The Number Three Plays an important in the NT

[Mannyfit75]

I noticed that the Number 3 has a mysterious role in the NT.

When Jesus was twelve, his parents didn’t find him after 3 days.

Peter denied Jesus three times.

Jesus said, destroy this temple, and within three days, I will raise it up.

Jesus died, and rose again on the Third Day.

The Angels recite the word Holy three times when praying Holy, Holy, Holy.

Does this hint of the mystery of the Trinity?

 

[Francine_Peters]

Does this hint of the mystery of the Trinity?

When a thing is said three times, it’s meant to convey sincerity. When Christ was dead three days, it established the truth of his death as something much more permanent than a “swoon” like the Jesus Seminar puts forth. When Peter denied Jesus three times, it was a definitive rejection of his Lord.

 

[NotWorthy]

I noticed that the Number 3 has a mysterious role in the NT.

When Jesus was twelve, his parents didn’t find him after 3 days.

This prefigured Jesus’ death in Jerusalem some 21 years later.

Peter denied Jesus three times.

Jesus said, destroy this temple, and within three days, I will raise it up.

Jesus died, and rose again on the Third Day.

I think post #2 adequately explains this.

The Angels recite the word Holy three times when praying Holy, Holy, Holy.

In Hebrew there were no words for conveying more and most such as holier and holiest. To denote that something was very holy, for example, you would say it was “holy, holy”. To denote that some was the holiest, you would repeat it three times.

So, in Isaiah (where this vision was first described) “Holy, Holy, Holy” meant that God was the holiest thing there is.

Does this hint of the mystery of the Trinity?

So does it pre-shadow the Trinity? I don’t know.

I think you’ll be amazed at the pre-figurations of the Trinity in the Old Testament.

For instance, the Fathers of the Church saw the Trinity in Abraham, his servant, and Isaac.
Abraham pre-figured God the Father (of course)
Isaac, Abraham’s “beloved son” prefigured Jesus, God’s Beloved Son.
The unnamed servant that was sent out to find a bride for Isaac represents the Holy Spirit.
Rebekah represents the Church, the Bride of the Son, whom the Holy Spirit brings to the marriage supper of the Lamb.

 

[DaveBj]

The created universe itself has trinitarian fingerprints all through it.

The universe consists of three things: space, time, and matter. (Don’t bring up energy; E=MC2 [sorry–can’t do superscript] proves that matter and energy are two forms of the same thing.)

Space is measured in three dimensions.

Matter exists in three forms–solid, liquid, and gas (plasma is just gas with the electrons stripped off the atomic nuclei).

Time = past, present, and future.

The other big significant number in the Bible is 7. In the most basic mathematical system (binary), 7 = 111–another trinity.

I could go on.

 

[HailMary]

During our 2 year study of the Book of Revelation, Naji Mouawad, our bible study professor, gave two talks on ***Symbols in the bible:

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The bible is full of symbols: horses, horns, swords, bows, precious stones, stars, sun and moon, various colors, the fig tree, lambs, calves, beasts, beasts, and more beasts… what does this all mean?

In this series we take a systematic approach and cover those symbols, explaining their meaning and their purpose. We will see that some of these symbols have dual meaning and, therefore, we need to keep a loose hand when using these symbols. In particular, use of symbols is very important when we are trying to understand the literal meaning of scripture.

qorbono.com/index.php?page=shop.browse&category_id=11&option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=41&vmcchk=1

 

[spauline]

I noticed that the Number 3 has a mysterious role in the NT.

When Jesus was twelve, his parents didn’t find him after 3 days.

Peter denied Jesus three times.

Jesus said, destroy this temple, and within three days, I will raise it up.

Jesus died, and rose again on the Third Day.

The Angels recite the word Holy three times when praying Holy, Holy, Holy.

Does this hint of the mystery of the Trinity?

perhaps, and even possibly more layers: the way of the saint has three stages, the purgative, the illuminative, and the unitive.

St. Augustine testifies the Jews passed through three stages, and that they prophesy of the Gospel, which could perhaps inidicate the Church fulfills the same Three ages in the NT history, hence providing a possible solution of the Jews are able to recognized Christ in the end.

ie, For the three ages of the Gentiles that Christ is “busy with the Father’s business [Redeeming the Gentiles]”, the Jews are looking for him, and only in the third day do they find him.

Similarly, Mary Magdelene does not recognize Christ at the Resurrection until Christ speaks the third time, “Mary.”

Jesus prayed to avoid the Cup three times, but in the third he is able accept the Father’s will, just as only in the third stage of the saint [the unitive] is the saint fully prepared to whatever the will of God is [martyrdom, like Christ’s Passion].

Jesus falls three times, but in the third he cannot get up, just as the third age of the Church and Gentiles is the Great apostasy (if they will indeed fuflill the Jewish history and way of the saint), a condition in which the Gentiles as a near whole can no longer be redeemed.

For fuller details, you might read this on my blog:

The Mysterious Threes