Last week, I was doing some teaching in a local church about the Book of Revelation, and happened to put up a slide with the list of the tribes of Israel in the counting of the 144,000 in Rev 7.5–8. Someone in the congregation put up their hand: ‘Why is that list of tribes different from the ones we find in the Old Testament?’ came the question.
It is the first time that someone has spontaneously asked this—and it illustrates a key demand of reading and making sense of Revelation: you need to know your Old Testament. But it also illustrates something remarkable about the Book of Revelation—that it is like a stick of seaside rock, the long sweet with writing in it that says the same thing all the way through. Because it is so theologically dense in its imagery, I often find that wherever you ‘cut’ the text, you find the whole gospel expressed. The tribe-list of the 144,000 is a striking example of this.
There are twelve lists of the tribes in the Old Testament—and there is little agreement on both the tribes they name and the order they list them; the only exceptions are the agreement between Numbers 2 and 7, and between 1 Chronicles 2 and the original list of sons in Gen 35. Some of the lists are simply of the sons of Jacob; others are connected with census Moses took in the desert; others are about the order and arrangement of the camp in the desert. The unusual one is in Ezekiel 48, which is the idealised eschatological vision of the restored temple and people. It includes Levi at the centre of the arrangement with a special portion, but list 12 other tribes around it.
Here are all the lists, and a comparison with Revelation 7:
The four main differences in Revelation 7, compared with the lists in the Old Testament, are:
- The inclusion of Levi when he is usually omitted as the priestly tribe who inherits no land;
- The inclusion of both Joseph and Manasseh but the omission of Ephraim, where in most lists Joseph’s sons Manasseh and Ephraim are included instead of Joseph in order to make up the list to 12 with the omission of Levi.
- The omission of Dan from the list.
- The placing of Judah at the head and Benjamin at the end, the two southern tribes.
Some commentators argue that these details are unimportant since the focus is on the enumeration rather than on the specific names. But it is worth noting the significance of these changes and how they relate to other issues in Revelation.
The inclusion of Levi suggests that the list looks back to the time before the incident of the Golden Calf (Exod. 32) following which the priestly function of the people was delegated to the Levites, and all other tribes had to redeem their firstborn from priestly service. So the list is of all the tribes being a kingdom of priests (1:6; 5:10). The inclusion of Joseph rather than Ephraim might simply be part of this looking back to the ideal nation; Joseph and Ephraim are closely identified together in Num. 1:32 and Ezek. 37:16 and 19.
Dan was the tribe in the far north and so furthest from Jerusalem. The tribe was viewed negatively, starting with Jacob’s ‘blessing’ of his sons: ‘Dan will be a snake by the roadside, a viper along the path, that bites the horse’s heels’ (Gen. 49:17), a saying that associated Dan with Satan and with temptation. And in Judges 18:30 and 1 Kings 12:29 they set up an idol and then a high place for the worship of Baal, and so led people astray from the true worship of Israel’s God.
The placing of the two southern tribes at the beginning and end of the list emphasizes their importance, along with the inclusion of the verb were sealed in both places (a symmetry that is not evident in most English translations) and connects back to the description of the lamb as the ‘lion of the tribe of Judah’. These tribes are where the Messiah was expected to arise.
Note: having done some more work on this, I have posted an additional comment at the end, which I think does explain the internal order of these tribes. I am not sure what the theological significance of that is.
So how does this express the whole gospel?
First, this is a people redeemed by Jesus, the Messiah who is the lion of the tribe and Judah and the lamb. The bracketing of the list by Judah and Benjamin, and the distinct language on the first and last lines highlights that this is a messianic people.
Secondly, the inclusion of Levi shows that the original vision of God’s people has been restored. We are a priestly people, and not a people with priests. The hierarchy has gone—literally, in the sense that ‘hierarchy’ is derived etymologically from the idea of ‘the rule of the priests’. All are called to this priestly role, something the Church of England ordinal says explicitly:
God calls his people to follow Christ, and forms us into a royal priesthood, a holy nation, to declare the wonderful deeds of him who has called us out of darkness into his marvellous light (1 Peter 2.9; Exodus 19.6; Revelation 1.6, 5.10).
