Why SEVEN Sacraments?

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My answer is from the Sacraments and the Bible series presented by the St Paul Institute. This is the Lenten Series offered for free to anyone who wished to sign up for it. In the Old Testament, covenant was made in sacrificial ritual. In the New Testament, covenant is through the sacraments. We swear a covenant oath to God. Seven was the perfect number in the Old Testament. It was a sign of covenant. So when people made a covenant oath, they would say, “I seven (7) myself.” In Latin, the word “oath” is “sacramenum”. The seven sacraments are seven covenant oaths. Jesus fulfills the OT covenant and Jesus gives us a model for the New Covenant. We find this model in the seven sacraments and in the liturgy of the Word and Eucharist.
 
I was taught that numbers in the Bible are symbolic, and that the number seven is a symbol of God’s perfections.
 
3_Dog_Night said:
… We swear a covenant oath to God. Seven was the perfect number in the Old Testament. It was a sign of covenant. So when people made a covenant oath, they would say, “I seven (7) myself.” In Latin, the word “oath” is “sacramenum”. The seven sacraments are seven covenant oaths. Jesus fulfills the OT covenant and Jesus gives us a model for the New Covenant. We find this model in the seven sacraments and in the liturgy of the Word and Eucharist.
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Straight out of Scott’s mouth! Like at least one of his talks from decades ago.

And i forgot to “sign up” for this one! 😊
 
3_Dog_Night said:
My answer is from the Sacraments and the Bible series presented by the St Paul Institute. This is the Lenten Series offered for free to anyone who wished to sign up for it. In the Old Testament, covenant was made in sacrificial ritual. In the New Testament, covenant is through the sacraments. We swear a covenant oath to God. Seven was the perfect number in the Old Testament. It was a sign of covenant. So when people made a covenant oath, they would say, “I seven (7) myself.” In Latin, the word “oath” is “sacramenum”. The seven sacraments are seven covenant oaths. Jesus fulfills the OT covenant and Jesus gives us a model for the New Covenant. We find this model in the seven sacraments and in the liturgy of the Word and Eucharist.
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Great insight

Thanks
 
Jennifoo said:
I was taught that numbers in the Bible are symbolic, and that the number seven is a symbol of God’s perfections.
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TRUE:thumbsup:

THANKS,

But what then are the implications of such?

GBY

Patrick
 
The seven days are thought to come from the fact there are seven celestial bodies that move against the seemingly locked background of stars - the so called celestial sphere. That would be the sun, moon, mercury, venus, mars, jupiter, and saturn. Nothing hocus pocus, just a simple observation made by learned people since ancient times. So seven became a number associated with heavenly things Now comes the mystery part…are the seven spheres a sign from God of seven things to come…
 
Crusaderbear said:
You offering a suggestion for an eighth? 🙂
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This is an example of development of doctrine. The Church discerned that there were seven sacraments over a period of centuries. The Early Church didn’t necessarily distinguish between sacraments and sacramentals to the degree we do today. The Orthodox Churches still don’t. We would say the sign of the cross is a sacramental. The Assyrian Church of the East considers it a sacrament. There are many rites that go back to the earliest days of the Church that may have been considered sacraments at one point or another but which the Church has since clarified are sacramentals and not true sacraments.
Ordination to the priesthood versus the consecration of a virgin or the blessing of an abbot…
 
The number 7 is used in the Bible for completeness - Letters to the 7 churches, forgiving 70 times 7, etc. The number 12 is also used - 12 apostles, 12 tribes, etc. The fact that God uses easy to remember numbers for mostly non literate people does not mean those are not the right and proper numbers anyways. A 7 day week is just long enough - complete - but not too long, so we worship every 7 days at least.

The Polish National Catholic Church broke with Rome’s authority, and added another sacrament: “Hearing the Word of God”. But they then combined 2, Baptism and Confirmation, into one sacrament though usually administered at 2 different times. Thus, they retained the “7”. I suspect they felt they had to retain the total of 7.

I wonder at times why the ordination to the diaconate is not a different sacrament from priest or bishop. It seems like a very different field of service.
 
I seem to recall reading that at one time, it was thought that there were more than seven sacraments – like 23, or some such number.

The “seven” sacraments were probably always there; Christianity did not start up with a handbook to follow. The Jewish Scriptures (Old Testament) were not written in the days when there were dictionaries around.

So, it has taken a long time to approach the mysteries of God and Thank God for a Church which has settled the matter, to the best of our human knowledge and comprehension.
 
twf said:
This is an example of development of doctrine. The Church discerned that there were seven sacraments over a period of centuries. The Early Church didn’t necessarily distinguish between sacraments and sacramentals to the degree we do today. The Orthodox Churches still don’t. We would say the sign of the cross is a sacramental. The Assyrian Church of the East considers it a sacrament. There are many rites that go back to the earliest days of the Church that may have been considered sacraments at one point or another but which the Church has since clarified are sacramentals and not true sacraments.
Ordination to the priesthood versus the consecration of a virgin or the blessing of an abbot…
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THANKS for the information

GB

Patrick
 
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