The Number 40

[SolomonVII]

Lent has forty days. Ali Baba had forty thieves.There were forty days and forty nights of rain during the flood, forty years of wandering in the desert, forty days of fasting in the desert for Jesus. Mohammed was said to be forty when he received his revelation.
Sumerian god Enki was represented by the numeric ideogram 40.

The Significance of the Number 40
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/40_(number)

What are the roots of the significance of the number 40 then?
Are they Biblical?
Do they predate the Bible, such that pre-existing concepts about the number 40 have influenced the Bible as it has been handed down to us?
Is the significance of the number forty written in the stars, or in our genes even?

 

[SolomonVII]

Mem - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

In numerology, the letter Mem(M) is given the value of forty.
The origins of the letter are the Egyptian pictograph for waves, and the letter represent water therefore. Like the countless waves of the water, like the way that water is often symbolized in the Bible, the number 40 represents a way of saying 'many', or a 'lot'.
It is the time afforded to a generation. There is a completeness about it in that way.

 

[SolomonVII]

Like the number of days of Noah spent on the waves, the number forty is the number of weeks that we spend floating around the waves of the womb. Again the symbol of water comes to the fore.

 

[SolomonVII]

Just as the number forty is written in our wombs this way, it is also written in the stars.
Specifically it is written in the 'star' called Venus.

40 (number) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The planet Venus forms a pentagram in the night sky every eight years with it returning to its original point every 40 years with a 40 day regression (some scholars believe that this ancient information was the basis for the number 40 becoming sacred to Jews, Christians, and Muslims).[citation needed]

The path of Venus in the heavens, and its 40 day regression, and the patterns it created in its forty year orbit across the night sky were known to the ancient star gazers of Sumeria and the Middle East.

 

[SolomonVII]

http://ishtarsgate.wordpress.com/2012/05/06/the-most-important-astronomical-event-of-2012/

This site is quite interesting because it shows how important that this type of symbolism, based on the orbital rotation of Venus in the Earths sky, played in Christian iconography

The five and eights (40) associated with this five petaled astrological rose do seem to be traceable back to Babylonian times as well, and therefore may be linked to the Biblical significance of the number 40. The time frame fits if it extends that far back in time.

 

[SolomonVII]

So it is that the Rose of Venus is written across the night sky. The Catholic "Venus" Mary is represented in Church art by this five petalled rose, with a petal being completed every eight years to complete the cycle every forty years.

40 is water, it is feminine. The same is true for Miriam, associated with the waters of Moses' rescue from the reeds, to her special song at the Red(reed) Sea, to her association with the water miracles in the desert, and "Mirams well"
The feminine association with water continues with Mary, with her presiding over Jesus turning the water into the Wine of the New Convenant at the Wedding Feast that inaugurated his coming into the world as the miracle worker of God.

40 is a time of testing, like the womb tests who is fit for further life for forty weeks. It rejects those who are not and protects those who are, with them riding like an arc through the waters. Jesus is tested in the desert forty days, and Moses and the Hebrews for forty years, or the Ninevites in their forty day countdown to a doom that they are reprieved from due to repentance making them fit to live.

 

[SolomonVII]

So is the significance of the number forty Biblical, or does it proceed the Bible in the myths and yore of even more ancient peoples. Is its significance astronomic, or physiological, or spiritual and theological?
Is its significance derived from the languages and alphabets of ancients, playing a role in their pictographs, and their mystical systems of numerology.

My answer is "Yes"!

 

[x141]

So is the significance of the number forty Biblical, or does it proceed the Bible in the myths and yore of even more ancient peoples. Is its significance astronomic, or physiological, or spiritual and theological?
Is its significance derived from the languages and alphabets of ancients, playing a role in their pictographs, and their mystical systems of numerology.

My answer is "Yes"!

The first forty in scripture is the masculine revealing the second forty is the feminine to the revealing of one's nakedness.

 

[SolomonVII]

The first forty in scripture is the masculine revealing the second forty is the feminine to the revealing of one's nakedness.

Oh.

 

[SolomonVII]

The Pentagram of Venus - YouTube

Astronomy with MicroStation Orbit of Venus Dance of Planets - YouTube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4cgQNUhtmHM

 

[Standing Up]

Just as the number forty is written in our wombs this way, it is also written in the stars.
Specifically it is written in the 'star' called Venus.

40 (number) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia



The path of Venus in the heavens, and its 40 day regression, and the patterns it created in its forty year orbit across the night sky were known to the ancient star gazers of Sumeria and the Middle East.

Amazing for someone to have traced this out for 40 years, presumably not knowing what the end result would be.

 

[Jipsah]

I think I'm gonna go get a 40 of Colt 45 malt liquor and some Cool Ranch Doritos.

