The Number Forty
There does seem to be some significance to numbers in the bible. Though I do not put much weight on this kind of study, there are significant events that happen around the number 40.
* Rain fell for "Forty days and forty nights" during Noah's flood
* Spies explored the Promised Land for "Forty days." (Numbers 13)
* Israel wandered in the wilderness for "Forty years". This period of years represents the time it takes for a new generation to arise.
* Moses' life is divided into three 40-year segments, separated by his fleeing from Egypt, and his return to lead his people out.
* Several Israelite leaders and kings are said to have ruled for "forty years", that is, a generation. (Examples: Eli, Saul, David, Solomon.)
* Moses spent three consecutive periods of "forty days and forty nights" on Mount Sinai:
1. He went up on the seventh day of Sivan, after God gave the Torah to the Jewish people, in order to learn the Torah from God, and came down on the seventeenth day of Tammuz, when he saw the Jews worshiping the Golden Calf and broke the tablets
2. He went up on the eighteenth day of Tammuz to beg forgiveness for the people's sin and came down without God's atonement on the twenty-ninth day of Av
3. He went up on the first day of Elul and came down on the tenth day of Tishrei, the first Yom Kippur, with God's atonement
* A mikvah consists of 40 se'ah (approximately 200 gallons) of water
* 40 lashes is one of the punishments meted out by the Sanhedrin, though in actual practice only 39 lashes were administered.
* Jesus was presented at the Temple forty days after his birth.
* Before the temptation of Christ, Jesus fasted "Forty days and forty nights" in the wilderness.
* Forty days was the period from the resurrection of Jesus to the ascension of Jesus.
* In modern Christian practice, Lent consists of the 40 days preceding Easter. In much of Western Christianity Sundays are excluded from the count; in Eastern Christianity Sundays are included.
Created over 2 years ago
