Ancient Revelations: Papyrology
Oxyrhynchus Papyri

P. Oxy. LVI 4499
(Late Third / Early Fourth Century)

Earliest known witness to the "Number of the Beast"
The number (chi, iota, stigma - hexakosiai deka hex) in third line

Satanists, apocalypse watchers and heavy metal guitarists may have to adjust their demonic numerology after a recently deciphered ancient biblical text revealed that 666 is not the fabled Number of the Beast after all.

A fragment from the oldest surviving copy of the New Testament, dating to the Third century, gives the more mundane 616 as the mark of the Antichrist.

Ellen Aitken, a professor of early Christian history at McGill University, said the discovery appears to spell the end of 666 as the devil’s prime number.

“This is a very nice piece to find,” Dr. Aitken said. “Scholars have argued for a long time over this, and it now seems that 616 was the original number of the beast.”

The tiny fragment of 1,500-year-old papyrus is written in Greek, the original language of the New Testament, and contains a key passage from the Book of Revelation.

Where more conventional versions of the Bible give 666 as the “number of the beast,” or the sign of the anti-Christ whose coming is predicted in the book’s apocalyptic verses, the older version uses the Greek letters signifying 616.

“This is very early confirmation of that number, earlier than any other text we’ve found of that passage,” Dr. Aitken said. “It’s probably about 100 years before any other version.”

The fragment was part of a hoard of previously illegible manuscripts discovered in an ancient garbage dump outside the Egyptian city of Oxyrhynchus. Although the papyrus was first excavated in 1895, it was badly discoloured and damaged. Classics scholars at Oxford University were only recently able to read it using new advanced imaging techniques.

Elijah Dann, a professor of philosophy and religion at the University of Toronto, said the new number is unlikely to make a dent in the popularity of 666.

“Otherwise, a lot of sermons would have to be changed and a lot of movies rewritten,” he said with a laugh. “There’s always someone with an active imagination who can put another interpretation on it.

“It just shows you that when you study something as cryptic and mystic as the Book of Revelation there’s an almost unlimited number of interpretations.”

The book is thought to have been written by the disciple John and according to the King James Bible, the traditional translation of the passage reads: “Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six.”

But Dr. Aitken said that translation was drawn from much later versions of the New Testament than the fragment found in Oxyrhynchus. “When we’re talking about the early biblical texts, we’re always talking about copies and they are copies made, at best, 150 to 200 years after [the original] was written,” she said.

“They can have mistakes in the copying, changes for political or theological reasons … it’s like a detective story piecing it all together.”

Dr. Aitken said, however, that scholars now believe the number in question has very little to do the devil. It was actually a complicated numerical riddle in Greek, meant to represent someone’s name, she said.

“It’s a number puzzle — the majority opinion seems to be that it refers to [the Roman emperor] Nero.”

Revelation was actually a thinly disguised political tract, with the names of those being criticized changed to numbers to protect the authors and early Christians from reprisals. “It’s a very political document,” Dr. Aitken said. “It’s a critique of the politics and society of the Roman empire, but it’s written in coded language and riddles.”

• 666 and Nero - "The preterist takes a relatively uncommon form of Nero's name, Nero Cæsar or Cæsar Nero, and adds an "n", resulting in Neron Cæsar. Next the Latin is transliterated into Aramaic, resulting in nrwn qsr, which when using the numeric equivalent of the letters, then adds up to 666 as follows:

An example of this spelling has apparently been recently discovered in one of the Dead Sea scrolls. (If you use the same process, but without the added "n" the result is 616. Interestingly, some early manuscripts of the Bible have 616 rather than 666, but even scholars such as Irenæus attribute the 616 to only a copyist error.)

