StrongerBible

arithmos

ἀριθμός

GreekG0706“number, count”

Appears 19 times · tap a cell to see the verses

Luk 22:3Jhn 6:10Act 4:4Act 5:36Act 6:7Act 11:21Act 16:5Rom 9:27Rev 5:11Rev 7:4Rev 9:16 (2×)Rev 13:17Rev 13:18 (3×)Rev 14:1Rev 15:2Rev 20:8
Word studyah-rith-MOSSnoun

What arithmos means

a number: the total reached by counting, whether the size of a group or a specific figure that stands for something.

TranslatabilityDirectCertaintySettled

The core meaning is plain: a number, the total you get when you count. Most of the time the word names the size of a group, how many people or things there are, and the New Testament reaches for it when a crowd of believers is being tallied or a fixed figure is being reported.

A couple of uses stretch that core without leaving it. In one line a person is described as being "of the number of" a group, which simply means he is counted as one of its members. And in Revelation the word names a symbolic figure, "the number of the beast" or "the number of his name," where a number stands in for a person's identity rather than measuring a crowd.

All of these still turn on the same idea of a count or a figure. Where a writer wants to stress a large throng rather than an exact tally, the New Testament uses a different word (πλῆθος).

Nuances

1athe total count of a group: how many people or things there are.
Jhn 6:10Act 4:4Act 5:36Act 6:7Act 11:21Act 16:5Rom 9:27Rev 5:11Rev 7:4Rev 9:16 (2×)Rev 14:1Rev 20:8
1ba symbolic figure that identifies someone: the number of the beast, the number of a name.
Rev 13:17Rev 13:18 (3×)Rev 15:2
1ccounted as one of a group: the idiom "of the number of."
Luk 22:3

What scholars say about arithmos

Standard lexica gloss ἀριθμός simply as "number," the definite total reached by counting (BDAG; LSJ), a sense stable across classical and Koine Greek. Rengstorf's TDNT article surveys its ordinary use for enumerating people and things. The distinctive New Testament development is in Revelation, where "the number of the beast" (13:17-18; 15:2) reflects gematria, the ancient practice of reading the letters of a name as numerals and summing them; 666 (with the well-attested variant 616) is widely taken as the numerical value of a name, most often Nero Caesar, though the referent remains debated. The lexical sense of the word itself is not in question.

Sources

  • BDAG, s.v. ἀριθμόςlexicon
  • LSJ, s.v. ἀριθμόςlexicon
  • Karl Heinrich Rengstorf, "ἀριθμέω, ἀριθμός," in Theological Dictionary of the New Testament (TDNT) 1:461-464dictionary
  • Richard Bauckham, The Climax of Prophecy: Studies on the Book of Revelation (1993)monograph
  • G. K. Beale, The Book of Revelation, NIGTC (1999)commentary

AI-generated word study · claude-opus-4-8

All attested forms of ἀριθμός

nominative m s

ἀριθμὸς, ἀριθμός

Act 4:4, Act 5:36, Act 6:7, Act 11:21, Rom 9:27, Rev 5:11, Rev 9:16, Rev 13:18

accusative m s

ἀριθμὸν

Jhn 6:10, Rev 7:4, Rev 9:16, Rev 13:17, Rev 13:18

genitive m s

ἀριθμοῦ

Luk 22:3, Rev 15:2

dative m s

ἀριθμῷ

Act 16:5