The Church is the Body of Christ, the people of God and the dwelling-place of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 12.27; 1 Peter 2.10; 1 Corinthians 3.16). In baptism the whole Church is summoned to witness to God’s love and to work for the coming of his kingdom.
To serve this royal priesthood, God has given a variety of ministries…
The purpose of a priesthood is to represent the people to God, our ministry of prayer and intercession, and to represent God to the people—which Paul interprets as mission, evangelism, and church planting:
He gave me the priestly duty of proclaiming the gospel of God, so that the Gentiles might become an offering acceptable to God, sanctified by the Holy Spirit (Rom 15.16).
Thirdly, the people of God here are purified as the holy of holies, the temple dwelling-place of God on earth. This is expressed in two ways—first, by the omission of Dan, who compromised in the discipline of worship, and secondly, through the enumeration of the tribes as a square (12 times 12, making 144) and a cube (10 times 10 times 10 making 1,000). The Holy of Holies in 1 Kings 6 is a cube of side 20 cubits, and the final vision of Revelation is the Holy City, the New Jerusalem, a colossal cube of side 12,000 stadia (about 1,400 miles). In all three cases, the cube shape denotes the space of God’s own holy presence.
Being the temple presence of God in the world is a theme all through the New Testament, from Jesus being the temple in John 2, through Paul describing us as God’s temple in 1 Cor 3, Peter doing the same as ‘living stones being built into a spiritual house’ in 1 Peter 2, and of course the whole theme of the Holy Spirit being poured into our hearts, the Spirit signifying the power and presence of God in the world.
Fourthly, John hearing the enumeration of the tribes recalls the censuses of the people in the Old Testament, most notably the census at the start of Numbers (from which the book gets its English name). As in Israel today, this was not for the purposes of taxation, but for Moses to know the fighting strength of his people, since they would be at war with their enemies. For us, we too are in a situation of conflict and need strength, but:
…our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms (Eph 6.12)
Fifthly, our belonging to this purified, priestly people ready for spiritual warfare is not of our choosing, but only arises from our response to the sovereign call of God. Earlier in Revelation 7, it is the angel of God who seals the people as an act of sovereign protection, just as had happened to the faithful remnant in Jerusalem in Ezekiel 9.
Sixthly, the fact that John expresses all this in terms of the tribes of Israel show the fundamental continuity of the new thing that God has done in Jesus with what God has done with his people in the Jewish scriptures. This parallels what we find in the four canonical gospels: each one of them, in their different ways, emphases that Jesus is the fulfilment of all the promises of God in the scriptures.
Seventhly, John hears the tribes being counted out, but then he turns and sees who they are:
After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb (Rev 7.9).
(All through Revelation, what John sees and what he hears interpret each other.)
God’s purpose for his people was always that they should be a light to the nations, and that all peoples would be drawn to him through their priestly witness, fulfilling the original promise to Abraham that all the nations of the earth would be blessed through him. Whereas Israel was previously called out from every nation, a distinct ethnic group separate from the others, now in Jesus the Israel of God is called out from every nation, in the sense of belonging to every nation and being priestly witnesses within them.
Lastly, this idealised depiction of who we are as the people of God anticipates the future and brings it into the present. This is a description of all those in the seven cities who have been given a very mixed report in chapters 2 and 3! And yet, John does here through his vision exactly what Paul does when he writes to the Corinthians. Despite knowing what a mess they are in, he begins in the opening verses of 1 Corinthians by describing all that God has done for them in Jesus—as if it has already all been achieved!
This is the vision of what God would have us be, how he is forming us in this by his Spirit as we offer our lives to him each day, and meet together weekly in eager anticipation for the perfection that God will one day bring about when Jesus returns.
(For an introduction to the Book of Revelation, you can buy my Grove booklet on it here. For more in-depth understanding, buy my commentary in the IVP Tyndale series here.)
