The ancient mathematicians thought more about the symbolism of numbers than many of us do today. They examined numbers to see what other numbers made up them. The number forty is the one I will deal with in this blog.
Forty occurs many times in the Sacred Scriptures. Both Moses and Elijah fasted for forty days. (Ex. 34:28; I Kings 19:8) During the times of Noah, it rained forty days and forty nights. (Gen. 7:4,12) Our Lord fasted for forty days, too. (St. Matt. 4:2) The ancient Israelites spent forty years in the wilderness before reaching the promised land. (Nehemiah 9:21) After His resurrection from the dead, Jesus walked on the Earth for forty days before ascending up into Heaven. (Acts 1:3-11)
Forty also occurs frequently on the Church calendar. There are forty days of Great Lent. There are forty days from Pascha (Orthodox Easter) to the Feast of the Ascension. There are forty days from the Feast of the Transfiguration (August 6) to the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross (September 14). There are forty days of Advent (November 15 to December 24). There are forty days from Christmas (December 25) to the Feast of the Meeting of our Lord (February 2).
Ancient mathematicians were particularly interested in the shapes of numbers. They arranged dots or objects into patterns to see what shape each number had. Three, for example, is a triangular number. Three dots can be arranged into the shape of a triangle. The triangle is, of course, a symbol of the Holy Trinity. Four is a square number because four dots can be arranged to form a square. Eight is a cubic number. Eight dots can be arranged to form a cube. Then, there are the spherical numbers. Twenty-five is spherical. Multiply five by itself and you get twenty-five. Twenty-five ends in five — the same number that is its multiple. Thirty-six is also spherical. Six times six is thirty-six and the last digit of thirty-six is six.
Forty is 4 times 10. There are four corners of the earth and four seasons. Ten is made up of 7 and 3. Seven represents the seven days of the week. It, therefore, represents time. Seven also represents perfection. Three is the number of the Trinity. Ten is a temporal and spiritual number. There are ten commandments. The first three pertain to God. (Ex. 20:1-7) The last seven pertain to man. (Exodus 20:8-17) The fourth commandment is about the Sabbath. Jesus said that the Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath. (St. Mark 2:27) It is really a commandment that pertains to man. Forty represents the journey of this life toward the eternal inheritance in the Kingdom of God because it consists of the multiples 4 and 10. Blessed Augustine wrote about the number forty in one of his letters.
As to the reason why this life of toil and self-control is symbolized by the number 40, it seems to me that the number ten (in which is the perfection of our blessedness, as in the number eight, because it returns to the unit) has a like place in this number [as the unit has in giving its significance to eight]; and therefore I regard the number forty as a fit symbol for this life, because in it the creature (of which the symbolical number is seven) cleaves to the Creator, in whom is revealed that unity of the Trinity which is to be published while time lasts throughout this whole world, — a world swept by four winds, constituted of four elements, and experiencing the changes of four seasons in the year. Now four times ten [seven added to three] are forty; but the number forty reckoned in along with [one of] its parts adds the number ten, [as seven reckoned in along with one of its parts adds the unit,] and the total is fifty, — the symbol, as it were, of the reward of the toil and self-control. For it is not without reason that the Lord Himself continued for forty days on this earth and in this life in fellowship with His disciples after His resurrection, and, when He ascended into heaven, sent the promised Holy Spirit, after an interval of ten days more, when the day of Pentecost was fully come. This fiftieth day, moreover, has wrapped up in it another holy mystery: for 7 times 7 days are 49. And when we return to the beginning of another seven, and add the eighth, which is also the first day of the week, we have the 50 days complete; which period of fifty days we celebrate after the Lord’s resurrection, as representing not toil, but rest and gladness. For this reason we do not fast in them; and in praying we stand upright, which is an emblem of resurrection. Hence, also, every Lord’s day during the fifty days, this usage is observed at the altar, and the Alleluia is sung, which signifies that our future exercise shall consist wholly in praising God, as it is written: “Blessed are they who dwell in Thy house, O Lord: they will be still (i.e. eternally) praising Thee.” (Psalm 83:5, LXX; Psalm 84:5, Hebrew) (Letter LV, chapter XV, by Blessed Augustine of Hippo, 354-430 A.D., vol. 1, pp. 312-313, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series)
Another interesting feature of forty is that it is made up of the multiples of 8 and 5. Jesus arose from the dead on the eighth day, the day after the Sabbath. The eighth day in Christian symbolism is the day with no sunset. It is the eternal day that we all hope one day to see. Blessed Augustine also wrote about the eighth day.
