Note 533 — Chapter V · PRE-CHRISTIAN GNOSTICS: THE ESSENES

Hausrath, op. cit. pp. 114-116, where many other instances are given. The explanation of “Nero(n) Caesar” as the Number of the Beast is in fact as old as Irenaeus, who remarks that the variant 616 given in some texts is due to the omission of the final n in Latin. It does not seem to be seriously disputed by any modern theologian. Isopsephism however was not the invention of the Essenes, but of the Babylonians, among whom it was in use, to judge from Berossos, in the time of Alexander. See Alexander Polyhistor in Cory, Ancient Fragments, 2nd ed. p. 25.