I am aware that the ancient greeks, like Aristotle, assigned numbers to letters in their alphabet. I did not read that in the bible but in a very old math book that is heavy on historical stuff. The Greeks, soon enough, came to regard that practice as a meaningless pursuit, whereupon they took up olive pressing and wine and cheese making which was far more practical and profitable. Numbers be damned. A few of the more adventurous ones began sailing around the Adriatic, messing with the likes of the Scylla and charybdis. There were sirens and big sea serpents with a lot of heads, which was more fun, especially the siren part.
What I want to know is why numerology is a recurring subject in some religious practices. I mean really, can the numbers amount to a fat rats ass? In the interest of honest disclosure, let me agree that some of the greek letters are still used to indicate certain numerics such as pi, rho, lambda, and a few more useful constants. Not a single one of them, even remotely, apply to jesus.
A while back, my local telephone service provider needed to adjust the phone numbering system in this area. The first three digits, of the seven digit number, identifies the local geographic section of the subscriber. A certain section known a K ville, typically blue collar and particularly churchy , was given the prefix numbers 666. Don't you know that the offal hit the rotary blades! There was a near armed rebellion before the situation was resolved. The telephone company held their ground and many of the most reverant subscribers cancelled their phone service so as not to be marked by the sign of the beast. (sigh!)
