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The Divine Significance of the Number 7 in the Bible and Pre-Biblical Antiquity
By: David Deschesne
Editor/Publisher, Fort Fairfield Journal July 6, 2016
The number seven appears in its various forms - seven, sevens and seventh - over 500 times in the Holy Bible. It’s been said that it’s God’s divine number of spiritual perfection. Seven “is used to represent God’s complete provision both in Christ and in His dealings with men.”1
As a book of Holy writings, the Bible is a relatively new collection of works in humanity’s timeline. Before the Old Testament/Torah was even thought of, there were other religious beliefs and institutions scattered around the world going back to 2500 B.C. and beyond.
With all the uses of seven in the Holy Bible, one has to wonder if that number held any special significance in other religions and belief systems of antiquity and if those ancient beliefs may have inspired or otherwise affected the writers of the books that ultimately found their way into the collective works of the “Word of God.”
Seven Circles
The “Seed of Life”
Ancient religions used a form with seven circles to create what they called the “Seed of Life.” (fig. 1) The Seed of Life is formed from seven circles being placed with sixfold symmetry, forming a pattern of circles and lenses, which acts as the basic component in the Flower of Life's design.
The Seed of Life is then multiplied and extrapolated into the “Flower of Life” (fig. 2).
The Flower of Life is found in many of the major religions of the world. The Temple of Osiris at Abydos, Egypt contains the oldest to-date example. Other examples can be found in Phoenician, Assyrian, Indian, Asian, Middle Eastern, and medieval art.
Seven Day Week
While the Bible delineates a seven day week, the ancient astrologers of Babylonia also came up with a seven day week. They based their reasoning for seven days on the seven planets that, at the time, they believed all orbited the Earth—the sun, moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. These were all deified as gods and made up the days of the week.
According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, the English names of the days of the week are derived from the Saxon. “The ancient Saxons had borrowed the week from some Eastern nation and substituted the names of their own divinities for those of the gods of the East. Those Saxon gods and goddesses were: Sun’s Day, Moon’s Day, Tiw’s Day, Woden’s Day, Thor’s Day, Frigg’s Day and Seterne’s Day.”2
The movements of the sun, moon and five planets were regarded as representing the activity of the five gods together with the moon-god Sin and the sun-god Shamash.3
For those interested, I wrote a detailed analysis of the names of the days of the week in the October 14, 2015 Fort Fairfield Journal, which is also available online.
Ancient Egyptian Influence
Ancient Egyptian religious numerology also incorporated the concept of seven in a couple of its stories.
In the story of Isis and the Seven Scorpions, Isis and Horus, along with seven scorpions came across a village in their travels. They were shunned by a wealthy noblewoman when they asked for food and shelter. The scorpions then went back to the woman and stung her young son nearly to death in order to avenge their mistress, Isis. When she cried for help, no one came. Isis, however, took pity on the young boy—because he shouldn’t be punished for his mother’s selfishness—and cast a spell, neutralizing the poison.4
The Egyptian Book of the Dead, quite likely one of the oldest religious books in the world, was extant long before any of the books of the Bible were written. Ancient Egyptians believedthat Tehuty wrote it 50,000 years ago. The Egyptian Book of the Dead mentions the Seven Divine Spirits in Nature and names them as: Mesty, Hapi, Dua-Mut-F, Qeb-Sen-F, Maa-Etf-F, Khenty-Beq-F and Heru-Khenty-Maa. The seven spirits are also called the celestial ship of the north, are recognized in the constellation, Ursa Major (the “Big Dipper”) and were believed to cause the protection and purification of all good.5
Ancient Hindu Influences
India’s Hindu religion, as enshrined in its Vedas, can trace its roots back over 4,000 years, to around 2400 B.C. this makes it around 1,000 years older than the Torah (the Torah is the first five books of the Old Testament), which is generally attributed to Moses who lived around 1300 B.C.
Helen Blavatsky, a 19th century religious researcher notes the number 7 of the Bible has played a part in the Hindu religion even before any of the books of the Holy Bible were ever thought of. “Nowhere did the number seven play so prominent a part as with the old Aryas in India. We have but to think of the seven sages--the Sapta Rishis; the Sapta Loka--the seven worlds; the Sapta Pura--the seven holy cities; the Sapta Dvipa--the seven holy islands; the Sapta Samudra--the seven holy seas; the Sapta Parvatta--the seven holy mountains; the Sapta Arania--the seven deserts; the Sapta Vriksha--the seven sacred trees; and so on.”6
Some of the uses of seven in the ancient Hindu religion are:
Seven Sages
(Sapta-Rishi)
The Sapta-Rishi, or Saptarishi are the seven sages who are extolled in the Hindu Vedas. They originally were not named, but through subsequent texts such as the Brahmanas and Upanisads, they have been given various names. They are regarded in the Vedas as the patriarchs of the Vedic religion. In some parts of India, people believe—as the ancient Egyptians did—these patriarchs are symbolized by the seven stars of the constellation Ursa Major (the Big Dipper).7
Seven Inferior and
Seven Superior Worlds
(Sapta-Loka)
The Hindus believe there are seven worlds—or realms above and below the Earth. Hindu scriptures explain that the earth is only one in a series of several planes of existence. According to the Hindu Gayatri mantra and the Puranas, the seven worlds/realms above Earth are: bhuloka, bhuvarloka, svargaloka, maharloka, janaloka, tapoloka, and satyaloka (or Brahmaloka). The seven underworlds are: atalaloka, vitalaloka, sutalaloka, talatalaloka, mahatalaloka, rasatalaloka, and patalaloka.7
Seven Holy Cities
(Sapta-Puri)
The Sapta Puri are seven holy pilgrimage centres in India. The tirthas (pilgrimage centres) are: Ayodhya, Mathura, Haridwar, Varanasi, Kanchipuram, Ujjain and Dwarka.
