The first clear hint given—that the beast’s number is the number of man—would indicate that, despite the beast’s mythological-like qualities, he is to be calculated in human terms. In other words, the beast himself will be manifested in some way in human form, a realization that might cause the hearers to suspect that there are ways in which they already are encountering the beast in a variety of human forms around them, even as they await the kind of manifestation described in 11:7 and 13:1b–18.