seven days creation, seven beasts on the Noahs ark 40 days and 40 nights rain, 40 years in the desert, and on, and on. why only these numbers all through the bible.
2006-08-02 03:15:59 · 11 answers · asked by Anonymous in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
yes I was forgetting the threes but those are mostly new testament including the three crucifictions
2006-08-02 03:25:18 · update #1
BRG I only gave a couple of xamples, the pattern is repetative.
2006-08-02 03:27:04 · update #2
7 is the number representing perfection. 40 is the number of trial and hardship.
However, God also uses other numbers symbolically (I'll only list the ones I can remember offhand, there are sites that give full lists).
1: unity in thought, mind, body, or action; marriage; Godhead;
2: duality, division
3: God, the Trinity; trichtomic nature of mankind (body, soul, spirit)
4: direction, movement, earth itself
6: mankind, imperfection, flaw, finishing of labor
7: perfection, completion, rest
8: life, Christ
12: Israel, Apostles, the Church on earth
13: betrayal, replacement (the 13th disciple was chosen to replace Judas Iscariot after his suicide)
40: trial and hardship
144 (also, 144,000): the saved, the sealed, the Church in heaven
333: the Trinity- God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit
666: the number of the name of the Antichrist; a man seeking to be God; the unholy trinity- Satan, the Antichrist, and the False Prophet
777: God's perfection
However, there's numbers in the Bible that are just plain old random numbers, like 14,660 in the tribe of Judah and 9,350 in the tribe of Simeon.
2006-08-02 03:35:51 · answer #1 · answered by seraphim_pwns_u 5 · 10⤊ 2⤋
There are several numbers that appear repeatedly throughout ancient religions, particularly, 3, 4, 7, and 12 (and multiples of them). The reason for this has to do with the origin of these religions. They originated in ancient astronomy that was used to keep track of the seasons before the advent of the calendar.
12 is important because there are approximately 12 lunar cycles in a year. Keeping track of lunar cycles was the first calendar, but it wasn't accurate enough and had to be recalibrated every few years for the type of accuracy needed for agriculture.
Then they noticed that the position of the sun relative to the background stars at sunrise (or sunset) could be used as an extremely accurate calendar. They were already used to 12 months, so they broke the sky up into 12 regions, and made up stories about them related to the season they represented (which is why the star clusters look almost nothing like what they are called). This is the origin of the significance of 12. In time, the star clusters came to be seen as mystical people in the sky who controlled the seasons. This is the origin of polytheism. The sun is the origin of monotheism.
The number 4 is significant because of the 4 seasons in a year. The number 7 is significant because there are 7 'nonfixed' eye visible celestial objects; sun, moon, mercury, venus, mars, saturn, jupiter.
The number 3 is significant because it represents the triad of the sun, moon, and earth, and because there are 3 months in each season.
2006-08-02 10:32:08 · answer #2 · answered by lenny 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Seven seems to be the number in the Bible that represents completion. 40 is a number that recurs for various reasons. In the case of the years in the desert, it was designed so that the generation of rebellious Israelites would not enter the promised land while still of productive age. The 40 days and nights of Noah's ark was designed to be a really long time for it to rain.
2006-08-02 10:22:54 · answer #3 · answered by BigRichGuy 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Any time you see a number in the Bible, think code. Codes are written throughout the Bible...and most other sacred texts...as a way of imbedding additional information to the reader. Since most modern readers seem to be less interested in the meaning of these codes, more emphasis is placed on the words...but it's the numbers, like 7 (for completeness and divinity, i.e., God) and 40 (for spiritual testing), that would allow us to fully understand the meaning of the words...not vice versa.
2006-08-02 10:34:04 · answer #4 · answered by Rev Debi Brady 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I'm not certain on this point, but to my understanding the Bible does assign certain symbolism to numbers. Three for example is emphasis, seven and twelve are heavenly perfection, ten is earthly perfection, six is evil. In fact, that is why the beast's number is 666, evil emphasized three times. I'm not sure about forty, and I know there are symbols for the first twelve numbers and I only gave five of them. But again my understanding is it has to do with symbolism.
2006-08-02 10:22:47 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
When the bible was written down the number 40 briefly translated into "many" and 7 was thought a power number......so it wasn't god just the people who wrote it down!
2006-08-02 10:20:32 · answer #6 · answered by *only~wishful~thinking* 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The answer to this is no. He can also count by 6's as in "666 number of the beast".
2006-08-02 10:19:30 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Just to clarify something... the jewish calandar has 13 months... because there are thirteen full moons a year.
The twelve month calandar wasn't invented until the Roman empire.
2006-08-02 10:35:56 · answer #8 · answered by Dustin Lochart 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
don't forget threes. It was three days before Christ was resurrected, three divisions of the Lord (Father, Son, Holy Spirit),
2006-08-02 10:22:12 · answer #9 · answered by fear_the_jason 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Maybe he/she/it just has a penchant for 4's and 7's. Wonder what he/she/it's lottery ticket numbers look like.
2006-08-02 10:20:20 · answer #10 · answered by xenomorph_girl 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