Properties of the number 12

---

Symbolism

• Twelve is the number of what is completed, which forms a whole, a perfect and harmonious unit. In the ancient civilizations, like Oriental and Judaic, it corresponds to the plenitude, the completion and the integrality of a thing. R. Allendy tells that it expresses the idea that the Universe forms a whole, associated with the idea of differentiation - 10 + 2.

• Represent the manifestation of the Trinity to the four corners of the horizon - 3 X 4.

• Symbolize the command and the good, and governs the space and the time, that is to say the operation of the Cosmos, from where its designation of cosmic number.

• Symbol of material and spiritual food, because of the 12 breads which Jesus Christ broke to the Last Supper, Himself being the Bread of Life.

• Number attributed to the government of the world or the cosmos.

• It is the creative capacity, and in some religions, it expresses also the Divine Mother.

Bible

• The twelve apostles of the Jesus Christ: Simon whom he called also Peter, Andrew, James and John, Philip, Bartholomew, Thomas, Matthew, James son of Alphaeus, Simon called the Zealot, Jude son of James, and Judas Iscariot, replaced after the Ascension by Matthias. (Lk 6,12-16; Mt 10,2-4; Mk 3,16-19; Act 1,13)

• A woman suffered haemorrhage since twelve years she was cured by Jesus. (Lk 8,40)

• In the Revelation: the twelve gates of the celestial City (Rv 21,12); the twelve kinds of precious stone of the celestial City (Rv 21,19-20); the twelve stars of the crown that wears the woman (Rv 12,2); the trees of life, which bear twelve crops of fruit in a year, one in each month (Rv 22,2).

• The twelve "minor" prophets of the Old Testament: Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi.

• The twelve son of Ishmael. (Gn 25,13-16 and 16,20)

• The twelve great priests of Chronicles.

• The twelve stones of the altar of the alliance. (Ex 24,4)

• The twelve names engraved on the pectoral. (Ex 28,21)

• The twelve loaves of permanent offering on the golden table. (Lv 24,5)

• The twelve branches to confirm the choice of Aaron. (Nb 17,21)

• The twelve explorers sent in Canaan. (Dt 1,23)

• The twelve stones chosen by the twelve men in the Jordan to make a monument. (Jos 4,3)

• The twelve administrators of Solomon for all Israel. (1 K 4,7)

• The twelve oxen of the bronze Sea. (1 K 7,25)

• The twelve strips made with the cloak of Ahijah. (1 K 11,30)

• The twelve stones of the altar of Elijah. (1 K 18,31)

• The sacrifices of the twelve animals. (Nb 7,87 and 29,17)

• The three series of twelve silver bowls offered for the dedication of the altar. (Nb 7,84)

• The twelve curses proclaimed by Moses to all men of Israel. (Dt 27,15-26)

• The twelve springs of Elim. (Ex 15,27)

• The twelve tributes of Israel: Judah, Reuben, Gad, Asher, Naphtali, Manasseh, Simeon, Levi, Issachar, Zebulun, Joseph and Benjamin. (Rv 7,5-8)

• The twelve years required for the young Israelis to be admitted as "son of the law".

• The twelve precious stones which were on the pectoral of the great Priest Aaron, brother of Moses.

• The twelve son of Jacob. (Gn 46,8-25)

General

• The twelve articles of the Creed.

• The twelve promises make by Our Lord, to saint Marguerite Mary Alacoque, for those that would have a devotion to His Sacred Heart by practicing the first nine Fridays of the month.

• God would have given to Moses not ten but twelve commandments. In addition, in the revelations of Maria Valtorta, Jesus declares that "if the Commandments of the Law are ten - Commandments given by God the Father to Moses on the Sinai (Ex 20) -, in reality they are twelve since that the Word of the Father, the eternal and infinitely perfect Wisdom, has completed and perfected the Law, teaching that commandments of the commandments are: 'To love God of all yourself, and your neighbor as yourself', because these two firsts and main commandments are, in reality, the base of life of the Ten, since the three firsts can not be practiced if you don't love God of all yourself, of all your forces, of all your soul, and that the seven others can not be practiced if you don't like the neighbor as yourself, without lacking to the love, to the justice and to the honesty towards what or anyone."

