Numerology - The Use of Special Numbers in the Bible and Other Ancient Myths

(unfinished)

A noteworthy characteristic of the Hebrew and Christian scriptures is the frequent use of special mythologically and astrologically significant numbers throughout its pages.

Have you ever noticed how frequently such numbers as 3, 7, 12, 40 and their multiples occur in Bible stories?  The numbers occur far too frequently for someone to consider them unremarkable.  And when one realizes that most ancient myths featured these very same numbers, just as the Bible does, and that other ancient myths had similar characters, plots, symbols, and themes, one realizes that the Bible belongs in the same category as these other products of ancient imaginations.  That is to say that the Bible is mostly mythology and symbolic stories, not a historical work to be taken as literally true at face value.

This essay will provide the following:

1. Lists of Occurrences of Special Numbers in the Bible,

• 1. Numbers in Genealogies and Name Lists

  2. 3's in the Bible

  3. 7's in the Bible

  4. 12's in the Bible

  5. 40's in the Bible

2. Examples of the Same Special Numbers Used by Other Ancient Cultures and their Myths,

1. 3's in Myth, Religion, Astrology, etc.

2. 7's in Myth, Religion, Astrology, etc.

3. 12's in Myth, Religion, Astrology, etc.

4. 40's in Myth, Religion, Astrology, etc.

3. Reasons Why These Numbers Were Special to the Ancients.

1.1.  Numbers in Genealogies and Name Lists

The writers of the Bible almost invariably used the numbers 7, 10, or their multiples in genealogies.

Line of Cain -- 7 generations to Lamech, personification of evil

Line of Seth -- 7 generations to Enoch, personification of good

Line of Seth -- 10 generations to Noah, savior figure

Line of Noah -- 10 generations to Abraham, "exalted father" of the Jews

Line of Abraham -- 7 generations to Moses, savior figure (Exodus 6)

Line of Perez -- 10 generations to David, savior figure (Ruth 4:18-22)

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Abraham to David -- 14 generations (Mt 1)

David to Exile -- 14 generations (Mt 1)

Exile to Christ -- 14 generations (Mt 1)

• [So, in Matthew there are six 7's leading up to Christ, the 7th  7 from Abram, the Exalted Father.]

God to Jesus -- 77 generations (Lk 3)

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Table of Nations -- 70 descended from Noah's sons (Gen 10)

Jacob's family into Egypt -- 70 members (Gen 46:27; Ex 1:5)

Evil tribes in Canaan -- 7 nations to be destroyed by Israel (Dt 7:1; Acts 13:19)

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Abraham had 7 sons besides Isaac, the special child (Gen 25:1-2; 16:15; 21:2-3)

Jesse had 7 sons besides David, the special child (1 Sam 16:10)

1.2.  The Number 3 in the Bible:

• • Noah sends out the dove 3 times (at 7-day intervals) before success. (Gen 8.8-12)

  • Abraham travels 3 days to sacrifice Isaac.  (Gen 22.4)

  • In prison, the Pharaoh's chief cup-bearer dreams of 3 branches that bud and blossom and produce clusters of grapes.  Joseph tells him the 3 branches represent 3 days. "Within 3 days Pharaoh will lift you up and restore you to your position as his chief cup-bearer" (Gen 40.13). 

  • In prison, the Pharoah's chief baker dreams of 3 baskets of pastries sitting on his head, which the birds come and devour.  Joseph tells him the 3 baskets represent 3 days. "3 days from now Pharaoh will lift you up and impale your body on a pole. Then birds will come and peck away at your flesh" (Gen 40.18-19).

  • Joseph puts his brothers in prison in Egypt for 3 days before letting them go back to the homeland to fetch Benjamin (Gen 42.17).  

    • Supposedly according to Jewish rabbinical tradition, Joseph puts them in prison for 3 days because Joseph himself was in the empty cistern/well for 3 days when his brothers put him there before he was sold.  I have not yet been able to find a text of this tradition, although it makes perfect sense and would be typical.

  • Moses is hidden for 3 months at birth.  (Exodus 2.1)

  • 3 days of darkness in Egypt before the Exodus.  (Ex 10.22-23)

  • After 3 days, Yahweh comes down on Mt. Sinai in the sight of all the people (Ex 19.11).

  • "Moses's years were divided into 3 equal portions, viz., 40 years in Pharaoh's palace, 40 years in Midian, and 40 years as leader of the Israelites in the wilderness" (Jewish Midrash Rabbah on Genesis).

  • 3 annual festivals of the Israelites (Exodus 23.14).

  • 3-year-old animals for special sacrifices (1 Sam 1.24; Gen 15.9).

  • On Balaam's journey, 3 times his donkey turns aside or stops because of an unseen angel in its path, and three times Balaam beats the donkey.  After the 3rd time, YHWH opens its mouth, and the donkey speaks to Balaam, reproaching him for beating it 3 times. (Numbers 22.32-33)

  • 3 times Balaam sacrifices 7 bulls and 7 rams on 7 altars (Num 23).

  • 3 times Delilah fails to trick Samson (& his 7 braids of hair) (Jdg 16).

  • 3 times YHWH calls out to the boy Samuel, and 3 times Samuel runs to ask Eli what he wants. After the 3rd occurrence, Ei tells Samuel it must be YHWH calling him and that next time he should ask YHWH what he wants. (1 Sam 3)

• Yahweh says David must choose 3 years of famine, 3 months of fleeing from enemies, or 3 days of plague - - as punishment for taking a census (2 Sam 24.13).

  • When his father Kish's donkeys go missing, Saul searches for 3 days before encountering the prophet Samuel and being anointed.  (1 Sam 9, specifically 9.20)

  • 3 times Elijah lies on top of the son of the widow in order to bring him back from the dead (1 Kings 17.21)

  • In the 3rd year of famine, YHWH tells Elijah he will send rain.  He has Elijah engage in a contest against the prophets of Baal to see whose god is real (which god can cause a sacrifice miraculously to go up in flames).  After the praying prophets of Baal fail to win any response from Baal, Elijah builds an altar of 12 stones, puts a cut-up bull on it, and has water poured on his offering 3 times before praying that YHWH will light it. "Then the fire of YHWH fell and burned up the sacrifice, the wood, the stones and the soil, and also licked up the water in the trench."  Then Elijah prays 7 times to call up a rain storm and outruns a chariot!  (1 Kings 18)

• When Elijah goes 40 days and 40 nights out to Horeb, the mountain of YHWH, and sleeps in a cave, YHWH tells him to stand outside because he is about to pass by Elijah.  3 times some strong force passes by Elijah [a strong wind, an earthquake, and a fire] and 3 times the writer says that YHWH was not in the wind/ earthquake/ fire.  Then comes a "still, small voice" of YHWH and Elijah has a conversation with YHWH outside the cave. (1 Kings 19.11-13)

• After a chariot of fire and horses of fire separate Elijah and Elisha and Elijah goes up to the sky / heaven (shamayim) in a whirlwind, men search for the risen Elijah for 3 days, but they cannot find him.

  • 3 times a day at prayer (Dan 6.10; Ps 55.17).

• 3 days Jonah is in the belly of the sea creature.

  • 3 Jewish heroes (Shadrach, Meshach, & Abednego) thrown into Nebuchadnezzar's fiery furnace [which was 7 times hotter than usual] (Dan 3.19).

  • "Leave meat without salt for 3 days, will it not putrefy?"  (Midrash Rabbah Genesis, translated by H. Freedman and Maurice Simon, Vols. 1–2. London: Soncino Press, 1939. vol. 1, p. 245.)

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• • 3 days Jesus is lost from his parents at age 12 (Luke 2:39-52).

  • 3 times Jesus' disciples fall asleep while he is praying; three times he rebukes them (Mark 14.32-42).

  • 3 hours of darkness "over the whole earth" at the crucifixion (Mk 15:33).

  • 3 times Jesus speaks from the cross (according to Luke and John only).

  • 3 days (counting inclusively) from Jesus' crucifixion to his resurrection.

  • 3 days Jesus in the tomb, dead, or "in the heart of the earth" (Mt 12:40).

  • 3 times Peter denies Jesus (Mk 14:30, 72; Mt 26:34, 75; Lk 22:34, 61).

  • 3 women go to Jesus' tomb and find it opened and empty (Mk 16:1-8)

  • 3 days Paul is blind and fasting after the Damascus incident, until the scales fall from his eyes (Acts 9:9).

• 3 favored disciples taken by Jesus to see him transfigured on the mount (Mt 17:1) ["after 6 days = on the 7th day]

  • 3 times Jesus asks if Peter loves him (Jn 21:15)

  • On the 3rd day, Jesus turns water into wine (John 2)

  • 3 aspects/persons of the Trinity

  • 3 levels of creation: heavens, earth, and underworld/Sheol/Hades/hell

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• • 3,000 killed after worshiping the golden calf (Ex 32:28)

  • 3,000 become believers on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2:41)

  • The Samson Story:  Samson makes a bet on 30 linen garments and 30 sets of clothes (Jdg 14:12), kills 30 men (14:19), ties fire to the tails of 300 foxes (15:4); for 3 days men cannot solve his riddle (14:14) [and his wife cries for 7 days (14:17)]; Delilah fails 3 times to trick him (Jdg 16) [& his hair has 7 braids (16:13)]; and 3,000 people are watching him when he brings down the house (Jdg 14-16)

1.3. The Number 7 in the Bible

7's in the Old Testament:

• In Hebrew, Gen 1:1 consists of 7 words; Gen 1:2 consists of 14 words

• 7 days of Creation

• Cain avenged 7 times; Cain's 7th descendant Lamech avenged 77 times

• Seth's descendant Lamech lives 777 years

• Line of Cain, 7 to Lamech, symbol of evil

• Line of Seth, 7 to Enoch, symbol of good

• 7 of every "clean" animal onto the ark

• Noah, the savior figure, leads 7 righteous people onto the ark (1 wife, 3 sons, 3 sons' wives)

• Yahweh says to Noah, "7 days from now, I'll send rain"

• Noah waits 7 days each time after sending the dove (3 times)

• Ark comes to rest in the 7th month, just as God rested on the 7th day

  • 70 names/nations descended from Noah's 3 sons (Gen 10)

• 7-fold promise to Abraham (Gen 12:2-3)

• 7 lambs at treaty of Beersheba (Gen 21)

• Jacob works 7 years for Leah, the plain one

• Jacob works 7 years for Rachael, the beautiful one

• Laban pursued Jacob for 7 days (Gen 31:22)

• 7 chiefs, sons of Eliphaz (Gen 36:15-16)

• 7 Horite chiefs (Gen 36:20)

• Pharaoh's dream of 7 fat cows / 7 skinny cows, 7 full heads of grain / 7 withered heads of grain

• 7 years of abundance, 7 years of famine in Joseph story

• 70 members of Jacob's family at the descent into Egypt (Gen 46:27; Ex 1:5)

• Jacob is mourned for 70 days (Gen 50:3)

