BIBLICAL SYMBOLIC NUMBERS

Part III

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40

The most specific quality of the symbolic number forty is that it almost always refers to a period of time and hardly ever to any kind of tangible quantity. Other symbolic numbers like seven or twelve are also frequently used to indicate periods of time but at the same time they are also widely used to indicate other material or human quantities. This is hardly ever the case with the number forty. While discussing the number ten it has already been established that without a two times five reference, this number is mostly used as a multitude of another number in the same way that also hundred and thousand are used.

Exodus 34 mentions that Moses during his second permanence on the mountain, fasted for forty days. Whenever the umber forty is used, it usually refers to a period of endurance. In the story of the ark of Noah in Genesis-7:4 this number is used for the first time: “Seven days from now I will send rain on the earth for forty days and forty nights, and I will wipe from the face of the earth every living creature I have made."  Although this is the first occasion in which the number forty is mentioned in the Bible, this does not necessarily mean that it is also historically the oldest application of this number.

Parting from the idea that most frequently used numbers (fun’s) have some kind of a logical origin explaining their use, we should also try to explain this peculiar number. Unfortunately, this number is not as easily explainable as for instance numbers such as seven, ten or twelve. In order to thoroughly investigate into its origin, several possible explanations have been provided.

As mentioned above, the number forty is used almost exclusively to symbolically indicate a generic but long period of endurance. While numbers like seven and twelve seem to be more suitable for these purposes, we are stuck with a number that at first glance doesn’t seem to have any relation with fixed calendarian periods.

40 = 30 + 10

In most occasions the number forty is used to indicate a period in days. This offers the possibility to divide the period in one month and ten days (in the Bible 30 days are used to indicate a month length). A reconstruction that could be used to sustain this hypothesis is as follows: In Genesis-7:4-11 it is written that God will let it rain after seven days. Subsequently it is said that the rain started on the seventeenth day of the second month, which means that Gods annunciation took place on the fortieth day of that year. In Genisis-8:5-6 a second example of the use of a period made up from one month and ten days is used when it says that on the first day of the tenth month the mountain tops became visible. Subsequently it is mentioned that Noah waited another forty day before opening a window of the ark (one month and ten days later). The subsequent explanation of the order of events finishes with the statement that on the 27^th day of the second month, the earth was once again dry. As such the entire period of the flood had lasted for one year and 10 days. Calculated from Gods original announcement, 377 days had passed ( 377 is a "Fibonacci number" ).

40 = 5 weeks + 5 days

Another possible explanation for the symbolic use of a period of forty days is its subdivision in five weeks and five days. Specific examples are not known and the only argument in favor of this hypothesis can be sought in the specific interest that the Jews had in the five plus five value.

A big problem when trying to find historical explanations in the Old Testament, is the fact that not all books have been written in the same sequence as they are presented in the Bible. The book of Exodus mentions a period of forty years that Gods people had to wait in the desert before reaching the Promised Land. It is not historically clear whether this book should be placed before or after the Noah story.

40 = 10 x 4

Perhaps the most realistic explanation for the origin of the number forty is the multiplication of ten times four. In this case the number ten serves as the typical symbolic multiplier that has been discussed above, while the number four originates from being the fixed bases of all cyclical calendar mechanisms; a fact that was fully understood by the old Hebrews.  The phases of the moon are divided in four weeks of seven days. The hours of the Hebrew day were divided in four (solar) phases, namely sunset, midnight, dawn and noon.  Also a year is divided in four seasons that are related to the length of the days; the beginning of spring, midsummer, the beginning of autumn and midwinter. These cyclic periods still have immense importance in Jewish religion and form the basis of a complex religious calendar. For instance the Pesach feast was celebrated on the day on which spring started. This symbolic number four is the always returning basis of all cyclic periods on which the calendar is based. The number ten should in this case be seen as the ideal neutral multiplier to lift the universal cyclic number four to a higher symbolic level in order to express a complete cyclical period of divine length. In the Bible, the numbers ten and its multiples; hundred and thousand, are often used as multipliers for other symbolic numbers. This has been discussed above and offers a highly realistic opportunity.

Genesis 15:13 gives an example that sustains this hypothesis when God says to Abraham: “Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own, and they will be enslaved and mistreated four-hundred years”. This makes clear that the number four is the basic “multiplier of endurance”.

Accepting this hypothesis it may surprise that the number forty apparently has a wider application than the number four. A possible explanation might be that all cyclical calendar periods are devised in four phases. Four can refer to a day, a month or a year; periods that each by themselves already have a name and that as a consequence are experienced more as single units than as a symbol for completing a cycle. Multiplying four by ten, each connection with a tangible period disappears. What remains is a number that expresses the purely symbolic fulfillment of a lengthy period whatever it may be. In this context it is logical that the Bible mentions the number forty as the number of years that the people of God had to drift through the desert after their escape from Egypt.

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Also in the New Testament the number forty continues to be used to express long periods of endurance. It was Jesus himself that was guided into the desert by John the Baptist in order to fast for forty days and forty nights and resist to the temptations of the devil (Mathew-4:1-2).

