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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comFausset Bible Dictionary: Number
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After the captivity the Hebrew used the alphabet letters for numbers, 'Aleph ( × ) equalling 1; Bet[h] ( ב ) equalling 2, etc.; Yod[h] ( ×™ ) equalling 10; Qoph ( ק ) equalling 100, etc. The final letters expressed 500 to 900; 'Aleph ( × ) + a line over it equalling 1000. Our manuscripts all write numbers at full length. But the variations make it likely that letters (which copyists could so easily mistake) originally were written for numbers: compare with ; , where 65 is in one reading, 16 and 5 in another. has 50,070, but Syriac and Arabic 5070 ( with ). Numbers also have often a symbolical rather than a mere arithmetical value. But straining is to be avoided, and subtle trifling. The author's sense, history, the context, and the general analogy of the Scripture scheme as a whole are to be examined, in order to decide whether a figure is employed in a merely ordinary sense, or in an ordinary and symbolical, or in an exclusively symbolical sense.
Zechariah and Daniel dwell upon seven; Daniel and Revelation use several numbers to "characterize periods", rather than indicate arithmetical duration. Science reveals in crystallization and chemical combinations what an important part number plays in the proportion of combining molecules of organic and inorganic life.
Two notes "intensification" (), "requital in full" (; ; ; ); the proportions of the temple were double those of the tabernacle; two especially symbolizes "testimony" (; ; ; ), two tables of the testimony (), two cherubim over the ark of the testimony. God is His own witness; but that witness is twofold, "His word and His oath" (; ), "Himself and His Son" ().
Three, like seven, is "a divine number". The Trinity (; ); three great feasts (-17; ); the threefold blessing (; ); the thrice holy (); the three hours of prayer (; ); the third heaven (). Christ is "the Way, the Truth, the Life," "Prophet, Priest, and King." The threefold theophany (; ; ; ; ).
The number 3 1/2, one-half of 7, is "a period of evil cut short", shortened for the elect's sake (; , three years' and a half drought in Israel; ; -3; ; ). ; , time, times, and a half, 1,260 days, three days and a half. The 42 months (30 days in each) answer to the 1,260 days; three years and a half equals 1,260 days (360 in each year). Probably the 1,260 years of the papal rule date from A.D. 754, when his temporal power began, and end 2014. (See ANTICHRIST.)
At the close of spurious Christianity's long rule open antichristianity and persecution will prevail for the three years and a half before the millennium. Witnessing churches will be followed by witnessing individuals, even as the apostate church will give place to the personal man of sin (; -3). The 2,300 () years may date from Alexander's conquests (323 B.C.), and end about the same time as the 1,260, namely, 1977. The 1,290 (-12) and 1,335 days correspond to 1290, during which Antiochus Epiphanes profaned the temple, from the month Ijar, 145th year of the era of the Seleucidae, to Judas Maccabeus' restoration of worship, the 25th day of the ninth month Chisleu, 148th year (; -56); in 45 days more Antiochus died, ending the Jews' calamities; in all 1,335. Again, 1,260, 1,290 and 1,335 may be counted from Mahomet's retirement to the cave, A.D. 606-610, and his flight from Mecca, 622: these figures added may mark the closing epochs of Mahometan power.
Again, the 2,300 may be the years between 480 B.C., the time of Xerxes' invasion of Greece (), and A.D. 1820, when Ali Pasha cast off the yoke of the Porte and precipitated the Greek revolution. Thirdly, the 2,300 may date from Antichrist's profanation (). After the 1,260 days Jesus in person will deliver the Jews; during the 30 more their consciences are awakened to penitent faith, making 1,290; in 45 more Israel's outcasts are gathered, and the united blessing descends. These all are conjectures. Evidently these numbers symbolize the long "Gentile times" from the overthrow of Judah's kingdom by Babylon, and of Jerusalem by Titus, down to the restoration of the theocracy in Him "whose right it is" (). The seven times of Israel's punishment (; -24) are the times of the Gentile monarchies; the seven times of antichrist's tyranny in the Holy Land will be the recapitulation and open consummation of what is as yet "the mystery of iniquity."
The three and a half during which the two witnesses prophesy in sackcloth is the sacred seven halved, for the antichristian world powers' time is broken at best, and is followed immediately by judgment on them. It answers to the three years and a half of Christ's witness for the truth, when the Jews disowned and the God-opposed world power crucified Him (). He died in the midst of the last of the 70 weeks; the three and a half which seemed the world's triumph over Him was immediately followed by their defeat in His resurrection (). The world powers never reach the sacred fullness of seven times 360, i.e. 2,520, though they approach it in the 2,300 (). The 42 months answer to Israel's 42 sojournings in the desert (-50), contrasted with the sabbatic rest of Canaan. Three and a half represents "the church's time of toil, pilgrimage, persecution". Three and a half is "the antagonism to seven".
Four symbolizes "worldwide extension". The four winds and quarters of the earth (; ). The four living creatures or cherubim with four wings and four faces (, etc.; , in contrast to the four beasts, Daniel 7; the four kingdoms); Eden's four streams (; ). Four expresses "the spread of God's kingdom over the earth". As Christ's seamless vest marks its unity, so the rending of the outer garment into four by the four Roman soldiers symbolizes its ultimate worldwide extension (-24). The numbers especially symbolical are 3, 4, 7, 10, 12, 40; 6 is so because coming short of the "sacred" 7, 8 as coming after 7 and introducing "a new series or era".
Three and a half is seven broken in two. The Bible begins with seven days, and ends with a succession of sevens. Seven represents "rest and release from toil", also "a divine work", in judgment or mercy or revelation (; ; ; ; ). , "I will punish you seven times more for your sins," -24; ; ; ; . ; , "seven times shall pass over thee" (Nebuchadnezzar). , "the seven last plagues." "divine fullness and completeness" is the thing signified; as , "the seven spirits ... before His throne" are "the one Holy Spirit in His manifold fullness"; -3 corresponds.