• Line of Abraham, 7 generations to Moses, savior of Israel

• Moses marries Zipporah, one of 7 daughters

• 7 days of unleavened bread at Passover

• Cloud covers mountain for 6 days; on the 7th, Yahweh calls to Moses from the cloud (Ex 24:16)

  • 70 elders of Israel (Ex 24:1)

  • Priest sprinkles the blood of a red heifer 7 times (Num 19)

  • Balaam sacrifices 7 bulls and 7 rams on 7 altars (3 times) (Num 23)

  • Yahweh requires bull's blood to be sprinkled 7 times for a sin offering (Lev 4:6,17)

  • Aaron and his sons undergo a 7-day ordination to the priesthood (Lev 8:33)

  • Aaron, the high priest, lights 7 lamps (Num 8:2)

  • Every 7th year, Israel is to leave the land fallow (Ex 23:11), read the Law (Dt 31), cancel all debts, and free slaves if they wish to be freed (Dt 15:1)

  • Every 49 years (7 x 7) is the year of Jubilee (Lev 25)

  • The Feast of Weeks is 7 weeks after the beginning of the grain harvest (Dt 16:9)

  • 7 "wicked" nations in Canaan to be destroyed by Israel (Josh 3:10)

  • Israelites under Joshua march around Jericho 7 times on the 7th day with 7 priests and 7 trumpets, and the walls of the city miraculously fall down (Josh 6)

  • Israel falls into the hands of the Midianites for 7 years (Jdg 6:1)

  • Gideon must sacrifice a 7-year-old bull (Jdg 6:25)

  • Gideon has 70 sons (Jdg 8:28-30)

  • Samson gives men 7 days to solve his riddle

  • Samson's wife cries the 7 days of the feast

  • Samson's hair had 7 braids (Jdg 16:13)

  • Samson was tied with 7 fresh bowstrings (Jdg 16:7)

  • Israelite hero Abdon has 40 sons and 30 grandsons who ride on 70 donkeys (Jdg 12:14)

  • Job has 7 sons (and 3 daughters) (Job 1:2)

  • Job has 7,000 sheep (1:3)

  • Job sits on the ground for 7 days and 7 nights (2:13)

  • Job 5:19 "From 6 calamities he will rescue you, in 7 no harm will befall you."

  • Eliphaz has to sacrifice 7 bulls and 7 rams (Job 42)

  • God gives Job 7 more sons to replace his dead ones (Job 42)

  • She who was barren has born 7 sons (1 Sam 2:5)

  • The ark of Yahweh is with the Philistines for 7 months, and he sends tumors on them (1 Sam 6:1)

  • Saul waits 7 days to be anointed king (1 Sam 10)

  • David is chosen over 7 brothers, like Isaac is chosen over 7 brothers (1 Sam 16:10)

  • David is king in Hebron 7 years (reigns 40 total) (2 Sam 2:11; 5:5)

  • King David lives 70 years

  • King Solomon has 700 wives (and 300 concubines)

  • Solomon's golden throne is at the 7th level, atop 6 steps (1 Kgs 10:18-20)

  • Takes 7 years for Solomon to build the Temple of Yahweh (1 Kgs 6:37-38)

  • 7,000 Israelites are faithful to Yahweh (1 Kgs 19:18)

  • 7,000 Jews slay 100,000 Syrians in 1 day; surviving Syrians flee to another city where a wall falls on 27,000 of them (1 Kgs 20)

  • Elijah prays 7 times for rain before Yahweh answers (1 Kgs 18)

  • Elisha resurrects a boy, who sneezes 7 times before opening his eyes (2 Kgs 4:35)

  • Elisha heals a man of leprosy by telling him to bathe 7 times in the Jordan River (2 Kgs 5:10)

  • Yahweh sends a 7-year famine (2 Kgs 8:1)

  • Joash becomes king at 7 (reigns 40 years) (2 Kgs 11:21-12:1)

  • Desolation of Jerusalem (586 BCE) supposed to last 70 years (Jer 25:11-12; Dan 9:2)

  • Kingdom of Israel to be restored by the messiah after 70 weeks (Dan 9:24)

  • Nebuchadnezzar's fiery furnace was 7 times hotter than usual (Dan 3:19)

  • The sun will be 7 times brighter when Yahweh heals Israel whom he afflicted (Isa 30:26)

  • The finest silver is refined 7 times (Ps 12:6)

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7's in the New Testament:

• • Jesus is 77th from God in Luke's genealogy (Lk 3) (Matthew's genealogy is different, but still uses numerology)

  • Jesus feeds 5,000 men with 5 loaves + 2 fishes, 5 + 2 = 7 (12 full baskets left over) (Mk 6)

  • Jesus feeds 4,000 men with 7 loaves of bread, 7 full baskets left over (Mk 8)

  • Jesus sends out 70 disciples (acc to some manuscripts of Luke 10) (Other manuscripts say he sent out 72, still a special number as a multiple of 12)

  • Jesus casts 7 devils out of Mary Magdalene (Mk 16:9)

  • Jesus pronounces 7 woes upon the Pharisees and teachers of the law (Mt 23)

  • Jesus speaks 7 times from the cross (once in Mk and Mt, thrice in Lk, thrice in John, 1+3+3=7)

  • Demons often travel in 7's (Lk 11:26)

  • 70 x 7 are the times of forgiving (Mt 18:22)

  • "After 6 days" (i.e. on the 7th day), Jesus goes up to the mount and is transfigured (Mk 9:2)

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• • 7 sons of Sceva try to use Jesus' name to drive out evil spirits (Acts 19:14)

  • In Revelation: 7 angels, 7 horns, 7 eyes, 7 stars, 7 trumpets, 7 seals, 7 vials, 7 thunders, 7 plagues, 7,000 men, 7 candlesticks, 7 churches, 7 mountains, 7 kings, 7 letters to the 7 churches, 7 spirits of God, 7 spirits before the throne, a beast with 7 heads

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7's in Judeo-Christian Tradition:

• • 7 pillars of wisdom in Judaism

  • 7 candles on the Jewish menorah

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• • 7 sacraments in Catholicism

  • 7 parts of the Catholic mass

  • 7 levels of spiritual ministry (1 Cor 12:29-30)

  • 7 major sins and 7 virtues

  • 7 heavens in tradition (Paul speaks of one being carried to the 3rd heaven in 2 Cor 12:2)

1.4. The Number 12 in the Bible:

• • 12 sons of Jacob

  • 12 sons of Nahor (Gen 22)

  • 12 sons/tribes of Ishmael (Gen 25)

  • 12 tribes of Israel

  • 12 spies sent to Canaan

  • 12 legendary judges of Israel (see book of Judges: Othniel, Ehud, Shamgar, Deborah, Gideon, Tola, Jair, Jephtah, Ibzan, Elon, Abdon, and Samson)

  • 12 labors of Samson (12 mighty deeds; compare with the 12 labors of Hercules)

  • 12 lions on the 6 steps leading up to the golden throne of Solomon (1 Kg 10:18-20)

  • 120 years Israel was a united nation (40 years each under Saul, David, and Solomon)

  • 12 yoke of oxen used by Elisha to plow his fields

  • 12 minor prophets in the Old Testament

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• • 12 disciples of Jesus

  • 12 = age of Jesus as child prodigy in the temple

  • Jesus heals a woman who had an issue of blood for 12 years (Lk 8:43)

  • Jesus heals a 12-year-old girl (Lk 8:42)

  • Jesus feeds 5,000 men with 5 loaves + 2 fishes (= 7), having 12 baskets of leftovers (Mk 6)

  • Jesus can call on 12 legions of angels (Mt 26:53)

  • 120 believers in the upper room at Pentecost (Acts 1:15)

  • Paul helps 12 men receive the Holy Spirit (Acts 19:7)

  • 24 elders around the throne in heaven (Rev 4)

  • [and 24 wings on 4 4-headed creatures with 6 wings each]

  • 144,000 sealed servants of God (12 x 12,000) (Rev 7)

  • 12 gates, 12 pearls, 12 foundations of 12 precious stones, and 12 angels: in the New Jerusalem (Rev 21)

  • The New Jerusalem is 12,000 stadia in length, its walls 144 (12 x 12) cubits thick

1.5.  The Number 40 in the Bible:

40-Year Leaders:

• • Moses led Israel 40 years (He was 80 when he began, and he died at 120)

  • Gideon led Israel in peace for 40 years (Jdg 8:28)

  • Eli led Israel 40 years (1 Sam 4:18)

  • Saul reigned 40 years (Acts 13:21)

  • David reigned 40 years (7 in Hebron, 33 in Jerusalem)

  • Solomon reigned 40 years

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Other Major 40's in the Bible:

• It rained for 40 days and 40 nights in the Noah story

  • Noah started sending the birds out 40 days after the mountains became visible

  • Jacob was embalmed for 40 days (Gen 50:2-3)

  • Israel was enslaved in Egypt 400 years (Gen 15:13)  (40 x 10)

  • Israel in the wilderness 40 years (after 3 days of darkness)

  • 12 spies explore the land for 40 days (Num 13:25)

  • 40 lashes is the highest number of lashes for punishment (Dt 25:3)

  • Goliath taunts Israel for 40 days (1 Sam 17:16)

  • Jonah gives Nineveh 40 days to repent or be destroyed (after his 3 days in the fish's belly)

  • Moses fasts on the mountain 40 days and nights (Ex 34:28)

  • Elijah fasts in the wilderness 40 days and nights (1 Kgs 19:8)

  • Jesus fasts and/or is tempted in the wilderness 40 days and nights  (Mk 1:13)

  • Jesus in the tomb for 40 hours (tradition)

  • 40 days between the resurrection and ascension of Jesus (after 3 days in the tomb)(only Acts 1:3; Mark and Luke do not agree with Acts)

2. Special Numbers in Other Ancient Cultures 

and Their Myths:

Here are numerous examples of the same special numbers used in other ancient myths.  It is important to remember that most ancient people did not consider their stories to be false; they believed their myths were real, factual history.  Only relatively few educated men, often but not exclusively the philosophical type, did not accept such stories as factual.  (For examples, and a kind of history of such skepticism in literature, see especially part 2 of my MA report https://sites.google.com/site/kruebbeclassicsmareport/.

2.1. 3's in Ancient Myths, Astrology, etc.  [UNFINISHED]

• The number 3 was often associated with death and rebirth.  How did such a concept originate?  Every lunar cycle, the moon metaphorically dies and is reborn.  The moon cannot be seen for 3 days out of every lunation (allowing inclusive counting, as in biblical and other myths), during the new moon and just before and after; then the waxing crescent appears again as the moon has been reborn.  Because of this, the number 3 became associated with death, as shows up in ancient myths.  Three also seems to have been a popular number in ancient storytelling apart from this specific association with death or disappearance.  

