Note 333 — Chapter III · THE ORIGIN OF GNOSTICISM

Or isopsephic, i.e. composed of letters having an equal numerical value. One of the many forms of juggling with words and letters current in the early Christian centuries. The “number of the beast” in Revelation xiii. 18, where, as is now generally admitted, 666 covers the name of Nero Caesar which has that numerical value in Hebrew, is the most familiar instance. Other instances can be found in the Epistle of Barnabas, c. 9, Hilgenfeld, N.T. extra Canonem receptum, Lips. 1884, and Hippolytus, Philosophumena, Bk VI. c. 48, p. 318, Cruice.