Another less known example of the use of the symbolic number forty in the gospels is the period that passed between Jesus death on the cross at the ninth hour on Friday and his first appearance before the two Marias on Sunday, at the first hour of the first day, which according to Jewish time calculation takes place at dawn (Mathew-28-1 Marcus-16:2 Luke-24:1). The time that passed between these points of time that are mentioned in the gospels is exactly forty hours. At that time the Jews used the Babylonian time calculation, in which both day and night were divided in each twelve “temporal” hours. Considering the fact that for an accurate nocturnal time calculation hourglasses and other similar devices were needed, the night was usually subdivided in four watches of roughly three hours on average. This subdivision was sufficient for soldiers or shepherds in open field and is even up to this moment still used by sailors and the military.

4

In the explanation above, four has been used as the possible basis of the symbolic number forty. Even if the Bible never mentions the number four to indicate a period, this does not mean that this number is not used to indicate other symbolic values. In the New Testament, the number four has become a typically Christian number because it is connected with the four evangelists and their symbolic creatures: Matthew the man, Marcus the lion, Luke the ox and John the eagle. These symbolic creatures have been taken from Revelations-4:7 which mentions the four animals around God’s throne:  “In the center, around the throne, were four living creatures, and they were covered with eyes, in front and in back. The first living creature was like a lion, the second was like an ox, the third had a face like a man, the fourth was like a flying eagle” The most accepted explanation of this symbolism says that the four creatures refer to the four zodiacal signs that form the so-called fixed cross: Taurus, Lion, Scorpion and Aquarius. These signs are the signs that appear in the midst of the four seasons. In Johns vision, the eagle replaces Scorpion while the man replaces Aquarius. This explanation is highly credible since it once again confirms the link between the number four and the seasons of the year. This explanation furthermore seams to fit in the rest of the symbolic context of the book of revelations where astrology seems to play an important role.

Unfortunately it is not possible to draw conclusions from this example regarding Christian symbolism because the parable has been taken from a vision of the Old Testament prophet Ezekiel. Ignoring this fact it is still interesting drawing a comparison with another classic example of the use of four creatures seem to have a lot in common with Ezekiel’s vision. In classical times Aristotle’s theory of the four elements was widely spread in all Mediterranean countries. These four earthly elements (water, fire, earth, air) where complemented by a fifth spiritual element, the so called “quintessence”. This fifth element was represented in all four earthly elements by a symbolic creature. In the water this was the dolphin, in the air the eagle, in the fire a phoenix and on earth a man. It will be very difficult to establish whether this symbolic interpretation has had any practical implication in the mystical visions of Ezekiel and the writer of the book of Revelations. However, the graphical representation of this quintessence idea was the five pointed star. A symbol that supposedly also served the followers of Pythagoras as “secret” recognition sign or amulet.

A comparable Jewish example of this quintessence symbolism is given in the Talmud tradition of the “four cups of wine and the cup of Elijah” during the Pesach feast. These cups are drunken as a symbol of the four different words by which the Exodus from Egypt is mentioned in the Bible: “I will bring out.., I will free.., I will redeem.. and I will take..”

There was uncertainty about the question whether a fifth term “I will bring you to” (by which in the Torah the salvation of the Jewish people is expressed), should be celebrated as well. For this reason it was decided to add a fifth cup, called Elijah’s cup, since according to the Talmud unsolved problems will have to wait for a decision of Elijah.

During this part of the Seder, the front door is opened in waiting of Elijah. At first it was custom to leave the door open during the entire Seder inviting strangers to participate in the celebrations. During the prosecutions of the Middle-ages this habit was abolished. Instead, the front door was opened temporarily as a symbolic welcome to the prophet Elijah. His symbolic arrival fits in well with the tradition of Pesach since Elijah is considered a predecessor of the Messiah, announcing the arrival of a new area of peace and freedom.

The example above is illustrative for an important theme in this essay that will be discussed in detail later on, namely the common practice to “lift-up” certain earthly numbers to another symbolic spiritual value by adding up the number one to these numbers. The fact that this habit doesn’t belong exclusively to the Jewish tradition is proven by the quintessence symbolism of Aristotle. The Jewish use of this symbolism has been repeatedly demonstrated. For instance Jesus was the symbolic number thirteen of his twelve followers, while Elijah brings the symbolic “fifth” promise of the coming Messiah on the Pesach feast. It was once again Jesus that made the day of his resurrection into the the eights’ day of the week, in the same way that young Jewish boys are circumcised on the eights day after birth in order to honor the covenant with God, promising them salvation from the old (seven days) creation.

Returning to some common examples of the number four in the Bible: The four paradise rivers; Pishon, Gihon, Tigris and Euphrates (Genisis-2:10). In this context, the number four also gets part of its symbolic meaning from the four winds; North & South and East & West. Apart from this the Jews know four major prophets; Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Daniel. Four also plays an important role in the dimensions of the Tabernacle and the Temple. Regarding Christianity, we know four major church fathers: Augustine, Ambrosias, Hieronymus and Gregorius the Great.

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