* E. Kautzsch denies the atfinity ui the case of the Babylonian and Greelt trinities on the ground that these trinities arise from a division of territory among 3 originally independent divinities (PRE^ xxi. (1908J 698 ff.).
its comparative infrenuency in the Apocalypse the more remarkable. Even where there is a clear indication of the Divine Trinity (Rev 1^) or of the 3-fold time-manifestation of the Creator-God (1*) the numeral is not named. The fraction of the numeral, and 3 as a fraction of 12, are of more frequent occurrence than the numeral itself.* Comparing this state of the case with the fre- quency of 7 and even of 12 (see below) in the A]iocalypse, we seem warranted in tioubting whether any kind of sacred significance necessarily attached to the number 3 even in the mind of the symbolists of the Bible.
2. SeYen.— Examples : 7 churches, spirits (1*- " 3'), stars (!■«■ ="), candlesticks (1"), lamps (4"), seals (5' S'), horns and eyes (5"), trumpets (8'-'), angels (8=), thunders (lO^''), heads (12'' 17^), angels with plagues (15'), vials full of the wrath of God (15'), kings (17'"). In view of this pervasiveness of the 7 one need hardly refer to the 7 'spirits of God' which invest Christ (3') or to the 7 ' heads of blasphemy' on the Beast that is Antichrist (13') in proof of the fact that 7 is pre-eminently the number of perfection or completeness whether on the side of good or evil. The cogency of proof is augmented by the signihcance undoubtedly at- tached to the numeral next mentioned.
3. Three and a half. — The actual numeral occurs only twice — ' 3 J days ' (IP- "). But in 12'-^ we have the ' time and times and half a time ' as in Dn r2',t and in IP'- 12" 13* the same period — 3-5 years- appears as 42 months, or (multiplying by 30) 1,260 days. The use of the number both in Daniel (see footnote) and the Apocalypse proves that by a convention, certainly older, probably much older, than the Book of Daniel, and one in all likelihood not peculiar to the Jews, the immber indicated a period of stress and tribulation that would be balanced by a period, of at least equal duration, of comfort and prosperity. If 7 represents the perfect work of God in mercy and judgment in relation to men (as well as the total work of creation) and, on the human side, the life of godliness with its twin ingredients of joy and soitow, the fraction 3J, fitly stands for the factor of tlie total that signifies God's broken covenant and man's broken hope (see Ps 90'*, and, for its equivalent in the nobler apos- tolic faith, Ro 8'", 2 Co 4'%
4. Twelve and its multiples. — However natural it may seem to think of the 12 signs of the Zodiac J as the basis of the usage which gives prominence to this number in the Bible, it may fairly be douVjted whether even such symbolists as the authors of Daniel and the Apocalypse ever had such a reference in their minds. Yet an indication of something of the kind has been found by Gunkel and otliers in the 24 elders of 4'', whose origin
* Rev 87-12 918, where the fraction occurs ei^ht times. Take these passages along with 161^ and 2113 where 3 as a fraction of 12 occurs Hve times, and compare with 6^ ylii glH IQVJ^ showing four instances of the independent use of the number.
t How entirely an apocalyptic symbolist might be governed by the idea of 3i or the number appropriate to a period of dis- ciplinary tribulation appears particularly in ' Daniel's' manipu- lation of the VO years of servitude in Babylon prophesied by Jeremiah (2511) iii Dn 9'^^-. The 70 years=70 weeks of years, and the 70 is divided into 7-f 02-M, in order that the one week of years may be halved so as to give 3^ years as the period of the tribulation under Antiochus.
J In his very instructive article ' Siebenzahl,' in PRE3 xviii. 310 ff., Zdckler quotes the passage (BJ V. v, 5) in which Josephus asserts that the 7 lamps of the sacred candlestick indicate the 7 planets, and the 12 loaves of shewbread the circle of the Zodiac. He argues conclusively that the use of 7 by the Babylonians is older than their astrology of the planets and rests on the division of the lunar month into 4 periods of 7 corresponding to the 4 phases of the moon. Josephus' casual theories he char- acterizes as ' shallow interpretations,* which are to be repudiated as ' idle P/ta?U«6i>/^ro(f7fA:(e, without historical foundation." Yet these str.ay remarks of the Jewish historian are interesting as an indication that the questions of modern anthropology in relation to religion could arise even in a mind of the first Christian century.
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might be a primitive astronomical conception, pre- sumably Babvloiiiiin, uciordin;? to which the sun was surrounifed by a circle of light each half of which contained i'2 luminaries. Apart from the likelihood that any such association would have seemed to the prophet of the Apocalypse so much sanction given to idolatry, we have surely a liint of the true origin of the 24, so far as he is con- cerned, in 15', where the victors over the Beast and his image sing ' the song of Moses the servant of God and the song of the Lamb.' These victors an<l redeemed ones are those wlio are true to the religion of both the covenants. A symbolist would naturally reckon their representatives in the im- mediate presence of God as 12-H12, i.e., the 12 patriarchs or heads of the 12 tribes of Israel, and the 12 apostles or heads of the Church. He expres.ses the same idea when he writes of 12 gates with the names of the ' 12 tribes of the children of Israel,' and of 12 foundations of the wall in which were ' the names of the 12 apostles of the Lamb' (21'- '•■).