The number 28
Eternal life, covenant
Scripture's own occurrence of twenty-eight is concrete: each curtain of the tabernacle measured twenty-eight cubits long, the dwelling place of God among Israel (Exodus 26:2; 36:9). Bullinger's Number in Scripture gives the number a single line: as a multiple of seven (4 x 7) it shares seven's significance, and as 4 x 7 it also shares four's; he draws no further conclusion. The label 'eternal life, covenant' traces to Ed F. Vallowe's Biblical Mathematics (1998), not to Bullinger, and no verse names twenty-eight as a sign of eternal life or covenant. Hold the label as later tradition built mainly on the arithmetic, while the tabernacle curtain remains the number's one clear textual anchor.
The mathematics
- The second perfect number: 1 + 2 + 4 + 7 + 14 = 28 exactly. After 6 and 28 the next are 496 and 8,128 — they thin out immediately, and whether any odd perfect number exists is still unsolved after two and a half thousand years.
- Euclid gave the formula for even perfect numbers; Euler proved it catches every one of them. Two mathematicians two thousand years apart, closing the same door.
- The seventh triangular number (1 + … + 7) and the fourth hexagonal number.
Every property here was checked before it was printed.
What they have said about this number
Spiritual perfection joined to the created order — 4 × 7.
“Is a multiple, and therefore has the significance of seven. Being also the product of 4 × 7 it partakes of the significance of 4.”
“Times and seasons — the beginning and end of certain God-given timelines.”
In Hebrew and Greek
Hebrew
Esrim u'shemoneh (עֶשְׂרִים וּשְׁמוֹנֶה) - twenty-eight
Greek
Eikosi okto (εἴκοσι ὀκτώ) - twenty-eight
First occurrence
In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
The pattern in Scripture
- Four weeks of seven (the moon's own cycle is ~29.5 days)
- 4x7 = earth x perfection
- Jehu reigned 28 years (2 Kings 10:36)
28:28 verses
And they shall bind the breastplate by the rings thereof unto the rings of the ephod with a lace of ...
And their meat offering of flour mingled with oil, three tenth deals unto one bullock, two tenth dea...
The Lord shall smite thee with madness, and blindness, and astonishment of heart:
And unto man he said, Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom; and to depart from evil is under...
When the wicked rise, men hide themselves: but when they perish, the righteous increase.
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.