There are manuscripts or copies of the book of Revelation that have the number 616 instead of 666 for the number of the beast, such as Papyrus 115.
You can read about it in here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Papyrus_115
How is that possible?
In the blog about the Beast from the Sea we discussed that this beast represents the Roman Empire.
The beast from the earth is the cult of the godly emperor. The IMAGE of the beast is the living human idol, either called Nero, Vespasian or Titus for instance.
Now when you translate the Latin 'Nero Caesar' into Hebrew you get NRW QSR. In Hebrew characters have a numerical value and when you calculate that, you get
(N) 50 + (R) 200 + (W) 6 + (Q) 100 +(S) 60 + (R) 200 = 616.
This explains how Papyrus 115 has 616 as it's numerical value.
But when you take the Greek name for Nero, it is 'Neron Caesar'. Translated to Hebrew it is NRWN QSR and the value is:
50 + 200 + 6 + 50 + 100 + 60 + 200 = 666.
Since both values 666 and 616 exist in manuscripts, this is most likely caused by the different translations of the name of Nero from Greek and Latin.
The depiction of the godly Nero was on the coins of the Roman Empire. And everybody was forced to pay with the Roman money. Also everybody was forced to worship the emperor as god. But Christians refused to do so and the book of Revelation explains that worshiping the emperor as god equals worshiping the devil.
That's why Revelation says 616 or 666 is the number of a HUMAN. Meaning the emperor is not truly a god, just a human.
Nero was a particularly cruel emperor. He killed many Christians in arenas or as torches on his parties. Among those killed were Peter and Paul.
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