Who are the 144,000

Apple Sky said:

King James Bible
And I heard the number of them which were sealed: and there were sealed an hundred and forty and four thousand of all the tribes of the children of Israel.



So you must be Jewish & a virgin.

Could it be that these 144,000 are the babies that were killed by King Herod when Jesus was born ? As it also says in scripture that they must be virgins.

Herod, the king of Judaea, watches as his soldiers slaughter the innocent children of Bethlehem in an attempt to kill the infant Jesus, whom Herod feared would eventually seize his kingdom. According to Boccaccio, 144,000 children were murdered.

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Actually if you look at the population of Bethlehem at the time there would not have been anywhere near that number of infants there.

Apple Sky said:

Oh - So who do you think the 1,444 are, any idea ?

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I have no idea. I've heard a lot of different things about it it. An interesting one was that 100 is the symbol for water, 40 is the symbol of a dove, and 4 is the symbol for a door. The meaning may be the water of baptism brings the Holy Spirit using the symbol for a dove, which opens the door to heaven for thousands.

Apple Sky said:

Oh - So who do you think the 1,444 are, any idea ?

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Weren't the 144K Jews, 12K from each tribe?

Apple Sky said:

So you must be Jewish...

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That would be the Tribe of Judah. Jews = Judah.

As for where the other Tribes are currently, that is another subject.

Apple Sky said:

& a virgin.

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Anyone who is in Heaven now is technically a virgin.

Apple Sky said:

Could it be that these 144,000 are the babies that were killed by King Herod when Jesus was born ?

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If the 144,000 lived in the past, how far back do we go? If we went back to Ezekiel, we could theorize that the 144,000 were sealed here...

Ezekiel 9:4
"And the LORD said unto him, Go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and set a mark upon the foreheads of the men that sigh and that cry for all the abominations that be done in the midst thereof."

Was it a foreshadowing of the 144,000 as a future event, or was it the real thing?

Apple Sky said:

As it also says in scripture that they must be virgins.

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Before or after death?

Apple Sky said:

Herod, the king of Judaea, watches as his soldiers slaughter the innocent children of Bethlehem in an attempt to kill the infant Jesus, whom Herod feared would eventually seize his kingdom. According to Boccaccio, 144,000 children were murdered.

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The Diaspora happened long before that. Did the Twelve Tribes exist afterward? I do not know the answer.

Apple Sky said:

King James Bible
And I heard the number of them which were sealed: and there were sealed an hundred and forty and four thousand of all the tribes of the children of Israel.



So you must be Jewish & a virgin.

Could it be that these 144,000 are the babies that were killed by King Herod when Jesus was born ? As it also says in scripture that they must be virgins.

Herod, the king of Judaea, watches as his soldiers slaughter the innocent children of Bethlehem in an attempt to kill the infant Jesus, whom Herod feared would eventually seize his kingdom. According to Boccaccio, 144,000 children were murdered.

Click to expand...

The 144,000 are Jews who will be converted during the 7 year Tribulation. Their mission will be to preach the true Gospel of Jesus Christ. This is a future event.

Ivan Hlavanda said:

The 144,000 are Jews who will be converted during the 7 year Tribulation.

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They have to be "converted" from the beginning because they are God's witness and testimony for those 7 years. If you believe in a tribulation. I think a lot of Hebrew people are secret closet Christians.

Qubit said:

That would be the Tribe of Judah. Jews = Judah.

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In high school I was told that the word Jew was derogatory slang for Judah widely used during the holocaust. I never understood why Judah when they call Israel their country and there are 10 other sons or tribes. Revelation tells us that God has keep 12,000 from each tribe pure virgins.

Apple Sky said:

According to Boccaccio, 144,000 children were murdered.

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I heard it was like six or seven. Bethlehem is still not that big of a town today with a population of 27,000 people. A girl at our church did missionary work in Bethlehem. But I did no talk to her much about it. She was just trying to raise funds.

The Gospel, the good news of the coming Kingdom of Jesus, will be proclaimed to all the world by the 144,000 missionaries selected out of all the Christian people, by Jesus as He stands on Mt Zion. Revelation 14:1-7 THEY will do it, not the angel; used here as a metaphor for them. As was done in Luke 10:1-10
Two of them will preach and prophecy in Jerusalem for the final 3½ years.

Proved by Isaiah 66:18b-21 I am coming to gather peoples of every language, they will come to see My glory. I shall put a sign on [some of] them and they will go out to the nations, to the distant shores who have not yet heard of Me or seen My glory. They will declare My glory among all the nations.
My people will gather [in the holy Land, seen by John in Revelation 7:9-14]….and some of them, I shall take for priests and Levites, says the Lord. Revelation 5:9-10

Note: that Jesus is revealed to His people only, soon after His Day of wrath. As is clearly stated in 2 Thessalonians 1:6-10 and the sequence of Revelation 6:12-17, followed by Revelation 7:1-14.

Rev 7: 15-17 refers to Eternity, after the Millennium. Paralleled by Revelation 21:4 He will wipe away every tear...…

Then comes Revelation 8:1, which is a time gap of 'about 10-15 years' earth time, when all the rest of the prophesied things will happen, leading up to the glorious Return of Jesus for His Millennium reign.

Apple Sky said:

So who do you think the 1,444 are, any idea ?

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This isn't difficult. John tells you who they WERE. The 144,000 were called "the FIRST-FRUITS unto God and to the Lamb" in Rev. 14:4.

