BIBLICAL SYMBOLIC NUMBERS

Part II

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12 & 13

Israel knew twelve tribes, called after the twelve sons of Jacob. Besides this there were twelve “minor” prophets, even as twelve springs (and seventy palm trees) at Elim (Ex 15:27), the breast piece of the high priest was decorated with twelve stones bearing the names of the twelve tribes (Ex-28:21) and the “bronze Sea” in the Temple of Jerusalem stood on twelve bulls (1Kings-7:25). These are just a few of the many occasions in which the Old Testament mentions the number twelve.

The number twelve also has a specific significance in Christianity through the twelve disciples of Jesus and the twelve apostles. It is however once again the book of Revelations in which the number twelve gets a very specific attention. Chapter 21 of this book gives a description of the heavenly Jerusalem, a city laid out like a square with twelve gates and twelve angels, with on the gates the names of the twelve tribes of Jerusalem, build on twelve foundations with on them the twelve names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb. It is clear that the writer wants to indicate that God’s new chosen people will be the followers of Jesus. The old twelve tribes baring the names of the twelve sons of Jacob are more or less transformed in twelve new “tribes” named after the twelve apostles. Also in a geometrical way, the writer expresses his appreciation for the number twelve “He measured the city with the rod and found it to be 12000 stadia in length, and as wide and high as it is long. He measured its wall and it was 144 cubits thick, by man's measurement, which the angel was using”. The writer raises the number twelve to the square in order to elevate it above ordinary human dimensions. It is remarkable how the number twelve is interpreted as an earthly number, not worthy to be directly connected with God heavenly creations. Twelve times twelve or twelve times thousand seems to get closer (Rev-21:17).   

The book of revelations provides many examples of interesting number symbolism. One of these examples can also be found in the Gospels in a more or less similar way. In Revelations 12, the writer talks about a period of 1260 days (Rev-12:6). In the next chapter he mentions a period of 42 month (Rev-13:5). Assuming a calendar year of 360 days, these 1260 days correspond with 42 month of each 30 days. Assuming that a year is composed of twelve month, these 42 month correspond with a period of 3½ years. It is clear that the writer wanted to make a reference to a half of a period of seven years. Because of the fact that this period is described in various ways, it may be concluded that a full period of 84 month (or seven years), was considered to be particularly complete or perfect because it exists of 7 times 12 month. At the same time it also expresses the fact that the number six, being half of twelve, but also the number of the days in which God created earth, was considered as something “unfinished or imperfect”. 

                1260 days = 42 month = 7 x 6  month = 3,5 years
                2520 days = 84 month = 7 x12 month =   7  years

In the 10^th chapter of book of Luke we read that apart from his 12 disciples, Jesus appointed 72 other of his followers to spread his word. This means that in total there were 12+72=84 followers of Jesus on the road. In other words, 7x12 followers. Symbolically speaking a very appealing multiplication of two “holey” numbers. It is possible to make a second calculation based on these numbers that is interesting: Jesus send out his 72 followers in pairs. This means that 72 has to be divided by two in order to calculate the effective annunciation of his word by this group. As such the total spreading of his word could be done at 49 places at the same time, by: 36 pairs of followers + 12 regular disciples + Jesus himself.  Seven times seven is also a beautiful multiplication of the so symbolically significant number seven. Still it must be said that this last example was not completely consistent because if Jesus would have been considered in the first example, the total would have been 85. Something that is consistent but at the same time also requires a bit more imagination, is the fact that both 85 and 49 have an internal sum of 13. Thirteen is the number that expresses the twelve disciples plus Jesus himself. Even though Jesus should be seen completely separated from his twelve most loyal followers, it must still be said that the number thirteen is not at all a bad choice as a symbol for his divine status. Within the Jewish mystical tradition, the number thirteen had a very important significance because it was accepted that God had given shape to the universe through this number. At the end of this chapter, this particular meaning of the number thirteen will be discussed in the contexts of the Tetragrammaton and the numeric value of 26 of this Hebrew name of God. Regarding the likelihood of the number thirteen as representation of Jesus it is not necessary to consider any current superstition regarding this number, because the interpretation of the number thirteen as bad luck bringer originated during the Middle Ages.

The number thirteen had a symbolic value that was rather similar to the number eight. In Genesis-17:25 Abraham’s son Ishmael was thirteen years old when he was circumcised. In this case the number thirteen is used as 12+1 in the same way that the number eight is used as 7+1 in remembrance of the coming Messiah by the Jews and in remembrance of the Messiah that already came by the Christians. At thirteen years Jewish boys become "Son of the Law" or "Bar Mitzvah" a celebration that brings an end to the first twelve years of childhood and marks the start of their new life as religiously responsible members of the grownup world. The Bar Mitzvah celebration did not exist as such in Jesus days but the essence of religious maturity at thirteen years was understood.

10 & 5

The number ten gets great importance in the Bible during the exodus of the Jews from Egypt. First of all, God punished the Egyptians with ten plagues (Ex-12:29) before his people could leave from Egypt. During the exodus through the desert, God dictated on the mount Sinai his ten commandments to Moses (Ex-20). One of the most interesting numeric qualities of these Ten Commandments is that they were written on two stone tables (probably five commands per table).

