Some Bible Numerals by George W. Draper

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Washington, D. C. · Jan 26, 1905

Some Bible Numerals

By George W. Draper

GEORGE W. DRAPER

The Bible employs many symbols. Especially is this true of the prophetical portions, and also the Levitical law, which from one point of view, was prophetical. No one takes the beasts and images of Daniel and Revelation to be other than symbolical.

But there is also in the Bible a symbolism of numbers. Less attention has been paid to these symbols, perhaps, than to others, but they are none the less a part of the revealed Word, and reveal to the earnest seeker most important views of divine truth. This should not seem strange to us if we consider that the visible universe, God’s first revelation, was constructed throughout upon mathematical principles, from the smallest atom in a chemical compound to the mightiest globe which wheels in space. Only a few of the symbolical numbers of the Bible can be considered in this article.

The most prominent numeral used in the Bible as a symbol is the number seven, which appears over and again in the types and shadows of the Levitical law, as well as in the prophecies of Daniel and the Revelation.

Seven is the symbol of earthly perfection. As the Creator rested on the seventh day from the work of creation, and pronounced everything that he had made perfect and good, so the number seven became the symbol of perfection or completeness. It is in this sense of completeness that the symbol is used in the Apocalypse, the seven churches, for instance, symbolizing the complete church of Christ from the beginning to the close of the Christian dispensation.

The days of the week are themselves types of those larger days of a thousand years each, which comprise the history of the world. “One day is with the Lord as a thousand years,” and after six thousand years of labor and suffering the earth will have rest from its turmoil and strife for a thousand years. This is in many ways foreshadowed in the types, of which the sabbatical year is a prominent example. “Six years thou shalt sow thy field, and six years shalt thou prune thy vineyard, and gather in the fruit thereof; but in the seventh year shall be a sabbath of rest unto the land, a sabbath for the Lord.” Lev. 25:3, 4.

As the number seven represented a perfect creation,—this world as it came from the hand of its Maker,—the number six represents this world marred by sin, imperfect, and hence the utmost limit of man’s efforts to attain perfection.

A most impressive use of this symbol occurs in Rev. 13:18. The “number of a man” is stated to be 666. Mathematicians will recognize in the form of this number a repeating decimal, which, if continued indefinitely, constantly approaches in value, but even if continued to infinity can never equal, the number seven. How fittingly this represents man’s futile efforts to attain righteousness or perfection of character by his own works. He invents innumerable observances, he multiplies prohibitions and requirements, he cuts off an indulgence here, he adds another requirement there, but his efforts are in vain. His number is 666, and though he continue to strive to all eternity, he can not make it equal seven. And what more appropriate symbol could be devised of that system of religion which more than any other has taught men to trust in their own works for salvation?

The critical reader will have noticed that seven was said to be the number of earthly perfection. It represents the perfection of this world before it was marred by Adam’s sin. But seven is not the number of the Christian. The number seven pertains to this world, and he is “not of this world.” He claims for the goal of his endeavors more than the perfection of the newly created Adam. He is a partaker of the divine nature (2 Peter 1:4), and when Christ shall appear, “shall be like him.” 1 John 3:2.

By the new birth we acquire a new standing before God, and though still in this world, are not a part of it. John 17:14, 16. We are dead to the world (Rom. 6:8; Col. 3:3; Gal. 6:14), and are a part of the new creation. 2 Cor. 5:17; Revelation 21. We begin our existence, it is true, out of due time, but we are as truly a part of the new creation as are any of the things mentioned in Revelation 21 and 22.

Now the number of the new creation is not seven, but eight. Seven is the number of the old creation, which closes its history with the thousand years of Revelation 20. The beginning of the eighth millennium ushers in the new creation, of which we are a part. Hence our symbolical number is not six, endlessly repeating itself in a vain endeavor to reach perfection; it is not seven, the number of earthly perfection, which Adam had, but lost; but it is eight, the number of the new creation, more glorious than the old.

The number eight appears prominently in the types as a symbol of the new creation. Thus, after seven sabbatical years there was to be a year of jubilee, when all land returned to the family of its original owner. Lev. 25:8-13. So, the seventh millennium ended, the eighth begins with the earth made new, which becomes the home of the redeemed.

Also in the tabernacle service, the yearly round of offerings having been completed in the seventh month, the eighth month began a new round of service. In all the various purifications required by the Levitical law, such as the cleansing of the leper and of men and women in all their natural, accidental, and ceremonial defilements, it was always upon the eighth day that they became clean. See Lev. 14:1-10, 23; 15:13-15, 28, 29; etc. The diligent student will find in the types other examples of this number used as a type of the new creation.

It is significant that while the number of the Antichrist, the “number of his name,” is 666, the numerical value of the Greek letters composing the name of Jesus is 888. One is the crowning effort of man to exalt himself and the value of human works; the other is the head of the new creation of God, which is aptly symbolized by “the number of his name.”