The Lord’s day, however, has been made known not to the Jews, but to Christians, by the resurrection of the Lord, and from Him it began to have the festive character which is proper to it. For the souls of the pious dead are, indeed, in a state of repose before the resurrection of the body, but they are not engaged in the same active exercises as shall engage the strength of their bodies when restored. Now, of this condition of active exercise the eighth day (which is also the first of the week) is a type, because it does not put an end to that repose, but glorifies it. For with the reunion of the body no hindrance of the soul’s rest returns, because in the restored body there is no corruption: for “this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.” (I Cor. 15:53) Wherefore, although the sacramental import of the 8th number, as signifying the resurrection, was by no means concealed from the holy men of old who were filled with the spirit of prophecy (for in the title of Psalms* we find the words “for the eighth,” and infants were circumcised on the eighth day; and in Ecclesiastes it is said, with allusion to the two covenants, “Give a portion to seven, and also to eight”) (Eccl. 11:2); nevertheless before the resurrection of the Lord, it was reserved and hidden, and the Sabbath alone was appointed to be observed, because before that event there was indeed the, repose of the dead (of which the Sabbath rest was a type), but there was not any instance of the resurrection of one who, rising from the dead, was no more to die, and over whom death should no longer have dominion; this being done in order that, from the time when such a resurrection did take place in the Lord’s own body (the Head of the Church being the first to experience that which His body, the Church, expects at the end of time), the day upon which He rose, the eighth day namely (which is the same with the first of the week), should begin to be observed as the Lord’s day. The same reason enables us to understand why, in regard to the day of keeping the Passover, on which the Jews were commanded to kill and eat a lamb, which was most clearly a foreshadowing of the Lord’s Passion, there was no injunction given to them that they should take the day of the week into account, waiting until the Sabbath was past, and making the beginning of the third week of the moon coincide with the beginning of the third week of the first month; the reason being, that the Lord might rather in His own Passion declare the significance of that day, as He had come also to declare the mystery of the day now known as the Lord’s day, the eighth namely, which is also the first of the week. (Letter LV, chapter XIII, by Blessed Augustine of Hippo, 354-430 A.D., vol. 1, p. 310, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series)
Eight when multiplied by itself five times, that is, eight to the fifth power, is 32,768. 32,768 is a spherical number because the last digit is 8, its multiple. Eight times five is forty.
As for the number five, we have five senses. There are five books of Moses. There are five books of Solomon.** Christ fed five thousand people using five loaves and two fish. In the Russian tradition, the priest uses five loaves of prosphora bread to do the proskomedia before the Divine Liturgy. Five is the number that makes up the Cross.
The very form of the Cross, too, has five extremities, two in length, two in breadth, and one in the middle, on which [last] the person rests who is fixed by the nails. (Against Heresies, Book II, chapter 24, by St. Irenaeus of Lyons, 120-202 A.D., vol. 1, p. 395, Ante-Nicene Fathers)
Each of us must bear his or her own cross in the hope of one day enjoying eternal life in that eighth day, the day with no sunset.
And He said to them all, If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: but whosoever will lose his life for My sake, the same shall save it. (St. Luke 9:23,24)
Another interesting feature of forty is that it is made up of the multiples of 8 and 5. Jesus arose from the dead on the eighth day, the day after the Sabbath. The eighth day in Christian symbolism is the day with no sunset. It is the eternal day that we all hope one day to see. Blessed Augustine also wrote about the eighth day.
