The number of the beast: 666, not 616

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. [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.]

But, knowing the sure number declared by Scripture, that is, six hundred sixty and six…

Irenaeus of Lyons
Against Heresies, Book V
Chapter XXX

 

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