Number of the Beast adopt it (Haer. v.30,3). In the 380s, correcting the existing Latin-language version of the New Testament (commonly referred to as the "Vetus Latina"), Jerome retained "666". Around 2005, a fragment from Papyrus 115, taken from the Oxyrhynchus site, was discovered at the Oxford University's Ashmolean Museum. It gave the beast's number as . This fragment is the oldest manuscript (about 1,700 years old) of Revelation 13 found . "Codex Ephraemi Rescriptus", known before the "Papyrus 115" finding but dating to after it, has 616 written in full: , "hexakosioi deka hex" ( "six hundred and sixteen"). "Papyrus 115" and "Ephraemi
The Beast (Revelation) Thus the beast represents the kingdoms that will bear rule over the world from Adam until the second coming of Christ. While in the spirit, this beast is seen as a personality as in Revelation 19:20, in the physical he is represented at different ages throughout the period of human existence as different kingdoms. The import of this interpretation is that as the Whore of Babylon is seen to be riding this beast, the beast is the seat of operation of the whore from where she is expressed, and by whom her dominion is exercised. This corresponds to Revelation 13