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King Nebuchadnezzar made an image of gold, sixty cubits high and six cubits wide, and set it up on the plain of Dura in the province of Babylon. (Daniel 3:1)
Did these sizes represent something in the Babylon time?
Troy Day
The question of whether the sizes of Nebuchadnezzar’s image of gold have significance is intriguing! Biblically, the dimensions described in Daniel 3:1—sixty cubits high and six cubits wide—likely reflect Babylonian measurement systems and symbolism. Some scholars suggest that the numbers may have numerological or theological meaning, pointing to human pride and the challenge to God’s authority. Others see practical reasons based on ancient monumental architecture. Insights from both biblical scholarship and archaeology could further illuminate this topic. Does anyone have favorite resources on Babylonian symbolism? @followers
Dan Cross
Troy Day Does the 60/6 pattern carry theological or numerological weight?
Here are the main interpretive options and how strong they are.
(a) “Just big and scary” – the minimalist view
Many mainstream commentators say: Daniel gives the measurements to stress scale and visibility on the plain of Dura—this is an overwhelming, totalizing state cult. 
Pros:
• Fits the narrative: the repeated “image that the king had set up” + the lists of officials and instruments are all about sheer pomp and intimidation, not subtle code.
• Respects that Daniel never explains the numbers.
Cons:
• Doesn’t make much out of the deliberate choice of 60/6 when other “round numbers” were available.
(b) Sexagesimal show-off – imperial hubris coded in numbers
Others lean into the base-60 background and say something like:
In a culture where 60 is the “complete” unit, a 60-cubit image is a numerical flex—Nebuchadnezzar builds a monument that shouts “I embody the fullness of empire.” 
On this reading, the dimensions are not random: they tie the statue to Babylon’s own mathematical and cosmological system. That fits well with the broader theme of Daniel 2–4: Babylon claiming absolute, cosmic authority versus the God who actually rules history.
I’d say this layer is plausible and historically grounded. It’s not numerology in the modern “code-breaking” sense; it’s more like reading architecture in its cultural register.
(c) 6 as “number of man” and a prelude to 666
A lot of homiletical and apocalyptic preaching goes here:
• 6 in Scripture can signal humanity or incompleteness (created on day six, falling short of seven).
• The statue is 60 x 6 cubits, and if you assume an unstated depth of 6 cubits, you get a nice 60–6–6 → 666 parallel to the number of the beast in Revelation 13. 
This view usually adds:
• Six instruments in Daniel 3, six this, six that, drawing typological lines forward to “the image of the beast” and compulsory worship in Rev 13.
How strong is this?
• From Daniel’s side: the text itself never foregrounds the sixes. There’s no “wisdom, let the reader calculate” like Rev 13:18 gives you. Pushing Daniel 3 as deliberately encoding 666 is speculative.
• From Revelation’s side: it’s much more reasonable to say that John may be echoing Daniel 3—state-sponsored idolatry enforced by death—when he shapes his imagery of the beast and its image. So the typological move makes sense canonically, even if it wasn’t in the mind of the original Aramaic author.
So: I’d treat the 666 connection as a theologically rich typology rather than a hard exegetical point.
(d) Solar / cosmic cycle symbolism (60 × 6 = 360)
A smaller stream of interpreters note:
• 60 × 6 = 360, the number of degrees in a circle, often tied to the sun’s course and the full cycle of time—fitting in a culture that used base-60 for astronomy. 
• That is then linked to Nebuchadnezzar as a devotee of solar deities and to obelisk-like imagery associated with the sun.
This is clever, but methodologically thin:
• We don’t have an explicit Babylonian text saying “360 = sun = king’s statue.”
• 360 as “degrees in a circle” is a later mathematical convention; the Babylonian year of 360 days is related but not identical.
So I’d file this under interesting but speculative.
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Archaeology and monumental style
A couple of archaeological and stylistic points help ground all this:
• Excavations south-east of Babylon have identified a rectangular mound (~20 ft high, ~46 ft square) long suggested as a possible pedestal for a colossal statue on a plain that could fit Dura’s description. 
• Egyptian obelisks of roughly the same height (around 30 m) give us a real-world analogue for slender cult monuments dominating a sacred space. 
Whether or not we can pinpoint the base of Nebuchadnezzar’s statue, archaeology confirms that:
• The dimensions are realistic.
