The Number of The Beast
616 is believed by some to have been the original Number of the Beast in the Book of Revelation in the Christian Bible. Different early versions of the Book of Revelation gave different numbers, and 666 had been widely accepted as the original number. In 2005, however, a fragment of papyrus 115 was revealed, containing the earliest known version of that part of the Book of Revelation discussing the Number of the Beast. It gave the number as 616, suggesting that this may have been the original. Apparently the two different numbers reflect two different spellings of Emperor Nero/Neron's name, for which this number is believed to be a code.
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Famous quotes containing the words number and/or beast:
“If we remembered everything, we should on most occasions be as ill off as if we remembered nothing. It would take us as long to recall a space of time as it took the original time to elapse, and we should never get ahead with our thinking. All recollected times undergo, accordingly, what M. Ribot calls foreshortening; and this foreshortening is due to the omission of an enormous number of facts which filled them.”
—William James (1842–1910)
“I saw for a blazing moment
The great grassy world from both sides,
Man and beast in the round of their need,”
—James Dickey (b. 1923)