a matter of fact, however, the interchange of numbers for words and words for numbers was not unknown to the ancient Greeks, as even Greek lexicons tell us. The patristic writers, in so far as they attempted to solve the riddle with the Greek alphabet, show that such numerical puzzles were not entirely foreign to the Greek world. From Pompeii, however, we learn that they were current among the people at the very time the New Testament was being written. A. Sogliano has published graffiti (wall-scribblings) from Pompeii, i.e. not later in date than 79 A.D., one example of which is as follows: —

“Amerimnus thought upon his lady Harmonia for good. The number of her honourable name is 45 (or 1035).”

Another example reads: —

“I love her whose number is 545.”

These graffiti, in date not far removed from the Revelation of St. John, certainly suggest new riddles, but they also establish, besides those already pointed out, the following facts: —

(1) They are concerned with names of persons, which names for some reason or other are to be concealed.

(2) The name was concealed by resolving it into a number. In all probability single letters were given their usual values as numerals and then added together.

(3) The similar numerical riddle in the Revelation would not necessarily seem Semitic, i.e. foreign, to the men of the Greek-speaking world. Examples of such playing with numbers have been found on inscribed stones of the Imperial period at Pergamum, which was one of the cities of the Apocalypse (Rev. ii. 12 ff.). Franz Bucheler has convincingly proved how widespread the habit was at that time, and a passage in Suetonius (Nero, 39), hitherto obscured by false conjectures, has been cleared up by his brilliant discover that the name “Nero” is there resolved numerically into “matricide.”

(4) In solving the apocalyptic numbers 616 and 666, occurring in the Greek book, it is not only not unfeasible to start from the Greek alphabet, but it is in fact the most obvious thing to do.

Adolf Deissmann, Light from the Ancient East: The New Testament Illustrated by Recently Discovered Texts of the Graeco-Roman World, trans. Lionel R. M. Strachan, 276-278.

The New Testament is a book, but not of your dry kind, for the texts composing it are still to-day, despite the tortures to which literary criticism has subjected them, living confessions of Christian inwardness. . . . The words in which it is written come from the souls of saints sprung from the people, and therefore the New Testament is the Bible for the many.

Adolf Deissmann, Light from the Ancient East: The New Testament Illustrated by Recently Discovered Texts of the Graeco-Roman World, trans. Lionel R. M. Strachan, 251.

The Epistle to the Hebrews shows us Christianity preparing for a flight from its native levels into the higher region of culture, and we are conscious of the beginnings of a Christian world-literature.

Adolf Deissmann, Light from the Ancient East: The New Testament Illustrated by Recently Discovered Texts of the Graeco-Roman World, trans. Lionel R. M. Strachan, 251.

Lefebvre has made known to us quite a series of gospel quotations in his Fragments Grecs des Evangiles sur Ostraka. This publication alone enables us to fill an empty page in the history of the New Testament. It gives us the text of 20 Greek ostraca, large and small, inscribed with portions of our gospels. . . . Thanks to the editor’s kindness I am able to give here a (reduced) facsimile of ostracon no. 16, containing Luke xxii. 70-71 (Figure 6).

Adolf Deissmann, Light from the Ancient East: The New Testament Illustrated by Recently Discovered Texts of the Graeco-Roman World, trans. Lionel R. M. Strachan, 57-58.

It will be admitted that our knowledge of Christian antiquity has been very considerably enriched by these literary and non-literary Christian papyri from Egypt. Our subject, however, is chiefly concerned with the non-Christian texts and the great indirect value that they possess for Bible students.

Adolf Deissmann, Light from the Ancient East: The New Testament Illustrated by Recently Discovered Texts of the Graeco-Roman World, trans. Lionel R. M. Strachan, 48.

The papyri are almost invariably non-literary in character. For instance, they include legal documents of all possible kinds: leases, bills and receipts, marriage-contracts, bills of divorce, wills, decrees issued by authority, denunciations, suings [sic] for the punishment of wrong-doers, minutes of judicial proceedings, tax-papers in great numbers. Then there are letters and notes, schoolboys’ exercise-books, magical texts, horoscopes, diaries, etc. As regards their contents these non-literary documents are as many-sided as life itself.

Adolf Deissmann, Light from the Ancient East: The New Testament Illustrated by Recently Discovered Texts of the Graeco-Roman World, trans. Lionel R. M. Strachan, 36.

Despite their unassuming simplicity the papyri have infused new blood into the veins of learning. Legal history in the first place, but afterwards the general history of culture, and notably the history of language, have benefited thereby. And here, paradoxical as it will seem to many, let me say that the non-literary papyri are of greater value to the historical inquirer than are the literary. We rejoice by all means when ancient books, or fragments of them, are recovered from the soil of Egypt, especially when they are lost literary treasures. But scientifically speaking the real treasure hidden in the field of Egypt is not so much of ancient art and literature as there lies buried, but all the ancient life, actual and tangible, that is waiting to be given to the world once more.

Adolf Deissmann, Light from the Ancient East: The New Testament Illustrated by Recently Discovered Texts of the Graeco-Roman World, trans. Lionel R. M. Strachan, 39.

In several ways these texts yield a respectable harvest to the student of the New Testament. I am not thinking now of the additions to our store of New Testament and other early Christian MSS. by the discovery of early Christian papyrus and parchment fragments, and ostraca, although in this direct way the value of the new documents is considerable. I mean rather the indirect value which the non-Christian, non-literary texts possess for the student of Primitive Christianity. This is of three kings:

(1) They teach us to put a right estimate philologically upon the New Testament and, with it, Primitive Christianity.

(2) They point to the right literary appreciation of the New Testament.

(3) They give us important information on points in the history of religion and culture, helping us to understand both the contact and contrast between Primitive Christianity and the ancient world.

Adolf Deissmann, Light from the Ancient East: The New Testament Illustrated by Recently Discovered Texts of the Graeco-Roman World, trans. Lionel R. M. Strachan, 10.

But theology, as an historical science, has a vital interest in the discovery of the historical setting, the historical background.

The ancient world, in the widest sense of that term, forms the historical background to Primitive Christianity.

Adolf Deissmann, Light from the Ancient East: The New Testament Illustrated by Recently Discovered Texts of the Graeco-Roman World, trans. Lionel R. M. Strachan, 2.

It will not do to see the Psalter as merely predictive of Christ or as messianic in a few notable cases, such as Psalm 2 or Psalm 22. Far different is the true situation. In brief, Jesus Christ is the tuning fork by which we pitch the Psalms correctly. We will find Him in them in various ways, not just in a few psalms, but in all the psalms. The believer’s union with Christ, the true David, is the key to unlocking the treasures of the Psalter. It is also the reason that these songs have a special place in the New Testament church and are so frequently quoted.

“Psalm Singing and Scripture” by Rowland S. Ward in Sing a New Song: Recovering Psalm Singing for the Twenty-First Century, Loc. 1821.

The Holy Spirit gave the Psalter as a complete collection whose strength is collective: laments not isolated from praise, imprecations not isolated from confessions of sin, but all together. The whole gospel of the whole Christ is found in the whole Psalter.

Terry Johnson, “The History of Psalm Singing in the Christian Church” in Sing a New Song: Recovering Psalm Singing for the Twenty-First Century, Loc. 1109.