There is another story of Jesus' birth in the New Testament in addition to the familiar stories in Matthew and Luke. It is in the book of Revelation, that strange, wonderful, and sometimes dreadful collection of visions narrated by an early Christian prophet named John. These visions use the language of symbol and myth to indict the Roman Empire and confirm Jesus as the true "Lord."
John's vision of the birth of Jesus is the first of a series of three connected visions in Revelation 12-13. As Revelation 12 begins, we see a woman clothed with the sun, a crown of 12 stars on her head, and the moon under her feet, pregnant with a male child who is to rule the nations. As she gives birth, a great dragon with seven heads and 10 horns waits to devour the child. But the child is rescued, snatched away to the throne of God.
In the second vision, the scene shifts to heaven. We see a cosmic battle between the dragon and the archangel Michael and his angels. The dragon is defeated and cast down to earth.
In the third vision, John takes us back to earth. The dragon gives his authority to a beast who (like him) has seven heads and 10 horns. We see the beast rise out of the sea and take control of the earth. People worship the beast. Its number, John tells us at the end of Chapter 13, is 666.
What is this all about? Like Revelation as a whole, these three visions use symbolism and myth. To begin with the symbols, the meaning of several is fairly obvious.
In the first vision, the child is Jesus. Though the second vision is set in heaven, the means by which the dragon is defeated is an event on earth. He has been conquered "by the blood of the Lamb," that is, by the cross of Jesus.
Finally, in the third vision, the symbolic meaning of the beast to whom the dragon gives his authority is also clear. The beast rules the earth. In John's late first-century setting, that means the Roman Empire and its emperor ("Caesar").
So also the number 666 points to Rome. In that world, letters of the alphabet had numerical values. Thus a word or name could be turned into a number by adding up the numerical equivalents of its letters (a technique known as gematria). Using the Hebrew alphabet, the numerical value of "Caesar Nero" is 666. (Nero reigned from 54 C.E. to 68 C.E.)