 

[MoreCoffee]

In Australia most spirits are 40% alcohol.

40 must be important

 

[ebia]

In Australia most spirits are 40% alcohol. 40 must be important

And it's the speed limit past most schools in Victoria.

 

[SolomonVII]

Amazing for someone to have traced this out for 40 years, presumably not knowing what the end result would be.

The ancients of the Middle East were astrologers, who spent lifetimes observing the night sky. It was a sophisticated knowledge that the produced.

 

[Optimax]

The devil can't come up with his own stuff so he takes and preverts what God does.

 

[x141]

The ancients of the Middle East were astrologers, who spent lifetimes observing the night sky. It was a sophisticated knowledge that the produced.

Yes ... the forty days and forty nights (for example) are not just random numbers no more than the creative days were, or the nine months it took for David to number the people, or the morning of the third day Jesus arose, or the dimensions of the ark, or the measurement of the city and what it was measured with.

There was a reason there are seven feasts of which three of them one is called up to Jerusalem to keep, or why Noah planted a vineyard, or why he cursed Cain and not Ham after his nakedness was revealed.

The Bible is not a random book, no more than the creation is random, or how the camp of Israel was set up in the wilderness, or how many years they were in this wilderness, or how many days they spent in bondage in Egypt, or even why we live on the third planet from the sun.

But people joke about what they do not understand seeking to make themselves someone in another persons eyes, seeking the honor of man rather than only seeking the honor that comes from God.

Jesus said, How can you believe if you do this, how can you believe if you do not seek only the honor that comes from God?

This word tries you if you are willing to embrace it as the truth, but it appears that sadly most do not.

 

[SolomonVII]

The devil can't come up with his own stuff so he takes and preverts what God does.

There is an inner order and a precision to the universe and our that the ancients discovered. It is the same order that modern science is discovering that makes the chances of randomness as a primary cause infinitesimally small.

I think it is fair to say that it was the devil that was behind the polytheism that the ancients attributed this inner order to. With the Bible, God shows that the rhythms of life are in the service of creating a world based in morality rather than in magic.

In terms of the historic timeline, it was the pagans who proceeded the Hebrews in first contemplating and creating religious systems out of their discoveries on the order inherent in the natural universe. The Hebrews were not the first, nor the more powerful, the most numerous, nor the most knowledgeable when God chose them to be his people. The Bible in many ways builds on what came before, while changing the orientation from polytheism and magic, to God and morality.

What is significant to me about the number 40 is that if people are intent on finding the pagan " roots" of this, those roots will be there, as much in the formation of the Bible as in the pagan "roots" of Christian and early church practices that follow. For those who feel the need to purge the pagan roots from their Christian, one must first take note that to do so may entail purging and burning much that is in the Bible as well.

 

[SolomonVII]

In Australia most spirits are 40% alcohol.

40 must be important

And it's the speed limit past most schools in Victoria.

Our culture is a Biblical culture even in its post-Christian phase. The number 40 certainly has played a prominent role in the way that we order our own social world too— less so with the speed limits than with the 40 proof rum it might be added.

 

[SolomonVII]

Yes ... the forty days and forty nights (for example) are not just random numbers no more than the creative days were, or the nine months it took for David to number the people, or the morning of the third day Jesus arose, or the dimensions of the ark, or the measurement of the city and what it was measured with.

There was a reason there are seven feasts of which three of them one is called up to Jerusalem to keep, or why Noah planted a vineyard, or why he cursed Cain and not Ham after his nakedness was revealed.

The Bible is not a random book, no more than the creation is random, or how the camp of Israel was set up in the wilderness, or how many years they were in this wilderness, or how many days they spent in bondage in Egypt, or even why we live on the third planet from the sun.

But people joke about what they do not understand seeking to make themselves someone in another persons eyes, seeking the honor of man rather than only seeking the honor that comes from God.

Jesus said, How can you believe if you do this, how can you believe if you do not seek only the honor that comes from God?

This word tries you if you are willing to embrace it as the truth, but it appears that sadly most do not.

Kaballists are a branch that have striven to find the hidden meaning of numbers in the Bible. There is order in the patterns and repetitions of numbers that can lead to deeper explanations of meanings hidden deep within the Biblical text.
What I tried to do here is lay out a case for some of the deeper meanings that can be discovered in the Bible through coming to a deeper understanding of the significance of the number 40 in Biblical texts.

Some people see such a pursuit as frivolous, as uninteresting as a speed limit, and I suppose that it certainly can be. Some people see such pursuits as dangerous and the way that the devil ensnares us through fascination. This certainly can be the case as well.

It is also a Biblical pursuit. I think that it is therefore worthwhile to delve into this once and a while, for the more we understand the ways of the Bible, the more we understand the ways of God.