Before we go any further in Revelation, we need to look at John's use of numbers and what they might symbolise.
Seven
What's with all the sevens? We've already come across the number seven a lot considering we're only five chapters into the book of Revelation. John seems obsessed.
- Seven churches (1:4, 11, 20)
- Seven spirits (1:4; 4:5, 5:6)
- Seven golden lampstands (1:12, 20; 2:1; 3:1)
- Seven stars (1:16, 20; 2:1; 3:1)
- Seven lamps (4:5)
- Seven seals (5:1, 5)
- Seven horns (5:6)
- Seven eyes (5:6)
And we have even more coming up:
- Seven seals / seventh seal (6:1; 8:1)
- Seven angels / seventh angel (8:2, 6; 10:7; 11:15; 15:1, 6, 7, 8; 16:1, 17; 17:1; 21:19)
- Seven trumpets (8:2, 6)
- Seven thunders (10:3, 4)
- Seven heads (12:3; 13:1; 17:3, 7, 9)
- Seven crowns (12:3)
- Seven plagues (15:1, 6, 8; 21:9)
- Seven golden bowls (15:7; 16:1; 17:1; 21:9)
- Seven hills (17:9)
- Seven kings (17:10, 11)
The number seven carries symbolic meaning within John's letter. Ted Grimsrud says it signifies "wholeness" or "fullness" (To Follow the Lamb, p.29 and p.72 respectively), while Jamie Davies talks about how it speaks of "totality or completeness" (Reading Revelation, p.35).
Occasionally, I come across comments (especially on the internet) that say seven is the "perfect" number or the number of "perfection" (especially divine perfection). This is never the point John is making. Perfection was a concept from Greek philosophy rather than a Jewish idea about God or his creation. We see this when God considers creation "very good," not perfect (Gen. 1:31).
John's obsession with seven goes way beyond the obvious. "Christ" appears seven times in Revelation (1:1, 2, 5; 11:15; 12:10; 20:4, 6), so too does hypomonē the Greek word for "(nonviolent) resistance" (see 1:9; 2:2, 3, 19; 3:10; 13:10; 14:12). Overall, 30 words appear exactly seven times. Now, some of these are undoubtedly statistical coincidences rather than author intention, so reading too much into each of these 30 words is probably unwise.
The question is, why does John do this?
I'm holding off on answering this question until the end of this article because John's reasoning becomes clearer as we look at more examples.