So in offerings and divine rites: ; ; ; ; -26; ; ; ; ; -8; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; . The seven days' grace (-10); and at the taking of Jericho (-6:20); the antitype, spiritual Babylon, shall fall at the sounding of the seventh trumpet (; ; ). The sevenfold candlestick (), the seven churches corresponding (; ), the seven deacons (Acts 6), the sevenfold ministry (Romans 12; 1 Corinthians 12). Seven prayers are given in full in the Old Testament. (See PRAYER.) Seven petitions of the Lord's prayer in the New Testament. The seven beatitudes (Matthew 5; ). Satan mimics the "divine" seven (; ): Mary Magdalene's seven devils (; ); the unclean spirit returning with seven (); the seven Canaanite nations subdued by Israel (; ); the dragon with seven heads and seven crowns (; ).
Eight begins a new era and life after the seven has been completed (; ; ). Lepers are reinstated on the eighth day (; ; ). Circumcision on the eighth day begins a new life in the covenant. The eighth day after the seven of the feast of tabernacles (). From the eighth day, when the firstfruit sheaf was waved, the seven sevens were counted; and on the 50th day or "Pentecost" (the eighth day after seven) a new era began (; -16; ). -9, type of the eternal sabbath, the new era of a regenerated world (; ; ); the Lord's day, the eighth after the seventh, ushers in the new Christian era. The eight saved souls left the ark on the eighth day, after the last seven of anxious waiting, the representative heads of regenerated mankind. Of man in his fallen state Ecclesiastes () writes, "that which is crooked cannot be made straight," but what is "impossible with man is possible with God" (); at Messiah's coming "the crooked shall be made straight" (); "that which is wanting (compare ) cannot be numbered," i.e. what is wholly wanting, man's state, cannot be numbered, but believers are "complete in Christ" ().
Ten represents "perfected universality". The "thousand" years () is ten raised to the third power, i.e. the "world" (10) pervaded by the "divine" (3). The Ten Commandments contain the whole cycle of God's moral requirements. The tithe represented the whole property as belonging to God (). Genesis has the formula ten times, "these are the generations" (; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ). The Ten Commandments of the Decalogue logically follow; God's fingers wrote it. Our fingers are ten (; ). The ten plagues were the entire round of judgments from God's hand. The tabernacle, temple, and New Jerusalem have ten as the prevailing figure in measurements.
In the New Testament, the ten lepers, ten talents, ten cities in reward for ten pounds gained, ten virgins. Antichrist too has his ten, comprising the whole cycle of the world power: ten nations opposed to Abraham's seed (); ten toes on Nebuchadnezzar's image to be stricken by the stone (); ten horns on the fourth beast (; ; ; ; ; ; ; , "ten kings"); ten days of Smyrna's tribulation, the complete term of the world power's persecution of the church (). In combination with 7, 10 appears in the 70 nations (Genesis 10), the 70 who went down to Egypt (), the 70 palms at Elim, the 70 elders of Israel (; ), the 70 disciples, the 70 years' captivity (). Daniel's 70 sevens, weeks (). Seventy-fold (; ).
As 3 1/2 is related to 7, so five is related to 10; 5 is "the penal number" (; ; ); the fifth kingdom punishes with destruction the four world kingdoms (Daniel 2). Twelve is "the church number". The 12 tribes; 12 Elim wells; 12 stones in the high priest's breast-plate; 12 shewbread loaves; 12 patriarchs; 12 apostles; 12 foundation stones; 12 gates; 12,000 furlongs of New Jerusalem; 12 angels (-21; ). Twelve squared and multiplied by 1,000, the symbol of the world divinely perfected, gives 144,000, the sealed Israelites (). The 24 elders are the 12 heads of the Old Testament and the 12 of the New Testament churches combined, "elders" is the term for ministers; the 24 courses of priests anticipate the final combination of the two, Jews and Gentiles, made one new man in Christ (). Seven times twelve is connected with the Lamb's bride.
Six is to twelve as three and a half to seven. Six symbolizes" the world given over to judgment". The judgments on the world are complete in six; by the fulfillment of seven the world kingdoms become Christ's. Hence there is a pause between the sixth and seventh seals, the sixth and seventh trumpets. As 12 is the church's number, so six (its half) symbolizes the world kingdom broken. Six, "the world number", is next to the "sacred" seven which it mimics () but can never reach. The raising of the six from units to tens, and from tens to hundreds (666), indicates that the beast, notwithstanding his progression to higher powers, can only rise to greater ripeness for judgment. Thus, 666, the number of the beast (), the judged world power, contrasts with the 144,000 sealed and transfigured ones. (See ANTICHRIST.)
Forty symbolizes probation, punishment, chastisement, and humiliation. The 40 days' rain of the flood (; ; ); Moses' 40 years in Egypt, and 40 in Midian. Times of temptation and trial: 40 days on the mountain (); a second 40 after Israel's sin of the calf (; ); 40 years in the desert wanderings (), the penal issue of the 40 days' probation in searching Canaan (; ; also );40 days and nights of Elijah (); Jonah's 40 days' warning to Nineveh (); 40 days of Christ's temptation (). Also a time of probation by tranquil prosperity (; ; ). Ezekiel (-6) lay on his right side 40 days a day for a year, which with the 390 on his left side makes the 430 of Israel's sojourn in Egypt (-41; ). God will bring them back to a bondage as bad as that in Egypt, but shortened by the 40 years' sojourn in the desert for discipline. Also -12.