What is the assignment of Biblical numbers?

Question

Six,(6), is the number of man,Seven,(7), is the number of completion. What do numbers 1-5 represent,and are there any additional designated numbers?

Answer 1

yeah there are several:

1=unity, and/or God
2=number of division...2 natures, 2 ages, male and female, day and night...etc.
3=number of divine perfection...body, soul, spirit; past, present, future; Christ is 3 sheperds; Holy trinity
4=number of creation...4 seasons; north, south, east, west
5=number of grace and redemption...annointing oil made of 5 parts; david chose 5 smooth stones
6=number of man...created on 6th day; man works for 6 days; six different words in hebrew for the word ''man''
7=number of spiritual perfection...7 seals; 7 colors in the spectrum; 7 parables in matthew; 7 promises to churches
8=number of new beginnings...8 covenants with abraham, circumcision on 8th day; 8 people on ark
9=number of judgement...9 greek words for judgement; 9 gifts of Holy Spirit
10=number of divine perfection...10 commandments; 10 plagues on egypt; 10 ''I am'' sayings by Jesus
12=number of governmental perfection...12 apostles; 12 tribes of Israel; 12 angels; 12 gates
40=number of probation or trial...40 days 40 nights in ark; 40 days in temptation in desert for Jesus; 40 years in wilderness for Israelites; moses on the mountain for 40 days

Answer 2

it depends
The OT operated under a couple of distinct numerical "guidelines"

first...the number "40" is an indeterminate number...it would roughly translate..."a bunch" , "some" , "I don't know, but for a while"....an indeterminate amount, but with the implication of an extended period or amount...
it rained for 40 days and 50 nights...how long, really?
quite a bit..
he went into the desert for 40 days and 40 nights...
how long? a pretty long time...
so....40 is essentially meaningless...it is NOT a numerical reference...ever...is was just the literary idiom of the time for "a bunch"

historical references: soldiers in a battle, taxation amounts, measurements of the arc of the covenant and of the temple especially...are probably fairly accurate...

age(s) of the "notable" personalities...Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Noah, Methuselah etc etc etc...artistic embellishment?
literary hyperbole? ...or a literary reflection of the -then- theological premise that YHWH rewarded the good, upright men with long(er) life...and the better the person, the longer the life...after all, at that time, in Judaism, there was no conception of a heaven or a hell ...so the ONLY reward the really good got was a really long life

of the other literary, cultural usages for numerical references, the most widely used was gimitria [gemitria]
The Hebrew language did not contain any numerals at that time...so there was no "7" or "9" or "254"...the words were written out..."seven" , "nine" , two hundred fifty four"
the "hidden" value of a word was the numerical value associated with its letters....for instance, 14 is a Davidic number...so, if you want to trace the geneology of Christ back to show that he was a decendant of King David, you create 14 generations between Christ and David....
this "mystic" revelation eventually would become the basis for the Kabbalistic sefirot and sanctity of the Tetragrammaton

obviously, any reference to 12 dealt with the 12 tribes and therefore was a numerical compression representing all Jews

but, perhaps the most famous, or infamous use of this numerical technique is the "mark of the devil" that is...666
the clue is in the preceding lines..."this is a human mark"
in other words...a person
if you take the letters of Nero Caesar..and apply the gimitria technique of reducing the letters to their respective numerical values...you get 666...
in the Greek version...the mark of the devil is 616, why???
his name is transliterated differently into Greek...

of the NT, there are few strickly numerical techniques...what there are nominally reflect Greek philosophical influences in the literary world of that time...that is...if you wanted your theology to be perceived as legitimate, serious and having "depth"...it would have to have to satisfy at least some of the then current philosophical and theological concerns....
---as an aside, this is the function of almost all of the writings of St. Paul....to give the fledgling belief system that would eventually become Christianity some philosophical weight...but I digress

NT numerical writings dealing with Christ are almost always selected for their OT prophetic applicability, for effect, to mirror existing cult practices, or simple "artistic" embellishment....


the ascribing of pious platitudes to counting numbers was a much later application....NOT biblical at all...

the concept of the sacredness of numbers, at that time and place, if at all, comes from Egyptian mystics and Greek philosophers

Answer 3

The Bible doesn't really say, so anything is conjecture. I've heard 12=beginning; 40=trial; 1=woman (1+6=7--get it?)

Answer 4

BLACKDIA...,
HASTHE RIGHT IDEA.