Papyrus 115 and the Beast's Other Number
Papyrus 115 gives the number of the beast as 616. That reading sits alongside the familiar 666 found in most New Testament manuscripts and English Bible translations. The number belongs to the Beast of Revelation, in chapter 13, verse 18, where understanding and counting are part of the invitation. The alternative survives in an ancient manuscript, while critical editions of the Greek text, including the Novum Testamentum Graece, note it as a variant. The biblical wording identifies it as the number of a man.
Around 2005, a fragment from Papyrus 115, taken from the Oxyrhynchus site, was discovered at the University of Oxford's Ashmolean Museum. It contained the beast's number in Greek numerals. As of 2017, the fragment was described as the oldest manuscript of Revelation 13 found, at about 1,700 years old. That date matters to the claim about its age: the distinction belongs to the manuscripts known at that time. The fragment appears in the Oxyrhynchus series as P. Oxy. 4499.
Other witnesses broaden the trail beyond Papyrus 115. Codex Ephraemi Rescriptus, associated with Paris and counted among the four great uncial codices, also has 616. It was known before the papyrus finding, although it dates to after the papyrus. Its number is written in full, meaning six hundred and sixteen, rather than appearing only as numeral signs. The reading also appears in the Latin version of Tyconius and an ancient Armenian version. These witnesses give the alternative a presence across more than one language. Some scholars have regarded 616 as the original number because of the papyrus and Ephraemi Rescriptus.
The disagreement reaches back to Irenaeus in the second century AD. He knew the 616 reading but retained 666, reporting that people who had spoken face to face with the Apostle John gave that number. John was traditionally considered the author of Revelation. Irenaeus also reported scribal errors involving the number, so his preference did not mean that he knew only one reading. Later, in the 380s, Jerome retained 666 while correcting the existing Latin version of the New Testament, commonly called the Vetus Latina. The alternative and the preference for the more familiar number were therefore both present in ancient discussions.
The Greek notation makes the numerical difference visible. For 666, the signs are χξϛ: χ represents 600, ξ represents 60, and ϛ represents 6. Papyrus 115 instead has χιϛ, giving 616. The Textus Receptus, derived from Byzantine text-type manuscripts, uses the former combination, with stigma as the sign for six. Several Greek Bible editions spell out six hundred sixty-six as words instead. Revelation's invitation to count also has a linguistic range: possible translations of the Greek verb include counting, reckoning, voting, and deciding.
One route into interpretation uses letters as numbers. In Greek isopsephy and Hebrew gematria, each letter has a numerical value, and adding those values gives a total for a word or name. There is broad agreement in contemporary scholarship linking the beast's number to the Roman Emperor Nero. Since the 1830s, theologians including Christian Friedrich Fritzsche, Franz Ferdinand Benary, Ferdinand Hitzig, and Eduard Reuss have connected 666 with him. Preterist theologians typically support the interpretation involving the name and title Nero Caesar. The name, written in Aramaic and valued through Hebrew gematria, can reach the familiar total and was used to speak against the emperor secretly.
The spelling difference gives that interpretation a way to address both totals. The Greek version of Nero's name and title, transliterated into Hebrew as Nron Qsr, yields 666. The Latin version drops the second Nun and appears as Nro Qsr, yielding 616. The letter values for the longer form are 50, 200, 6, 50, 100, 60, and 200. Removing the additional Nun changes the sum. An Aramaic scroll from Wadi Murabba'at, dated to the second year of Emperor Nero, uses his name and title. This comparison offers a proposed relationship between the alternate reading in Papyrus 115 and a change in the spelling of a name.
Commerce brings the interpretation into another part of Revelation. The beast's mark is connected with buying and selling, and a common preterist interpretation links it to the emperor's image stamped on Roman coins. New Testament scholar C.C. Hill associates the mark with Rome's economic power and the emperor's claims to divinity conveyed through coinage. Craig R. Koester likewise emphasizes transactions using coins bearing images of Roman gods and emperors. In this reading, ordinary purchases carried a connection to political and religious allegiance. In 66 AD, while Nero was emperor, Jews revolted against Rome and coined their own money.