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
Number of the Beast used for imprints on documents or coins. Charagma is well attested to have been an imperial seal of the Roman Empire used on official documents during the 1st and 2nd centuries. In the reign of Emperor Decius (249–251 AD), those who did not possess the certificate of sacrifice () to Caesar could not pursue trades, a prohibition that conceivably goes back to Nero, reminding one of Revelation 13:17. Preterists argue that Revelation was written before the destruction of the Temple, with Nero exiling John to Patmos. Most scholars, however, argue it was written after Nero committed suicide in AD 68.