Papyrus Oxyrhynchus 4499: Mark of the Beast Recreation, Book of Revelation 13:18. It dates to the 3rd or 4th century AD. It is the ealiest know witness to sections of the Book of Revelation. The key important mark of the beast is 616, not 666 probably because Nero Caesar adds up to 616 in Latin. Bernard P. Grenfell and Arthur S. Hunt were sent for to explore Egypt, and in 1897 they discovered in tons of waste ancient papyrus from the ancient city of Oxyrhynchus. This city was the center of Egyptian Christianity in the 4th and 5th centuries.