John Reid.
NUMBER OF THE BEAST.— See Apocalypse.
NUMBERS. — Introduction. — Even a casual reader of the Bible is struck with the fact that in many cases — not altogether exclusive of those in which the desire to state facts accurately may be presumed — a preference is given to certain numbers. He will observe particularly the frequency of the numbers 3, 7, 10, and 12, together with their multiples and even their fractions. In regard to 7, the ritual arrangements found in the Pentateuch would alone warrant the conclusion that this number was regarded as in some sense sacred. If we read that ' God blessed the 7th day and sancti- fied it' (Gn 2'), and find that peculiar religious observances or customs with a religious basis attach, not only to the 7th day, but to the 7th month, the 7th year, and the 7x7th year,* we seem warranted in saying that, among the people of the Bible, 7 represents a mystic cycle of work and rest, witliin which God both accomplishes His purpose in the universe and co-operates with sanctified men. From the starting-point of such a preliminary observation, however, many, questions arise, of which the principal are the following. (1) How far is the sanctity of particular numbers peculiar to the people of the Bible ? Is its basis, so far as it may be traceable, to be found in nature or in religious theory or custom ? If the latter, is the theory or custom borrowed from, or maintained in common with, other peoples (Babylonians, Egyptians, Persians) with whom the Jews came into contact? (2) For what other numbers besides those named may a more or less similar prominence be claimed? (3) How far is the usage as to numbers, which is found in the OT or kindred Jewish literature, found also in the NT? The present article must be concerned with (1) and (2) only in so far as the answer to them is involved in the answer to (3). There can hardly be, even in
* Lv 232* 263". 8.
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connexion with the Apocalypse of John, any iilea of the NT writers borrowing directly from IJabj-- lonians, Ej;yptians, Persians, or, even in tliis refer- ence, from Greeks or Romans. If such foreign intiuences are found in tlie NT, tliey have come tlirough the medium of the OT or kiiulred Jewisli writings. Tlie Ajiostolic Age is cosmopolitan in spirit, yet tlie ancestry wliich it owns is strictly Jewish. Among its writers are masters of Greek style like St. Luke and the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews, yet all the writers are men whose Bible was the OT.
It is, however, the cosmopolitanism of the first Christian age and not its Jewish origin that lends interest to its practice as regards the symbolism of numbers. The degree in which this symbolism has passed into the age that begins with our Lord and His apostles otters an obvious standard for measuring its worth.
Before proceeding to particulars, a general state- ment may be oHered of the position of matters which they seem to indicate : the NT practice stands to tliat of the OT as the latter does to its basis in Babylon, Egypt, or Persia, except for what disturbance of tlie proportion may arise from the fact that a degree of affinity, both racial and re- ligious, exists between the people of the OT and that of the NT such as does not obtain between the Jews and the heathen neighbours or masters who most influenced them. The practice of em- ployinq a particular number, where it is, by pre- sumption, at least approximately correct, or of choosing it, where the question of accuracy as to matter of fact does not arise, is taken over ; but, except — and even here the exception is partial — in a book like the Apocalypse of John, tiie practice is unconscious. It may be true, e.g., that when a thoughtful mystic of the Apostolic Age used the number 3, he involuntarily thought of the Divine Being or Trinity ; it may be probable that when he used the number 4, he thought of the 4 direc- tions and, therefore, of the world. But to say that 3 was to the average Christian the number for God, or 4 the number for the world, or that even one in a hundred Christians thought, in connexion with 3, of Babylonian or Egyptian triad-divinities * or of the alleged fact that every Babylonian divinitj' had its appropriate number, is to say what cannot be proved and is highly improbable.
I. The numbers employed in the Apoca- lypse OF John. — 1. Three. — The natural import- ance of this number is obvious. It is the lowest number to express several, or to denote something that has a beginning, middle, and end. It is the common number of a small deputation. It is the number of the possible dimensions of space, of the natural divisions of the physical cosmos (heaven, earth, and sea), of the day (morning, noon, and evening), of time generally (past, present, and future), and of the human person (body, soul, and spirit).
It is a usual number to express the frequency that makes an action etl'ective, and is a common number of members in a rhythmical sentence, or in a list of adjectives. Such uses are abundantly illustrated in the Bible as in other literature. The number is, moreover, of undoubted frequency in religious connexions : 3-fold invocation (Jer 22-', Is 6^), blessing (Nu 6'--"f-) ; 3 great Feasts (Ex 23'-">'-) ; 3 days, months, or years of waiting and preparation for an important event or action (Gn 40'-, Ex 2^, Gal 1") ; 3 times of prayer or repetitions of the same prayer (Dn B'"- ", Mt 26" ||, 2 Co 128). This prominence of 3 in other parts of the Bible makes