The number 24
Priesthood, worship, governmental completion
Twenty-four has strong, well-documented anchors, both in Bullinger and in Scripture itself. David organized the priests into twenty-four courses for temple service (1 Chronicles 24:1-19), following what Hebrews 8:5 calls a pattern of "the things in the heavens." Revelation pictures twenty-four elders around God's throne, leading heavenly worship (Revelation 4:4, 10). Bullinger's Number in Scripture (ch. "Twenty-four") reads the number as a multiple of twelve, twelve being governmental and administrative completeness for him, doubled here into heavenly worship and order, and argues from Revelation's own language that the twenty-four elders are worship leaders rather than a symbol for redeemed humanity generally. "Priesthood, worship, governmental completion" is a fair, well-anchored label for this number.
The mathematics
- 24 = 4! — the number of ways to put four things in order.
- Highly composite: eight divisors, more than any smaller number, which is why the day divides into twenty-four.
- Twenty-four is the largest number with a strange property: every number that shares no factor with it squares to one more than a multiple of it. 5² = 25, 7² = 49, 11² = 121, 13² = 169 — all one past a multiple of 24, and no number above 24 behaves this way.
Every property here was checked before it was printed.
The same number, in what He made
One turn of the earth against the sun is twenty-four hours — the mean solar day, against a sidereal day of 23h 56m 4s.
The adult spine carries twenty-four movable vertebrae — seven cervical, twelve thoracic, five lumbar — and the ribcage twenty-four ribs in twelve pairs (NCBI Bookshelf, Anatomy of the Vertebral Column).
Sources are named in the line itself. “The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork.”
What they have said about this number
Heavenly government and worship — the higher form of twelve.
“It is the number associated with the heavenly government and worship, of which the earthly form in Israel was only a copy.”
“Perfect government made manifest.”
In Hebrew and Greek
Hebrew
Esrim v'arba (עֶשְׂרִים וְאַרְבַּע) - twenty-four
Greek
Eikosi tessares (εἴκοσι τέσσαρες) - twenty-four
First occurrence
In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
The pattern in Scripture
- 24 priestly courses (1 Chr 24)
- 24 elders around throne (Rev 4:4)
- 24 hours in a day
24:24 verses
And she said unto him, I am the daughter of Bethuel the son of Milcah, which she bare unto Nahor.
And ships shall come from the coast of Chittim, and shall afflict Asshur, and shall afflict Eber, an...
And the people said unto Joshua, The Lord our God will we serve, and his voice will we obey.
And the king said unto Araunah, Nay; but I will surely buy it of thee at a price: neither will I off...
Of the sons of Uzziel; Michah: of the sons of Michah; Shamir.
Related numbers
The works behind these readings
- E. W. Bullinger, Number in Scripture (1894)The standing catalogue of what each number means and where it returns: the spine of this whole section. Public domain; free to read in full.
- John J. Davis, Biblical Numerology (1968)The counting discipline: which numbers the text itself repeats, and which readings run past what it says.
- Ryken, Wilhoit & Longman (eds.), Dictionary of Biblical Imagery (1998)The entries on Three, Seven, Twelve and Forty: how each image works across both testaments.
- Chuck Missler, Cosmic Codes (1999)The letter-value material and the design case built on it.
- Troy Brewer, Numbers That Preach (2007)What each number preaches: the founder's named guide, quoted here within the cap on living authors, with the book named so you can go and read it whole.