What do you think?
Rate this book
Number in Scripture
A perennial bestseller and the definitive guide to the study of Bible numerics. Over 150,000 in print!
Bullinger's two-fold approach to the subject of biblical numbers first examines the supernatural design of the Bible. He notes the patterns and numerical features of the Scriptures that are evidence of their Designer. The second section highlights the spiritual significance and symbolic connotations of numbers that are repeated in different contexts throughout the Bible.
A balanced, biblically solid examination of the numbers throughout Scripture Widely referenced, monumental work
Bullinger's two-fold approach to the subject of biblical numbers first examines the supernatural design of the Bible. He notes the patterns and numerical features of the Scriptures that are evidence of their Designer. The second section highlights the spiritual significance and symbolic connotations of numbers that are repeated in different contexts throughout the Bible.
A balanced, biblically solid examination of the numbers throughout Scripture Widely referenced, monumental work
310 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1894
353 people are currently reading
311 people want to read
About the author
E.W. Bullinger
252 books39 followersE. W. (Ethelbert William) Bullinger was born in England. A direct dissent of Swiss reformer Johann Heinrich Bullinger, a covenant theologian, he was born and raised in a home strongly influenced by Wesleyan Methodist doctrine. An Anglican priest as well as secretary of the Trinitarian Bible Society, he is primarily known as a theologian who published numerous books. He is most commonly known for The Companion Bible.
Some of his theology was and remains controversial, but there is no arguing that he had an in-depth knowledge of Aramaic, Greek and Hebrew. Some of his more popular books still in extant include his Figures of Speech Used in the Bible and Number in Scripture.
Some of his theology was and remains controversial, but there is no arguing that he had an in-depth knowledge of Aramaic, Greek and Hebrew. Some of his more popular books still in extant include his Figures of Speech Used in the Bible and Number in Scripture.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews
February 24, 2024
Fascinating study of the meanings that one can attribute to the numbers used in the Bible. Although I don't agree with everything this book teaches, there is plenty here to contemplate and carry into one's personal study and reflection on the Scriptures.
November 13, 2016
This is an amazing book & reference that investigates the significance of numbers in Scripture (the Bible). Bullinger's reseach and insight into this topic is excellent.
First, Bullinger investigates patterns in numbers in the things made by God, such as the heavens, chronology, nature, vegetables, physiology, chemistry, sound & music, and color.
Next, he investigates patterns of numbers in the Word of God, such as the books of the Bible, the writers of the Bible, and occurrences of words & phrases in the Bible.
Then he investigates the spiritual significance of numbers themselves, from 1 through 15, 17, 19, 20, and so forth up to 666.
While the investigation itself is deep, the way it is presented is straightforward and easy to read, and is organized so that the reader can either read straight thru, or jump in and out to the numbers or concepts desired at a given moment.
Overall, the book is an excellent resource for anyone with more than a casual interest in the Bible, and is useful for anyone desiring to understand another facet of God's design & messages for mankind.
I have studied this topic at length for a number of years, and yet found his insight educational, interesting, thought-provoking, and even fun.
I hope you enjoy this book as much as I have and continue to do.
First, Bullinger investigates patterns in numbers in the things made by God, such as the heavens, chronology, nature, vegetables, physiology, chemistry, sound & music, and color.
Next, he investigates patterns of numbers in the Word of God, such as the books of the Bible, the writers of the Bible, and occurrences of words & phrases in the Bible.
Then he investigates the spiritual significance of numbers themselves, from 1 through 15, 17, 19, 20, and so forth up to 666.
While the investigation itself is deep, the way it is presented is straightforward and easy to read, and is organized so that the reader can either read straight thru, or jump in and out to the numbers or concepts desired at a given moment.
Overall, the book is an excellent resource for anyone with more than a casual interest in the Bible, and is useful for anyone desiring to understand another facet of God's design & messages for mankind.
I have studied this topic at length for a number of years, and yet found his insight educational, interesting, thought-provoking, and even fun.
I hope you enjoy this book as much as I have and continue to do.
May 31, 2023
I am confident this book will serve as a useful reference for me and for anyone open to seeing numerical significance to various themes in Scripture. Above all, this book contains a massive amount of material pertaining to various numbers. More often than not, however, I could not be persuaded by Bullinger, despite his arguments, which were meticulous and (indisputably) well thought out. I admire this work as a rigorous study in numerology, and am curious to see how my views on it change over time.
August 17, 2012
This is a paradigm-shifting examination of numbers in scripture. Mr. Bullinger shows extraordinary scholarship in this treatise. This was written before Strong's Concordance!
