NON-RESISTANCE See Retaliation.
NUMBERS.— In this article it is above all things necessary to distinguish caref ulh' between passages in which numbers are used only in the ordinary way and those in which they are connected with some ctistom or belief, or have for any reason symbolic significance, whetiier secular or sacred.
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NUMBERS
Tliree facts must be borne in mind throughout the inquiry: (1) the Oriental preference of round numbers to indefinite statements ; (2) the close association in Western Asia from early times of numbers and religion. It seems to be proved that each of the cliief Babylonian gods had his number : Ann, for example, 60, Bel 50, Ea 40, Sin 30, Marduk, as identified with Jupiter, 11, etc. {KAT[ZW] 454). And it is equally certain that number often played an important part in ritual. (3) The gradual obliteration of the original reference from the popular consciousness. By the time of Christ the process by which certain numbers had acquired special significance would be wholly or partially forgotten by most of the Jews resident in Palestine. They had received their use from their fathers, and found it expressed in literature and ceremonial and daily life, but knew little, if anything, of the way in which it had originated, so that it is very unsafe to credit tiiem with conscious application of ideas current elsewhere. The Jews who lived in Babylonia from about B.C. 600 to the completion of the Babylonian Talmud unquestionably adopted in course of time many Babylonian thoughts and expressions ; but this cannot be assumed, at any rate in the same degree, of the Jews of the Holy Land.
Seven. — Of the significant numbers met with in the Gospels the most prominent is that so freely used in the OT and the other literature of the Semitic area — the number seven, represented in the Gr. Test, by eTrrd, eTrrd/vts, eTTTawXacioiv , e^dofios. In three contexts it must be understood literally, although perhaps in the first two with an under- lying reference to another use : in the .statement that Anna's married life lasted 7 years (Lk 2^^), in the accounts of the feeding of the 4000 (7 loaves, 7 baskets, Mt 15-**-36'-, Mk 8«- «■ « ; cf. also the re- ferences in Mt 161" and Mk S^o), and in a note of time, 'the seventh hour' (Jn 4-'-). In all other passages : Mt 12-*5 IS^'*- 2225f- ^, 'Slk l-I-"- 22f- 16^, Lk 82 Ips 17^ 18^0 (a doubtful reading) 2029- s'- ^ ; in the number of the Beatitudes relating to character (Mt 5^-3); in the 7 disciples at the Lake (Jn 21^); and in the grouping together of 7 parables of the Kingdom in Mt 13— it has some kind of special significance. In the Apocalyptic passages which come within the scope of this study, the literal meaning combined with the symbolic may be recognized in the 7 churches (Rev l"—"), the 7 candlesticks (V^- 2« 2^), the 7 .stars {V«- 20 2^ 3'), and the 7 angels (po). Elsewhere, in the 7 seals (5'- ^), the 7 horns, the 7 eyes, and the 7 spirits (4^ 5«), the use is purely symbolic.
This sjmbolic or, to speak more generally, non-literal use is very frequent in the Jewish literature of the period extending from about u.c. 150 to about a.d. 100, the period which includes the time covered by the Gospels. The following are a few examples out of many. We read of 7 heavens (Slav. Enoch 3ff. ; Test, of Levi, 2f. ; cf. Charles in ExpT vii. [1895] 57 ff.), 7 angels (To 1215, Eth. Enoch 813), and 7 high mountains, 7 large nvers, and 7 great islands (Eth. Enoch 77^- 5- »). Man is said to have been made by the Divine Wisdom of 7 substances (Slav. Enoch 308), and to have received 7 natures (309). Seven great works were made on the first day of creation (Jub 23) ; Adam and Eve lived 7 years in Paradise (315) ; at the Deluge 7 sluices were opened in heaven, and 7 fountains of the great deep in earth (52^) ; and Jacob is said to have kissed his d\ins g-rand- father 7 times (2226). J = =
In this non-literal use of the number, three shades of significance can perhaps be traced, {a) It was a favourite rotcnd number. Instead of 'many' or 'a considerable number,' an Oriental in many cases preferred to say 'seven.' This is probably the force of the number in Peter's ques- tion about forgiveness (Mt I821) ; in our Lord's command of sevenfold forgiveness for sevenfold injury (Lk 17^) ; in the promise (Lk 18^", according to some MSS) of sevenfold reward (eTrTairXaaiova instead of the usual reading iroWairXaaLova) ; in the