666, 616 and NERO
"The textual variant is Latin, and the Latinized version of Nero’s name is different than the Hebrew, which goes to 666, but the Latinized name goes to 616. The variant probably existed to keep consistent the meaning of Nero as the Beast. "

WHAT OTHERS HAVE SAID

Edward Cook
"My copy of Nestle-Aland (27th ed.) at Revelation 13:18 lists for the variant reading "616" only "C; Ir mss" (the 5th century uncial manuscript C and some manuscripts cited by Irenaeus). A 3rd or 4th century papyrus containing this reading would be extremely significant, although probably not enough to outweigh the many witnesses for "666."

As Bruce Metzger points out in his Textual Commentary on the Greek New Testament (1971), the numerical value of "666" is derived from the Hebrew/Aramaic values for the letters comprising the name נרון קסר, "Nero Caesar" (in Greek Νέρων Καῖσαρ) The variant "616" results from the alternate spelling נרו קסר.

For those of you unfamiliar with the numerical values of the Hebrew alphabet, the values in the above name are nun = 50, resh = 200, waw = 6, nun = 50, quph = 100, samekh = 60, resh = 200. Add 'em up!

The name "Nero Caesar" (נרון קסר) actually appears in a scroll from the Judean Desert, Murabbaat 18, dated to the "second year of Nero Caesar" (55/56 CE)." (Ralph the Sacred River)

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Date: 12 Apr 2009
Time: 05:10:15

Your Comments:

616 and 666 I believe are both correct.but I dont associate them with either Nero or any roman emporer. If it were popular belief why do we need wisdom to figure it out and The number needs to be associated with the end times not 1500+ YEARS ago. To understand the beast number we first need to understand the 2300 evenings and mornings of daniel the prophet. Most say that the 2300M&E were 2300 years but I think it was talking about the daily sacrifice and the morn and eve were added together to come up to 2300 so that puts the number at 1150 days or years that is. If this is true then the dates 538bc and 458bc (which are the decree to rebuild dates for the city and then the temple)are the start dates now add 1150 and come to 611ad and 692ad now if you subtract the beast numbers from the resultant years you will come to the years Jesus was born and the year He was baptized in the Jordon. John figured that people would always know these dates in Jesus's life here and wrapped those numbers in a riddle that those of wisdom (true believers)would understand. Now all we have about dates in Jesus life are educated guesses based on biblical facts but must remember that even John dealt with Jewish calendar not roman calendar. Jewish and roman calendars are enough different to throw off certain years and understandings. Now conecting it to the end times is simple. in revelations it says the prostitute on the Dragon has a cup and to fill here portion double which is with the beast so it is either 616 or 666 multiplied by 2 now add that to either date of 611 or 692 and se where it gets you also try now take those dates and research crefully and pray for guidance and understanding you will be mildly and ubelievably intrigued and will cause you to want more.

Date: 01 Aug 2009
Time: 06:51:53

Your Comments:

I have deciphered the number and will be plainly blunt with you. Since I have a bible in my possesion older than I am I have been privy to this 616 number as well as the 666 number for most of my life. The version if you would like to check is the revised standard version of the first presbyterian church. Here it is in simple. First the book says to reckon the number 666. Plainly this means to count the number, so, 6+6+6=18, and 1+8 = 9 also it says other ancient authorities read six hundred and sixteen at the bottom of the page so, 6+1+6=13, and 1+3=4 so 9 from the first number and 4 from the second 9+4=13, and 1+3=4 now look for yourself @ revelations 13:1 and then @ Daniel 7:3, notice the same animal representations for the leopard, bear and lion, only the book of Daniel tells of a fourth beast. Keep reading Daniel and see the rest. The last beast has 10 horns then another. The beasts are a kingdom with ten kings and an eleventh that is different but with the same power, just like the next beast in revelations 13. Your welcome and thank you for confirming what I knew. If you would like any more information, wisdom or understanding please feel free to e-mail me @ morsybreyth@hotmail.com, also don't forget to read mark 14:23 and mark 14:36.    The answer to the question, who has understanding?, Nehemiah 10:28.