Additional note
I asked ChatGPT for an explanation for the details of the order of tribe names, beyond putting Judah and Benjamin at head and foot, adding Levi, and omitting Dan, and it came up with this, which seems like a decent explanation:
The list follows the census tradition in Numbers 1 and 26, rather than the land-allotment tradition.
There is a symmetry in the list, and an internal pattern to each half.
Within each half, it is structure by maternity, with Leah’s offspring first, and Rachel’s last, and in the first half the handmaiden children slotted in. So the first six being Judah (L), Reuben (L), Gad (H/L), Asher (H/L), Naphtali (H/R), Manasseh (R); and the second six Simeon (L), Levi (L), Issachar (L), Zebulun (L), Joseph (R), Benjamin (R).
Leah’s sons dominate the second half
Handmaid sons dominate the first half
Rachel’s sons bookend the centre and the conclusion
Levi stands at the centre, replacing Dan structurally
What ChatGPT has not noticed is that, if you attribute the sons of the handmaidens to the relevant matriarch, both sixes split into 4 + 2, Leah and Rachel.
Here the split is expressed diagrammatically:
I have since also found Richard Bauckham’s contribution to the debate on this, from 1991, when we clearly spent more time on these things, available online here. I feel that the above is actually a simply and more plausible explanation…
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Farrer, A Rebirth of Images 220-244 (and diagram in back) attempts a rationale of the 21 tribes list and order.
Farrer once began a sermon by imagining himself arriving in heaven and being greeted by other scholars who had written commentaries on Revelation. “So you wrote one too,” said one of them. Farrer agreed that he had. “In that case,” said the other, “you will find a great deal to surprise you here.”
Indeed!
And what was the rationale?
Overthought, as usual. His 1964 commentary 15 years later was the oscillation to a standstill of his wild speculations, and the worse and blander for it.
He performed the priceless task of seeing how far a pattern or theory can be pressed. This is always a good way of testing a theory. He was less good at doing the other essential task: namely, listing defects.
We follow him in removing in 1964 the 12fold zodiac correspondences (which were worth testing), and in not gaining a great deal from one-to-one matchup of thrones with precious stones of the Holy City. That however removes the carpet from under his proposed ordering, since he could not find much reason for the reordering of the tribes unless it was in order to produce a harmony with the zodiac and precious stones.
Even then he sticks more closely to the Exodus 28 list and ordering of the precious stones, and even tweaks that because he has to provide a justification for John omitting onyx and substituting topaz (among other justifications). His thematic associations between zodiac signs, stones and patriarchs are highly speculative in the first place.
The one part that half works (but is not all that remarkable because the biblical lists themselves are full of pairs according to birth origin) is that he sees the list of 12 in Rev 7 as being a reduplication of the pattern senior Leah pair; junior Leah pair; Rachel pair. This necessitates devolving Leah’s maid to Leah and Rachel’s maid to Rachel.
[Although Farrer did not match up disciple-Elders one to one with patriarch-Elders, it is a compelling avenue not only to think that ‘new Israel’ was the purpose of the all male 12, but also quite possibly to pursue the idea that Jesus had a sons-of-Jacob idea behind the nicknames/roles he gave: rock/Gen 49/Joseph = Simon ‘Peter’, boisterous brothers Simeon & Levi (twinned in Gen 49) = James and John ‘Boanerges’. This however is my idea not Farrer’s. DC Mitchell, Messiah ben Joseph is a profitable read.]
Farrer is also quite sensible and probably right in thinking that this particular author would order his 12 carefully and deliberately. Which he probably did. I am not sure anyone of us has found the key; Farrer did not. But he performed the service of showing that (much like with his 12+1 patriarchs + Levi patterning of Mark’s gospel) the maximum that one could press the theory still ended up with its being unconvincing. His modus operandi of always positively presenting the most economical synthesis that had so far occurred to him ought to be copied by more people – with the proviso that it is always accompanied by a listing of defects in the theory.
Thanks. But I am not sure that Leah/Rachel thing actually works?
It does not work at all well. The description ‘redoubled senior-Leah-pair; junior-Leah-pair; Rachel pair’ works, so far as that goes. But the theory has the following several defects:
(1) That is no neater an order than we already find in the OT; possibly less so.
