Irenaeus of Lyons · a new plain-English translation from the original language
That all things were made for the benefit of man; and concerning Antichrist, the idols, and the wickedness and power of the apostasy, from the Flood onward, prefigured also in the persecution of Ananias, Azarias, and Misael.
We have given, in the books preceding this one, the reasons for which God allowed these things to happen as they did, and we have shown that all such things were made for the sake of the man who is being saved, so as to bring to maturity that which belongs to his own free will and power, toward immortality, and to prepare him to be more fittingly disposed for eternal subjection to God. And for this reason creation is expended for man's sake, for man was not made for creation's sake, but creation for man's. But the nations, who did not so much as lift up their eyes to heaven, nor gave thanks to their Maker, nor wished to see the light of truth, but, like blind mice hidden in the depths of folly, are justly reckoned by the Word as a drop from a bucket, and as a grain on the scales, and as nothing — useful and serviceable to the righteous only to the extent that stubble is of use for the growth of wheat, and its chaff for the fire, in the working of gold. And for this reason, when at the end the Church is suddenly taken up, it is said: 'There will be tribulation such as has not occurred from the beginning, nor shall be.' This, indeed, is the final ordeal appointed for the righteous, in which those who prevail receive the crown of incorruption.
And for this reason, when the beast arrives, the whole sum of lawlessness and every deceit is gathered up again, so that the complete apostate power, converging and enclosed within him, might be delivered over to the fiery furnace. It is fitting, too, that his name should carry the number six hundred and sixty-six, for within his single person is gathered together every mixture of wickedness that came before the Flood, evil that sprang from the rebellion of the angels. Noah, after all, had reached six hundred years of age when the waters came over the earth, wiping out the defiant generation of his day. This same number also sums up the whole error of idol-making that arose after the Flood, and the killing of the prophets, and the burning of the righteous. For the image set up by Nebuchadnezzar had a height of sixty cubits and a width of six cubits, and on account of it Ananias, Azarias, and Misael, refusing to worship it, were cast into the furnace of fire, thereby prophesying, through what befell them, the burning of the righteous that is to come at the end. For that whole image was a prefiguration of this coming one, who decrees that he alone be worshipped by absolutely all men. So the six hundred years of Noah, under whom the Flood came because of the apostasy, and the number of cubits of the image on account of which the righteous were thrown into the furnace of fire, signify the number of the name of him in whom is recapitulated the whole apostasy, injustice, wickedness, false prophecy, and deceit of six thousand years — on account of which fire shall also come. [The text here is uncertain in the source and possibly corrupted, involving a note on how the number of cubits was read.] The number of the name of Antichrist is indeed certain, but nothing should be rashly affirmed about it, since it could fit many names; nor is it clear why it was not plainly explained by the Holy Spirit — nor anything about his kingdom or his death.