What Does The Number 7 Mean In The Bible & Numerology
Seven, seven everywhere...
Something can be as plain as day and yet still have its overall meaning missed.
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I’m going to ask you a series of questions. How many days are in a week?
How many colors are in a rainbow?
How many wonders of the world are there? How about days of the week?
If you answered with the number seven, you’re right, hooray!
Now I know these weren’t hard questions, but allow me to ask you a more open-ended one: have you ever realized how much seven is around you?
Let me explain. Along with the examples above, there are even more that we don’t even really think about.
First, seven is the prime of prime numbers, meaning that it’s the only one within the first ten that you can’t multiply within the group.
1. Seven also plays a role in memory.
In a study done in the 1950s, it was determined that seven was the most amount of items of information a person could retain and recall quickly.
That’s why things like phone numbers are only seven digits long (minus area code).
Because of these associations, this is mostly why seven is considered to be lucky. The other part of the explanation is really just superstition.
But hey, as long as you see those three red sevens in a row on the slots, you’re making money and that’s all that matters right?
2. Seven has roots in the spiritual.
Putting earthly things aside, seven also has significance in religion.
In Islam, the march around Mecca is seven times around. In Buddhism, the new Buddha takes seven steps. But there’s no other religion that shows off the number seven quite like Christianity.
3. In the Bible, seven is actually mentioned 735 times.
That’s a lot. If you count variations of the word seven (seventh, sevenfold), that number rises to 860! And, the original divisions of the Bible were in, you guessed it, seven parts.
There’s the Law, the Prophets, the Writings/Psalms, the Gospels and Acts, the Epistles, the Epistles of Paul, and Revelation.
4. Seven is found in Biblical scripture (and other world religions, too.)
Now let’s take a look inside the Bible. Genesis 2:1-3:
“1 Thus the heavens and the earth were completed in all their vast array. 2 By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. 3 Then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done.”
There are two big sevens here. One is the days of the week and the other is the seventh day, or the Sabbath.
5. Seven marks new beginnings and the end.
Sunday is not the 7th day of the week. This is why Sunday is considered the holy day and/or day of rest. But the Sabbath actually goes beyond the end of the week. It’s actually applied to years as well, as every seven years there’s supposed to be a sabbath year.
Leviticus 25:4: “But in the seventh year the land is to have a year of sabbath rest, a sabbath to the LORD. Do not sow your fields or prune your vineyards.”
6. Seven is divine, especially when it comes to forgiveness.
There’s also a more well-known one, The Parable of the Unmerciful Servant.
It’s found beginning in Matthew 18:21: “21 Then Peter came to Jesus and asked:
‘Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother or sister who sins against me? Up to seven times?’ 22 Jesus answered, ‘I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.’”
7. The nature of 7 in numerology is spiritual, in other religions it is prophetic.
The prophets before Jesus also used the number seven as well.
2 Kings 5:10: “Elisha sent a messenger to say to him, ‘Go, wash yourself seven times in the Jordan, and your flesh will be restored and you will be cleansed.’”
And, if the end of the world is your thing, Revelation tells us about the seven churches and angels, seven seals, seven plagues and seven trumpets, to which the last trumpet will complete the end.
On a lighter note, there’s also seven weeks between the Passover and the Pentecost.
These are only a few of the many references to the number seven in the Bible.
You can Google this topic and find plenty of verses about it and why it’s considered to be so significant.
The main reason, however, is because God split the week into seven days. But from that, so many references and uses of seven have occurred.
So here’s a fun challenge I’ll leave you with- how many sevens can you find in your daily life?
Jesse Oakley is a writer who writes about love, relationships, self-care and spirituality/astrology.