With Scholion XXXVIII, and following an introductory comment by Cassian, there is a shift to Irenaeus, since Cassian himself was not inclined to produce a detailed exegesis of the ‘number of the beast’. His own ‘Book’, namely Codex 573, contains a text whose title is ascribed to Irenaeus, although it is currently attributed to Hippolytus (‘On the Blessings of Jacob’).

To a monk (like many modern readers who are intrigued by eschatological scenarios made out of Revelation), the ‘name of the beast’ needed to be clarified, and possibly to be identified with contemporary historical circumstances. Irenaeus was an author who emphasized this eschatological aspect. But his account was a notably Millenarist one, on the basis of a simplistic argument: since ‘one day is a thousand years to the Lord’ (2 Peter 3:8), the duration of the world counts as many millennia as the days during which the world was made. Six thousand years is therefore the entire duration of the world. Consequently, the name of the beast is made of the number ‘six’ repeated thrice. In early Christianity such accounts resulted in a widespread corollary: since the Incarnation had taken place in the year 5500, there was a period of only five hundred years remaining for the world to exist. Origen had rebutted any idea that there is a determined time until the final judgement, and it is remarkable that his comment was used to the letter by Theodoret. This assumption nevertheless does not occur in the specific account of Irenaeus, although this is a necessary corollary.