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The Textual Variant
Another introductory matter undoubtedly of significance in determining the identity of this “666” is the matter of the textual variant in the Greek of Revelation 13:18. Although both the strongest manuscript evidence and intrinsic probability are supportive of the reading “666,” 16 there is some slight manuscript and historical evidence for the number “616.”
Instead of .AprjKovrcz, which is strongly supported by p~7 N A P 046
051 all extant minuscule it@g vg syz+h~h Copsa>bo armal, &$za is read by C some manuscripts known to Irenaeus (who, however, says that 666 is found “in all good and ancient copies,” and is “attested by those who had themselves seen John face to face”, and TyconiusPt. According to Tischendorfs 8th cd., the numeral 616 was also read by two minuscule manuscripts which unfortunately are no longer extant (nos. 5 and 11; cf. C. R. Gregory, Prolegomena, p. 676). When Greek letters are used as numerals the difference between 666 and 616 is merely a change fi-om <to z (666 = jy<< and 616 = ~<). 17
Irenaeus’s reference to the variation is as follows:
Such, then, being the state of the case, and this number [i.e., 666] being found in all the most approved and ancient copies [of the Apocalypse], and those men who saw John face to face bearing their testimony [to it] . . . I do not know how it is that some have erred following the ordinary mode of speech, and have vitiated the middle number in the name, deducting the amount of fifty from it, so that instead of six decads they will have it that there is but one. Others then received this reading without examination; some in their simplicity, and upon their own responsibility, making use of this number expressing one decad; while some, in their experience, have ventured
to seek out a name which should contain the erroneous and spurious number. 18
Although the manuscript evidence for the variant is relatively sparse, the very fact that it exists is significant. “The reading thus curtly dismissed [by Irenaeus] gained so good a footing that it survives in one of our best uncials and in two cursives, and in the commentary of the Pseudo-Augustine, where the writer probably [follows] Tyconius.”lg Thus, although it is certain that the original reading of Revelation was properly “666,” it is remarkable that “616” appeared in certain ancient manuscripts and traditions dating back
to the second century.
17. Bruce M. Metzger, A Textual Commentary on the Greek New Testanwnt (London:
United Bible Societies, 197 1), pp. 751-752. Punctuation standardized.
18. Irenaeus, Agamrt Heresia 5:30:1.
There is an interpolation in the Latin manuscript which is omitted in the Greek of Eusebius’s record of it (Ecd. Hid. 5:8), which adds: “I am inclined to think that this occurred through the fault of the copyists, as is wont to happen, since numbers also are expressed by letters; so that the Greek letter which expresses the number sixty was easily expanded into the letter Iota of the Greeks.” Most patristic scholars believe this to be added by a hand other than Irenaeus’s. See Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson, eds., The Ante-Nicene Fathers [ANF], 10 vols. (Grand
Rapids: Eerdmans, [late 19th c.] 1975) 1:558 n. 4.
19. Henry Barclay Swete, Commentmy on Revelation (Grand Rapids: Kregel, [1906]
1977), p. 175.
continuied from page 202
Textual variants necessarily fall into two broad groups: those that arise by accident and those that arise by intention. w There are various ways by which aaidental uananti can mar the text. There are errors of sight, caused by a confusion of similarly drawn letters; errors of writing, where a scribe inadvertently writes one letter for another; errors of hearing (especially when a text is being dictated to copyists) due to the similarity of sounds between certain letters, diphthongs, etc.; and errors of judgment, where, for
example, an abbreviated word might have been put into the wrong unabbreviated form. Intentional uanants can occur for any number of reasons and these reasons are more diflicult to discern But “for the most part” they are derived “from attempts by scribes to improve the text in various ways.”41
The two leading options before the textual critic42 in the present instance are 666 and 616. In the earlier extant manuscripts the number is written out in words that are quite different: “six hundreds and sixty-six” is written: t~amkzol 2~@ona & %x hundreds and sixteen” is written: kfamhol &za .4~. Or, as in some of the later manuscripts — and almost certainly in the original — the variant numbers are written thus: 666 appears as ~$q and 616 appears as w<. The letters in question are ~ (60) and I (10). Immediately the Greek student recognizes the difficulty of an accidental confusion accounting for the divergence. It is diilicult to see how an error of sight, sound, writing, or judgment could explain the variant; the letters are as different in style, size, and sound as any two Greek letters could be.43 Obviously the variant is of the intentional class.
But why?
Although such a problem is necessarily difficult to trace down, a strong case can be made for an early copyist’s intentionally altering the number in order to make the discerning of the referent easier.
40. J. Harold Greenlee, Zntroa%ction to New Testam TextuQl Criticiwn (Grand Rapids:
Eerdmans, 1964), p. 63.
41. Ibid., p. 66.
42. There is one other extremely improbable variant: 606. See Ford, Revelation, p.
226, and the textual apparatus of Aland, et. al., Greek New T~tatrwnt, p. 869.
43. Eberhard Nestle, Zntroa!wtion to the Textwd Critictrm of the Greek New Tutatwnt, trans.
William Edie (London: William and Norgate, 1901 ), p. 334. Cf Swete, Rewlation, p. 175.
I actually believe that God has preserved His word as he intended,because God is sovereign.There are always liberal scholars who delight in casting doubt on scripture.Remember,man may rule,but God overrules. God bless you
