Apocalypse means revelation in Greek. Dr. Efird in his book, Revelation For Today, highlights the meanings for standard symbols and images in Hebrew and Christian apocalyptic writing.
Significant
numbers (or their multiples):
3 = “the realm of the spirit”
4 = “that which is related to the
created order”
7 = “completeness in the sense of that
which has come to maturity or appropriate fulfillment”
10 = “similar to 7, but . . . usually
suggests the idea of completeness with the nuance of inclusiveness”
12 = "the people of God"
3 ½ = “always used to symbolize the
length of time that evil is allowed to run its course, persecuting the people
of God”
Efird also makes note that the numbers
can be combined to symbolize a larger point – he gives this example: 144,000 = “a
combination of a multiple of ten and a multiple of twelve, thus signifying the
full or total number of the people of God.”
Significant
colors:
White = victory “over the powers and
forces of evil"
Red = war or conflict
Black = lack of something “the lack of
food in famine, or the lack of health in pestilence or plague”
Greenish-gray = in Revelation “the color
of a corpse and thus represents death”
Standard
components of visionary scenes:
Beasts = nations
Heads and horns of beasts = rulers (
kings, emperors)
And finally, Efird notes that “all of
these ‘standard’ symbolic images are combined in every individual apocalyptic
work to depict in a somewhat bizarre way certain ideas that would be meaningful
and beneficial to the people for whom the work was originally intended.”
