Numbers

The word “number” (Greek, arithmos) occurs ten times in Revelation, and the word occurs in climactic sections of the major sections of the book.

It occurs first in 5:11, describing the “number” of the angels who join in worship, at the climax of the rippling expansion of praise from heaven when the Lamb ascends and takes the book. Both the sixth seal and the sixth trumpet use the word: The sixth seal reveals the “number” of the sealed saints (7:4), while the sixth trumpet reveals a cavalry of two hundred million horsemen (7:16).

The word occurs four times in 13:17-18 where the number of the beast is revealed to be 666. This comes at the climax of a series of attacks on the saints – first by the dragon, then by beasts, and finally by the image of the beast. Finally, the word appears in 20:8 with reference to the “number” of the armies of Gog and Magog that assembly for war.

There are other numbers in Revelation, but the position of the uses of the word “number” are significant. A revelation of a “number” has an eschatological significance. Whatever sequence we are looking at – whether it’s the sequence of the Lamb’s ascent, or the sequence of seals, or the sequence of trumpets, or the final aftermath of the millennium – we can expect a reference to a number at the climax of the sequence.