• The visual effect would have been exactly what Daniel 3 narrates: a towering focal point on a flat plain, ideal for a mass ceremony of forced loyalty.
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Theologically, what is Daniel doing with the numbers?
I’d sum it up this way:
1. Continuation of Daniel 2:
In the dream of chapter 2, Nebuchadnezzar is only the head of gold. In chapter 3 he responds with a statue that is all gold and enormously tall—an architectural protest against God’s declaration that his kingdom is temporary. 
• The dimensions accentuate his attempt at totality: “My glory will fill the earth.”
2. Embodied hubris:
Regardless of whether you push into 6/60 numerology, everything about the measurements says:
human power, exaggerated and absolutized
It is human rule stretched to godlike scale—and then demanding worship.
3. Prototype of later “images of the beast”:
Even if Daniel himself isn’t encoding 666, the pattern—
empire + image + enforced worship + death penalty—
becomes a template that Revelation will pick up. Numbers like 60, 6, and 666 then serve to label that same spiritual reality of beastly, self-deifying power.
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So how far would you go with “significance”?
If you want a balanced line you can teach or write:
• Historically/archaeologically:
The 60 × 6 cubit dimensions fit Babylon’s base-60 measurement system and the scale of known ANE monuments. They communicate visibility and awe more than a puzzle to decode.
• Theologically:
In context, the main function is to embody human pride and imperial pretension—a gigantic challenge to God’s sovereignty, standing in contrast to Daniel 2’s message that God alone sets up and removes kings.
• Symbolically/canonically:
The 6/60 pattern naturally resonates with later biblical themes of the “number of man” and beastly empire (Rev 13), but those links are typological and retrospective, not something the Daniel text itself explains.
Jim Newbould
Dan Cross
Dan the 66 has no bearing,
The number 666
Comes from what was called in Jesus day and still is in effect today, it is the
Aramaic Abacus System,
There are no decimals in it so
The Trinity is =
1 -:- 3 = 333 x Father, Son and Holy Spirit = 999
So if you remove
(1) part of the Trinity “ Holy Spirit”
999 – 333 = 666
The Holy Spirit took 6 Weeks to Teach The Every
Morning,
God Bless
Brother Jim
Troy Day
Jim Newbould NOT a BAD or easy question you posted. I have explored the 15/50 window with a friend before ; almost as in the manner of or more like OFF the Pareto principle but I have not put much time into 60/6 until now This is kind of NEW to me as well but worth the ATT of Rev experts like John Mushenhouse Glynn Brown Jose Salinas and our @followers I have sensed however and shared with Philip Williams much about his non-pneumatic dualism AND would like to echo what you just stated here
if you remove
(1) part of the Trinity “ Holy Spirit”
999 – 333 = 666
Jim Newbould
Troy Day
Troy,
May I suggest,
The words of Jesus with the
Holy Spirit
( this is just something that He shared with me, He does not prefer to be called ; Holy Ghost,
He said A Ghost is something that has died and comes back to life,
He is the Holy Spirit , the Administrator of God The Father’s Gifts)
God Bless,
( if you desire to use my Post,
please be my guest)
Brother Jim
Dan Cross
Jim Newbould I did not say that 66 did have any bearing. Please read what I wrote carefully.
Troy Day
Jim Newbould guess this makes a few of us 🙂 Joseph D. Absher
Jim Newbould
Troy Day
Hi Troy,
It is very refreshing to see someone is thinking past the front door,
In my research,
I have A little research company,
“New Research Brotherhood LLC”
I have not ever researched this but this question has merit,
Thank you for being in the group,
God Bless
Brother Jim
Jim Newbould
Troy Day
Sorry Dan
I guess that is what happens when you communicate with A disabled veteran,
I will try harder,
Rev Jim
Jim Newbould
Troy Day
That would be
90 ‘ X 9’
That would be
10:1 ,
He must have had An Abacus Short
Brother Jim
Theron Gunn
I am sure it had significance to him in that like all monuments men make to themselves is a reflection of their ego.
Troy Day
Theron Gunn NOT UNtrue as well
Theron Gunn
Troy Day not saying ine way or the other. I simply don’t know. What I do know is he thought he was a god and boy was he wrong.