Biblical numbers are no more chronologically reliable than Biblical story telling or geography. The Biblical use of numbers is an excellent illustration of the non-scientific and at the same time highly sophisticated literary technique of the Bible. The Bible states that it took the Israelites 40 years to reach the Land of Canaan. But this period of time was chosen in order to conform to the symbolism of numbers used in Scripture. The numbers 7, 10, 12 and 40 recur again and again in the Bible and particularly in the Pentateuch. They are not “holy” numbers; that is, none of them holds magical powers, as is often suggested. Indeed, that would transgress the uncompromising idea of Biblical monotheism for which magic is anathema. Yet each of these numbers suggests a deeper meaning, just as colors are meaningful in modern civilization, where, for example, in some cultures black is a sign of mourning; red, a sign of danger; and green, a sign of hope.
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Forty stands for purity effected through isolation and gradual growth. (The isolation implied by the number 40 has survived etymologically in the word “quarantine.”) The Flood took 40 days to sweep away evil from the face of the earth. Moses spent 40 lonely days and nights on Mount Sinai before he returned with the two Tablets of the Law. And the Israelites had to remain in the wilderness 40 years before they were mature enough to enter Canaan. The suggestion frequently put forward that 40 years stands for one generation is certainly mistaken. If today a generation lasts 25 years, how much shorter it must have been in antiquity when people married at a much earlier age.
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What is the true significance of the Forty Years? These were the honeymoon years—sit venia verbo—when God and Israel as a couple spent time getting used to each other, undisturbed by outsiders. For this reason, and despite the fact that the region was anything but void, the Torah makes no mention of any encounters between the 12 tribes and other settlers or even nomads, with the exception of Moses’s well-meaning father-in-law (Exodus 18), on the one hand, and the embodiment of evil, Amalek (Exodus 17), on the other. This honeymoon concept is made quite explicit in Jeremiah 2:2: “I remember the unfailing devotion of your youth, the love of your bridal days, when you followed me in the wilderness.”
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Book X ---On Numbers
Translated by Karen Rae Keck, 1996
In truth, we interpret, however briefly, these numbers of perfect names. The mystical account of these examples makes them more honored among the blessed.
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XL. [This number refers] to the promise of Lent; in the gospel: and he was led by the spirit in the desert for forty days. [Luke 4:1-2]
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