• In the visions of Maria Valtorta, Jesus explains that he sees represented in his twelve apostles choose by Him all the whole humanity and in which all the humanity is seen also gathered in his twelve apostles. In the French book "Parole d'Amour" (Word of Love), Jesus specifies by giving more precision: "Among myriads of men, twelve represents for Me all the humanity. And each man has one of these twelve spirits to follow. (...) My Church has twelve faces and there is only one that unites them all: the mine. Me only am for you the Perfection. And from Me, this unique Spirit is divided into twelve virtues for the man. Even if in you, you have all them, only one prevails and for you: it is the love. Here is the charisma by which the Holy Spirit leads you to Me. In other brothers, other virtues prevail, but all you assume yourselves in Me. This is why I tell you it: do not seek to act with another charisma that, while being in you, does not prevail on which my Father has given you, otherwise you will not succeed in your mission. That is be quite clear! John could not be Peter, neither Peter Philip, nor Philip James, neither James Andrew, nor Andrew Jude, neither Jude Thomas!." And similarly that Juda, one of the Twelve, betrays Him, Jesus affirms - in private revelations of Maria Valtorta - in the proportion of one on twelve, one of us also betrays Him.

• The twelve shepherds who see the Child Jesus in the crib during His birth: Elijah, Levi, Samuel, Jonah, Isaac, Tobit, Jonathas, Daniel, Simeon, John, Joseph and Benjamin, according to visions of Maria Valtorta.

• At the three years old, the Virgin Mary entered to the Temple and she remained there for a period of twelve years.

• According to the visions of Anne-Catherine Emmerich, after his temptation in the dessert, Jesus is served by 12 superior angels and 72 angels of lower level.

• The twelve plagues which will knock the earth before come from the Messiah and his kingdom, according to the Apocalypse of Baruch of the writings of the library of Qumran.

• In the appearances of the Virgin Mary to sister Mary-Danielle, named "Bush of Thorns", Mary speaks about the twelve apostles of the last times who will be called to lead a combat for the truth: "They are these twelve that will restore the new Church which will resuscitate from the ancient. I will reign with them, because they will be the princes of the new Church."

• The twelve winds and their porticoes seen in the vision by Enoch, according to the Book of the calendar of writings of the library of Qumran.

• The tradition reports that Joseph of Arimathea, who brought in Great Brittany the cup of the Holy Grail, had with him twelve knights.

• The Testaments of the twelve patriarchs (from the writings of the library of Qumran), for each of twelve son of Jacob.

• The twelve degrees of humility according to the holy monastic rule of saint Benoit.

• The Buddhists recognize twelve causes of existence or Nidanas.

• According to revelations of Isabelle David in her French book "2000 ans sur le chemin de la lumière" (2000 years on the path of the light), twelve Brothers and Sisters would be in permanent meditation on each continent. Some among them would be the luminous Beings.

• Fabre of Olivet recognizes in the man twelve abilities, divided into six dualities: attention and perception, reflection and repetition, comparison and judgement, retention and memory, perception and comprehension, imagination and creation.

• The twelve signs, or constellations, of the zodiac.

• Receptacle of the good and the evil, the Egg of Osiris contained twelve white pyramids, symbol of the good, and twelve black pyramids, emblems of the evil, introduced by Typhoon.

• The twelve "simple" letters of the Hebraic alphabet are the initials of the zodiacal names in Hebrew.

• The twelve eras that the Earth crosses in 26000 years. At each of the twelve cycles of the humanity would incarnate a rescuer.

• The twelve works of Hercules:

  1. Slay the Nemean Lion,
  2. Kill the Hydra,
  3. Capture the Cerynean Stag,
  4. Cage the Erymanthian Boar,
  5. Clean the Augean Stables,
  6. Kill the Stymphalian Birds,
  7. Claim the Mares of Diomedes,
  8. Pen the Cretan Bull,
  9. Take the Girdle of Hippolyte, the Amazon,
  10. Capture Geryon's Cattle,
  11. Fetch the Golden Apples of Hesperides, and
  12. Capture Cerberus from the Gates of Tartaros.
  
  

• The twelve animals of the Chinese horoscope: the Rat, the Ox, the Tiger, the Cat, the Dragon, the Snake, the Horse, the Goat, the Monkey, the Cock, the Dog and the Pig.

• The twelve lunar years in the Chinese lunar calendar forming the complete cycle which lasts sixty years.

