William Ting

Revelation - the symbolic language
Today, we completed chapter 32 of Disciple Bible study. This chapter covers the book of Revelation. I must say that this lesson gave a good commentary of the symbols used in Revelation. To understand Revelation, we need to understand the period where Nero, Domitian, etc, ruled Rome. That was about AD 64-96. The interpretations of some of the symbols used in Revelation are as follows:
Babylon - really means Rome, the great city set on seven hills (18:2);
The great whore - again Rome;
The Lamb - Jesus;
The beast - the antichrist;
Sodom - Jerusalem (11:8; see Isaiah 1:9-10);
The woman (Israel), The child (Jesus), and the dragon (Satan)(Rev 12);
The scarlet beast - the Roman Empire (17:3);
"Full of blasphemous names" (17:3;13:1) - divine titles given to Roman emperors (17:9-11);
Harmagedon (Armageddon) - hill of Megiddo in Palestine where important battles had been fought for thousands of years, symbolically the place of final victory (16:16).
In ancient numerology, numbers had meanings:
Number 1 stood for God, a holy number.
Number 3 stood for heaven and the Trinity
Number 4 stood for earth, the four corners, four winds.
Number 6 is a human number, incomplete, evil
Number 7 was considered perfect, complete, holy, divine because it was the combination of 3 (heaven) and 4 (earth).
Seven churches, seven candlesticks, seven bowls (as in the Temple), seven trumpets.
Number 13 has been "unlucky" because it is a sume of 6 and 7.
Number 12 is very important in Revelation. The 12 tribes of Israel in OT and 12 apostles in the NT refer to the people of God. The 12 tribes provided the gates into the holy city.
Number 24 is 2x12, the 12 sons of Jacob (tribes) and the 12 apostles. Together they comprise the faithful Jews and Christians of the full covenant.
12,000x12 =144,000, a complete number, not to be taken literally, but to describe a "perfected people of God," the complete household of faith.
The number 666; How would you mention the emperor Domitian without getting your head cut off? You could write 666, which means evil, evil, evil, symbolising Domitian - the greatest evil.
I found a good source of commentary on the internet for the book of Revelation. Click here.