what is the symbolism of number 40 in hebrew tradition?

Question

e.g. noah's flood; 40 days and 40 nights.

Answer 1

"Forty" is a round (indefinite) number, occasionally for a group of people, but mostly for a SIGNIFICANT and COMPLETE period of time. . Below I've listed a fair number of its uses both for days and years.

It appears most likely that 40 YEARS came first, as a round figure for "a GENERATION", that is, the time someone takes to grow to their prime,** and/or the time it takes for the shift from one generation of people to another to substantially take place.
**Note that we still echo this notion in our expression "Life begins at forty!"

Elsewhere the number 70 is used for a full "generation", but the sense in that case is one person's full lifespan. (This idea is the basis for "threescore years and ten. . or fourscore" - language drawn from the KJV of Psalm 90, and familiar to others from Lincoln's deliberate echoing of it in his Gettysburg Address.)

Evidence that of the priority of 'forty years' is not simply that it appears far more often than 'forty days'. Consider also that some of the most significant uses of 'forty days' are themselves closely tied to periods of forty years. Thus, the time of the spies' mission to Canaan is tied directly to the period of punishment that follows - forty years of wandering --till the men counted in the census have all died (that is, a shift of a generation), and Jesus' 40-day temptation in the desert is a DELIBERATE echo of Israel's 40 years there.

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Biblical examples (some may be literally, but most are probably 'round numbers'):
1) 40 days (and nights) - length of the rainfall during Noah's flood; length of a period of fasting and preparation (Moses on Sinai [twice], Elijah near Sinai, Jesus in the desert); length of the spies' mission into the Promised land; time from Jesus' resurrection to his ascension

2) 40 years - length of each major part of Moses' life (birth to flight from Egypt, to his return to lead the people out, to his death); length of Israel's wandering in the desert ("until the whole GENERATION that came out of Egypt had died!"); length of the reign/rule of various judges leaders of Israel (Eli, Saul, David, Solomon, etc), each representing a 'generation'; time from the death of Jesus' till the predicted fall of Jerusalem ("this generation will not pass away until all this takes place")


(A humorous almost oxymoronic echo of these expressions is "forty winks" in which the number suggests a 'full' period, yet uses a term for BRIEF sleep/naps to suggest something not quite so long and full after all. No doubt whoever coined it had a good sense of the meaning of the biblical expressions.)

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By the way, the form "forty DAYS and forty NIGHTS" (compare "three days and three nights", "seven days and seven nights"), the point is NOT to count exact time. It is rather to emphasize that whatever is described did not 'let up' during the nighttime.

In other words it is basically an alternative form (more poetic) for "day and night for X days". This makes sense for things like raining, flooding, fasting, testing. (Note on the other hand that the spies' journey does NOT mention "nights". Presumably they carried on their actual work, as is normally done, only during the daylight hours.)

Thus 'forty days and forty nights' is no less 'round' or symbolic than the simple 'forty days'.

Answer 2

Biblical Meaning Of Numbers 1-40

Answer 3

The number 40 appears so frequently in the Bible that one becomes suspicious that the number has some special meaning. In literature outside of the Bible, the number appears to mean a time of testing or struggle. But in the Bible there is something more. The number 40 seems to represent a special time after which something important happens. One author puts it this way:

"After the flood in Genesis, a new creation begins. After Moses converses with God, the covenant is renewed. After Israel's wandering in the wilderness, they will enter into the Promised Land. After Elijah's journey, God strengthens him to resume his prophetic ministry. After Jesus' temptation, he begins his public ministry; after the Ascension, we enter the age of the Church." (http://www.americancatholic.org/Newsletters/CU/ac0205.asp)

Answer 4

Testing.

Answer 5

There is much more evidence for dark matter, "god" never did fill in the gaps as advertized. Taoist/Atheist (realist)