• There are twelve principal divinities in the Greek mythology.

• The twelve names of the Sun in Sanskrit, which are pronounced such as the mantras.

• In the Japanese cosmology, the Creator is sat on twelve sacred cushions.

• There would be twelve Universe and the earth would belong the twelfth. And in this twelfth Universe, there would be twelve different solar systems.

• The twelve petals of the Anahata Chakra located in the area of the heart and the twelve petals of the corolla of the Sahasrara Chakra located a the top of the head.

• It is the number of proposals or verses of the Emerald Table, summarizing all the teaching of the Hermetic tradition. It is a document originating from Egypt, attributed to Hermes Trismegist.

• According to some testimonies, there would be on the planet twelve rich families which would be at the base of a "secret government" whose their only goal would be to direct and to enslave the whole world by the power of money. This government would have a seizure on United Nations, the military, the agencies of information, the World Bank and of any tool making it possible to make and to act as they want. According to other sources, this secret government would be rather a meeting of multinational and thirteen rich families. Some authors see even in this secret government an analogy with the Beast of the Revelation.

• The woman would carry her child during twelve months: three astral months and nine physical months.

• Our solar system would be composed of twelve planets. There remains only one planet to be discovered by the man among the eleven remaining ones since one of them was destroyed. That orbiting beyond Pluto was discovery in 1993. That to discover would orbit between Mars and Jupiter. Both would have approximately the size of Mars planet.

• Twelve is the number of the disciples accompanying the great Masters of the history: the 12 apostles of the Christ; the 12 disciples choose by Mahomet to spread his doctrine; the 12 minor flamines beside the Pontiff Maximus; the 12 first companions of St. Francis of Assisi; the 12 disciples of Confucius; the 12 disciples of Mithra; the 12 descendants of Ali; the 12 companions of Odin, with also the 12 goddesses for women; the 12 marshals of Napoleon.

• In the Islamic religion, there are the twelve imams. The imam is the preferential intermediary between the men and God. For the Shiites, he should be descent of Ali, son-in-law of Mahomet. The twelfth imam having disappeared at age of four years old, in 260 of the Hegira (873), with the death of his father, he had no successor and he was considered alive.

• The twelve gods of Egypt whose Hercules was the chief.

• The twelve tables of the shield of Achilles which represent the social and the agricultural life during each month, starting with January.

• The twelve "fevers" of the Russian popular tradition.

• The twelve provinces that Râ visits each day by passing one hour in each one of them.

• The twelve animals of the Chinese dances included in the ceremony of the change of year.

• The twelve imposing rooms of the Scandinavian paradise.

• The twelve virtues and the twelve vices of Our Lady of Paris.

• The twelve solo circuits which made taking part the quadrigae in the races of tank of ancient Greece.

• The twelve rooms of the Hell corresponding to the twelve nocturnal hours of the eschatologic doctrines of Valentine.

• The twelve lions decorating the steps of the throne of Solomon in the Arab legends.

• The twelve seats surrounding the throne of Odin.

• Measured by the passage of the twelve moons (29 days and half each time), the lunar year counts only 354 days.

• Twelve is the first number known as "abundant" since the sum of its dividers (aliquot parts) gives a result higher than 12: 1+2+3+4+6=16.

• The twelve gates of the human body of the man - 2 eyes, 2 ears, 2 nostrils, the mouth, 2 breasts, the navel, the anus and the penis.

• The human cell has twelve biochemical salts.

• The twelve ganglions in the human body.

• The pure light would be made up, not of 7, but of 12 colors.

• The twelve semitones derived from the seven notes of the scale.

• Birthday of marriage: linen or silk weddings.

Occurrence

• The number 12 is used 189 times in the Bible.

• The Gospel of Thomas uses on the whole 12 different numbers: 1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 24, 60, 99, 100, 120, 1000 and 10000. The sum of each of their individual occurrence gives as total 36.

• The number 12 is used 7 times in the Koran. (Koran II,57; II,130; III,78; VII,159; VII,159; IX,36 and LXXXV,1)

• The word Gehenna is used 12 times in the Bible, the 12 times in the NT. In the Gospel of John, 12 times the Christ is designated as the Son of Man.

---

Return

Last modification: December 19, 1998

sdesr@globetrotter.qc.ca