The term "First-fruits" is harvest language in the scriptures. As in 1 Cor. 15:20, which says, "But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the FIRST-FRUITS of them that slept."

These 144,000 were also called "First-fruits" because they had been raised from the dead on the same day that "Christ the First-fruits" rose from the dead. In other words, that makes these 144,000 to be the same as the Matthew 27:52-53 saints who rose from those graves around Jerusalem, broken open with the earthquake at Christ's crucifixion. After Christ's resurrection, the Matthew 27:52-53 saints also arose from those broken-open graves around Jerusalem and went into the city, to be seen of many (which is why the 144,000 are portrayed as standing with the Lamb on Mount Zion in Jerusalem in Revelation 14:1).

The 144,000 were described as being "without fault" and with "no guile in their mouth" (Rev. 14:5), which can only be true of a glorified saint in the resurrected state. Those in the resurrected state are all considered "virgins" because there is no marriage or giving in marriage in the resurrected state (Luke 20:35-36).

The 144,000 being "redeemed from the earth" (Rev. 14:3) meant that their bodies had been redeemed from out of the dust of the grave. Which is the same as "the redemption of our bodies" that Paul said all the saints were longing for in Romans 8:23.

The 144,000 were from all those stipulated Israelite tribes in Revelation 7 because those were Israelite graves which were broken open at Jerusalem when Christ died. Members from Ephraim and Dan's tribes were not included because these in general had apostatized long ago into idol worship.

These 144,000 were all "sealed" as a sign of their eventual transport to heaven, and their protected status meanwhile as glorified, resurrected saints remaining on the earth for a time after that "First resurrection" event in AD 33. None of the cataclysmic events of the "Great Tribulation" period coming up in AD 66-70 and Jerusalem's "second death" / Lake of Fire conditions in the city would be able to affect them. As glorified saints, the 144,000 were impervious to harm of any sort, whether death, hunger, sword, famine, plague, sinful temptation, or demonic oppression. And all of that was about to descend upon that first-century generation.

Apple Sky said:

King James Bible
And I heard the number of them which were sealed: and there were sealed an hundred and forty and four thousand of all the tribes of the children of Israel.



So you must be Jewish & a virgin.

Could it be that these 144,000 are the babies that were killed by King Herod when Jesus was born ? As it also says in scripture that they must be virgins.

Herod, the king of Judaea, watches as his soldiers slaughter the innocent children of Bethlehem in an attempt to kill the infant Jesus, whom Herod feared would eventually seize his kingdom. According to Boccaccio, 144,000 children were murdered.

Click to expand...

An interpretation I have heard and once accepted a long time ago was that the 144,000 were the first-century Jewish believers that endured the persecution of their time leading up to (or possibly also after) the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple. They did not waver, nor did they renounce their faith.

Apple Sky said:

Thanks for this post @3 Resurrections , very interesting

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You're very welcome. I too struggled for many years trying to understand just who the 144,000 were supposed to be. The "First-fruits" title is unmistakable, however. Once I understood that both Christ and these 144,000 shared the same title of the "First-fruits", it became pretty obvious that they all had shared together in the same event of the "First resurrection" in AD 33.

There is more in the NT writings which addresses the identity and actions of this group of Matthew 27:52-53 resurrected saints. It wasn't just Matthew who wrote about them. Their footprints are all over the NT in the most unexpected places.

Jonaitis said:

An interpretation I have heard and once accepted a long time ago was that the 144,000 were the first-century Jewish believers that endured the persecution of their time leading up to (or possibly also after) the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple. They did not waver, nor did they renounce their faith.

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Of course these 144,00 First-fruits didn't waver or renounce their faith. Glorified, resurrected people are incorruptible and immortal, and are not capable of falling into sin or of renouncing Christ. They were the ones which the angel said would "keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus" (Rev. 14:12).

The 144,000 First-fruits in Rev. 14:4 were also the same ones that the newly-crowned and ascended Son of Man sitting on a cloud had "reaped" with that sickle in Revelation 14:14-16. It was Christ Jesus by Himself doing that "harvesting" on the day of His own resurrection and ascension to the Father that morning. There were no angels assisting with that "dried harvest" being reaped, which tells us that this "harvest" of resurrected individuals in Rev. 14:14-16 was not going to be the next resurrection event at Christ's second coming, when the angels would be doing the "reaping" at that time (Matt. 13:39).

Apple Sky said:

I'd not thought of this & you maybe right, I'll have read through Matthew 27 again. Thanks.

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When I say "the newly-ascended Son of Man" reaped that "dried harvest" in Rev. 14:14-16, I am NOT referring to the Acts 1 day of Christ's final ascension. I am speaking of Christ's FIRST ascension to the Father, the morning after His resurrection (as He told Mary He was going to do in John 20:17). It was necessary that Christ ascend that morning to the Father and "offer Himself without spot to God" in order to be inaugurated as our Great High Priest in heaven. I believe it was then that the newly-crowned Great High Priest Son of Man resurrected the Matthew 27:52-53 saints out of their graves.

Those Matthew 27:52-53 resurrected saints became the "gifts" which it was necessary for a high priest to offer (as in Hebrews 8:3). When Christ had ascended, he led a "multitude of captives" and gave them as "gifts to men" (as Ephesian 4:8-12 mentions). Christ the newly-crowned Great High Priest then returned to earth shortly afterward that same morning, to encounter those women on the road who held Him by the feet and worshipped Him.