The Old Testament Hebrew Scriptures in Five Minutes - Philippe Guillaume
41. Which Numbers Can Be Symbolic in the Hebrew Bible?
The Old Testament Hebrew Scriptures in Five Minutes - Philippe Guillaume
Elaine Adler Goodfriend [+]
Elaine Adler Goodfriend holds a Ph.D. in Near Eastern Studies from U.C. Berkeley. She writes about biblical and Jewish law. Her recent publications include “The Qatlanit (“Killer Wife”) in Jewish Law: A Survey of Sources,” in Women in Judaism: A Multidisciplinary E-Journal, 17 (2020), and “Why is the Torah Divided into Five Books?,” at https://thetorah.com/why-is-the-torahdivided-into-five-books, May, 2018.
Description
Numbers can convey qualitative and quantitative values. In the Bible, numbers bear symbolic meaning beyond their face value. This is the case for seven, for multiples of seven, and for three, five, ten, twelve, seventeen and forty.