(2) There is little point in mashing up a more chronological birth order. Nothing is achieved by these redoubled pairs. It is not a pattern that an author could have satisfaction in achieving.
(3) The main things needing explanation (why Manasseh not Ephraim? Why Joseph? Why Levi? Why no Dan?) are left unanswered by this framework.
(4) Maybe John mainly wanted to prioritise Judah; that then put the chronology out of synch; and he had his own personal preferences about whom to include and exclude – which the OT variant lists allowed him to do.
(Granted that the Exodus jewels and the patriarchs were almost unchangeable lists, and the zodiac signs likewise, any thoroughgoing correspondences between these 3 lists of twelve, or any 2 of them, could only be contrived by the author. Farrer’s endeavours succeed in showing us that the author of the contrivances in question was Farrer and not John.)
Chris, I have just included an Additional note, and think I have in fact cracked the order of the list.
The two halves are split evenly, 4:2 between offspring of Leah (and her handmaidens) and Rachel and hers.
See diagram.
That is good. Most of these traits (e.g. reordering) are there for a reason – certainly in the case of this author – and often it is a case of the key just needing to be turned a little harder in the lock.
An extraordinary coincidence happened today. I gave the Rebirth Of Images reference because I knew I had it to hand (it was a donation to our shop yesterday). But when I examined the copy further, it was Farrer’s own copy – or, rather, the one he gave his wife – with a few annotations. Much the most exciting jottings were those on a separate piece of paper in his handwriting, wherein (among other things) he yet again ‘tore up’ his latest scheme and tried another, in the way that he had confessed in the preface he was repeatedly doing.
How extraordinary!
Ian, thanks for this – it’s fascinating and insightful. However, I’m not sure you are correct that “none of [the lists] agree with any of the others in both the tribes they name and the order they list them.”:
Gen 35 and 1 Chron 1-9 match
Num 1 and Num 26 match
Num 2 and Num 7 match
I’m also unclear how you got your list from Ezek 48; it looks to me as if the last five there are Benjamin, Simeon, Issachar, Zebulun and Gad in that order. (There is also an allocation for the Zadokite priests and the (other) Levites between Judah and Benjamin, making this list look as though it has 13 tribes.)
Sorry if all this sounds too nerdy!
There is no ‘too nerdy’ on a subject like this!
Thanks for picking those two things up. I wrote it just this morning, and starting compiling the tribe lists by hand—but it was slow and tedious, so I asked ChatGPT to do is!
It did get the others right; not sure why it had Ezek 48 wrong. All now corrected. It also told a lie about the comparison between lists! Also corrected.
I do think that Ezek 48 keeps Levi distinct, as in the wilderness, and not integrated. In other words, it retains the post Exodus 32 hierarchy, which Rev 7 eliminates.
What I cannot see is any relationship between the actual order of tribes in Revelation 7 with any of the previous lists. Can you?
Short answer, no, I see no relationship with the other lists.
I looked at the relative sizes of the tribes in both Num 1 and Num 26 – no correlation with the Rev 7 ordering. Similarly for the order round the camp in Num 2. There also seems to be no geographical logic when compared to Joshua and the placement of the tribes in the land – it’s not a straightforward north-south list, for example.
Are you sure the list for Joshua 13-19 is correct in your table? I see Simeon listed in Josh 19 but not in your table; and Dan, not Benjamin, seems to end that list (Josh 19:40-48), with Benjamin listed at Josh 18:21-28. (I’m not sure that would change many of the conclusions, though.)
Two oddities which do emerge, though, looking at your current lists:
1. None of these lists is in the birth order of Jacob’s sons.
2. The Rev 7 list has seven tribes (Reuben to Levi in that list) uniquely positioned – Reuben is second in this list but in no other list, etc.
Curious!
Martin, did you see my additional note on the reason for the ordering?
Ah – must admit I’d not got round to reading that! Yes, I can see it makes sense. (Some “I” in the “AI” for once?). Thanks for pointing me to that addition.
