P47 is from the third century and is the oldest manuscript
of the Book of Revelation. It contains parts of chapters 9-17.
We will consider its readings for numbers in Rev 13:18 and
neighboring verses in the next section.
Because, as listed above, the majority of the manuscripts
(mostly late Byzantine miniscule manuscripts) include the
representation of the number six hundred sixty-six by the three
letters (chi)(xi)(stigma), the text presented in another modern
(but non-standard) edition called not surprisingly THE GREEK NEW
TESTAMENT ACCORDING TO THE MAJORITY TEXT, does so also.[20] Note
that there is a major disagreement in presuppositions about the
value of various manuscripts and manuscript groups between the
editors of this edition and those of the standard editions.[21]
The so-called Textus Receptus which acted as the standard
from the 16th century (the actual term first being used in the
17th) until well into the 19th century when modern critical
editions started to displace it, was an evolution of early
printed editions of the Greek NT. Its printed text also used the
(chi)(xi)(stigma) notation. The main textual basis of this
edition was only a handful of fairly late manuscripts, a subset
of the majority text.
VI. Papyrus P47 in Detail on the Numbers of Rev 13:18
As mentioned above, P47 is the oldest extant manuscript
which contains part of the Book of Revelation. However, its
method of representing the number six hundred sixty-six (using
Greek alphabetic numerals) is not the one selected by the
"standard" critical text (which spells out the number words).
The textual apparatus of NA26 shows other variations of P47 from
the usual text, even in other places in Rev 13:18.
Although the use of a modern printed critical edition of the
Greek New Testament is within the ability of anyone who can read
the Koine Greek, the potential of looking at actual copies
(reproductions) of individual manuscripts is slight. Even many
theological libraries would not have the printed (published)
editions which would contain photographs of the desired
manuscript.
In this case we are lucky because Kurt and Barbara Aland in
their widely available textbook (pun-intended) THE TEXT OF THE
NEW TESTAMENT (in both the first and second English editions of
1987 and 1989) include a Plate 23 on page 90 which shows
Rev 13:16-14:4 of P47. (Note that the caption of this plate is
incorrect in that it attributes P47 to the the second century
whereas in other places in the book they give the usual third
century date).
As mentioned in the description of the Greek alphabetic
number system above, the usual way to signal that letters are
being used as numerals is by a horizontal line above the
letter-numbers. (A horizontal line can also mean something
else.)
On the ninth line down from the top of this fragment (all
line counts will exclude what might be counted as the first line
which seems to include only one character at the very top of the
plate) we can see the first horizontal line overscore. This is
indeed over the three letters (chi)(xi)(stigma) which represents
the six hundred sixty-six of Rev 13:18.
We need pictures of Plate 23 of P47 to support it.