The Lord’s day, however, has been made known not to the Jews, but to Christians, by the resurrection of the Lord, and from Him it began to have the festive character which is proper to it. For the souls of the pious dead are, indeed, in a state of repose before the resurrection of the body, but they are not engaged in the same active exercises as shall engage the strength of their bodies when restored. Now, of this condition of active exercise the eighth day (which is also the first of the week) is a type, because it does not put an end to that repose, but glorifies it. For with the reunion of the body no hindrance of the soul’s rest returns, because in the restored body there is no corruption: for “this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.” (I Cor. 15:53) Wherefore, although the sacramental import of the 8th number, as signifying the resurrection, was by no means concealed from the holy men of old who were filled with the spirit of prophecy (for in the title of Psalms* we find the words “for the eighth,” and infants were circumcised on the eighth day; and in Ecclesiastes it is said, with allusion to the two covenants, “Give a portion to seven, and also to eight”) (Eccl. 11:2); nevertheless before the resurrection of the Lord, it was reserved and hidden, and the Sabbath alone was appointed to be observed, because before that event there was indeed the, repose of the dead (of which the Sabbath rest was a type), but there was not any instance of the resurrection of one who, rising from the dead, was no more to die, and over whom death should no longer have dominion; this being done in order that, from the time when such a resurrection did take place in the Lord’s own body (the Head of the Church being the first to experience that which His body, the Church, expects at the end of time), the day upon which He rose, the eighth day namely (which is the same with the first of the week), should begin to be observed as the Lord’s day. The same reason enables us to understand why, in regard to the day of keeping the Passover, on which the Jews were commanded to kill and eat a lamb, which was most clearly a foreshadowing of the Lord’s Passion, there was no injunction given to them that they should take the day of the week into account, waiting until the Sabbath was past, and making the beginning of the third week of the moon coincide with the beginning of the third week of the first month; the reason being, that the Lord might rather in His own Passion declare the significance of that day, as He had come also to declare the mystery of the day now known as the Lord’s day, the eighth namely, which is also the first of the week. (Letter LV, chapter XIII, by Blessed Augustine of Hippo, 354-430 A.D., vol. 1, p. 310, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series)
Eight when multiplied by itself five times, that is, eight to the fifth power, is 32,768. 32,768 is a spherical number because the last digit is 8, its multiple. Eight times five is forty.
As for the number five, we have five senses. There are five books of Moses. There are five books of Solomon.** Christ fed five thousand people using five loaves and two fish. In the Russian tradition, the priest uses five loaves of prosphora bread to do the proskomedia before the Divine Liturgy. Five is the number that makes up the Cross.
The very form of the Cross, too, has five extremities, two in length, two in breadth, and one in the middle, on which [last] the person rests who is fixed by the nails. (Against Heresies, Book II, chapter 24, by St. Irenaeus of Lyons, 120-202 A.D., vol. 1, p. 395, Ante-Nicene Fathers)
Each of us must bear his or her own cross in the hope of one day enjoying eternal life in that eighth day, the day with no sunset.
And He said to them all, If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: but whosoever will lose his life for My sake, the same shall save it. (St. Luke 9:23,24)
Forty, as Blessed Augustine says, symbolizes this life of toil and self-control.
Steve
* In the titles of Psalms 6 and 11 in the Septuagint.
** Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, the Song of Solomon, the Wisdom of Solomon, and the Wisdom of Jesus the Son of Sirach (Ecclesiasticus). The last two books were not actually written by Solomon but are grouped with his three books due to a certain resemblance of style.
Bibliography
Ante-Nicene Fathers, edited by Alexander Roberts, D.D. & James Donaldson, LL.D., volumes 1-10, Hendrickson Publishers, Peabody, Massachusetts
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series, edited by Philip Schaff, D.D., LL.D., volumes 1-14, Hendrickson Publishers, Inc., Peabody, Massachusetts
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series, edited by Philip Schaff, D.D., LL.D. & Henry Wace, D.D., volumes 1-14, Hendrickson Publishers, Inc., Peabody, Massachusetts
