The number seven?

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What is meant or symbolizes the number seven in scripture? When Peter asked Jesus how many times to forgive he used the number seven. also in the old testament It says that the just man falls seven times a day.
 
Good question. I am now wondering myself about the number 7…
 
the number 7 a lot on it, 7 is complete, 7 days, forgive your brother 77 times, gifts of the holy spirit, 7 deadly sins, joseph 7th son of a 7th son ,in fact 500 or so times it is used in the bible. the first 7 words of the bible
in hebrew are "in the begining(time) God created the Heavens (Space) and the earth.(matter)
God created time space and matter (7 words) means complete,

in popular culture as well 007, the magnificant 7, 7 brides for seven husbands, sleven, 7 oceans, 7 continents, 7 ancient wonders of the world,
google.ie/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=number+7+in+mathematics&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CFYQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2F7_(number)&ei=5IHrT8PSHcTAhAfy8c3YBQ&usg=AFQjCNF_8tjWmmBAagsGQXN5FWqBUjxZBg
 
The number 7 in Scripture signifies Earthly completeness. (The number 12 signifies Heavenly completeness.)
 
I recall hearing that 7 symbolizes infinity or a very long time.
 
Seven in Hebrew sounds just like the word for “oath.” So it represents primarily a covenant oath or promise.

Secondarily, it represents the Creation of the world (six days plus the Sabbath rest), and hence the whole of Creation and the world. (And of course, God made covenant promises when He made the world and humanity.)

And since it represents all of Creation, it also means completeness.

Seven comes up a lot in Scripture, because it sort of ties together God and Creation.
 
What I learned was:

Seven represents perfection or a solemn promise/oath.

God Bless.
 
Thanks for the responses but my question is really about what 7 really means in a just person since he/she falls that many times per day.
 
I posted this about seven last year:

platytera.blogspot.com/2011/06/sacraments-and-semitic-triliteral-roots.html

An excerpt:

"Less familiar is the *s-b-a *root, which shows up in Elizabeth. S-b-a generates a bundle of words whose similarites are Biblically significant:

שֶׁבַע* sheba*, seven (cf. German sieben, Greek hepta, Sanskrit saptá, etc. )
שָׂבֵעַsabea, satisfied, abounding
שֹׂבַע* soba*, fullness
שָׁבַע* shaba*, to swear
שבע* shebua*, an oath
 
spencer2 said:
Thanks for the responses but my question is really about what 7 really means in a just person since he/she falls that many times per day.
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In that proverb, it merely means he gets up every time he falls. I.E. he repents every time he sins.

I think it is contrasted with the wicked person falling once and being condemned.
 
I have pointed this out in the past on this subject – the most basic form of mathematics is base-2 (binary) math. Expressed as a binary number, 7 is 111.

I don’t know if this has any significant at all, but it is interesting.
 
DaveBj said:
I have pointed this out in the past on this subject – the most basic form of mathematics is base-2 (binary) math. Expressed as a binary number, 7 is 111.

I don’t know if this has any significant at all, but it is interesting.
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And in base 6 (a primitive manual system), 7 is represented by 11 😃
 
In a similar vein,

6 represents failure to be perfect. One less than 7

In Lazarus and the Rich man,
Luke 16:27 He answered, ‘Then I beg you, father, send Lazarus to my father’s house, for I have five brothers. Let him warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment.
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The man is the 6th son (failing to be the perfect or 7th son)

Also 3 represents superlative: good, better, best (as in holy holy holy = holiest)

Combine these to get

Most perfect failure = 666 = Satan
 
saveusfromhell said:
the number 7 a lot on it, 7 is complete, 7 days, forgive your brother 77 times, gifts of the holy spirit, 7 deadly sins, joseph 7th son of a 7th son ,in fact 500 or so times it is used in the bible. the first 7 words of the bible
in hebrew are "in the begining(time) God created the Heavens (Space) and the earth.(matter)
God created time space and matter (7 words) means complete,

in popular culture as well 007, the magnificant 7, 7 brides for seven husbands, sleven, 7 oceans, 7 continents, 7 ancient wonders of the world,
google.ie/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=number+7+in+mathematics&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CFYQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2F7_(number)&ei=5IHrT8PSHcTAhAfy8c3YBQ&usg=AFQjCNF_8tjWmmBAagsGQXN5FWqBUjxZBg
Click to expand...
👍:tiphat::signofcross:
 
A Jewish commentary indicates that not only is the number seven prominent explicitly in the creation account in Genesis, but the verses of the creation account are seven hebrew words or a multiple of seven hebrew words (even though verse numbers wouldn’t be assigned to the verses for a couple millennia later). Certain phrases are repeated seven times, like “God said” and “it was so.” *

Seven days for creation was culturally the required number of days for important things, like a royal coronation, a wedding, a funeral, a party (see the book of Ester for an example of this).

There are other examples of sevens in the book of Genesis. As I studied it, they seem to come up when there are lists, for example, and there will be seven things in the list. But, the use of seven seems to taper off as the book goes on.*
 
patg said:
Obviously God is a craps player.
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well, probably not. To begin with, everything already belongs to God.

It’s too bad that Catholics don’t have a day (like there is in Judaism) which celebrates the revelation of God, by itself. Certainly we have many other things to be thankful for and to celebrate, in which we implicitly or inherently celebrate that revelation.

We can be thankful that many truths of revelation involve single (or sometimes double-) digit numbers of statements. The infinity of God is pared down to things we can comprehend, up to a point.
 
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