[1] Numerological values in the Bible often relate to a wider usage in the Ancient Near East.
"[4] The flood narrative was constructed in order to include the usage of commonly used numbers such as seven and forty.
There are repeated reference to events occurring in seven days (Gen. 7:4, 10; 8:10, 12) and seven pairs of clean animals (Gen. 7:2-3).
[13] The usage of forty years as a timespan (and as a shorthand for a generation) is common across a number of biblical texts.
For example, 1 Chronicles 5:30-36 lists twelve generations separating the Exodus from the construction of the Temple of Solomon.
Unsurprisingly, 1 Kings 6:1 directly dates the construction of Solomon's temple four hundred and eighty years after the Exodus.
Scholars have in turn concluded that this dating relies on the numerological representation of the length of a generation.
The Israelite's wandered in the wilderness for forty years before reaching the promised land.
The Books of Chronicles used large numbers for literary and creative purposes in order to convey meanings regarding relations between God and monarchs.
This text gives the number of men in the armies of seven Judean kings: Rehoboam, Abijah, Asa, Jehoshaphat, Amaziah, Uzziah, and Ahaz.
The army of Jehoshaphat consisted of five units, all of which had a number of men either approximating to the nearest hundred thousand or ended in 80,000 (e.g. 280,000 and 180,000).
Finally, the next king Ahaz, considered a dismal king in the Judean history recorded by Chronicles, suffers a loss of 120,000 soldiers to his army, and so the total number of men in the army once again reverts to Rehoboam's original 180,000.
The 400,000 man unit of Abijah may represent a reduction of 70,000 men said to have been lost due to the plague that hit the land of Israel (1 Chron.
Zerah the Ethiopian goes into battle with Asa with a million men (likely chosen because it was a large and round number).
[15] While not an army value, Chronicles also records 200,000 civilians from Judah being captured by the Israelites during the reign of Ahaz (2 Chron.
In Samuel, the number of men that Saul is said to command at one point reaches 330,000 (1 Sam.
This document appeals to The Book of Genesis[17] as mystically pointing to the name and self-oblation of the coming Messias.
Irenaeus[19] explains the number of the beast 666 (Apoc., xiii, 18) by adding the numerical value of each "Greek letter" in the names "Evanthas" (Ευανθας), "Lateinos" (Λατεινος), and "Teitan" (Τειταν).
The constituent of all the Greek letters yields the total: Irenaeus also discusses at length[20] the Gnostic numerical interpretation of the holy name "Jesus" as the equivalent of 888, and he claims that by writing the name in Hebrew characters an entirely different interpretation is necessitated.
St. Ambrose commenting upon the days of creation and the Sabbath remarks, The number seven is good, but we do not explain it after the doctrine of Pythagoras and the other philosophers, but rather according to the manifestation and division of the grace of the Spirit; for the prophet Isaias has enumerated the principal gifts of the Holy Spirit as seven Augustine of Hippo, replying to Tichonius the Donatist, observes that if Tichonius had said that these mystical rules open out some of the hidden recesses of the law, instead of saying that they reveal all the mysteries of the law, he would have spoken truth[21]Appealing to the Old Testament traditions that required two or three witnesses to establish a testimony, the two witnesses of Revelation represent the whole church in its specific role as witness.
[22] Three and a half years and its variants of 42 months and 1,260 days are employed throughout Revelation (Rev.
As Christopher Rowland notes, the beast has “most of the hallmarks of truth, and so it can easily deceive.”[24] The number 'seven' is widely used throughout Revelation, including in reference to the seven churches, seven bowls, seven seals, seven trumpets, seven thunders, Seven Spirits of God, seven stars, seven lampstands, seven eyes and horns of the Lamb of God, seven heads and diadems of the dragon, and seven heads of the beast in the Book of Revelation.
For example, the millennium (10 x 10 x 10 or the thousand-year reign of the returned Christ and the saints in Revelation 20:4) represents a total, uninterrupted period of rule that is characterized by the absence of satanic interference (cf.
21:16 represent an immense city that can house the total number (tens) of God's people (twelves).
Twelve is lengthened to 144,000 (12 x 12 x 1,000) in Revelation 7:4; 14:1,3, and indicates the complete number of God's Israel: the whole Christian community.
Fensham summarizes the trend; The numeral seventy occurs fifty-two times independently in the Old Testament.
The reference to the miraculous catch of 153 fish in John 21:11 is largely seen as an application of gematria derived from Ezekiel 47.
[35][36] The appearance of this gematria in John 21:11 has been connected to one of the Dead Sea Scrolls, namely 4Q252, which also applies the same gematria of 153 derived from Ezekiel 47 to state that Noah arrived at Mount Ararat on the 153rd day after the beginning of the flood.
[37] Many historians see gematria behind the reference to the number of the name of the beast in Revelation as "666", which corresponds to the numerical equivalent of the Greek characters behind the name "Nero Caesar", referring to the 1st century Roman emperor who persecuted the early Christians.
[38] On the other hand, another possible influence on the use of 666 in Revelation goes back to reference to Solomon's intake of 666 talents of gold in 1 Kings 10:14.