In any brief reading through chapters of Genesis, one notes the common occurrence of certain numbers. There are seven Days of Creation and repeatedly, after that, the number seven appears in the text. For example, before Mt. Sinai, YHWH makes seven speeches.
7
The number seven represents completion and rest. The Hebrew for seven has the same consonants as the Hebrew word for completeness. And, as pointed out in the Bible Project podcast on seven, the number seven can also represent the travel from 1 to 7, the pilgrimage to completion. There are seven Hebrew words in the first verse of the Torah, in Genesis 1:1. The statements about the Seventh Day in Genesis 2:2 are three lines each of seven Hebrew words, says the Bible Project podcast.
If seven is "completion" then 3 1/2 if a broken seven, breaking down the completion. This number appears in the visions of Daniel.
In some of the genealogies, the seventh in the list is the main subject of the genealogy, the person of honor. Indeed, in the gospel of the Jewish writer Matthew, the genealogy of Jesus is given in two sevens from Abraham to David, two sevens from David to the Babylonian exile and then two sevens to Jesus. Thus there are three doublets of sevens to reach this person of greatest honor.
The ancient Hebrews had a base ten numerical system and so 7 x 10 = 70 also had significance, it was a "big seven". So there are 70 people or people groups described in Genesis 10, in the Table of Nations. There are 70 people in Jacob's journey from Canaan to Egypt in Genesis 46. If 7 x 10 is important then so, as an emphasis, would be 70 + 7 or 70 x 7.
The number seven can be decomposed into 3+3+1, into two copies of 3, along with a final, Sabbath number. In the first three Days of Creation, God makes light/dark, sky/sea and sea/and. In the second three Days, He fills those dominions. Since He rests on the Seventh Day, we have 3+3+1=7. In some places (as the BibleProject podcast emphasizes) we might view 7 as 3+1+3 with an emphasis on the middle word in a string of seven.
This emphasis on numbers continues, of course, in the Jewish writings that make up the New Testament. There are seven churches in the book of Revelation, for example.
3
And so the number 3 is also significant and appears throughout the Old Testament. Indeed, in Genesis, Exodus, Numbers and Leviticus, Joshua, we have "three day journeys". It is possible that sometimes "three days" had the same meaning as "a couple of days" has in modern English -- it can be a short, indeterminate time.
Genesis tells us the story of three patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
12
Jacob had twelve sons. So did Esau. Thereafter we see an emphasis, at times, on the number twelve. Throughout the Old Testament, there must always be twelve tribes of Israel. If we cannot count the priestly tribe of Levi then we must replace Joseph by the tribes of Manasseh and Ephraim, the sons of Joseph.
And of course, later on, Jesus had twelve close disciples and the early church took time, in Acts 1, to replace Judas so that the number remained at twelve.
40
Another number we will often see if the number 40. The Great Flood begins with 40 days of rain. Moses spent 40 days on Mount Sinai. Moses was 40 years old when he left Egypt and he returned another 40 years later. The Israelites wandered in the desert for 40 years before entering Canaan. David and Solomon each reigned over Israel for 40 years. The number of years of a generation is sometimes described as 40 years and at times the expression "40 years" appears to be an approximate length of time, possibly a generation, just as one might casually use the English word "decade" for "about 10 years". According to John D. Currid, in his commentary on Deuteronomy (p. 437), the number 40 often represents, in the Old Testament, a period of testing. (See Genesis 7: 17, I Samuel 17: 16, indeed even, Matthew 4: 1-2, for a testing period in days.)
As we read through the Old Testament, be alert for occurrences of these numbers.
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