There were 12,000. Exactly 12,000 are sealed from 12 tribes to make 144,000. This cannot be the Jews (in the flesh). (1) The Ten Tribes had disappeared in Assyria and lost their identity. (2) Judah and Benjamin had lost their national existence and all the records destroyed, in the siege and destruction of Jerusalem [some 25 years before John writes this]. (3) The Tribes are arranged out of sequence. Judah is put first, not Reuben. Dan and Ephraim are omitted. There was no Tribe of Joseph, but his sons Ephraim and Manasseh each founded a Tribe.(Genesis 48:5). Levi is also counted to make 12, but as the priestly Tribe had no inheritance (Numbers 2:33), to count Levi would have made 13 Tribes. (4) Christ did away with the distinction of race (Galatians 3:23-29; Ephesians 2:14-18). (5) 144,000 is mentioned again in chapter 14, where they are all: men [males]; unmarried; virgin. This is clearly symbolic (see notes on Revelation 14:3-5).

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Old Testament