Yes, I think so! But I had to look in commentaries to find the link to Richard Bauckham’s article…
Honestly, I think writing a piece as agreeable as this, on a subject as useful as this, and NOT choosing to try and condense your points into SEVEN, rather than eight*, is a serious missed opportunity. Especially when every point is about the value of symbolism.
You would, of course, have been fine if your eight and final point referenced the resurrection, or the ‘eighth day’/’new creation’ of John’s Gospel. 🙂
For shame Ian, for shame.
The reason for having eight, not seven, points is that Jesus was raised on the eighth day, the first day of the new age, which is why we meet for worship, as the 144,000, on that eighth day, in anticipation of the new creation and the cubic city.
For shame that you missed this!
I know you’re all much more learned than I am (especially about Revelation!) but I remain of the view that the author was writing from memory, and knew he had to get to 12. It’s symbolic anyway! The suggestion that one of the 12 tribes (Dan) should be left out because of a single incident (and anti-northern prejudice) surely has no other basis in the OT – whenever Israel is loved or condemned there is never any “except Dan” suggestion. I still think the omission of Dan is the Biblical equivalent of a typo, and none the worse for that.
Thanks for the comment.
Given the detailed use of the OT, and the importance of the tribe list, I don’t think that is a plausible explanation.
If a 20th-century Christian can spot the order is wrong and someone is missing, just from a slide in church, then you can be sure that a first century Jew, writing in Greek, was absolutely certain.
And it is not just one text–as I point out it is several. It is a consistent and deliberate picture, and the most convincing reason is that this tribe list is quite *unlike* any other—including the one from Ezekiel, which you would expect him to pick up given he makes such extensive use of Ezekiel elsewhere.
But with Ezekiel and Daniel, John consistently takes key parts of their narrative and reinterprets them—for example, like taking the four beasts of Daniel 7 and specifically blending them into one in Rev 13.
Penny, I have done some more work on this, and offered an additional note.
It turns out that the list of the other tribes, between Judah and Benjamin, are arranged with a perfect symmetry, starting with the census list, and organising it according to maternal lineage.
I think it is implausible that this is an accident, or a product of faulty memory.
Hi Ian,
Thanks for your article. Please consider my academic article on this topic:
“Are the 144,000 in Revelation 7:3–8 the Great Multitude in 7:9–17?” In The Future Restoration of Israel: A Response to Supersessionism, edited by Stanley E. Porter and Alan E. Kurschner. McMaster General Studies Series 9. Eugene, OR: Pickwick, 2023.
Thanks. Is there an online version anywhere?
Hi Ian,
Tomorrow, I can send it via your email through ETS.
Alan
Thanks!
Understanding The “sealing” seems straightforward to understand from Scriptures
Ezekiel chapter 9. There the mark on the forehead indicated you were one of the Godly, and without this mark, you were to be killed. So the mark was seal of your spiritual identity and there was an assurance that you would be kept safe in the face of divine wrath.
To be sealed was to be labelled as belonging to God.
That’s why Revelation chapter 14, “There before the Lamb, the 144,000 who had his name and his Father’s name written on their foreheads.”
Paul talks about thisin Ephesians 1. “Having believed you were marked in Him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession to the praise of His glory.”
Understanding the 144,000 has engendered various “interpretations” from JW’s through Dispensationalist too the many different forensic scholars, and reams of ink.
With so many variables I feel that Daniel’s instructions to “… go your way till the end; and you shall rest, and shall stand in your allotted place at the end of the days” ie your work here is done, for the unanswered questions are sealed until the end times. i e Die wondering.
All will be revealed. Shalom.
Hasting’s Great Texts of the Bible DAN 12 V13
Summarizes many commentators’ thoughts thus
“In the life and experience of most of us there is much that is perplexing and strange, and not a little that appears to be unjust; and we are often impatient to learn the secrets of Divine providence and the wherefore of Gods working as He does; hearts become angry or fretful, sometimes faith fails, and the soul is in a state of insurrection. But it must be remembered that the present is for us a waiting time. God, when the hour of His appointment has fully come, will make clear His hidden purposes, will resolve the doubts that trouble us, and fully answer all the hard questions of life; so that we eventually shall see that, however strange the manner of His working may have seemed to be, He has really wrought in love, and has done all things well. But the time for these explanations is not yet; and man must win lifes battle by faith, not by sight.
