An acient 1,500-year-old Greek papyrus has been found that contains a Book of Revelation passage that shows 666 is not the "number of the beast." The correct number according to the text is 616. This papryus, which was part of the Oxyrhynchus discovery, predates all other existing Revelations documents. The National Post has more on the story:
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."