In the Jewish tradition, the number ten plays an important role. A good example of this importance can be found in the ten Sefirot of the Kabalistic book Sefer Yetzirah and the ten “secret” names of God that are associated to them: Eheie, Jah, El, Elohim, Eloi gibor, Eloah, IHVH Sabaoth, Elohim Sabaoth, Sjadai and Adonai. Jesus also had a particular preference for the number ten and used it frequently in his parables, especially in the form of two times five.

♦ Luke-12:6 he says: “Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies,…”.

♦ Matthew-25:1: “At that time the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish and five were wise”.

♦ Luke-15:8 “Or suppose a woman has ten silver coins and loses one”

♦ Matthew-25:20: “Master,' he said, 'you entrusted me with five talents. See, I have gained five more.”

♦ Luke-19:13-18: “So he called ten of his servants and gave them ten minas… (16) The first one came and said, 'Sir, your mina has earned ten more’. (18) The second came and said, 'Sir, your mina has earned five more’”

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A particularly interesting example of the use of the numbers five and ten is the miraculous feeding, mentioned in all four gospels. In this case Jesus deals with five loafs of bread and two fishes which he divides amongst five thousand men. The surplus of the meal was twelve baskets full, also from the fishes. It could have been an example of elementary school arithmetic’s. Continuously dividing the breads in two leads to the following multiplication: 5, 10, 20, 40, 80, 160, 320, 640, 1280, 2560, 5120. Five thousand men participated in the meal so the surplus was 120, or 10x12 (“twelve baskets full”). The number 5120 is also ten times 512, the result of the multiplication of 8x8x8. As mentioned before, the numeric value of the name Jesus is 888.

It will not come as a surprise that the more esoteric gospel of Judas Thomas makes frequent use of the numbers five and ten. Despite its rather mystical content, the text also contains some parables that return in the four excepted gospels, like in Thomas 16: “….For there will be five in a house: there'll be three against two and two against three, father against son and son against father, and they will stand alone”.  At first glimpse this seems a rather incomprehensible text fragment, which can however be explained through the so called “wedding proposition” of Pythagoras, based on the symbolic value of the number five as the total of two and three, being respectively the first female (also four was used) and the first male numbers. In this proposition, the number five was considered a symbol for children as the result of the union between the male and female numbers three and two. In an identical explanation this number five was compared with the first Pythagoras triangle, with sides of 3, 4 and 5 and the numbers three and four symbolized the love between man and woman.

Another example from the same gospel is definitely more esoteric. Thomas 19: “…For there are five trees in Paradise for you; they do not change, summer or winter, and their leaves do not fall. Whoever knows them will not taste death."  

The number ten is either well used as two times five, or as a multiplier for another number raising it to a higher symbolic level of importance in the same way the numbers hundred and thousand are used.

It is almost certain that our decimal system originates from the use of the fingers of our two hands as a method to make simple calculations. Even the most primitive tribes use the number ten as a basis for their calculations. Usually, the larger numbers are also expressed as multitudes of ten, but often counting simply proceeds using other limbs on the body. After the ten fingers, also the nose, ears, eyes, arms, legs and other visible extensions of the human body were used for counting purposes. An interesting example is a tribe living in New Guinea that counts to 27 in the following way: with the forefinger of the right hand they point to: the fingers of the left hand, left wrist, underarm, elbow, biceps, collarbone, shoulder, ear and eye, then thirteen is reached. The nose is fourteen. Consequently the same procedure is repeated using the left forefinger. Further than 27 they cannot count. Numerals in several languages earned their names from these primitive counting systems. The word ten seems to originate from “two hands”. The number twenty, total of our toes and fingers returns as the basis of an antique French counting system in the name “quatre-vingt” (four times twenty) the French word for eighty. It is not unlikely that the number 21 must have had a specifically male symbolic significance in these primitive calculation systems. A reference to this symbolism is also found in the Jewish Kabalistic text Sefer Yetzirah. The text of the third verse says: “Ten Sefirot of Nothingness, in the number of ten fingers, five opposite five, with a singular covenant, precisely in the middle, in the circumcision of the tongue, and in the circumcision of the membrum”.

In his interesting explanation on this verse Rabbi Kaplan says: “Very closely related to this are the various actions that use the hands to channel spiritual forces. These include the laying of hands, the lifting of hands in Priestly Blessing, and the spreading of the hands in prayer”. This explanation also provides an interesting symbolical link to the story of Jesus feeding the crowds, when Jesus blessed the five loafs of bread and the two fishes.

Furthermore Kaplan explains how the figural “circumcision of the tongue” refers to the word of God. In the Hebrew Old Testament context, this “word” of God is considered the original force of creation. The circumcision of the membrum is therefore seen as the human (mortal/earthly) possibility to reach a higher level closer to God. Also the importance of the eights day on which the circumcision takes place is crucial since it is a reminder of the day on which the promised Messiah will lead the Jewish people to the new area and liberate them of the original sin.

It is also interesting to hear Jesus opinion on this issue according to the Thomas Gospel in verse 53: His disciples said to him, "is circumcision useful or not?" He said to them, "If it were useful, their father would produce children already circumcised from their mother. Rather, the true circumcision in spirit has become profitable in every respect." In the context of what Rabbi Kaplan wrote about the “circumcision of the tongue”, this verse is less rebellious than it seems.

There are numerous issues in which the number five is used in the Bible and in most cases in a context that relates in some way to a divine or miraculous relationship between God and his people. Two examples are the five wounds of Christ and the five stones of David against goliath.

Returning to the Ten Commandments that God dictated to Moses on Mount Sinai the attention is also drawn to the very well known biblical number forty.