Math Nerds Rock

I’m married to a math nerd. He loves the stuff and, when we used phone numbers and sent letters, he remembered all the numbers and addresses of all our friends—over 100! Believe it or not, his come-on line to me was to ask if I could prove there are an infinite number of prime numbers. For him, killer sudoku is child’s play.

And, you know, the tendency is hereditary. I asked my husband how he remembers addresses, and he said he makes mathematical formulae out of them. To my shock, my three birth children chipped in that they do that for houses we pass on the street. I have never experienced the temptation to do that. Never.

A Bible Math Nerd

Imagine my surprise, then, on my recent trip to see the cities mentioned in Revelation, to hear one of our leaders, Rev. Dr. Ian Paul, another math nerd, say that St. John loved numbers. He was a math nerd, too! There were seven assemblies in seven towns, seven spirits, seven lampstands, seven seals, trumpets, and bowls. Seven was considered the complete number. In his commentary on Revelation, Paul points out that this may be because there are seven days of the week, seven seas, and seven known planets.

But ‘seven’ doesn’t stop there. The 144,000 saints have seven characteristics, there are seven visions in chapters 19-21, and there are seven blessings. St. John even uses certain important words seven times: Christ, sign, cloud, and more. For a complete list, check page 35 of his commentary.

There, Paul writes about many more ways in which the message of Revelation is told through numbers. Apparently, St. John was into geometry: triangles, squares, and rectangles. For example, since the Holy of Holies was cubic, St. John uses cubic numbers, such as 144 and 1,000, to indicate the saints. In comparison, 666, a triangular number, is used to designate the antichrist. If one uses the numerical values of Nero’s name, the result is the same: 666.

Of course, to get a grip on Revelation, one does not just need to be a math nerd (or know one). It’s also essential to understand the cultural context and have a good grasp of the Old Testament. Or…just read Rev. Dr. Paul’s commentary!