Book of Mark manages to make its mark

The writer of the first synoptic gospel manages to encode several 666s on a very spare skeletal structure. Absent a single monologue (chapter 13 is a redaction), the spine of book numbers don't miss their marks.

Mark is the first response to the first gospel. John gives prominence to the two brothers of Zebedee and names them "sons of thunder." Mark confirms this and places their names on numbers ending with a double-six: John at 466 (1:29) and James at 3066 (5:37). Significantly, Revelation has the remainder of the dozen times "thunder" is used.

The next name is John Baptist, which is word 3466 (6:17). Ten verses later, relating a power struggle with King Herod, the pronoun αὐτὸν is word 3666 ("he from-headed him | ἀπεκεφάλισεν αὐτὸν"). Thus the baptizer shares this number with the man he proclaimed. Two more double-sixes apply to the Rabbi's cousin: "the head | τὴν κεφαλὴν" in 6:27 is word 3660 and the pronoun in 6:28 is the 66th in the book, "the head of him | τὴν κεφαλὴν αὐτοῦ."

Two other names associated with this hierarchy that are marked by double-sixes are Herod (3566 in 6:22) and Pilate. The ninth of ten times that "Pilate" is used occurs in 15:43 as book word 10866.

Here a note must be made of a pair of threads throughout the book.

Pilate is the last double-six "name" in 15:44, and the tale of a leper has the distinction of inaugurating 666 in 1:44 with a word used once ("purification"). The same root is the 44th word ("pure ones") of the sermon and in Matthew 5:44 occurs the first shift of subject starting the second of seven columns (444). A word used once at John 4:44 ("fatherland") occurs eight times (4+4) in the Greek Testament. The second time Mark uses it as book word 3266 in the fourth verse of chapter six. And those of the first "feeding" are numbered in 6:44 in an eight-word verse. Then Jesus bids goodbye to the married men two verses later. "Them" is one of eight words and book word 3966.

Groups and places are also numbered by double-sixes. The first of twelve "Pharisees" appears as book word 966 (2:16). Place names are feminine but "Jerusalem" is an exception with the first trio of ten times Mark uses it. The masculine plural form is explained by Barbara Thiering as a duplicate site located at Qumran where the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered in caves. In 7:1 and 3:22, writers reside in this plural-Jerusalem (Qumran) and in 3:8, "Ἱεροσολύμων" is book word 1366. John uses the plural six times and three are with the definite article ("τοῖς Ἱεροσολύμοις"), the last at 10:22.

"Disciples" is book word 5866 (9:28) and the verb "they said" in 8:28 is book word 5166 (hidden six). In 10:28 they are called "children," which is the 6600th word. Even words used once in his book, Mark marks with double-sixes: "the soldiers" at 10466 (15:16) and, very significantly, "the light" at 9966 (14:54). "Herd" is used twice, the last at 5:13 and, ominously, as 2666. Used three times is "deaf one," the first is word 4666 at 7:32. One of the crowd is important enough to have a son whose word number is 5666 (9:17). Another man had one son, a beloved one, and sent "him last" to his vineyard; the pronoun is talk word 77, and the adjective is book word 7766.

Of all the names attached to double-sixes, two are noticeably absent and one remains suspiciously anonymous.

"Satan" is used six times and only the sixth time as an epithet Jesus calls Peter after he called him "the Christ" (word 5199). The Rabbi's rebuke, "Depart behind me, Satan!" has the pronoun as word 5266. Only once is Peter marked by a double-six, and that is the twelfth last dative pronoun in 14:67 as word 10166. Other than "mother," word 1766 in 3:34, the most mysterious woman at the beginning of the original chapter 13 is given two verbs and a pronoun (since we must assume her name). She "came" and she was "having" are the 66th pure verb and the 66th compound verb, respectively, and the pronoun is book word 9166.

"God" is 7966 (12:17), "LORD" is 8166 (12:29), and of the 77 times the name is used after the first verse, "Jesus" is 766 (2:5), 5466 (9:4), 8266 (12:34), and 9566 (14:30). Six pronouns have double-sixes but two of the six verbs are quite special. The second of his 17 "sayings" is 1666 (3:28) and the first "utterance" is 6666 (10:29). Remember that Matthew's word there is the solitary "mouth" in the nominative.

Mark is adamant that Satan is not 666 (not even a 66 in any gospel) but demonstrates his awareness that LORD, God, Jesus are all 666. Confirming Mark's knowledge are three more examples: a pronoun, a noun and a verb.

In Mark 7:6, Rabbi Jesus quotes Isaiah 29:13 that God laments, "This people by the lips to me honors." The pronoun is book word 4266. "The wind" at 4:41 is book word 2466 (Matthew uses the plural as a subject five times starting at 7:25 as book word 3555). And a verb used to describe the state of mind of our Galilean is in 3:21 as 1566. Three subtle hints that the original author knows his numbering.

Redacted as chapter 13, the author of the "Little Apocalypse" shows he is equally adept by not wasting the only triple-six in the new word order. He picks up Mark's book word 366 ("spirit unclean | πνεύματι ἀκαθάρτῳ") at 1:23 using "the spirit the holy | τὸ πνεῦμα τὸ ἅγιον" at 13:11 as book word 8666. Showing he does not give lip service, his placing "moon" as book word 8866 (13:24) is brilliant.