28: The Importance of Numbers in the Bible

Twenty-eight is the atomic number of nickel - a metal that can be found in a number of coins, including the 20p, 50p, £1 and £2. There are twenty-eight days in February (yes, there are twenty-eight days in all months!) except in Leap Years. There are twenty-eight letters in the Danish, Swedish, Arabic and Esperanto alphabets. There are approximately twenty-eight grams in an ounce. 
 
In India, there is a trick-taking card game called Twenty-Eight, although, some people confusingly also call it Twenty-Nine! There are twenty-eight Domino tiles in a standard Domino set. 
 
Apparently, twenty-eight is the age when a man finishes growing, and women will know that a menstrual cycle is roughly twenty-eight days. If you have been married for twenty-eight years (congratulations to you), you are celebrating your tourmaline-wedding anniversary. 
 
In the Hebrew alphanumeric code Gematria, koakh, which means either “power” or “energy”, corresponds to the number twenty-eight. Whether or not this influences the use of the number twenty-eight in the Bible is undisclosed, so let’s look at a few examples and see if there is any link.
 

• Exodus 26:2 (NIV): All the curtains are to be the same size--twenty-eight cubits long and four cubits wide.
• Exodus 36:9 (NIV): All the curtains were the same size--twenty-eight cubits long and four cubits wide.
• 2 Kings 10:36 (NIV): The time that Jehu reigned over Israel in Samaria was twenty-eight years.
• 2 Chronicles 11:21 (NIV): Rehoboam loved Maakah daughter of Absalom more than any of his other wives and concubines. In all, he had eighteen wives and sixty concubines, twenty-eight sons and sixty daughters.
• Ezra 8:11 (KJV): And of the sons of Bebai; Zechariah the son of Bebai, and with him twenty and eight males.

These are the only uses of twenty-eight in the Bible. Since there are so few, it is impossible to tell if there is any meaning attached, however, the fact that Exodus records the precise length of the curtains implies there may have been some significance.
 
Twenty-eight known authors wrote the Old Testament:

1. Amos
2. Daniel
3. David
4. Esther
5. Ezekiel
6. Ezra
7. Habakkuk
8. Haggai
9. Hezekiah
10. Hosea
11. Isaiah
12. Jeremiah
13. Job
14. Joel
15. Jonah
16. Joshua
17. Malachi
18. Micah
19. Mordecai
20. Moses
21. Nahum 
22. Nehemiah
23. Obadiah
24. Ruth
25. Samuel
26. Solomon
27. Zechariah
28. Zephaniah

 
The Gospel of Matthew and the book of Acts contain twenty-eight chapters, making them the longest in the New Testament – although, from previous articles, you will know that Luke is longer by word count.
 
According to the visions of Ann-Catherine Emmerich, twenty-eight armed Pharisees escorted Jesus whilst he carried his cross to Golgotha. 
 
The name David appears in twenty-eight different books of the Bible. The phrase “the Lamb” in reference to Jesus Christ appears twenty-eight times as does the word “Hallelujah”. The words “discipline” and “celestial” are also used twenty-eight times.