9. Eight. — The significance of this number in the Apocalypse does not arise from its being a multi|)le of 4. It occurs twice in the ordinal form (17" 21-"). The former passage—' the 8th ' that is ' of the 7 '^ is interesting. Adopting the view that the person intended is Domitian, we see that the author or the final editor is governed by the idea that 7 — the number of the ' heads ' of the woman on the scarlet Beast (17') — ought to represent the number of genuine Roman Emperois,t who are allowed to maintain for a time a blasphemous rivalry to the King of kings. The 8th is a difficulty. The apoca- lyptist gets over the difficulty by thinking of him as Nero Redivivus. He is the 8th, yet still of the appointed 7, and he ' goeth to destruction.' This elongation of 7 so as to absorb 8 is not un- natural in a Jewish writer. One may compare the
• On this and tlie very similar system of Greek notation see especially art. ' Zahten ' and kindred articles in E. C. A. Riehm'a Haiidworterbuch de.l biblisrhen Aitertum-t, 1884.
t Ezk 116 LXX gives fidcrxos as in Rev 4'. The translators use ti6(r\o^ for no fewer than four Hebrew words : IS = * a bull,' np3 = 'cattle,' n^B'='an ox or cow' (the word in Ezk lio), ^:y = 'a calf ' (see Griram-Thayer, s. v.).
t Galba, Otho, and Vitellius are excluded, and the 10 horns are not Emperors but kinf:s, or kinf^Iets, who receive power for one hour along with the Beast (1712).
NUMBEKS
NUMBEKS
95
8th day of the Feast of TabernaL-Ies, which had come in practice to be the most important day, and is reco<;nized even in the rubrics wliich make it clear tliat the legal Feast ended on tlie 7th day (Lv SS**- *s).
10. Two and one.— Apart from association with other numbers (as in Q"* and 11°) and from the '2 woes more ' (9'-), 2 occurs only in 1 1^- *■ '", each time in connexion witli the '2 witnesses,' the unnamed Moses and Elijah (11*^) of chapter 11. The witnesses are, therefore. Law and Prophecy. The author seems to use the numeral to convey the idea that, though God's witnesses may be the least possible number (Nu 35™), their testimony will yet prevail to secure the destruction of blasphemers and mur- derers of the servants of God.
The numeral 1 occurs in a significant sense chiefly in the ' I hour,' signifying a very short time, which occurs five times (17'- 1S»- ">• "• »»).
Result.— Out survey of the Apocalypse would seem to show that, except in the cases of 7, 3 J, and 12, no consciousness of their being specially sacred underlies the usage of the writers in regard to numbers. The usage in reference to these numbers is, however, sufficient to show that the men of the Apostolic Age found nothing alien to their new faith in the mystic symbolism of numbers which they inherited from their Jewish ancestors and especially from the apocalyptic writers. From the fact, however, that this symbolism appears with definite intent only in one book of the NT, and even there but sparingly, we may fairly infer that no great currency was given to it in the Apostolic Church, and the apocalyptic books, other than the Apocalypse of John, which contain it, while un- doubtedly much read (see art. Apocalvpse), were not considered of supreme worth or authority. The authoritative writers might take over the symbol- ism to a certain extent, but they did so almost unconsciously. Those who went further and made much of it might be then, as in subsequent ages of the Churcli down to our own day, interesting and edifjing writers, but they did not rank with the authorities.
This state of the case may best be illustrated by a survey of the practice, in this reference, of the other NT writers.
11. ^'UJIBERS IN TEE OTHER NT BOOKS.— The examples given below are intended to represent cases in which theselection of the particular number or the mention of the particular number, presum- ably in accordance with fact, may reasonably be supposed to rest on ancient symbolical usage.
i. The Gospels. — 1. Seven. — The genealogies in Mt I'"'-, Lk 3^'^- are a clear instance of symmetrical arrangement on the basis of the number 7. To St. Matthew it seems important that the genealogy of Jesus from Abraham includes 3x14 generations (1'"). In the part of St. Luke's genealogy which is comparable with St. Matthew's neither names nor numbers agree ; but the list from Adam to Abraham gives, inclusive of Abraham, 21 names. The total, inclusive of the termini (God and Jesus) is 77. The phrases ' 7 other spirits worse than himself (Mt 12«"'- 1|), the '7 demons' that 'came out ' of Mary Magdalene (Lk &•'• \\), the ' 7 times ' and '70x7 times' of Mt IS-'^- show that the use of 7 to express a totality of good or evil (even though it might be, as in Mtl8-"^-, immeasurable) was not confined to the symbolists of the first Christian age.* There is no likelihood that either our Lord or the Evangelists thought of the planet-divinities of Babylon, or of the 7 Amshaspands of good spirits of Persia, opposed to 7 spirits of evil, yet the