Number of the Beast Number of the Beast The Number of the Beast (, "Arithmos tou Thēriou") is a term in the Book of Revelation, of the New Testament, that is associated with the Beast of Revelation in chapter 13. In most manuscripts of the New Testament and in English translations of the Bible, the number of the beast is 666. Papyrus 115 (which is the oldest preserved manuscript of the "Revelation" ), as well as other ancient sources like "Codex Ephraemi Rescriptus", give the Number of the Beast as 616 (), not 666; critical editions of the Greek text, such as the Novum
Book of Revelation the wider Roman society, which imposed very real penalties; Revelation offered a victory over this reality by offering an apocalyptic hope: in the words of professor Adela Yarbro Collins, "What ought to be was experienced as a present reality." Revelation was the last book accepted into the Christian biblical canon, and to the present day some churches that derive from the Church of the East reject it. Eastern Christians became skeptical of the book as doubts concerning its authorship and unusual style were reinforced by aversion to its acceptance by Montanists and other groups considered to be heretical. This distrust