The Number of the Beast

"Scholer says the current theory held by most scholars is that 666 is a cryptogram for Nero, the Roman emperor who persecuted Christians with unspeakable cruelty.
"Though Revelation is written in Greek, the cryptogram relates to Caesar Nero in Hebrew, pronounced KEser NEron. Hebrew did not have signs for numbers and instead assigned numerical values to letters in the alphabet.
"Scholer said that adding up the value of the Hebrew letters in Nero's name—100, 60, 200, 50, 200, 6 and 50—one gets 666."

The Los Angeles Times marks 6/6/06.