  • Inana (2000's bce, the original Sumerian version of heavenly Aphrodite/Venus) descended 7 levels to the underworld, and when the 7 judges gave her the look of death, she died, and her corpse was hung on a hook.  Inana was missing for 3 days and 3 nights (as she had predicted), but came back to life and rose again after being given the food and drink of life. Her lover Dummuzi/Thammuz took her place in the underworld, but his sister would take his place for part of the year. Yearly, women would mourn for the death of Dummuzi, when the crops fail, but he always returned again. Note the presence of substitutional sacrifice and rebirth after death. This story and the Osiris story of Egypt are the oldest surviving stories of dying and reviving Gods in ancient human literature. [See Oxford's Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature: Inana's Descent to the Nether World, http://www-etcsl.orient.ox.ac.uk/section1/tr141.htm.]  Both embody, symbolize, and were inspired by natural phenomena.  

    • Inana was also equated with the planet Venus, which appears as the Evening Star until it disappears/dies, then is later seen again as the Morning Star heralding the dawn.  Because of this, the Morning Star became a symbol for hope, new life from death/destruction, or eternal life for thousands of years, as can be seen not only in the Sumerian literature of the 3rd millenium bce, but also in the Aeneid (end of Book 2) and even more so in Revelation in the Christian New Testament, where the writer has Jesus claim to be the Morning Star and promise to give the Morning Star to his followers (Rev 2.23-29; 22.16; also 2 Pet 1.19).

  • Osiris of Egypt also dies/disappears for 3 days and is resurrected.  Osiris was represented as enclosed in a coffin/box by his evil enemy Set/Seth, and also as being cut up into pieces by Set/Seth (Greek Typhon).  Isis mourns for the dead/missing Osiris and searches for him.  She finds him and/or gathers the scattered pieces of his body, and he is regenerated.  He impregnates Isis with Horus before he then becomes King and Lord of the Afterlife.    

    • • … they have a legend that the soul of Osiris is everlasting and imperishable, but that his body Typhon oftentimes dismembers and causes to disappear, and that Isis wanders hither and yon in her search for it, and fits it together again.

      • (Plutarch Isis and Osiris 54; 373a; translated by Frank Cole Babbitt, in Vol. V of Plutarch's Moralia, Loeb Classical Library, Harvard UP, 1936)

  •     Ancient Egyptians mourned the death/disappearance of Osiris on the 17th day of the month of Athyr, and they celebrated with joy his being found again on the 19th day of Athyr, that is, on the 3rd day after his disappearance/death (Plutarch On Isis and Osiris 13, 39, and 42; Moralia 356b-d, 366e-f, 367e). As part of honoring Osiris' disappearance, on the 17th of the month priests would shroud the gilded image of a cow with a black linen vestment, and display her as a sign of mourning.  Then on the 3rd day, 

    • • on the 19th  day [of the month] they go down to the sea at night-time; and the keepers of the robes and the priests bring forth the sacred chest containing a small golden coffer, into which they pour some potable water which they have taken up, and a great shout arises from the company for joy that Osiris is found. Then they knead some fertile soil with the water and mix in spices and incense of a very costly sort, and fashion therefrom a crescent-shaped figure, which they clothe and adorn. (ibid. 39; 366f)

  •  Note the crescent shape and remember that the moon, too, disappears for 3 days and is reborn as a crescent!  The symbolism is plain.  Plutarch also connects Osiris with lunar symbolism explicitly at 367d-e, 368a,d,f.  He even places Osiris' death at a full moon (e.g. 368d), which is comparable to Jesus' death at the Passover full-moon.  And Osiris' being cut up into 14 parts and scattered is supposed to symbolize the 14 days of lunar waning before its death and rebirth.  But the symbolism in these ancient stories often applies to many different aspects of nature.  For example, even though Osiris' resurrection is like the rebirth of the moon, it is important to note that solar symbolism is also used with both Christ ("light of the world," John 1; see also the mosaic from the Vatican grottoes under St. Peter's Basilica, from the tomb of the Julii showing Christ as the sun-god Helios/Sol riding in his chariot, 200's CE) and with Osiris ("him who is hidden in the arms of the sun," Plutarch 372b; and there is a Searching for Osiris at the winter solstice, 372c).  Also, the dismemberment of Osiris is comparable to Christ as the bread of life, the eucharist bread, being broken and distributed among initiates/believers with the saying "Take, eat: this is my body, which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of me" (1 Cor 11.14, KJV; The exact words vary, depending on which book of the NT you use and what translation).  

Osiris "The God Of The Resurrection", rising from his funeral bier.

(Egyptian ideas of the future life, by E. A. Wallis Budge, chapter 2.)

Image of Osiris, Lord of the "living" (i.e. the dead), from New Kingdom Egyptian tomb paintings.  

The green color represents Life, Fertility, Spring, Resurrection.  

Note that he also has a crook and flail. 

He holds the shepherd's crook/staff, because Mesopotamians and Egyptians both represented the ideal king as a Good Shepherd of his people.

Cf. John 10.11, "I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep."

Also, John 10.14, "I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me."

• • Note that in both the Bible and other ancient myths, it does not even matter whether one says "3 days and 3 nights" or "on the 3rd day" (which is not literally the same amount of time).  It is the symbolism that is the key, not any literal reading.  For example, in the Bible, the writer of Matthew 12.40 has Jesus predict, "For as Jonah was 3 days and 3 nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the Son of Man will be 3 days and 3 nights in the heart of the earth."  Yet the time from Jesus' crucifixion on Good Friday to the resurrection on Easter Sunday is not really 3 whole days and is only 2 nights, not 3!  The symbol is what is important, and if the text is taken literally, contradictions arise.  These kinds of features should be clues that we are dealing with myth, not straight-forward history.  Likewise, Inanna is missing/dead for 3 days and 3 nights, whereas Osiris is reborn/found on the 3rd day.  The difference is immaterial.  Even regarding the lunar cycle, the natural truth behind all of the myths, the moon may not be absent from sight for 3 complete days AND nights. Either way, 3 is the symbolic number for death before rebirth in ancient Sumer, ancient Egypt, Greece, Rome, Judaism, and Christianity, and this is no coincidence.

  • In Greek religion, the house of Dis/Hades/Death in the underworld was said to have 3 walls.   (Vergil's Aeneid 6.548-627)  

  • Cerberus, the guard dog of the underworld has 3 heads. (Vergil Georgics 4.483) 

  • Jesus as Jesus turned water into wine at Cana "on the third day" (John 2.1, "On the third day a wedding took place at Cana in Galilee."), and that "miracle" was literary symbolism equivalent to the transformation from death to life in Jesus' 3 days in the tomb, it is noteworthy that Dionysus, whom the Greeks equated with Osiris, transformed nothing into wine in 3 previously empty jars.  The Dionysus story also uses the number 3 deliberately. 

    • Pausanias, Description of Greece 6.26.1-2:  "Of the gods the Eleans worship Dionysos with the greatest reverence, and they assert that the god attends their festival, the Thyia. The place where they hold the festival they name the Thyia is about eight stades from the city. Three pots are brought into the building by the priests and set down empty in the presence of the citizens and of any strangers who may chance to be in the country. The doors of the building are sealed by the priests themselves and by any others who may be so inclined. On the morrow they are allowed to examine the seals, and on going into the building they find the pots filled with wine. I did not myself arrive at the time of the festival, but the most respected Elean citizens, and with them strangers also, swore that what I have said is the truth."

  • Athenaeus, Deipnosophistae 2. 34a (trans. Gullick) (Greek rhetorician, 200's CE):  "Theopompos of Khios [Greek historian, 300s BCE] relates that the vine was discovered in Olympia, on the banks of the Alpheios; and that there is a district in Elis a mile away, in which at the Dionysia (festival of Dionysos), the inhabitants shut up and seal three empty cauldrons in the presence of visitors; later, they open the cauldrons and find them full of wine."

  • Consider the images of Dionysus from this classical Greek pottery in view of the stories above and below.

Herakles masters Kerberos/Cerberus.  

Caeretan black-figure hydria, 500's bce.  Musée du Louvre.

• On at least two other occasions, Herakles defeated Death. 

  • Herakles brings Alcestis back from the dead:  Once Herakles stayed in the home of Admetus, King of Pherae, Thessaly.  Admetus had been kind to Apollo, who had served him as a shepherd in mortal form.  In return, Apollo secured a promise from the Fates that Admetus might live past his allotted time for death if someone was willing to take his place.  Nobody would take his place, not even his aged parents, but finally his beautiful wife Alcestis said she would die in his place.  She died, and Admetus' whole house was in morning.  Hercules did not know why Admetus' household was so sad, but when he found out, he went and wrestled Death (Thanatos) and brought Alcestis back from the dead.  The resurrected Alcestis was unable to speak to her husband for 3 days.  [Euripides Alcestis, 400's BCE]

  • Herakles' Ascension to Heaven:  A centaur Nessus tricked Hercules' wife Deineira into sending Hercules' a gift robe dipped in Hydra's blood.  Deineira thought it was a love potion.  Hercules, in extreme agony, built his own funeral pyre and his friend Philoctetes lit it.  Hercules' mortal parts burned off, but he rose into heaven as immortal god.  In heaven, Hercules married Hebe, eternal youth, which symbolically means that Herakles has eternal life.

  • For his 10th labor, Herakles defeated "triple-bodied" Geryon, a 3-bodied, four-winged giant who lived on the red island of Erytheia in the far west across the earth-encircling River Ocean (Okeanos). Geryon possessed a fabulous herd of cattle tinged red by the light of sunset. Herakles reached the island by sailing across the Ocean in a golden cup-boat borrowed from the sun-god Helios. Symbolically, this is another embodiment of the sun conquering death and rising again. (Apollodorus' Library 2.5.10)  Death is here represented by the West, just as in the other story, Herakles' 11th labor, in which the hero must travel to the far west to retrieve the golden apples of the Hesperides. The golden apple of the far west represents the life from death, or the return of the sun after night.  And to gain it, Herakles must defeat the serpent Ladon who guards the apples of the Hesperides.  [The serpent Ladon is probably linguistically connected with Lotan/Leviathan from Middle Eastern myth.  Leviathan appears in the Bible as a being created or defeated by YHWH (Job 41; Ps 74; Ps 104; Isaiah 27:1).  Even long before the Bible even existed, Ugaritic (Phoenician/Canaanite) literature from the 1,000's BCE spoke of the serpent Lotan, "the mighty one with 7 heads," one of the helpers of Yamm (the sea) against the Lord, Baal.  Baal defeats the sea.  Interestingly enough, Baal also later defeats Mot, Death, either by dying and coming back to life, or by dying in effigy, i.e. appearing to die, and then coming back to his throne.  This is like Jesus defeating the 7-headed dragon, Satan, in Christian myth.  But even Ugaritic literature is not the oldest to feature this concept.  In Sumerian art of the 2000's BCE, a hero-god is represented overcoming a 7-headed serpent/dragon.  See image below under the number 7.]

  • The sea monster, Ketos, that Hercules overcame had 3 rows of teeth.  (Valerius Flaccus, Argonautica 2.450ff.; and Philostratus the Younger, Imagines 12, describing an ancient Greek painting).  

