Question on Revelation 13:18
Barry's response:
Your second question reflects the confusion that the Wikipedia article seems to be promoting. So here are some facts you might find helpful. The Wiki article seems to claim that the “oldest” surviving papyrus has 616 instead of 666 for Revelation 13:18. There is a list of the oldest papyri with Revelation, and the details of what chapters or parts of chapters are preserved. That can be found here: From that list it becomes apparent that the earliest manuscript containing Revelation 13:18 is Papyrus 47 (Chester Beatty III) dated around 250 to 300 AD and contains 125 verses from Revelation. That papyrus with certainty contains the 666 in Greek. The Greeks used letters of their alphabet to designate numbers. The P47 Greek text of Revelation 13:18 contains the usual reading expressed in numerals in the form of letters:
Figure 1: (Left) -The three Greek letters involved in making the number 666 in Revelation 13:18. Those same three letters are in the middle of the 4th line from the top of the copy of P47, the oldest existing papyrus with that verse. The next oldest version is Papyrus 115 (Oxyrhynchus). This papyrus is a collection of extremely mutilated fragments written late in the 3rd or early in the 4th century. Even Reveleation 13:18 is not complete, but the surviving fragment of that verse has the number 616. However, immediately before it is the word “or,” indicating that, perhaps, the choice with the alternate 666 had also been recorded there. However, we will never know for sure as this Is all we have of that verse from that source.. The fragment we have of this verse is in the public domain and can be seen here.
None of this was made clear in the Wiki article. In fact, confusingly to many, this image and Papyrus 115 is often quoted as definitive and settling the issue, even though it is a later version whose veracity had been querstioned..There may be a reason for this. A former Islamic terrorist who became a Christian pointed out that the Greek letter Xi when turned on its side is used extensively in Islamic art to refer to “Allah,.” This may easily be verified by typing into your internet search engine the words “Muslim art with Bismillah.” The word “Bismillah” means “in the Name of Allah.” This has some potential implications which many Christians reject and which upset Muslims and their sympathizers. This situation could only be defused by claiming that the Papyrus 115 version was correct where Iota replaced Xi and gave 616. This then meant that the P47 version with Xi and 666 was spurious and was often sidelined. As Christians living in the days close to the Lord’s return, it may be wise not to categorically reject a potential Muslim connection with 666, but be circumspect and see how events may move one way or the other so we are not blindsided or caught flat-footed. However, we can do better than that, and get much closer to the original truth that the Apostle John wrote. We have the records of the Church Fathers dating just after the death of John. Let us put this all in chronological sequence. John wrote Revelation about 95 or 96 AD and died just after 100 AD aged about 94. One of John’s students was Polycarp who was born 69 AD, was appointed as Bishop and pastor of the church at Smyrna. then martyred in February 155 AD. In the Martyrdom, Polycarp is recorded as saying on the day of his death: "Eighty and six years I have served Him, and He has done me no wrong." It is important to note that all the records report that Polycarp was a student taught by the Apostle John, and Polycarp mentioned his conversations with John. Polycarp in turn trained a student named Irenaeus (born about 120 AD). Irenaeus became Bishop of Lugdunum, now known as Lyons, in southwest France. Irenaeus commented on Revelation 13:18 in Against Heresies, Book 5, chapters 29-30. In chapter 30, as Irenaeus focuses on the meaning of the number of the beast, he mentions that six-hundred-and-sixty-six is the number that is “found in all the most approved and ancient copies,” and he states that “those men who saw John face to face” have testified to its genuineness. Irenaeus continued with a long note in which he mentioned the alternate reading of 616 and declared it to be a corruption. He said that he thought that it originated with a copyist error. https://www.thetextofthegospels.com/2015/09/revelation-1318-and-number-of-beast.html A simple mistake by an inattentive or hurried copyist is not impossible. In those early days, the scribal schools had a supervisor who dictated from the original to the copyist or copyists in the room. The copyist may have heard his supervisor pronounce the letters chi, xi and stIgma individually, and instead of the XI, just heard the I. Alternately, the supervisor may simply have slurred the words. In any case, Irenaeus’s comments assure us that Revelation 13:18 is genuine, and it seems that John had confirmed 666 to Polycarp who affirmed it to Irenaeus who recorded it for posterity around 150 AD or soon after.
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