The number 40

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What’s the significance of the number 40 in scripture? :bible1:

There are so many references to 40 in both OT & NT, it provokes me to wonder about the theme the number is supposed to convey.

-It rained for 40 days and nights in the story of Noah.
-Moses spent 40 days on Mt. Sinai.
-He and the Israelites spent 40 years in the desert in Exodus.
-A number of the Judges ruled for 40 years.
-Jesus spent 40 days in the wilderness before his passion.
-Jesus was with His disciples for 40 days after His resurrection…

(…and I know there are several more I’m forgetting.)

So, what’s the reason 40 is such a prevalent number throughout sacred scripture? Is it a vintage way of expressing “a long time” rather than being a literal measure of time?

Thanks,

Jeff
 
If :whistle: , and I mean IF I remember correctly it is just to Indicate a “long time.”
 
Surely there must be saints that clearly teach the literal understanding of 40.

Surely some scholar out there can tell us.
 
No scholar, but 40 days is, I think, the longest a person may fast before doing irreversable damage and dying. Not sure how that fits.

*Don’t try this at home. Always consult your doctor.
 
Seamus_Sully said:
Surely there must be saints that clearly teach the literal understanding of 40.

Surely some scholar out there can tell us.
Click to expand...
What do you mean by “literal?” :confused: I do not understand your use of the word.

When something is symbolic it is just that. I’m not trying to upset you :angel1: but not everything in the Bible is hard fact nor is it literal. Everything in the Bible being literal is for Protestants 😦 :banghead: We Catholics are above that :yup:
 
In the several bible studies I have been in, led by Jeff Cavins, it is clear that 40 became sybolic of a time of preparation for a new beginning. Often this preparation involved a significant trial.
 
Dirk

From CCC

116 The literal sense is the meaning conveyed by the words of Scripture and discovered by exegesis, following the rules of sound interpretation: “All other senses of Sacred Scripture are based on the literal.”

When one uses a metaphor, there is a literal meaning.

The ball is in your court. Literally, it is your turn.

Jesus is the Lamb of God. Literally, Jesus is not a lamb, but like the lamb in Jewish law.

Perhaps a bad example.

Symbols point to realities.

The first chapter of Genesis points to realities, it was not written by a poet without meaning. The author(s) meant something by the symbols. How far to push the whole thing is beyond my abilities.

I have always liked the snake. The snake has no ears to hear (faith), no legs to walk (get up and pick up your mat and walk home/our home is in heaven), no nose to smell Christ’s beauty, and not teeth to eat the flesh and blood of Christ. We know from the rest of the Bible that the snake is the Devil.

Augustine taught the the In the BEGINNING is the WORD of GOD, the Second Person of the Trinity, ALPHA. I am the BEGINNING. (John 8: 25, it is clearly is some transaltions)

God Created in, through or by the WORD of God.

Man this is tough to write, sorry about my poor abilities. I mean that.
 
Seamus_Sully said:
Dirk

From CCC

116 The literal sense is the meaning conveyed by the words of Scripture and discovered by exegesis, following the rules of sound interpretation: “All other senses of Sacred Scripture are based on the literal.”

When one uses a metaphor, there is a literal meaning.

The ball is in your court. Literally, it is your turn.

Jesus is the Lamb of God. Literally, Jesus is not a lamb, but like the lamb in Jewish law.

Perhaps a bad example.

Symbols point to realities.

The first chapter of Genesis points to realities, it was not written by a poet without meaning. The author(s) meant something by the symbols. How far to push the whole thing is beyond my abilities.

I have always liked the snake. The snake has no ears to hear (faith), no legs to walk (get up and pick up your mat and walk home/our home is in heaven), no nose to smell Christ’s beauty, and not teeth to eat the flesh and blood of Christ. We know from the rest of the Bible that the snake is the Devil.

Augustine taught the the In the BEGINNING is the WORD of GOD, the Second Person of the Trinity, ALPHA. I am the BEGINNING. (John 8: 25, it is clearly is some transaltions)

God Created in, through or by the WORD of God.

Man this is tough to write, sorry about my poor abilities. I mean that.
Click to expand...
I think you did very good Seamus. And thanks for sharing your thoughts about the snake. Had never thought of that before.

Also liked your consise summary of CCC#116 - “When one uses a metaphor, there is a literal meaning.”

Nita
 
This well-know symbolic number indicates **one generation as well as well as a great many or a long time.**T his biblical number for trial, testing and waiting represents the Church militant.

Forty is the number of of
the days of the flood,
years of Israel’s wandering,
daays of Moses on Mt Sinai,
days of Elijah’s fasting,
days of Nineveh’s probation,
days of Jesus; temptation in the wilderness, and
days of sJesus’ post-resurrection ministry for example.

