Reginald Rabett in his long out-of-print work LATEINOS: The Solution of St. John’s Enigma gives evidence that the number of the Beast of Revelation 13:18 could only be 666 according to the testimony of ancient codices and manuscripts, and he refutes the claims of the 17th century Archbishop Laud and the Oxford Tractarian Dr. Pusey that it was 616. After dealing with various suggested alternatives of Hebrew, Arabic, Greek and Roman names whose numerical equivalents of their letters total the required 666, Rabett [in his publication] shows how LATEINOS only can satisfy all the conditions for this “number of a man.” The famous learned Cardinal Bellarmine (1542-1621) objected to the interpretation LATEINOS (traceable to Irenaeus, student of Polycarp the pupil and friend of the Apostle John) on the grounds that the word was never found with the diphthong ei, but only as LATINOS or LATINUS. Rabett triumphantly provides an illustration from the Vatican Library itself—whose very keys were in the power of the Cardinal—plainly showing the diphthong he denied in LATEIΝΑ!
The second theme of Rabett’s book deals with the Beast having seven heads and ten horns of Revelation chapters 13 and 17. The author summarises his interpretations by a pictorial chart showing a tandem-like synthetic beast, upon which rides uncomfortably Pope Eugene IV representing the Woman οf Revelation 17 arrayed in scarlet and purple. Five heads are dead, the sixth is “wounded to death” yet “healed,” and the seventh is prominent in the final struggle of the Beast when it succumbs t the Lamb who is “King of Kings”. (The seven heads of the Beas of chapter 13 are considered to correspond to the seven kings οf chapter 17:10.) Two alternative interpretations are given by the author as to the seven heads, one delineating a succession of work empires, and the other showing (more correctly, in the main) successive phases of Roman government.
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Author: A. E. Jannaway
Keywords: 666, Six six six, Mark of the beast, Number of the beast, Beast's number, Number of man, Beast's mark
Bible reference(s): Revelation 13:18
Source: “Lateinos: The Solution of St. John’s Enigma,” The Testimony, Vol. 12, No. 133, January 1942, pp. 21-3.
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