One of the great advantages to owning a Kindle is the portability of a practically infinite number of reference works all in a searchable form. However, this .99 edition is a rip-off. Look elsewhere for a useful reference for this subject. The Greek characters are not rendered well and the Hebrew are not rendered at all. There is no linked index. Essentially, the work was converted from, perhaps, the pdf format to Kindle with no subsequent editing. Tables and parallel lists were victims in this conversion being near-useless as a result. Shame on you Amazon! I thought somebody on your staff would at least briefly look through it and return it to the publishers or at least not charge anything for it. A little bit of a blemish on an otherwise enthusiastically positive overall experience with the Kindle.
Anyway, enough of my Kindle-edition rant. After re-reading it, how did I like the content? My initial review was 5 stars. I tried not to overly punish the late Mr. Bullinger as a result of the poor quality of the Kindle edition. If this had been my first read, I would've given it 2 stars. This re-reading has caused me to re-think my impressions. This book has lost a little of its shine and motivated me to be a little more critical of it.
This book gives an exhaustive detail of the smaller numbers (viz, 1-9). The examination of the bigger numbers less so (with some exceptions e.g. 40, 666). Some of the numbers are not really examined at all. The entry for 27, for example, consists of "being the cube of three." Well, duh!
Despite its shortcomings, this book demonstrates the part that numbers have in the Divine Plan. Bullinger shows us another layer of depth that confirms and/or shows a deeper meaning in scripture passages. It is a good read -- despite its warts -- even a century later. However, I would skip Amazon's .99 version. Buy the dead tree version or Google/Bing for the pdf.
One of the great advantages to owning a Kindle is the portability of a practically infinite number of reference works all in a searchable form. However, this .99 edition is a rip-off. Look elsewhere for a useful reference for this subject. The Greek characters are not rendered well and the Hebrew are not rendered at all. There is no linked index. Essentially, the work was converted from, perhaps, the pdf format to Kindle with no subsequent editing. Tables and parallel lists were victims in this conversion being near-useless as a result. Shame on you Amazon! I thought somebody on your staff would at least briefly look through it and return it to the publishers or at least not charge anything for it. A little bit of a blemish on an otherwise enthusiastically positive overall experience with the Kindle.
Anyway, enough of my Kindle-edition rant. After re-reading it, how did I like the content? My initial review was 5 stars. I tried not to overly punish the late Mr. Bullinger as a result of the poor quality of the Kindle edition. If this had been my first read, I would've given it 2 stars. This re-reading has caused me to re-think my impressions. This book has lost a little of its shine and motivated me to be a little more critical of it.
This book gives an exhaustive detail of the smaller numbers (viz, 1-9). The examination of the bigger numbers less so (with some exceptions e.g. 40, 666). Some of the numbers are not really examined at all. The entry for 27, for example, consists of "being the cube of three." Well, duh!
Despite its shortcomings, this book demonstrates the part that numbers have in the Divine Plan. Bullinger shows us another layer of depth that confirms and/or shows a deeper meaning in scripture passages. It is a good read -- despite its warts -- even a century later. However, I would skip Amazon's .99 version. Buy the dead tree version or Google/Bing for the pdf.
January 8, 2026
Inspired Number Patterns BUT…
As I started reading this book, its insights into number occurrences (e.g Biblical word and phrase counts, number of authors, plant snd animal counts, etc) gave me a greater sense of the consistency and order found in the world and the Bible. This gave me greater confidence that not only did God create the world, but that He wrote the Bible as well. The remaining chapters each focus on one of the numbers from 1 to 13, highlighting recurring biblical patterns associated with it. The gist of this is the biblical text having multiple authors over such a large span of time had to be supernaturally inspired for these patterns to emerge. BUT… Having said that I must admit I think the author went way beyond what the biblical text supports in number patterns. In many (maybe even most) cases it seems he finds patterns by “force fitting” the text into matching the number on which he is currently focused. For example many of his gematria examples are said to match a particular number, but that’s because of the number factors of the sum he chose to focus on. For example in the chapter on the number 8, page 217, he focuses on 8 as a significant factor of 12000 being the 12000 furlongs length of the cube city in Revelation 21:16. The actual number factors of 12000 are 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 3 x 5 x 5 x 5. Why didn’t the author focus on the factors 2, 3, 4, or 5. But he arbitrarily (?) picks 8 and leaves 2, 3, 4, or 5 ignored as significant? This strikes me as reading into the biblical text preconceived notions rather than letting the text present obvious examples of biblical numerical patterns. This eisegesis undermines the force of his overall argument of number patterns found throughout the Bible.
