Numerology in Revelation

The first way numbers appear in Revelation is the obvious: when they appear within the text.

Seven is the number of completion in scripture: the number of Shabbat, the days in the week, seven seas and seven known planets. In Revelation, seven is used often to signify this completeness.

But the second way numbers appear is in multiplication. For example, seven also appears in the 144,000 of Revelation 14:4-5, and some other multiplications of seven. We see the use of numbers through shapes, like square, cubic, triangular, and rectangular numbers. Square numbers may point to the Hebrew altars of the Old Testament, which were square/cubic in shape, whereas pagan altars are normally rectangular. 144 is a square number and 1,000 is a cubic number. 666, the number of the beast, is a triangular number “to designate the opponent of God.” (pg. 36) Revelation also uses triangular numbers to “designate that period of time when God’s people are oppressed by their opponents and yet enjoy the protection of God—the forty-two months equal 1,260 days of Revelation 11:2, 3; 12:6 (42 is the sixth rectangle, equally 6 X 7, and 1,260 is 35 X 36)….” (Ian Paul, Revelation: Introduction and Commentary, pg. 37)

Third, we see numbers hidden in the structure of Revelation. There are “seven unnumbered visions from 19:11 to 21:1…There are seven blessings, seven ‘sickles’ in Revelation 14, seven times God is titles ‘Lord God Almighty’, seven occurrences of ‘Christ’, ‘testimony of Jesus’, ‘prophecy’, ‘I am coming’, ‘sign’, ‘endurance’ and ‘cloud’, and seven mentions of the elders and living creatures together. Jesus, the Spirit and the saints are all mentioned fourteen times, significant as 7 X 2, where two is the number of reliable witness according to Deuteronomy 17:6, so all three are connected with ‘faithful witness’.” (pg. 35)

In the ancient world, there was no separate number system and letters were used for numbers. So the next way we see numbers used in Revelation is “to calculate the numerical value of words and names by adding up the values of their letters…” This can be called an isopsephism (“same calculation”) or gematria (The Hebrew word for geometry). These are not unique to Revelation and there are other examples of this in the ancient Greek world. In Revelation, John uses isopsephism and gematria to “identify the beast with Nero, and to associate the New Jerusalem with angels.” (pg. 38) This use of numbers is not fanciful or speculative, but easily observable and a phenomenon found in the culture at the time. In other words, it is not finding connections that aren’t there but looking at things evident in the text that the author clearly intended.

List of Symbolic Numbers

2	Reliable witness	144,000	1,000 multiplied by 12 by 12: All God's people
3	Divinity or false divinity	666	Opponent of God
4	The cosmos; universality in creation	1,260	forty-two months; 42 is the sixth rectangle, equally 6 X 7, and 1,260 is 35 X 36
5		1/3, 1/2	Limited time
6	Signifies incompleteness, and takes on a sinister tone in Revelation	3 1/2	half of fullness (7); limited time
7	Completeness
10
12	God’s people, or at least leaders of God’s people: The 12 spies, the twelve sons of Jacob, the twelve tribes of Israel, the 12 apostles
40	wilderness, but can be a number that signifies God working in some specific way like testing, or judgement: Noah (forty days and forty nights), Israel’s wandering in the wilderness, Moses on the mountain 40 days and forty nights, Elijah walked 40 days and 40 nights to Mount Sinai, Jesus in the wilderness,
1,000	a multitude, or just a very large number