Meanwhile a blessing is promised to him who can wait patiently, trusting God where he cannot trace the way of His working or fathom the mystery of His plan.
It is not for the workmen who are engaged in the construction of a magnificent pile which is to be the wonder and admiration of the ages to have a clear knowledge of the architectural ideal. All they need know is how to use the tools that have been placed in their hands; all they need be anxious about is the particular piece of wall given them to build. They labour necessarily in the dark. All they need be assured of is that they are working under the guidance and inspiration of the great Master-Builder. Be true, be honest, be diligent, be faithful, fill the particular position into which Providence hath introduced you as well as it can be filled by the grace of God, and the great Architect under whose superintendence the vast structure is being upreared will take care of the congruities and harmonies. Do not agitate yourself with questions which are beyond your capacity to understand. Do not permit the inexplicable and the perplexing in human phenomena to disquiet you. Do not obtrude into the domain of the Infinite. “Go thou”
https://biblehub.com/commentaries/hastings/daniel/12-13.htm
A somewhat random thought:
Judah and Benjamin are the southern tribes, and so are the tribes which survived the destruction of the northern kingdom. Are the ‘lost’ 10 tribes somehow included within Judah and Benjamin, although ‘unsealed’?
That is an interesting thought. But it is clear that *all* the twelve tribes are sealed—just that Judah and Benjamin are emphasised.
There are some theories that the incoming of the gentiles is, theologically, the restoration of the lost tribes. I think it is better to note that the language of ‘gathering’ is used in the OT for the return from exile and diaspora, and that exactly that language is used of the gentile mission, not least in Rev 7.9 itself.
Who were they and what do we know about the 144,000
And the great multitude?
One fact seems certain they were True Worshipers, a Royal, Crowned Warrior, Priesthood, A Holy Temple. The very thing that God the Father seeks, Overcomers.
So, what is a true worshiper?
The estimation of Christ of the 7 churches gives us some clues.
Take just one Smyrna
Google persecution in Smyrna where Polycarp was martyred and prayed
“The soldiers were going to bind Polycarp to the stake, but he said, “Leave me as I am, for He who gives me power to endure the fire, will grant me to remain in the flames unmoved even without the security you will give by the nails.”
So they simply bound him with his hands behind him like a distinguished ram chosen from a great flock for sacrifice.
Polycarp Prayed
Ready to be an acceptable burnt-offering to God, he looked up to heaven, and said, “O Lord God Almighty, the Father of your beloved and blessed Son Jesus Christ, by whom we have received the knowledge of you, the God of angels, powers and every creature, and of all the righteous who live
before you, I give you thanks that you count me worthy to be numbered among your martyrs, sharing the cup of Christ
and the resurrection to eternal life, both of soul and body, through the immortality of the Holy Spirit. May I be received
this day as an acceptable sacrifice, as you, the true God, have predestined, revealed to me, and now fulfilled. I praise you for all these things, I bless you and glorify you, along with the everlasting Jesus Christ, your beloved Son. To you, with him, through the Holy Ghost, be glory both now and forever. Amen.”
Note also the motif of Overcoming throughout Revelation and the Epistles
Or see
dtbm.org The Church At Smyrna: How To Serve Christ Through Affliction.
Or
https://preachertalk.blog/2025/05/13/revelation-28-11-to-the-persecuted-church-at-smyrna/
Jesus “comforted” [strengthened] His church showing them that He did
Overcome and ultimately Sovereignly Overcome to the Glory of God.
I often think that the title of Revelation
Should have the subtitle Help for Heroes
Cf. Hebrews Ch.11 an history of persecution,
John himself could be added to the list.
Thomas A. Tarrants @ cslewisinstitute.org
“Persecution and Suffering for Jesus Christ
Is very interesting.
More than anything else I think that we Christians
need to rediscover the sense of the Heroic rather
than applying bandages.
Follow the Captain of our Salvation and be led about in Victory. Shalom.