    • When wicked King Laomedon was going to sacrifice his daughter Hesione to Ketos (sea monster), Herakles saved her by killing the sea monster.  According to Hellanikos of Lesbos (c. 480-395 BCE), Herakles entered through the mouth of Ketos and attacked it from inside its belly (Hellanikos FGH 4 F 26b).  Lycophron (or pseudo-Lycophron), in lines 33-37 and 468-78 of his Alexandra, says that Herakles lost his hair because of the heat inside Ketos.  (This is comparable to Samson losing his hair.  Both figures may well represent the death and rebirth of the sun.) 

    • Herakles is called "trihesperos leon," i.e. the 3-night lion, referencing either the 3 nights in which his earthly mother conceived him from Zeus or the 3 nights he spent inside the Ketos monster, hacking at it from the inside out.  The lion may be the sun, the mane the rays of the sun, and the 12 labors the 12 signs of the zodiac.  

    • Athena aided Herakles in his labors (Iliad 08.363); she helped him when he went to the underworld to get Cerberus (Iliad 08.367); she helped him against Ketos (Iliad 20.145).

    • A proto-Corinthian krater from c. 550 BCE (found in Etruria) shows Herakles shooting 3 arrows at the giant skull-headed Ketos (sea monster) while Hesione stands nearby throwing rocks.  A charioteer to the left has 1 white and 3 black horses.  http://old.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/image?lookup=1990.24.0309.  The skull is a representation of death, as the 3 black horses may well be also.

• • • • Other parallels may also be worthy of note here:  1. Jason was an anointed one, having been anointed by Medea with a special herb sprung from the blood of Prometheus, who suffered for bringing light to mankind. (Apollonius Rhodius Argonautica).  2. The golden fleece is the fleece of the ram that saved Phrixus from being sacrificed by his father Athamas (just as a ram was said to appear and be sacrificed by Abraham in place of Isaac).  After the golden ram saved Phrixus, taking him to Colchis, it was sacrificed to the gods.  This is another substitutionary sacrifice story.  (cf. also Agamemnon and his daughter Iphigenia, saved by a golden stag).  3. The substitutionary sacrifice is hung on a tree.  Interestingly enough, Inana was said to be hung on a hook in the underworld for 3 days and 3 nights.  Dummuzi became her substitute in the underworld for part of the year, then his sister took his place for the other part (cf. the Persephone story).  Jesus was said to be hung on a cross as a substitute sacrifice.  4. A possible Norse parallel is Odin. In a sacrifice to himself, the highest of the gods, he was hung from the world tree Yggdrasil for 9 days and nights (9 - sacred number in Norse stories) and pierced by his own spear in order to learn the wisdom that would give him power in the nine worlds.

• • • Perseus similarly rescues Andromeda from the sea monster Ketos, sent by Poseidon to destroy the country to King Cepheus of Ethiopia after Queen Cassiopea boasted of being more beautiful than the Nereids.  In some versions Perseus cuts off its head.  In Lycophron's telling of the story, the Ketos eats Perseus, but Perseus attacks its liver from the inside, kills it, and emerges triumphant. (Lycophron, Alexandra 834-841).

    • The story of Perseus' rescue of Andromeda became associated with Joppa/Joffa, the same harbor mentioned in the book of Jonah.  Herakles and Perseus and Jonah and their 3 nights are mythical parallels.  According to the Jewish historian Josephus, the rocks in the harbor at Joppa still showed the marks from the chains that once bound Andromeda.  Pausanias describes a nearby fountain where Perseus washed off his bloodstains.  Pliny the Elder (23-79 CE) tells how the Roman aedile Marcus Scaurus brought the bones of the Ketos from Joppa to Rome in 58 BCE in order to display them.

    • Jerome (347-419 CE) noted that both Perseus and Jonah were associated with Joppa, and Cyril, patriarch of Alexandria (400's CE), thought that the Jonah story and the Perseus story shared a common mythic origin.

• • Persephone had to remain in the underworld for a 3rd of the year, during winter on earth.  Her presence on earth adds life to the other two thirds of the year.  (Apollodorus I.5.3)  This story from Greek religion is another dying-and-reviving god myth related to nature cycles.

  • Odysseus is in the cave of the cyclops for 3 days before he emerges safe, having gotten the cyclops drunk on 3 servings of wine and then put out his single eye.  Thrice the cyclops had snatched up 2 of Odysseus' men and eaten them.  Odysseus had taken 12 men with him.  (Odyssey 9)

  • Achilles dragged the dead Hector 3 times around the walls of Troy (as Aeneas sees depicted on the bronze doors of the temple of Juno in the Aeneid 1).

• In Vergil's Aeneid, Aeneus' helmsman, Palinurus, falls overboard and is awash at sea for 3 nights before he reaches shore and is killed by natives ( 6.337-383).  What is also interesting is that Palinurus was a kind of substitutionary sacrifice.  The reader learns at the end of book 5 that Venus goes to Neptune asking that Aeneas may have a safe trip to Italy.  Neptune says that Aeneas will arrive safely, but one person will be lost, "one life given for many," and he is referring to Palinurus.  Somnus (Sleep) comes to Palinurus as he is guiding the ship at night.  He falls asleep and falls overboard.  We find out later (6.337-383) that he was lost at sea for 3 nights before his death.

• In Greek and Roman funeral ritual, there was often a 3-fold calling of the name of the deceased or the spirits of the departed (the Manes in Roman religion).  e.g.  In Vergil's Aeneid 6.477-547, when Aeneus is talking to Deiphobus in the underworld, he explains that he had made an empty tomb for Deiphobus and had called 3 times to the manes (spirit/s of the departed), i.e. he had performed the proper funeral rituals which had allowed Deiphobus' spirit/soul/animus to cross the River Styx.

  • Roman tradition and literature spoke of snakes/serpents as having 3-forked tongues.  (e.g. Vergil Georgics 3.439, "linguis micat ore trisulcis")

  • In the 4th book of Vergil's Georgics, when Aristaeus' mother Cyrene is praying, she sprinkles the glowing hearth 3 times with nectar, and 3 times the flame shoots up to the roof.  This is considered a good omen.  (Vergil Georgics 4.384-5) (Cf. Elijah pouring water around his altar 3 times.)

• Zalmoxis, the incarnated "one true God" of the ancient Getae (Thracians), was said to have been a man who died/vanished but came back and showed himself alive again after 3 years to prove his teachings on immortality. The ancient Getae (a tribe of Thracians) believed that their god Zalmoxis was the only true god. They said that he was incarnated as a man who taught the people about immortality, saying that neither he, nor his followers, nor any of their posterity would ever perish, but that they would all go to a good place where they would live forever in the enjoyment of every good thing imaginable.  The Getae said that Zalmoxis vanished and was mourned as one who had died, but that after 3 years he appeared to them alive again and proved his teachings.  After that, they believed in Zalmoxis and thought that when they died they went to live with him in the good place he taught them about.  This story sounds quite similar to Christianity, but it existed long before.  The primary text for information on the Thracian belief in Zalmoxis comes from the Greek historian Herodotus (Histories 4.93-96), who wrote in the 400’s BCE.  Herodotus reports what the Thracians believed as well as what contemporary Greek skeptics had to say about Zalmoxis.  The Greeks from whom Herodotus derived much of his information wanted to rationally explain away the belief of the Thracians.  So they said that Zalmoxis had actually gained his wisdom when he had been a slave of the philosopher Pythagoras, but that he won his freedom, became rich, and returned to his people, and after he taught his wisdom to the Thracians, he built a secret underground chamber and only pretended to be dead for 3 years before showing himself alive again to the people and convincing them of his teachings.  Herodotus says he intends to favor neither the skeptical nor the original version of the story, but he thinks that the belief in Zalmoxis actually predated the philosopher Pythagoras (500’s BCE), finding a chronological fault in this particular Greek skeptical attempt to discredit the Thracian beliefs.

  • Herodotus wrote that every 5 years, the Getae sent an official messenger to Zalmoxis with requests.  They sent him to Zalmoxis in a pierced condition by tossing him onto 3 sharp spear points.  

  • Points of note: divine incarnation, eternal life with the savior in a good place, death/disappearance of savior for 3 time-units, return of savior, piercing, only true God.

• Hebrew literature makes similar use of the number three. Here are some of the more salient and relevant of those listed also above:

  • Abraham travels 3 days to sacrifice Isaac. a substitutionary sacrifice results. (Gen 22.4)

  • 3 days of darkness in Egypt before the Exodus.  (Ex 10.22-23)  This is 3 days of darkness before the rebirth of the nation of Israel.  The Jews celebrate this every year at passover on the first full moon after the spring equinox.

  • 3 times Delilah fails to trick Samson (& his 7 braids of hair) (Jdg 16).

  • 3 times Elijah lies on top of the son of the widow in order to bring him back from the dead (1 Kings 17.21)

  • After a chariot of fire and horses of fire separate Elijah and Elisha and Elijah goes up to the sky / heaven (shamayim) in a whirlwind, men search for the risen Elijah for 3 days, but they cannot find him.

  • 3 days Jonah is in the belly of the sea creature (Jonah).

• Christian literature uses 3's for the same symbolic effects.  Here are some of the more interesting parallel examples:

  • 3 days Jesus is lost from his parents at age 12 (Luke 2:39-52).

  • 3 hours of darkness "over the whole land" at the crucifixion (Mk 15:33).

  • 3 days Jesus in the tomb, dead, or "in the heart of the earth" (Mt 12:40).

  • 3 times Peter denies Jesus (Mk 14:30, 72; Mt 26:34, 75; Lk 22:34, 61).

  • 3 days Paul is blind and fasting after the Damascus incident, before the scales fall from his eyes (Acts 9:9).

  • On the 3rd day, Jesus turns water into wine (John 2).

• Although J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series was not an ancient work of literature, I was cheered to see a children's author make excellent use of the same old symbols in a new story for a more recent generation of English speakers.  In the final book, during the Battle of Hogwarts, just before Harry faced Voldemort for the last time, he turned the Resurrection Stone over in his hand 3 times, ensuring his resurrection.  Let me quote from a Harry Potter wiki:

  • "The Resurrection Stone was one of the three Deathly Hallows, originally in the possession of Cadmus Peverell. In layman's terms, it gave its owner the power to bring back a form of the dead. To be specific, when the Resurrection Stone is flipped over three times in one's hand, it brings back shades of the holder's deceased loved ones as long as the stone is held. These shades are more physically solid than a ghost, but less so than a living body. Aside from this power, when the Resurrection Stone is owned in conjunction with the other two Hallows, it makes the owner the Master of Death." http://harrypotter.wikia.com/wiki/Resurrection_Stone .

2.3. 7's in Ancient Myths [UNFINISHED]

• • Inana's Descent to the Nether World, Death, and Ascension:  In practically the world's oldest literature, Inana (2000's bce, the original Sumerian version of heavenly Aphrodite/Venus) grasped "the 7 divine powers" in her hand descended through the 7 gates of the 7 levels to the underworld.  Once she was there, "the Anuna, the 7 judges, rendered their decision against her. They looked at her -- it was the look of death"  (Inana's descent to the nether world, 1.4.1).  Inana died, and was missing for 3 days and 3 nights (as she had predicted), and rose again after being given the food and drink of life.  Her lover Dumuzid/Thammuz took her place in the underworld, and 7 spirits assisted in his death.  However, Dumuzid's sister would take his place for part of the year.  Yearly, women would mourn for the death of Dumuzid, and the crops fail when he was gone, but he always returned again and brought renewed life.  Note the presence of substitutional sacrifice and rebirth after death. This story and the Osiris story of Egypt are the oldest surviving stories of dying and reviving Gods in ancient human literature.   [See Oxford's Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature: Inana's Descent to the Nether World, http://www-etcsl.orient.ox.ac.uk/section1/tr141.htm.]  Both embody, symbolize, and were inspired by natural phenomena.

