How to Interpret Revelation's Numbers

Are they literal? Are they symbolic? Are they a mixture of the two?

On last week’s Tipping Point Show, I answered a question about the Millennium mentioned in Revelation 20. The questioner wanted to know if we should take the thousand years literally or if it could possibly be symbolic. This is a very common question and a good one. But it raises the larger question of how to interpret all the numbers in the Book of Revelation.

You don’t have to read the Book of Revelation very long to realize that it is filled with numbers, which Steve P. Sullivan, a biblical studies professor, makes clear in this essay:

“There are 174 cardinal numbers in the book of Revelation. In addition, there are 19 numbers which are fractions (e.g., 1/3) or cardinal numbers with fractions (e.g., 3 ½). Finally, there are 61 ordinal numbers which make a total of 254 numbers in the book.”

There are 404 verses in Revelation and 254 numbers. That’s more than one number for every two verses. The presence of so many numbers demands that we have some basic guidelines to understand their meaning. To get the numbers wrong is to misunderstand what John is writing.

As you can imagine, the presence of so many numbers has led to all kinds of interpretations. How are we to understand these numbers? Are they all literal? Are they all symbolic? Or are they a mixture of the two?