Who are the 144,000?

Who are the 144,000?

Who are the 144,00 of Revelation chapter seven? Well, when all else fails, what does the text say about them?

And I heard the number of those who were sealed, one hundred and forty-four thousand sealed from every tribe of the sons of Israel: from the tribe of Judah, twelve thousand were sealed, from the tribe of Reuben twelve thousand, from the tribe of Gad twelve thousand, from the tribe of Asher twelve thousand, from the tribe of Naphtali twelve thousand, from the tribe of Manasseh twelve thousand, from the tribe of Simeon twelve thousand, from the tribe of Levi twelve thousand, from the tribe of Issachar twelve thousand, from the tribe of Zebulun twelve thousand, from the tribe of Joseph twelve thousand, from the tribe of Benjamin, twelve thousand were sealed. Rev 7:4-8

These verses indicate that these individuals are from the tribes of Israel. However, many conflate the 144, 000 with the church. An article at B & H Academic (no longer available) once presented some arguments used against identifying the 144,000 as literal members of Israel. Regarding whether the identity of the 144, 000 is symbolic and can refer to people other than Jews, the writers claimed,

The resolution of this question is important because it potentially sheds light on whether the church should be expected to be present during and go through the Great Tribulation (the posttribulational view) or whether believers have been raptured at the beginning of the Great Tribulation while God’s purposes during this time period focus on Israel (the pre-tribulational rapture position).

What about other premillennialists?

In fact many modern premil posttrib and prewrath advocates also draw a distinction between the 144,000 and the Great Multitude which is comprised of saved Gentiles.

In his book The Blessed Hope (p 45), Ladd cites posttribulationist Nathaniel West. West believed the 144,000 to be the “Israelitish Church.” He taught that this group is the fulfillment of the promises of Romans 11 – the salvation of literal Israel. Note this: Their salvation occurs at the start of the 70th week as a result of the missionary work of the Two Witnesses. They are sealed so that they can take the place of the church. This may come as a surprise to posttribulationists and prewrathers who like to cite West for his strong stance against pretribulationism. Hence the idea that the 144,000 are connected to evangelism isn’t simply a pretribulational fabrication.

The writers appeal to John 5:5- 6 where he hears about the Lion of Judah, yet sees the Lamb who was slain. They then suggest that “John hears the symbolic number of 144,000 but sees an innumerable multitude from many nations.”

John’s references to the Lion of Judah and the Lamb who was slain are legitimate descriptions of one person, Jesus Christ. But this isn’t what we find in Revelation 7. The 144,000 are described as representing the tribes of Israel. The other group is specifically said to come from a multitude no one can number and from all nations, tribes, peoples and tongues. The first group and the second group are described in the text as being different entities.

Are all numbers in Revelation to be taken symbolically? Are numbers signifying completeness not to be taken literally? Read Tony Garland’s The Symbolic Meaning of Numbers.

The 144,000 are called doulos, a term more often used of Christians. It suggests to me that they may also be evangelists like John (Rev 1:1). A majority use of the word doesn’t support the argument that the 144,000 should be understood as another way to express the great multitude. The term doulos fits both groups, while maintaining a distinction.

Finally, we’re told that the listing of the tribes in Rev 7 is peculiar and therefore suggests the 144,000 are a symbolic expression. George Ladd took this view:

These twelve tribes cannot be literal Israel, because they are not the twelve tribes of OT Israel. The list here appears nowhere else in the Bible. It has three irregularities: it names Judah first, thus ignoring the OT order of the tribes; it omits Dan with no explanation (see Eze. 48:1); it mentions Joseph instead of Ephraim. Perhaps John meant by this irregular listing of the twelve tribes to designate the Israel that is not the literal Israel. . . . The twelve tribes were irregularly listed to show that true Israel is not literal Israel, but the Church.

Tony Garland responds to Ladd and cites some sources:

The irregularities which Ladd sees as so significant are found in other listings of the tribes. Concerning the omission of tribes, we could cite the omission of Dan from the extensive tribal genealogies of 1 Chronicles 2:10. “In the enumerations of the tribes throughout Scripture, of which there are about eighteen, the full representative number twelve is always given, but as Jacob had thirteen sons [counting the two sons of Joseph instead of the father as Jacob’s] one or other is always omitted.”

This rotation and omission of tribal names is not unusual, as Ladd would have us believe, but is typical. “It should be noted that there is no standard way of listing the twelve tribes. There are at least nineteen different ways of listing them in the Old Testament, none of which agree with the list given here.”

A careful examination of the dozen places in the Bible where all the twelve tribes are mentioned will reveal some very beautiful truths. Jacob had twelve sons who were the fathers of the twelve tribes. Joseph and two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh, whose names later were added to the list of the tribes. This gives us fourteen names out of which twelve are selected, but not always the same twelve, in presenting the truths concerning Israel. Levi, the priestly tribe, had no military duties to perform and was not given a portion of the land when the tribes entered Palestine. The portion of Levi was to be the Lord Himself (Deu. 18:1-2; Jos. 13:14). In order to fill His place both in military affairs and in the land, a new tribe had to be found so Joseph was replaced by his two sons. Leaving out the name of Levi and that of Joseph, twelve names remained.

Read the entire chapter 7 commentary HERE

The Expanded Table of Contents of A Testimony of Jesus Christ (Revelation)

I noted the following in a previous article:

While commenting on Zechariah, Puritan T. V. Moore wrote that the prophet accommodated his language “to the understanding of his own times in order to express New Testament truths.” In other words, Moore inserted Zechariah’s Israel into the NT church. Another writer admitted that the closing chapters of Zechariah, involving events yet to be accomplished, “are notoriously difficult.”

The only difficulty arises when one attempts to insert the church into national Israel. David Baron had no difficulty reconciling the last chapters of Zechariah in his commentary. While it’s true that prophetic Scripture often uses symbolism, it doesn’t follow that we should always re-interpret or allegorize whenever it disagrees with our presuppositions. Hence, regarding the identity of the 144,000, we suggest that the text speak for itself.

Please note: Aside from objections to its stance on Replacement Theology, B & H Academics has some fine books and articles on its website.

Further reading:

A Great Multitude of Rapture Musings

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