Christian Apologist Wes Huff recently unpacked one of the curious controversies surrounding the end times. It involves the number 666 that is linked with the Antichrist.
In his vision of the end times, the Apostle John used a number to identify the Antichrist writing:
Here is wisdom. Let him who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for the number is that of a man; and his number is six hundred and sixty-six. (Revelation 13:18 NASV)
It is based on how ancient languages, like Hebrew and Greek, had numbers assigned to their letters. This allowed you to take a person’s name and calculate its number.
But as Huff noted in a recent post on X, the oldest known fragment of the Book of Revelation actually has a different number. It is written as 616 which is [chi (600) + i (1) + stau (6)]”.
Huff adds that 616 is also found in Codex Ephraemi Syri. Many consider it to be one of the most important intact manuscripts of the book of Revelation.
This number discrepancy is not a new problem. In fact, it was already an issue by the second century.
Irenaeus who lived between 125 AD and 202 AD served as the Bishop of Lyon. In his book, Against Heresies, he also noted that some ancient manuscripts had 616 instead of 666.
But Irenaeus added that he believed 666 was the correct number. It is the position that Huff also holds.
But Huff added that if you take the Hebrew name of ‘Nero Caesar’, it adds up to 666. But oddly it can also add up to 616 with a small change.
“Interestingly enough, the variant of ‘616’ does not change this, as the same two words can be transliterated with the final ‘n’ in ‘neron’ into Hebrew totalling 616,” Huff noted. “616 calculated in Greek could also add up to Gaius Caesar written in the style of Caligula.”
Nero can fit both numbers. But he died around 68 AD. This was nearly 30 years before John’s wrote the Book of Revelation while on the Island of Patmos around 96 AD.
While Nero meets the numerical value of the Antichrist, he was not the one John saw in his vision.
In a letter that John wrote before the Book of Revelation, he stated that there would be many Antichrists before the final one showed up:
18 Children, it is the last hour; and just as you heard that antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have appeared; from this we know that it is the last hour. (1 John 2:18 NASV)
Undoubtedly, Nero was one of those Antichrists that had already made an appearance.
But there is one who is still to come.
Sources: Is the Mark of the Beast Really 666?—Wes Huff Explains Discrepancies in Biblical Manuscripts and Wes Huff unpacks mark of the beast, claims number might not be 666
OpentheWord.org 
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