  • Egyptian priests "at the time of the winter solstice" would "lead the cow seven times around the temple of the Sun and this circumambulation is called the Seeking for Osiris" (Plutarch Isis and Osiris 52; Moralia 372c; transl. by Frank Cole Babbitt, in Vol. V of Plutarch's Moralia, Loeb Classical Library, Harvard UP, 1936).  

  • 7-Headed Serpent, representing Death, the Underworld, or the Sea.  

    • Long before the Bible or even the Hebrew people existed, Sumerian literature of the 2000's BCE was the first to feature a "7-headed serpent."  The hero Ninurta slays a 7-headed serpent among other monsters he faces (see Ninurta's exploits: a šir-sud to Ninurta; also Ninurta's return to Nibru: a šir-gida to Ninurta).  According to Ninurta's return to Nibru, he hung the 7-headed serpent on a shining crossbeam. 

    • Ugaritic (Phoenician/Canaanite) literature from the 1,000's BCE spoke of the serpent Lotan, "the mighty one with 7 heads," one of the helpers of Yamm (the sea) against the Lord, Baal.  Baal defeats Lotan and the Sea.  Interestingly enough, Baal also later defeats Mot, Death, either by dying and coming back to life, or by dying in effigy, i.e. appearing to die, and then coming back to his throne.  This is like Jesus defeating the 7-headed dragon, Satan, in Christian myth (Revelation 12-21).  

    • In Greek literature, there are many stories of slain serpents/dragons.  

      • For Herakles' 11th labor, the hero must travel to the far west to retrive the golden apples of the Hesperides. The golden apple of the far west represents the life from death, or the return of the sun after night.  And to gain it, Herakles must defeat the serpent Ladon who guards the apples of the Hesperides.  The serpent Ladon is linguistically connected with Lotan/ Leviathan/ Lewyathan from Middle Eastern myth/religion.  

    • Leviathan appears in the Bible as a being created or defeated by YHWH (Job 41; Ps 74; Ps 104; Isaiah 27:1).  It was the inspiration for the 7-headed dragon and 7-headed beast from the sea in the New Testament (Revelation 12; 13; 17.3).    

    • In Sumerian art of the 2000's BCE, the hero-god Ninurta is represented overcoming a 7-headed serpent/dragon.  Here are a couple of ancient Sumerian depictions:

• • Sumerian literature refers to the "7 gods who decide destinies." (e.g. Enlil and Ninlil, 1.2.1)

  • The Sumerian goddess Inana "brandished the seven-headed šita weapon vigorously to her right and placed straps of lapis lazuli on her feet" (Inana and Ebiḫ: c.1.3.2). She also had a "girdle of the 7 divine powers" and "7 times 7 helpers" (Inana and Šu-kale-tuda: c.1.3.3) .

  • The 7 Wise Beings of Ancient Sumer are the oldest surviving group of 7 wise men to be mentioned in world literature.  Other nations (e.g. Greece and India) would eventually copy the Sumerian idea of 7 sages, but would the names of the 7 men to people from their own traditions.

    • "The Apkallu (Akkadian) or Abgal, (Sumerian) are seven Sumerian demigods said to have been created by the god Enki (Akkadian: Ea) to give civilization to mankind. They served as priests of Enki and as advisors or sages to the earliest "kings" or rulers of Sumeria before the flood. They are credited with giving mankind the Me (moral code), the crafts, and the arts. They were seen as fish-like men who emerged from the sweet water Apsu. They are commonly represented as having the lower torso of a fish, or dressed as a fish. They have also been depicted with wings, having either a human head or an eagle's head."  ( Carol Rose. Spirits, Fairies, Leprechauns and Goblins. Norton, 1998. pp. 1-2, cited on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apkallu; see also Oxford's Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature and do a key word search for Abgal or seven. )

  • In the Sumerian Flood Story, the original and oldest flood story in world literature, the god-sent punitive flood sweeps over the land and waves and windstorms rock the ark/boat of Ziudsura/Ziusudra (the wise, righteous man who is warned and saved by the god Enki) for 7 days and 7 nights. 

    • "All the windstorms and gales arose together, and the flood swept over the ……. After the flood had swept over the land, and waves and windstorms had rocked the huge boat for seven days and seven nights, Utu the sun god came out, illuminating heaven and earth. Zi-ud-sura could drill an opening in the huge boat and the hero Utu entered the huge boat with his rays. Zi-ud-sura the king prostrated himself before Utu. The king sacrificed oxen and offered innumerable sheep." (Oxford's Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature, Flood Story, segment D, 1-11, http://etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk/cgi-bin/etcsl.cgi?text=t.1.7.4#)

  • When the Sumerian hero-king Gilgamesh faced the Bull of Heaven in battle, his weapon was an axe weighing 7 talents (or, elsewhere, "7 talents and 7 minas").  This should be compared with later Greek and Roman literature in which heroes have 7-fold weapons, e.g. the 7-fold shield of Ajax (Iliad 7), the 7-layer shield of Turnus (Aeneus' enemy in Vergil's Aeneid), the 7-layered oxhide gloves of the boxer Entellus (Aeneid 5).

    • "Gilgamesh himself smote its skull with his axe weighing seven talents" (See Gilgamesh and the Bull of Heaven, http://etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk/cgi-bin/etcsl.cgi?text=t.1.8.1.2#; see also Gilgamesh, Enkidu, and the Nether World http://etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk/cgi-bin/etcsl.cgi?text=t.1.8.1.4#).

    • Homer's description of the shield of Ajax/Aias: "It was like a tower made of bronze, with seven layers, each one of ox-hide, a weapon made by Tychius, the best of leather workers, who lived in Hyle. He had made the glittering shield for Ajax from the hides

  • of seven well-fed bulls." (Homer's Iliad, around 7.220, translated by Ian Johnston)

  • In the Sumerian story The Marriage of Martu, "the seven ala drums resounded as strong men, girdled champions, entered the wrestling house to compete with each other for Numušda in the temple of Inab." (http://etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk/cgi-bin/etcsl.cgi?text=t.1.7.1#)

  • In How Grain Came to Sumer, a character refers to 70 doors of Utu in heaven.

    • " 'Come, let us go to Utu of heaven, who as he lies there, as he lies there, sleeps a sound sleep, to the hero, the son of Ningal, who as he lies there sleeps a sound sleep.' He raised his hands towards Utu of the seventy doors."  (How grain came to Sumer, http://etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk/cgi-bin/etcsl.cgi?text=t.1.7.6#) 

• Ancient writers refer to the 7 heads of the Nile River in Egypt.  (e.g. Vergil Georgics 4.292)

• The 7 hills of Rome were famous in ancient tradition and literature. 

• Greek traditions spoke of the 7 Sages of Hellas, the 7 Wise Men of Greece.

  • • (Socrates speaking) "Among these were Thales of Miletus, and Pittacus of Mytilene, and Bias of Priene, and our own Solon, and Cleobulus of Lindus, and Myson of Chenae, and the seventh of them was said to be Chilon of Sparta. They all emulated and admired and were students of Spartan education, could tell their wisdom was of this sort by the brief but memorable remarks they each uttered when they met and jointly the first fruits of their wisdom to Apollo in his shrine at Delphi, writing what is on every man's lips:  'Know thyself,' and 'Nothing in excess.'   Why do I say this? Because this was the manner of philosophy among the ancients, a kind of Laconic brevity." (Plato's  Protagoras  342e-343b, translated by R.E. Allen)

• • The ancient writer Diogenes Laertius says that there were sometimes variations in some people's lists of the 7 (Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers 1.13).  It is interesting to note that there is also some slight variation among Christian lists of the 12 disciples.  In each case, however, the special number remains unchanged.

  • The Julian Star (Sidus Iulium) or Caesarian Star (Caesaris astrum) in the Roman imperial iconography of Caesar and Augustus was associated with Caesar's ascension, Augustus political birth as the Son of God (Divi Filius, the son of the divine Julius), and with the number 7.  The Caesarian party claimed that Julius Caesar rose up into heaven after his death and that his soul even appeared as a star/comet in the sky in 44 bce.  The bright, daylight-visible comet appeared suddenly during the festival known as the Ludi Victoriae Caesaris (Games in honor of Caesar's Victory) and reportedly shone for 7 days (see quote below).  Romans depicted the Divine Star on coins from 44, 37-34, 19-18, and 17 bce. 

    • • The comet became a powerful symbol in the political propaganda that launched the career of Caesar's great-nephew and adoptive son Augustus. The Temple of Divus Iulius (Divine Julius) was built (42 bce) and dedicated (29 bce) by Augustus.  It was also known as the "Temple of the Comet Star" (see Pliny below).  At the back of the temple a huge image of Caesar was erected and, according to Ovid, a flaming comet was affixed to its forehead:  "To make that soul a star that burns forever / Above the Forum and the gates of Rome"  (Metamorphoses 15.840).

      • Augustus issued coins with a star on one side and the phrase "DIVUS IULIUS" (divine Julius).  As Caesar's adopted son, he also styled himself "DIVI F." (divi filius, son of the divine, i.e. son of god), and he had that phrase, too, stamped on coins.

DIVO IVL = DIVO IULIO = To the Divine Julius.

DIVUS IVLIVS = Divine Julius.

• • • Pliny the Elder Naturalis Historia 2.93-94:  "In only one place in the whole world is a comet the object of religious veneration – in a temple at Rome.  It was judged by the divine Augustus to be especially favorable to himself.  It appeared when he was just starting out, during the games which he was producing for Venus Genetrix, not long after the death of his father Caesar, in the priestly college instituted by him.  For in these words, he expresses his joy (gaudium), 'In the very days of my games, a long-haired star (sidus crinitum = cometes in Greek) was seen for seven days in the region of the sky under the Big Dipper/Plow [Literally, the seven-oxen.  Septemtriones refers to Ursa Major or the seven stars of the Big Dipper/Plow which it contains.].   It would rise around the eleventh hour of the day and was conspicuous even from all lands.  The people believed that this star signified that the soul of Caesar had been received among the divine wills of the immortal gods.  With this name [Caesar], the famous star was attached to the likeness of his head which we soon consecrated in the forum.'  These words he produced in public.  [But] with more internal/private joy, he interpreted that it had been born/produced for him and that he was born in it.  And, if we confess it to be true, it was to wish health/salvation (salutare) among the lands (terris)."  [produced by Pliny ca. 73 bce] [translation mine]

      • Latin: [93] Cometes in uno totius orbis loco colitur in templo Romae, admodum faustus Divo Augusto iudicatus ab ipso, qui incipiente eo apparuit ludis, quos faciebat Veneri Genetrici non multo post obitum patris Caesaris in collegio ab eo instituto. namque his verbis in ....  [94] gaudium prodit is: Ipsis ludorum meorum diebus sidus crinitum per septem dies in regione caeli sub septemtrionibus est conspectum. id oriebatur circa undecimam horam diei clarumque et omnibus e terris conspicuum fuit. eo sidere significari vulgus credidit Caesaris animam inter deorum inmortalium numina receptam, quo nomine id insigne simulacro capitis eius, quod mox in foro consecravimus, adiectum est. haec ille in publicum; interiore gaudio sibi illum natum seque in eo nasci interpretatus est. et, si verum fatemur, salutare id terris fuit. Sunt qui et haec sidera perpetua esse credant suoque ambitu ire, sed non nisi relicta ab sole cerni; alii vero qui nasci umore fortuito et ignea vi ideoque solvi. (Latin Library, http://www.thelatinlibrary.com/pliny.nh2.html).

    • Suetonius Divus Julius 88: "a comet shone for seven successive days, rising about the eleventh hour, and was believed to be the soul of Caesar."

    • Ovid Metamorphoses 15.745-842:  "Then Jupiter, the Father, spoke ... "Take up Caesar’s spirit from his murdered corpse, and change it into a star, so that the deified Julius may always look down from his high temple on our Capitol and forum." He had barely finished, when gentle Venus stood in the midst of the Senate, seen by no one, and took up the newly freed spirit of her Caesar from his body, and preventing it from vanishing into the air, carried it towards the glorious stars. As she carried it, she felt it glow and take fire, and loosed it from her breast: it climbed higher than the moon, and drawing behind it a fiery tail, shone as a star."

    • The Star of Caesar was likely part of the inspiration for the author of Matthew to invent his story of the star associated with Jesus' birth (a tale unique to the Gospel of Matthew).

• 7's in the Aeneid (the ancient Roman epic written by Vergil in the first century BCE):

  • Aeneas wanders and suffers for 7 years before reaching Carthage and then his destined land. 

    • (Dido to Aeneas) "nam te iam septima portat omnibus errantem terris et fluctibus aestas" (1.755-6)

    • (Isis in the form of Beroe) "septima post Troiae excidium iam uertitur aestas" (5.626).

  • Aeneas arrives in North Africa with only 7 ships left after a deadly storm. 

    •  "Huc septem Aeneas collectis navibus omni ex numero subit." (1.170-171)  "Bis denis Phrygium conscendi navibus aequor, matre dea monstrante viam, data fata secutus; vix septem convolsae undis Euroque supersunt." (1.381-3)

    • We find out afterward that 12 lost ships were saved as well, unbeknownst to him at the time. This is prophesied to him first by his mother who shows him 12 swans as a sign.

  • Aeneus goes hunting and shoots 7 deer, one for each of his ships, to feed his men. 

    • "septem ingentia victor corpora fundat humi, et numerum cum navibus aequet." (1.192-3)

  • In an effort to persuade Aeolus, keeper of the winds, to help her, Juno offers him a beautiful nymph as a wife. How many nymphs are at her disposal? "Twice seven nymphs of outstanding beauty."  

    • "Sunt mihi bis septem praestanti corpore nymphae" (1.71).

  • When Aeneas is performing rituals in honor of his deceased father, suddenly a 7-coiled serpent appears at the altar. Aeneas thinks the snake is either an embodiment of the local spirit ('genius') of the place or a symbol/embodiment/servant ('famulus') of his father Anchises, whose spirit lives on (5.95-96). 

    • "lubricus anguis ab imis septem ingens gyros, septena uolumina traxit amplexus placide tumulum lapsusque per aras ..." (5.84-86).

    • Snakes were/are not always symbols of evil, either in the Bible or in other ancient literature.  John 3.14 even uses the serpent as a symbol of Jesus.  Also, consider the Rod of Asclepius, symbol of the American Medical Association. See "Serpent Symbolism" for lots of other information.

    • In Book 5, Aeneus makes 7-fold offerings before he prays to his father: 2 libations of wine, 2 libations of milk, 2 libations of blood, purple mourning flowers. And after the 7-coiled serpent appears, he again makes 7-fold offerings: 2 sheep, 2 swine, 2 black heifers, and bowls of wine.  That makes 3 7's together in one passage.  The author does not explicitly say they are 7-fold; the reader must count. Sometimes ancient authors will name 3 or 7 elements of a list and then say "and other ..."  For example, when introducing the foot race in Book 5, Vergil lists 7 names, then says, "And many besides, whose names obscured fame has concealed," 5.302).

    • The boxer Entellus has boxing gloves 7-oxhides thick, with lead and iron sown in to stiffen them. The hero Eryx had once worn them when he fought Hercules. Hercules won.  On this occasion, Entellus defeats his younger Trojan opponent, nearly killing him before the match is stopped.  He wins a great ox as a prize, whereupon he faces the ox, hits it with full strength right between its horns, crushing its skull, and he says that he killed it in place of his opponent as a substitute sacrifice to the deified Eryx.

      • "tantorum ingentia septem terga boum plumbo insuto ferroque rigebant."  (5.404-5)

    • Aeneas must sacrifice 7 young bulls and 7 well-chosen ewes before entering the underworld. (6.38-39)

    • In the afterlife to which Aeneas travels in Book 6, Orpheus sits in the Blessed Groves of Elysium, making music with his 7 notes. Orpheus was a famous musician, poet, and prophet. His music and singing could charm the birds, fish, and wild animals, could move even trees and rocks to dance, and could divert the course of rivers.  It even had power over death, and Orpheus was one of the elite Greek heroes who went to the underworld and can back alive.  Orpheus had been in love with Eurydice.  She was bitten by a snake and died.  Orpheus refused to accept her death, and he traveled to the underworld to bring her back.  He lulled the 3-headed Cerberus with his music, and he impressed Hades and Persephone so much that they allowed Eurydice to return to the upper world to live again on one condition, that Orpheus not turn back to look at her on his way out.  Just before returning to the upper world, Orpheus, in a brief lapse of judgement brought on by a sudden fear that Eurydice was not with him, turned back to make sure she was coming , but she vanished.  Vergil calls Orpheus the "Thracian priest."  The Orphic religion promised eternal life in a blessed realm to its initiates.  Orpheus' body was killed by being torn apart by Maenads worshiping Dionysos, but his head kept singing music as it washed down the river and made its way to Lesbos, where it was buried and a temple was set up where Orpheus' spirit continued to give oracles.  The Muses took one form of his lyre to heaven and made it a constellation.  As usual, there are many variations of the story.

      • "nec non Threicius longa cum ueste sacerdos obloquitur numeris septem discrimina uocum, iamque eadem digitis, iam pectine pulsat eburno." (6.645-647)

      • Also, Pseudo-Apollodorus, Library 1.3.2; Euripides, Iphigeneia at Aulis, 1212; The Bacchae, 562; Ovid, Metamorphoses 11: "with his songs, Orpheus, the bard of Thrace, allured the trees, the savage animals, and even the insensate rocks, to follow him."

    • The soul of Aeneus' father Anchises gives my prophesies when Aeneus visits him in the Elysian Fields.  He prophesies that one day Aeneus' descended Romulus will found a city, Rome, encompassing 7 hills.

      • "septemque una sibi muro circumdabit arces, felix prole uirum' (6.783-4).

  • Egyptians at the time of the winter solstice would lead the cow 7 times around the temple of the Sun and this circumambulation was called the Seeking for Osiris.  (Plutarch Isis and Osiris 52, or Moralia 372c)

  • In the Theseus story that Athenians told as part of their city's history, long ago King Minos of Crete had forced the Athenians to pay an annual tribute of 7 male and 7 female youths to be sacrificed to the Minotaur in the Labyrinth. The savior/hero Theseus volunteered to go as a sacrifice, but he made his way into the Labyrinth, killed the Minotaur, and made his way back out again, with the help of Ariadne, King Minos' own daughter, who gave him some yarn.

2.4. 12's in Ancient Myths

• • 12 cities in important Greek political entities.

  • 12 helpers of Mithras, heavenly savior in a pre-Christian mystery religion.

  • 12 labors of Hercules.

  • 12 mighty deeds of Samson (the reader must count himself, for the author does not explicitly enumerate).

  • 12 Titans, representing the natural forces that Zeus and the Olympians gained power over. 

  • 12 Olympians  in the Greek pantheon, headed by Zeus and those deities who defeated the Titans.

  • 12 judges (leaders) of Israel.

  • 12 spheres of Asgard in Teutonic myth.

  • The first Roman King, Romulus, becomes king after an omen/augury of 12 birds flying by him. (Livy's History of Rome 1.7)

  • 12 Cities of the Etruscan League.  The Roman historian, writing about Romulus' appointment of 12 lictors (like bodyguards) as symbols of his power, says, 

    • "He surrounded himself with greater state, and in particular he called into his service twelve lictors. Some think that he fixed upon this number from the number of the birds who foretold his sovereignty; but I am inclined to agree with those who think that as this class of public officers was borrowed from the same people from whom the "sella curulis" and the "toga praetexta" were adopted- their neighbours, the Etruscans -- so the number itself also was taken from them. Its use amongst the Etruscans is traced to the custom of the twelve sovereign cities of Etruria, when jointly electing a king, furnishing him each with one lictor." (Livy 1.8, The History of Rome, Vol. I, Titus Livius, Editor Ernest Rhys, Translator Rev. Canon Roberts, NY: E.P. Dutton and Co., 1912. http://etext.virginia.edu/toc/modeng/public/Liv1His.html )

  • In Vergil's Aeneid, Venus, disguised as a human maiden, uses augury -- the spotting of 12 swans coming to rest from the sky -- to prophesy the restoration of 12 ships from Aeneas' fleet Aeneas. (Vergil's Aeneid 1.393)

2.5. 40's in Ancient Myths

• Suetonius explains how Augustus was conducted after his death by an honorary praetorian guard of 40 members (Suetonius The Twelve Caesars: Augustus 99).

3. Why Were 3, 7, 12, and 40 So Special?

Mankind's fascination with numbers goes back to the most ancient civilizations and even earlier. 

"Observation of the rhythm of days and nights and the phases of the moon seem to have led to man's early occupation with numbers, and Sumerian-Babylonian astral system lies behind much of the later development."  (Annemarie Schimmel, "Numbers," The Encyclopedia of Religion, edited by Mircea Eliade, 1987 ed.)

In fact, during the Babylonian captivity of the Jews in the 500s BCE, the Jews likely adopted and adapted a significant amount of Babylonian mythology and numerology. Numbers were given divine qualities in India.  The Greeks showed both philosophical and religious interest in numbers.  Pythagoreans regarded numbers as metaphysical entities.  Special numbers were used in the ancient world in the writing of mythology and religious works, in magic spells, in religious formulas and rituals, and in healing rites. Philosophers and priests speculated on the power of certain numbers. St. Augustine and many medieval Christian authors studied numbers as clues to biblical allegories.

Here are a few comments on individual numbers. Not all of these numbers are as important for our study of the Bible as are the numbers 3, 7, 12, and 40, but I have included other numbers too, just for extra insight into ancient numerology.

• • The Number 1. 

  • One "points to the all-embracing unity that incorporates the possibility of multiplicity" (Annemarie Schimmel, "Numbers," The Encyclopedia of Religion, edited by Mircea Eliade, 1987 ed.).

  • I am reminded of the Tao, that which is above all, beneath all, before all, behind all, through all, within all, the womb of all, that from which all proceeds and to which all returns. Sometimes in its better moments Western religion has seen God in this way.

  • The Number 2. 

  • "Unity breaks up into duality. Two is the number of duality, of contrast and tension" (Annemarie Schimmel, "Numbers," The Encyclopedia of Religion, edited by Mircea Eliade, 1987 ed.).

  • 2 is the number of antitheses: yin and yang, dark/light, death/life, negative/positive, soft/hard, female/male, passive/active, inhaling/exhaling, chaos/order.

  • Two "signifies the tension that generates the continuous flow of life, for the world is composed of pairs of opposites," interacting with, complementing, fulfilling one another.  (Annemarie Schimmel, "Numbers," The Encyclopedia of Religion, edited by Mircea Eliade, 1987 ed.)

  • Here is light vs. darkness, good vs. evil, Horus vs. Set, Mithra vs. Ahriman, Jesus vs. Satan, spirit vs. flesh.

  • "Whatever comes from the tree of knowledge has duality," says a qabbalistic text.

  • "Zoroastrian religion postulates the constant strife between the principle of darkness and that of light, which in gnostic religion develops into the strife between material evil and spiritual good."  (Annemarie Schimmel, "Numbers," The Encyclopedia of Religion, edited by Mircea Eliade, 1987 ed.)

  • Judaism and Christianity adopt that dualistic thinking.

  • The Number 3.  

    • • In every lunar cycle, the moon is absent from sight for 3 days, being too close to the sun to be seen.  Its disappearance (.i.e. the new moon) may mythically be considered its death, and its rebirth as a waxing crescent comes on the 3rd day after it disappeared.

      • The number 3 is important for Venus as well.  Venus appears as the Evening Star and/or as the Morning Star.  Every 20 months a phenomenon known as Venus Retrograde occurs in the sky.  Venus appears to be moving backward against the backdrop of the stars.  This Venus Retrograde period lasts for 40 days.  Venus appears as the Evening Star for about 3 weeks of the retrograde, but then Venus becomes invisible for 3 days before emerging before the sun as the Morning Star.  Venus' death and rebirth is comparable to that of the moon.

      • Astrologically, the sun "dies" on December 21/22 every year (the winter solstice; the sun is at its southernmost point on the horizon; shadows, darkness, and night are at their longest).  About 3 days later (perhaps simply from ancient story-telling and by analogy with the moon) it begins once again its northward movement on the horizon on Dec 25, the birthday of the sun.  Ancient people saw the correlation between the sinking of the sun and the onset of winter / death of vegetation.  They knew that the turning point of the sun meant that warmth and growth and light would return, and this was cause for celebration.  They came to associate the winter solstice and the beginning of the new solar year with the concept of death and rebirth. Very ancient people had no inaccurate means of precisely detecting the solstice, but they could notice the slight elevation of the sun's path within a few days after the solstice.  Celebrations occurred around that time. In Mithraism and the Sol Invictus cult of Rome, December 25 was the birthday of the savior Mithras or the Unconquered Sun.   Christians later made December 25 the birthday of Christ, the "light of the world."   The yearly "death and rebirth" of the sun as it sinks lower on the horizon and then begins to climb again causally corresponds to the yearly death and rebirth of nature.  Winter coincides with the death of the sun.  After 3 months, at the vernal equinox, light and day once again triumph over light and darkness.  Christian leaders knew what they were doing when they set Easter, the resurrection, on the first SUN day after the first full moon after the vernal equinox.  This is when all the power of nature is resurrected from the death that is winter.  The sun/light/life has triumphed over darkness/death, and spring has arrived. 

        • I have seen the suggestion that Dec 25 was itself the day of the solstice or the day after it 2000 years ago, and that while the solstice was undeniably associated with death and rebirth, the number three was not necessarily associated with the time of the solstice.  I need to do further research on this point.  Right now, given the way I have seen 3 associated with death and rebirth in other ancient myths, I would be surprised if 3 were not associated with the solstice and the death/rebirth of the sun. 

          • e.g. Consider how Herakles descends, overcomes the 3-headed dog of Hades, and ascends again.  Or note how Herakles is called "the lion begotten from 3-fold night," trihesperos leon.  The lion is a solar symbol whose mane represents solar rays, and Herakles performs 12 labors just as the sun progresses through 12 zodiacal houses.

        • Over the solar year of 12 months, there are 3 months from the death of the sun to its triumph over darkness at the vernal equinox.

      • Given these lunar, Venereal, and solar events, it is not surprising to see the number 3 appear with death, darkness, or disappearance before reemergence/renewal/rebirth in the Bible and other ancient myths.

      • Many ancient peoples considered the universe to exist in 3 parts: the heavens (i.e. the skies), the earth (usually a square or flat disk), and the underworld (Tartarus, Hades, Sheol, Hell).

      • "Three heals what 2 has split." It is "the first number that has a beginning, a middle, and an end.... It is the first and basic synthesis, represented in the first geometrical figure, the triangle, and in the triadic rhythm of thesis, antithesis, and synthesis."  (Annemarie Schimmel, "Numbers," The Encyclopedia of Religion, edited by Mircea Eliade, 1987 ed.)

      • Divine triads: the Sumerian An, Enlil, and Enki; the Babylonian Shamash, Sin, ans Ishtar; the Hindu Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva; the Egyptian Osiris, Isis, and Horus; the Christian Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Three-headed deities appear in Celtic and Hindu traditions. "Threefold invocation of the deity is common to most traditions." 

      • Other threes: Hinduism's being, knowledge, bliss (sat-chit-ananda); wisdom, reason, and gnosis as Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the Jewish Zohar; the Greek three-fold succession of Ouranos, Kronos, and Zeus; Buddhism's three worlds and three bodies of the Buddha; Islam's islam (surrender), iman (faith), and ihsan (acting perfectly beautifully); Hinduism's triguna of three physical qualities; the three Fates of Greek myth.

  • The Number 4.

  • "Four brings order into chaos. It is a material and cosmic number." (Annemarie Schimmel, "Numbers," The Encyclopedia of Religion, edited by Mircea Eliade, 1987 ed.)

  • Here are some important fours: 4 phases of the moon; 4 cardinal directions and 4 winds; 4 elements in the ancient world (earth, water, air, and fire); four corners of the earth in ancient times (and in the Bible, ex. Isa. 11:12); 4 rivers in the Biblical Eden, 4 rivers in Islam's paradise, and 4 milk streams flowing from the udder of the heavenly cow in the Hindu Vedas; the number of justice for the Pythagoreans; the square as a symbol of right and order; the square New Jerusalem in Revelation; Buddhism's 4 Noble Truths; orthodox Christianity's 4 gospels as authoritative; the Christian cross, with its 4 right angles, "the rightest figure of all"; the Jewish tetragrammaton YHWH; 4 seasons, Hesiod's 4 ages of man, Hinduism's 4 world epochs, and the Zoroastrian 4 periods.

  • 4 is also important as the midpoint of 7, as 7 is the midpoint of 13; 4 x 7 = 28 days of the sidereal lunar month, of which there are 13 in a lunar year. 4 x 7 x 13 = 364 days in a lunar year.

  • The Number 7.  

  • 7 moving bodies in the sky (to the unaided ancient eye): Astrologers/Astronomers also noticed that there were 7 bodies in the sky that wandered, unlike the stars, which always remained fixed relative to one another. Because the sun and moon obviously affected life on earth, over time astrologers developed the idea that the 7 wanderers (planets)(the sun, moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn) were moving in 7 spheres that affected all life beneath them.

  • 7 days per lunar phase: Given the appearance of 7 moving powers in the sky, the ancient Mesopotamians divided each lunation (month <-- moon) into 4 weeks/phases of 7 days. Each of the 7 days was named for one of the 7 planets (ex. Sunday, or Monday = Moonday).

  • Due to the 7 planets, some cultures developed the idea that there were 7 heavens, 7 spheres, 7 levels to the sky, or even 7 levels of existence.

  • The Pleiades, the seven sisters, were an important constellation in ancient times (see also Job 38:31-33) and appear in the mythology of all races, and the constellation of the Great Bear also contains seven stars. The importance of both constellations and the number seven probably stretches back into prehistoric times.

  • A spiral of seven turns was an important symbol to the ancient Cretans and the ancient Etruscans, and old Cornish, South Asian, Hopi Indian, Finnish, and Welsh designs of sevenfold spirals have also been discovered. There is even a Paleolithic carving of a sevenfold spiral on a mammoth bone from Siberia [see Stan Gooch, pp. 42-43, 144-5].

  • "Seven is a sacred number in many traditions. Because it is according to Hippocrates of Chios, related to the lunar phases, 7 influences all sub-lunar things. It appears in the periodicity of chemical elements and of music, and has generally connected with the phases of human development.... Seven is the first prime number of symbolic meaning; it is 'virgin,' since it does not generate by multiplication any number under ten, and is the only integer of the first decade that is not a divisor of 360. Consisting of the spiritual ternary and the practical quarternary (3 + 4), seven embraces everything created. Whether the sanctitude of seven was derived by the Sumerians from the seven planets (the five visible planets plus sun and moon) or whether, conversely, they looked for seven planets to match their idea of the perfect number is a matter of dispute. The number of planets in turn determined the number of days in a week. In Babylon every seventh day was considered dangerous, and it was thought that nothing should be undertaken; the seventh day was then sanctified in Judaism as Sabbath, the day on which God rested after creation.... Some traditions speak of seven worlds, or, in accordance with the 'planets,' seven spheres; therefore, the ascension of the soul usually leads through seven gates, steps, valleys, or veils [as in the Mithraic mysteries. In 2 Cor 12:2, Paul speaks of being caught up to the third heaven.] In extension, Islam knows 70,000 veils between the soul and God. Seven appears also in connection with deities of other religions: it is Apollo's number, and in India it is especially prominent in connection with Agni. In Iran the heptad of the Amesha Spentas consists of six plus the all-embracing Ahura-Mazda. But the number seven gained its greatest importance in the Judaic tradition, whence it extends into Christianity and Islam.... Both the Lord's Prayer and the Qur'anic Fatiha consist of seven sentences.... The seven-fold repetition of religious acts is common in Islam; thus the seven-fold run between Safah and Marwah and the 3 x 7 stones cast at the devil during the pilgrimage. Sufism knows seven lata'if, subtle centers in the body, connected in meditation with the seven essential attributes of God and the seven great prophets." (Annemarie Schimmel, "Numbers," The Encyclopedia of Religion, edited by Mircea Eliade, 1987 ed.)

  • Hindu meditation speaks of seven chakras, bodily energy centers.