Extracted from
The Catholic Source Book Third Edition .
Rev Peter Klein.
Brown-ROA, 2000
(Nihil Obstat & Imprimatur)
 
There is a discussion of the numbers used in writing during the New Testament period and in Christian art through the centuries in a book called “Why Do Catholics Do That?” by Kevin Orin Johnson. In summary, he says something like this about the numbers of things (this is my take, not a quote from the book):

1 represents unity and changelessness, it is associated with God.
2 represents tension and duality.
3 represents dynamic unity, the resolution of tension into a unified whole.
4 represents comprehensive wholeness – as in the four seasons, the four directions, and, in ancient theory, the four elements that made up everything.
5 represents earthiness and corporality
6 represents self contained completion (or satisfaction), because six is divisible by 1,2, and 3, which also add up to six. It may be a perfect number, or it might be a selfish or self-focused number.
7 represents a complete series
8 represents the beginning of something new.
9 is three threes and therefore an emphasis of dynamic unity.
12 is dynamic unity multiplied by comprehensive completion, and thus represents enough to comprehend and unite all things.

The 10s were used to emphasize these meanings. Hence, if tension was represented by the number two, then more tension might be represented by 20, and a great deal of tension by 200 or 2000.

Dr. Johnson also asserts that the number 40, representing an emphasis of comprehensive completeness, took on a special meaning associated with eternity. Hence it represented something that was sufficient to make a permanent change or to represent eternity. Two examples are: 40 days of fasting was enough fasting to atone for all sins in one’s past, or to completely purify one; forty years of punishment in the desert would represent enough time to permanently correct the fault for which the punishment was imposed.

A possible application of this symbol might be 40 days of instruction between the Resurrection and the Ascension, symbolizing enough instruction to prepare for the entire future of the Church.

There are many more numerical symbols discussed in Dr. Johnson’s book, and that is just one chapter out of the 35 topics that he discusses. I cannot vouch for the reliability of these ideas, the book is not a scholarly work, and so is not extensively annotated, and I have not independently verified the theories. However, using these ideas as keys has often helped me make sense of a particular passage’s literal meaning, when numbers are involved.

Pax vobiscum.

John Hiner
 
It’s also interesting to note the paralyzed man in John’s Gospel that was waiting around the pool of Bethesda for 38 years. This calls to mind the 38 years the Jews spent in the dessert wandering around after they left Mt. Sinai, where the Jews were basically paralyzed.
 
Time was created on the 4th day. “40” represents the fullness of time, or an event brought to completion.

40 days and 40 nights…
40 years wandering the desert…
40 days fasting…
40 weeks in pregnancy…
40 days after Easter, the Ascension

So, “a time of preparation” is not a bad way of putting it, but moreso, I think, it would be better understood as a timespan wherein preparation reaches its climax, followed by something “new”.
 
Two other observations about the number 40. It seems to be a time for purification and new beginning, but also God’s giving sufficient time for repentance. Consider that there were about 40 years between the Crucifixion and the destruction of the Temple at Jerusalem, time enough for that generation to recognize that the Messiah had indeed come!

Now here is one to really ponder, and that I had just posted on the WeCatholics.com : website, so I also share it here: On January 22, 2013 it will be 40 years from the enactment of Roe vs. Wade. Does anyone seriously think that a God who found the sacrifices of children to the pagan “god” molech punishable by destroying cities and nations, and who called Sodom and Gomorah to serious account, is just going to let the abomination of millions of babies’ deaths continue to go unpunished? Another interesting observation: that weekend, i.e. the 40 year mark, will be an Inaugural Weekend in Washington DC. Keep an eye on that date! Just a little over 2000 days from now…
 
Someone just told me that this is consistent with the Mayan Calendar ending in 2012. Fascinating!
 
The number 40 was considered a time of testing in acient times. Also, 40 years was the amount of a single generation(the two may be inter-related). That’s why it rained for 40 days when Noah was on the Ark. And the number of people on the Ark was 8, that number signifies ‘a new beginning’. Jesus was tested 40 days and nights in the desert, 40 years of wondering in the desert when Moses lead the Hebrews out of Egypt, etc. A lot of the Old Testament uses numbers to mean something sybolicly. The numbers 3,5,7,8,12 and 40 come to mind. There are others.
 
Reference works on the Bible often discuss the symbolism of numbers in Scripture. The “Dictionary of Biblical Theology” in its article, “numbers” remarks that “the number 40 designates conventionally the years of one generation: 40 years of dwelling in the desert (Nm 14:34), 40 years of tranquillity in Israel after each deliverance accomplished by the judges (Jg 3,11.30; 5,31, etc.), 40 years of kingship for David (2 S 5,4)…Thus comes the idea of a period quite long whose exact duration is not known: 40 days and 40 nights for the flood (Gn 7,4), the stay of Moses on Mount Sinai (Ex 24:18); but the 40 days’ journey of Elijjah (1 K 19,8) and of the fast of Christ (Mk 1,13 p) repeat symbolically the 40 years of Israel in the desert.”
This though is to repeat some of the things others have said here. Many other numbers are symbolic too, though this is another topic.
 
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