Search unanswered questions...
Enter a question here...
All Community Q&A Reference topics

What is the significance of the number seven in the Bible?

[Edit]

Opinions

  • refinement

  • The number seven symbolizes God's perfection, His sovereignty and holiness. 1.) God created earth - seven days
    2.) One seven-day week is a reminder of our creator
    3.) God blessed the seventh day, making it holy (Exodus 20:8-11)

  • The number 7 is important in both the Old Testament and the New Testament. It seems that numerology was so important that representing an event or series of events with the number 7 helped prove that the story was true. The number 7 was of special importance in the Zoroastrian religion, where there were 7 creations, 7 regions of the world, 7 Amesha Spenta (who became the 7 archangels of Judaism), and so on. This would have a great influence on the evolution of numerology in Judaism. However, the number 7 was already significant in Judaic numerology, indicating some earlier influence.

Some examples of 7 in the Old Testament: the first creation story in Genesis, written during or just after the Babylonian Exile, has seven days; Noah took every clean beast and every bird by sevens, and in seven days it rained; Jacob served seven years for Leah and seven years for Rachel; Egypt had seven years of plenty and seven years of famine.

The New Testament has the seven loaves and fishes; seven devils exorcised from Mary Magdalene; forgiveness seventy times seven. Also, Revelation has seven churches and many symbols are seven fold, usually because of the 7 angels (archangels). Luke's Gospel demonstrates that Jesus was predestined for greatness because great men occurred in multiples of seven generations starting from Adam, Enoch at 7, Abraham at 21, David at 35 and Jesus at 77, while Matthew demonstrates that Jesus was predestined for greatness because there were 14 generations from Josiah to Jesus, just as there had been 14 generations from David to Josiah and from Abraham to David (14 being 2 times 7). There were seven heavens and the apocryphal Ascension of Isaiah had the Son descend into the lower world and then re-ascend to the seventh heaven.

  • In the universal language of mind, in which the spiritual works were written, seven means control. Where zeros follow a seven it refers to a degree of understanding related to the experience of control. On our way to becoming spiritually adept, we must first learn to control the physical body, and the emotions, and gain control of the conscious ego ( our own personal devil, or satan). For a more complete explanation of the meaning of numbers, you may refer to " the Universal Language of Mind, Matthew Interpreted". isbn# 0-944386-15-6 In revelation, the seven churches refers to the seven levels of mind and what must be accomplished in each in order to reach the Christ consciousness, in language of mind.
  • In Genesis, God created the earth in 6 days and on the seventh day he rested. This was the first week. Also in Acts, there were seven deacons of the church.

The number 7 is usually equated with the idea of perfection.


Improve Answer Discuss the question "What is the significance of the number seven in the Bible?" Click here to register and get updates when this answer is edited.

First answer by Itchie.c2. Last edit by Dick Harfield. Contributor trust: 548 [recommend contributor]. Question popularity: 20 [recommend question]

Answers.com > Wiki Answers > Categories > Literature and Language > English Language > Literary Devices and Figures of Speech > Synonyms and Antonyms > What is the significance of the number seven in the Bible?

Our contributors said this page should be displayed for the questions below. (Where do these come from)
If any of these are not a genuine rephrasing of the question, please help out and edit these alternates.
Number 7 in the Bible?  Significance of number 7 in the Bible?  What does the number 7 mean?  Why is the number 7 important?  Does the number 7 mean anything?  Why is the number 7 significant?  What does the number 7 symbolize?  What does 7 represent biblically?  What is special about the number 7?  What does number 7 mean in the bible?