As I started reading this book, its insights into number occurrences (e.g Biblical word and phrase counts, number of authors, plant snd animal counts, etc) gave me a greater sense of the consistency and order found in the world and the Bible. This gave me greater confidence that not only did God create the world, but that He wrote the Bible as well. The remaining chapters each focus on one of the numbers from 1 to 13, highlighting recurring biblical patterns associated with it. The gist of this is the biblical text having multiple authors over such a large span of time had to be supernaturally inspired for these patterns to emerge. BUT… Having said that I must admit I think the author went way beyond what the biblical text supports in number patterns. In many (maybe even most) cases it seems he finds patterns by “force fitting” the text into matching the number on which he is currently focused. For example many of his gematria examples are said to match a particular number, but that’s because of the number factors of the sum he chose to focus on. For example in the chapter on the number 8, page 217, he focuses on 8 as a significant factor of 12000 being the 12000 furlongs length of the cube city in Revelation 21:16. The actual number factors of 12000 are 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 3 x 5 x 5 x 5. Why didn’t the author focus on the factors 2, 3, 4, or 5. But he arbitrarily (?) picks 8 and leaves 2, 3, 4, or 5 ignored as significant? This strikes me as reading into the biblical text preconceived notions rather than letting the text present obvious examples of biblical numerical patterns. This eisegesis undermines the force of his overall argument of number patterns found throughout the Bible.
September 18, 2020
While you have to be careful with numbers in scripture--some have gone overboard with this--and you can't use it as your first means of understanding things, this is a great reference book and it has been helpful. I don't remember when I read it cover to cover, and I don't refer to it regularly, but I still keep it on my shelf to use again.
October 4, 2024
Number in Scripture is probably in the library of any student of the Bible who is interested in the topic of number meanings and gematria. Some number concepts seem stretched, but Bullinger makes his case, and his knowledge of the Bible is encyclopedic, so other books he penned interest me, particularly Figures of Speech in the Bible.
April 12, 2019
Very difficult to follow.
July 6, 2019
Bullinger is not for the sleepy-he has some very complex material he goes through, but I consider it a great aid in my Biblical studies.
August 8, 2019
Just another Christian old fashion apologetics
Currently reading
August 16, 2025An excellent source of information on number meaning in the Bible. A valuable resource.
December 30, 2014
A very interesting book. The author leads the reader to an understanding of the use of gematria. In Hebrew and Greek, the letters of their alphabets are assigned numbers. For any word in these languages, its number can thus be determined. Of course, many numbers have theological meanings. The author demonstrates that this method can lead to remarkable analysis of the Holy Scriptures in the original languages. While I'm aware that some might see this as a cabalistic approach, and therefore, somewhat dangerous, still I recommend this book to those who will keep their feet on the solid ground of sound Biblical interpretation, and not get carried away by the sensational.
July 14, 2017
Reproduction of an 1894 book on numerology. There are some introductory chapters and then chapters detailing the significance of various specific numbers.
I'm not sure how mainstream any of the beliefs described in the book were but it could be a useful reference for writers interested in older superstitions. It also has lots of lists (e.g. the chapter on the number four includes various lists of four items that occur in the Bible) so it's handy when you need to find a specific number of weird names for something. Need to give five kittens creepy Bible names? Need to name a fleet of fictional space ships with apocalyptic names? The book is great for that sort of thing.
I'm not sure how mainstream any of the beliefs described in the book were but it could be a useful reference for writers interested in older superstitions. It also has lots of lists (e.g. the chapter on the number four includes various lists of four items that occur in the Bible) so it's handy when you need to find a specific number of weird names for something. Need to give five kittens creepy Bible names? Need to name a fleet of fictional space ships with apocalyptic names? The book is great for that sort of thing.
February 28, 2016
An excellent work showing not only how numbers appear in Scripture and testify to its supernatural character, but also where numbers appear in the natural world and give testimony to a creator God. Interesting is the alternative view of the elements arranged in a configuration completely different than the standard periodic table, a presentation which more readily predicts undiscovered elements. Wonderful, fascinating, enlightening.
October 10, 2012
Great chapter on the number ONE
December 23, 2012
Highly recommend this to anyone who takes their bible study more serious than 5 minutes of reading every day. Great work with great results.
Read
March 30, 2013Very good....
April 4, 2013
Always a brillant reference book for numbers as they are used in the bible.
September 21, 2013
Amazing, simply amazing!
June 3, 2024
Interesting
September 21, 2013
Not very believable.
Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews