Constant Numbers

The Bible is a collection of 66 books written by about 40 different people over 1,500 years. If these people were not guided by one divine mind we should expect to find patterns and idioms, metaphors and names that are as unique as each person. What we find instead is a coordinated collection that consistently uses certain numbers, idioms, patterns and images as if one mind was in charge. This aspect is so well known that a principle of proper Bible study is based on this observation and called “Expositional Constancy”. The reason I bring this up here is because this aspect is so taken for granted that we often forget how amazing it is that such constancy exists across all of these writings. I’ll provide some word and image examples later but for now I highlight some number examples that we should not take for granted.

The number 3 is used about 500 times in the Bible with an additional occurrences of events that can be quantified with the number 3. The pattern of the number is used at times to represent intensity, importance, or added strength as in Ecclesiastes 4:12 which describes "A threefold cord cannot quickly be torn in two." The intensity of God's holiness is emphasized by the declaration in Isa 6 and Revelation 4: “Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord”. This number also represents personal or event completeness, slightly different than the completeness relating to the number 7 (see below).

Seeing this or any number show up in a writing is not unusual but the way it is used and the type of things that occur in threes across all the writings is notable. For example, there were 3 righteous Patriarchs before the flood - Abel, Enoch and Noah. After the flood there were the Patriarchs Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. There were only three individuals who witnessed Jesus’ transfiguration on Mount Hermon and there were three people transfigured – Jesus, Moses and Elijah. The three gifts given to Israel by God were His law, the land of their inheritance, and their calling as a chosen people. There were three gifts from the Maggai to Jesus. Jonah was as dead in the belly of a fish 3 days and Jesus was dead in the belly of the earth 3 days. These latter two events were connected by Jesus but the others are some of the many subtleties that one has to observe on their own. I think these are intriguing because they are clear to see but not easy to incorporate in a writing and without the writer drawing attention to these aspects, it is unlikely that they were deliberately trying to create these patterns.

The number 40 is first used to describe the number of days it would rain upon the earth at the time of Noah. There and elsewhere it coincides with a period of testing, trial or probation. Some examples: Moses' lived forty years in Egypt and forty years in the desert before God selected him to lead his people out of slavery. Moses was on Mount Sinai for 40 days and nights, on two separate occasions, he sent spies, for forty days, to investigate the Promised Land and the Israelites spent 40 years in the Wilderness. But this was all recorded in the books that Moses wrote so maybe it’s not so special - until we see the number show up in Jonah where he warned ancient Nineveh, for forty days, that its destruction would come because of its many sins; In Ezekiel where the prophet laid on His right side for 40 days to symbolize Judah's sins. Jesus was in the Wilderness 40 days prior to His ministry starting. Why don’t we find any of the writers incorporating a number like 30 or 50 for periods of testing or trials?

The number 7 is used hundreds of times throughout the Old and New Testament writings and even a casual reader will notice how obvious this is. It is first used to denote the completion and perfection of God’s creation and thereafter it always denotes these same aspects. Nowhere does a writer use another number to indicate these aspects – unless the number is a multiple of 7. Want some examples?

The first five books of the Bible, the Torah, describes seven days of Creation, the seven Feasts of Israel, seven days of rain after Noah enters the ark, seven days between the doves, Jacob serves seven years for each of his two wives, seven cows and ears of corn in Pharaoh’s dreams (seven good years and seven famine years), seven lamps of the Menorah, the seven elements of furniture in the Tabernacle, seven days of the feast of unleavened bread, the repeated use of seven in the Levitical priestly instructions, the seven times seven years to the Jubilee Year, etc.

In the book of Joshua we see the seven priests with seven trumpets circling Jericho seven times in the Book of Joshua, seven nations of Canaan, etc. In Daniel we read about 70 weeks (or sevens) until the time that Messiah would come. Job – the oldest writing in the Bible and before Judaism was established – uses the number seven to refer to his sons, his possessions, sacrifices and time. Elsewhere we read that Solomon spent seven years building the Temple, Naaman washed seven times in the river, seven loaves fed the four thousand, etc. In the Book of Revelation we encounter seven churches, seven lamp stands, seven stars, seven seals, seven horns, seven spirits of God, seven angels, seven trumpets, seven thunders, seven crowns, seven last plagues, seven bowls, seven kings, etc.

The more one examines the text closely, the more evident is the recurrence of seven, and sometimes in some very surprising ways. I’m not drawing attention to the surprising aspects in this post but the often missed fact that virtually every writing in the Bible incorporates this number and maintains the same pattern of use that the other writings do. No one “mixed up the signals” by using seven for something incomplete or imperfect. If this one number was the only example the Bible had that would be amazing and unique. With many more numbers, words, names, etc. reflecting the same type of coordination and constancy, it is clear that someone master minded these writings – over a span of 1,500 years. Or, is it just another amazing coincidence?