The Sapta-Puri are places of birth of religious and spiritual masters, places where Gods have descended as avatars (incarnations) such as Ayodhya where Rama was born, and places considered as Nitya tirthas, naturally endowed, with spiritual powers since ages such as Varanasi and Haridwar.7
Seven Islands
(Sapta-Dvipa)
In Indian mythology, dvīpa is the term for the major divisions of the terrestrial sphere, sometimes translated as “continents.” There are 7 dvipas.7
The list of seven dvipas is:
Jambu, Plaksha, Shalmali, Kusha, Kraunca, Shaka, and Pushkara.
Seven Holy Seas
(Sapta-Samudra)
The term “Seven Seas” appears as early as 2300 B.C. in Hymn 8 of the Sumerian Enheduanna to the goddess Inanna. The Mesopotamians were the first in the history of astronomy to keep records of the observed seven moving objects in the heavens – the seven Classical Planets/Seven Heavens – and they made this connection to their seven seas.7
Seven Holy Mountains/Hills
(Sapta-Parvada)
Hills and mountains have a special significance in Hinduism. They are either the abode of gods or locations where gods did extraordinary things. The seven holy mountains of Hinduism are: Haridwar, Hrishikesh, Badrinatha, Kedarnath, Vindhya, Vyenkata Hill, and Govardhana Hill.8
Uses of Seven in Judaism
In early Jewish writings, the divine significance of the number seven also found its way in. The Haggadah and 1 Enoch mention the “seven heavens,”9; 1 Enoch describes the “seven mountains of magnificent stone”10; and 2 Enoch describes the “seven consistencies of man.”11
The Old Testament gives us the seventh day, seven priests, animals put into the ark by the sevens, the ark resting in the seventh month, seven bullocks and seven rams, Isaiah’s seven streams, Jacob serving seven years for Rachel, letting fields rest every seventh year, seven lamps and seven altars, and the Jubilee year of every seventh seven year period (7x7=49 years) just to name a few.
Christian Era’s Seven
As the books of the Christian Era were written in the first through third centuries A.D., seven’s symbolism also remained.
The Gnostic Christians had their seven world creating powers, seven forms, seven rulers, seven suns, seven Heavens and seven Æons.
The New Testament writers also worked the number seven into their writings with seven loaves of bread, seven baskets, seven other spirits, seven times a day, seven nations, seven sons of Sceva, and seven brethren.
The book of Revelation, which some believe to have been written by a Gnostic, is replete with references to the number seven. For example, it mentions: seven churches, seven golden candlesticks, seven spirits of God, seven stars, seven lamps of fire, seven seals, seven plagues, seven horns & seven eyes, seven heads, seven crowns, seven angels, seven trumpets, seven kings, seven thunders, seven golden vials, seven mountains, and the seventh chrysolite.
Conclusion
The number seven seems to be enmeshed in the world’s religions throughout history and is not exclusive to Judaism or Christianity. Blavatsky cites the German journal, Die Gegenwart, “The Egyptians had seven original and higher gods; the Phœnicians seven kabiris; the Persians, seven sacred horses of Mithra; the Parsees, seven angels opposed by seven demons, and seven celestial abodes paralleled by seven lower regions. To represent the more clearly this idea in its concrete form, the seven gods were often represented as one seven-headed deity. The whole heaven was subjected to the seven planets; hence, in nearly all the religious systems we find seven heavens.”
Blavatsky also says, “In the mysterious worship of Mithra there were ‘seven gates,’ seven altars, seven mysteries. The priests of many Oriental nations were sub-divided into seven degrees; seven steps led to the altars and in the temples burnt candles in seven-branched candlesticks.”
It’s also interesting to consider the secular points on the number seven with the seven notes of the musical scale, seven basic colors in the light spectrum and the human body replacing all of its cells every seven years.
With the books of the Holy Bible being relative newcomers onto the scene, and ruling out coincidence, it seems that the use of the number seven may have been grafted in from earlier religious belief systems and its use is not novel, or exclusive to the Jewish and Christian writers.
Notes:
1. A Dictionary of Bible Types, Walter Wilson, ©1999 Hendrickson Publishers, Inc.
2. Encyclopedia Britannica, 1958 ed. Vol. 4, p. 568
3. op cit., Vol. 2 p. 575
4. The Way to Eternity: Egyptian Myth, Time/Life Books ©1997 Duncan Baird Publishers, p. 117.
5. The Illustrated Egyptian Book of the Dead, ©2001 Dr. Ramses Seleem, pp. 22-96
6. H.P. Blavatsky, Theosophist, June 1880.
7. ref. wikipedia.com
8. iskconeducationalservices.org/HoH/practice/505.htm
9. The Other Bible, ©2005 Willis Barnstone, pp. 17, 499
10. 1 Enoch, 18:6, 24:2, 32:1
11. The Other Bible, p. 6