  • The Buddha sat for seven days and nights under the bodhi tree as he became enlightened; when he started to rise, he could not, and he remained in bliss for forty-nine days (7 x 7).

  • When the Nigerian ju-ju man attempts to restore the dead to life, he strikes the ground or the roof of the house seven times.

  • Seven is also the midpoint of thirteen, and both are significant moon numbers.

  • The Number 10.

• • • "Ten, the number of human fingers, and thus a basis of the decimal system, is connected with completion. In the decade, multiplicity returns again to unity, and the system is closed. The Pythagoreans regarded ten as the perfect number.... It is the sum of the first four integers." (Annemarie Schimmel, "Numbers," The Encyclopedia of Religion, edited by Mircea Eliade, 1987 ed.)

    • Ten appears in the Torah especially in genealogies, in the ten plagues on Egypt, and in the ten commandments, and Genesis was written in ten sections. One can see that our having ten fingers makes the number ten good for making up and remembering lists to pass down as tradition.

• • The Number 12. 

• • • Ancient people eventually noticed that there were 12 complete lunar cycles in a solar year.  There are always 13 new moons or 13 full moons, but never 13 of each; so 13 was not a reliable number for marking the divisions of a year.  Therefore, even though people had previously relied on lunar calendars and still noted lunar cycles, they eventually decided it was better to divide the (near 360 day) year into 12 even parts of 30 days, and they divided the sky into 12 parts, each represented by a constellation, through which the sun passes when it rises in the 12 parts of the year.  This is the natural cosmological basis for the ancient (and by inheritance modern)  importance of the number 12.

    • "Twelve (3 x 4; 5 + 7) is the great cosmic number. From Sumer and ancient China onward, it is the number of the signs of the zodiac and the basis of the sexagesimal system. In many cultures day and night were divided into twelve hours, the year into twelve months, and gnostic religion speaks of twelve aeons. The 'great period' in Babylon was twelve times twelve thousand days, and multiples of twelve appear frequently in later mythology. The meaning of completion is as evident in the twelve tribes of Israel as in the twelve disciples of Christ and the twelve gates of the heavenly Jerusalem, where twelve times twelve thousand blessed will adore the lamb of God. The minor prophets of Israel, the Greek sibyls [prophetesses], and the imams of the Shi'ah number twelve. For medieval Christian exegetes, twelve meant faith in the Trinity that had to be diffused to the four corners of the earth."  (Annemarie Schimmel, "Numbers," The Encyclopedia of Religion, edited by Mircea Eliade, 1987 ed.)

    • Other twelves: 12 helpers of Mithra, 12 labors of Hercules, 12 mighty deeds of Samson, 12 Titans, 12 judges (leaders) of Israel, 12 spheres of Asgard in Teutonic myth, and 12 deities in the Greek pantheon. 

• • The Number 13.  Thirteen became an important number as ancient people watched and counted the cycles of the moon each year.  There are 13 sidereal lunar months of 28 days each in a lunar year of 364 days.  In every full year there are either 13 full moons or 13 new moons. Thirteen occurs often in mythology and was once possibly more important than the number twelve. The more ancient zodiacs may have been divided into 13 sections, and some ancient pantheons of 13 were purged to make their number 12.

• • • Numerous myths and legends center around 12 helpers plus 1 leader as a founding coven of 13: the Supreme Being Baiani and his 12 companions (Australian Aborigines); Romulus and his 12 shepherds (Roman); Arthur and his 12 knights; Mithra and his 12 helpers (Roman mystery religion); Christ and his 12 disciples; Hercules and 12 chieftains; Israel and his 12 sons; Roland and the 12 peers (French); Odysseus and his 12 companions; Hrolf and his 12 Berserks; Robin hood and his 12 merry men. Witches covens have 13 members, and even modern courts have 12 jurors and a judge. Moses sacrificed at a 13-stone arrangement (12 stones and the altar stone, Ex 24:4-6). Jewish boys are initiated into manhood at 13. There are 13 Buddhas in the Asian Indian pantheon. The 13-month year was still observed in the English countryside at least until the 14th century. The 13th card of the major arcane of the Tarot card pack is the card of Death and Rebirth. Playing cards have 4 suits of 13 each. In a medieval dance, 12 hooded dancers danced anti-clockwise around Robin Goodfellow.   

• • The Number 40.  The most important higher number is forty. 

• • • As the number of days that the constellation of the Pleiades, the 7 Sisters, disappeared from view each year, "in Babylon forty came to signify a fateful period, connected with expectation and patience.  

    • The number 40 was/is important for Venus as well.  Venus appears as the Evening Star and/or as the Morning Star.  Every 20 months a phenomenon known as Venus Retrograde occurs in the sky.  Venus appears to be moving backward against the backdrop of the stars.  This retrograde period lasts for 40 days.  Venus appears as the Evening Star for about 3 weeks of the retrograde, but then Venus becomes invisible for 3 days before emerging before the sun as the Morning Star.  Venus' death and rebirth is comparable to that of the moon.

    • Human pregnancy lasts roughly seven times forty days.

    • Purifications and rites connected with death were measured according to forty in ancient Israel, as they are in Islam and Tibet. The times of affliction of Israel were counted by forty: the Flood lasted forty days, the wandering in the desert forty years. Moses, Elijah, and Jesus each spent forty days in the wilderness, and Jesus remained forty hours in the grave. Forty is the span of days between the resurrection and ascension of Jesus." In Islam, "it is the time of preparation for the dervish, who spends forty days in retirement (chilla).... At forty years a man becomes wise; the Prophet of Islam was called to preach at this age.... Forty often appears in Islamic lore as coterminous with 'very many,' such as Ali Baba's forty thieves; groups of forty dervishes, forty saints, or forty Christian martyrs; and the customary selection of forty hadith, representing the fulness of the tradition. In the Persian and Turkish tradition, women miraculously gave birth to forty children.... In Turkey...great events and feasts last forty days and forty nights."

    •      

    •  In the Old Testament, 40 means 'one generation,' and it serves as a symbolic temporal measure. For example Saul, David, and Solomon were all said to reign 40 years (3 x 40 = 120); Moses led for 40 years too (and lived to be 120); and the legendary Exodus was said to have been 480 years before the 4th year of Solomon. 480 = 12 generations times 40 years each].

4. Conclusions:

This study has aimed to reveal the importance of numbers in creating myth. When one understands the way ancient people used special numbers in their myths going back at least as far as the most ancient human literature, that of the Sumerians, this knowledge helps put the mythological elements of the Bible in their proper perspective.

When we see 3's, 7's, 10's, 12's, and 40's and their multiples filling the stories of the Bible, these are but clues to the fictional or symbolic nature of the tales. It is interesting to note that the more genuinely historical parts of the Old Testament use these special numbers much less frequently.

• Were the heavens and the earth really created by Elohim in 7 days?

• Did the walls of Jericho fall down miraculously after the Israelites marched around it 7 times on the 7th day?

  • Were 12 tribes of Israel captive in Egypt for 400 years and then set free in the 7th generation from Abraham after 10 plagues and 3 days of darkness, to wander in the wilderness for 40 years with Moses, who was hidden for 3 months at birth and married one of 7 daughters and led Israel for 40 years and fasted on the mountain for 40 days and 40 nights to meet with God, who came down to the mountain on the 3rd day and spoke out of a cloud on the 7th day to give 10 commandments to a rebellious people, upon whom he would later send death and plagues to kill the wicked ones in groups of 3,000, 14,700, or 24,000?

Of course not.

Stories that use such numbers are typically myth/legend.

• Did Saul, David, and Solomon all rule exactly 40 years each over a united Israel for a total of 120 years?

• Did 12 heroes live in Israel over 480 years (12 x 40) from the Exodus to the 4th year of Solomon?

• Did a worldwide flood happen in the third millennium BC from a rain that started 7 days from God's warning and lasted 40 days and 40 nights, after which a man with 3 sons (and 7 total family members) let a dove go 3 times at intervals of 7 days each to see if the earth was dry?

If you go back and re-read the Samson story in Judges, notice the abundance of special numbers in it.  And look for them in the Christian gospels and Revelation too.

• Was Jesus really the 77th in the line of descent from God through Adam (Luke)?  Was he really missing from sight for 3 days when he was 12 years old?  Did he really fast for 40 days and 40 nights in the wilderness?  Did he really turn water into wine on the 3rd day?  Did he really feed 5000 people with 7 pieces of food (5 loaves and 2 fishes) and then have 12 baskets left over?  Did he really feed 4,000 men with 7 loaves of bread and have 7 full baskets left over (Mk 8)?  Did he really cast 7 demons out of Mary Magdalene (and are demons the true cause of  sickness and evil)?  Did he really take 3 people onto a mountain on the 7th day to see himself transfigured?  Were there really 3 hours of darkness "over the entire earth" when the son of God was on the cross?  Did he really die and remain "in the heart of the earth" for 3 days and 3 nights?  Was he really resurrected after 3 days and 3 nights?  Did he really show himself alive to his 12 apostles and remain on the earth for 40 days and nights before ascending into the sky?

Of course not.  This is myth.  This use of special numbers follows the same patterns as other ancient myths.  The following is from my paper The Resurrection: Discrepancies and Evaluation:

Jesus' death with 3 hours of darkness on the cross or 3 days in grave, his resurrection, his appearances for 40 days and nights, and his ascension were mythically constructed to match the numbers and symbolism of the Exodus story:

• • 3 days of darkness over Egypt = 3 hours of darkness, Mt 27:45, and 3 days in tomb

  • death of 1st-born + passover sacrifice = death + sacrifice of firstborn "son of God"

  • the Exodus = the "resurrection"

  • 40 years in wilderness/people doubt = Jesus on earth 40 days after resurrection, followers doubt and are tested

  • Israel enters Promised Land = Jesus ascends to heaven, the Christian "promised land".

The numbers appear in the Jonah story too: the prophet is in the depths of darkness in the fish's belly for 3 days, then re-emerges from the depths, and Niniveh is given 40 days to repent.

These numbers are not without significance. 

In every 29/30 day lunar cycle, for 3 days between the death of the waning moon and the birth of the waxing moon, the moon is invisible to the naked eye due to its position between the earth and the sun. 

The numbers are important for Venus as well.  Venus appears as the Evening Star and/or as the Morning Star.  Every 20 months a phenomenon known as Venus Retrograde occurs in the sky.  Venus appears to be moving backward against the backdrop of the stars.  This retrograde period lasts for 40 days.  Venus appears as the Evening Star for about 3 weeks of the retrograde, but then Venus becomes invisible for 3 days before emerging before the sun as the Morning Star.  Venus' death and rebirth is comparable to that of the moon.  Ancient astronomers/astrologers paid close attention to Venus.  This YouTube video will help you to see why such a phenomenon occurs:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4nI3Ky8mhj8.

It is no accident that Jesus is called the "bright and morning star" in the book of Revelation (22.16) and that the morning star is promised to faithful followers in Revelation 2:28. 

For those who look into these matters, the numbers in the Biblical stories are themselves evidence for the mythical nature of stories.