capnkirk

Both the HB and the NT are filled with events with a timespan of 40 days. What's so special in Hebrew/Judaic culture about the number 40? There must be something mystical about that number...or is it the "period" that is significant? Here are all the references I can readily think of:

1. In the Great Flood story, it rained for 40 days and nights.
2. Moses spent 40 days on Mount Sinai.
3. When Moses sent "spies" into Canaan, they returned after 40 days.
4. God gave the city of Nineveh 40 days to change.
5. David answered Goliath's challenge after 40 days.
6. God gave Elijah 40 days of strength from a single meal.
7. Jesus spent 40 days in the wilderness.
8. Jesus remained on earth for 40 days after his resurrection.

The recurrence of this time-period cannot be coincidental. It must have some mythical/mystical significance. Can anyone shed any light on either its significance or its origins?

__________________
Enterprise...OUT.

Llyricist

I think it may be the number... wasn't it 40 years in the desert in Exodus?

Mageth

"And Jonah began to enter the city on the first day's walk. Then he cried out and said, "Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!" Jonah 3:4

Note that periods lasting 40 years are also frequently found in the Bible.

Here's a Christian Apologetic site that tackles the common occurrence of "40" in the Bible, and lists a number of other occurrences of the number 40. They conclude that it seems to have something to do with a period of testing or judgment, for what that's worth:

http://www.bsc300.org/Number_40_type.htm

capnkirk

So when you peel off the 'apologetic' layer, what is left is that in the minds of the HB writers (which hints of Jewish authorship where these numbers appear in the NT as well), there was some connection between the number 40 and significant nodal points or milestones, and that the period between nodes was 40 units (of time, whether days or years). In my experience, whenever particular numbers are ubiquitous in the writings of a people, that is a sure sign that the emphasis is mythological rather than historical.

If there are any apostate Jews (or others) with expertise on Judaic numerology traditions who might shed some light on this, I sure would like to hear from you.

P.S. The next most popular number in the Bible is "seven", and I feel certain that it too has some long-standing numerologic significance.

Mageth

I agree, and "40" may indeed have some numerological significance in regards to testing or judgment (many of the examples seem to be related to tests or judgments), and thus be used metaphorically to represent periods of testing or judgment.

I would not be surprised. And, as another example, three (as in 3 days in the belly of the whale, 3 days in the tomb, etc.) likely does as well.

Mageth

Searching the net, you can find all sorts of pages talking about the numerology of the Bible. I suspect most are useless, but some seem to be a bit more level-headed. Here's one example:

http://www.carm.org/questions/numbers.htm

Fr.Andrew

It's my understanding that "forty" is used in the Bible (and other places--"Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves", for example) for an indeterminate number.

McGargoyle

That one is easy, I've read somewhere that this is due to the fact, that seven "planets" (i.e. fast moving celestial bodies, including sun and moon) can be observed with the naked eye. It was only natural for early civilisations to attach significance to this number.

Amos

The 40 days make reference to the time we should spend in the desert to work out our own salvation. If we can't do this in 40 days chances are that we will spend the next fourty years wandering in the desert and die there nonetheless as a child of God never to have matured and become one with God.

Why fourty years and not 50 or 60? Because salvation is a midlife event until sola scriptura preachers made it an age of accountability event.

funinspace

I would suspect there many environmental factors that could have lead to 40 being important. The Sumerians used a base-60 numeral system, and I believe 6, 12, and 60 were important numbers in their mythology. It would be interesting if other cultures of the area, say previous to 1000BCE used that number much. It could be another case of cultural absorption.

Interestingly the Sumerian flood myth has the rains lasting 7 days. They also use 7 for much of their mythology. Maybe it is also the celestial bodies? I know they were very much into astronomy. And their culture died out around 2000BCE, 500 years before Moses purportedly existed.

DK