Properties of the number 20

---

Symbolism

• Represent the God solar for the Mayas.

• Represent "the fundamental differentiation which creates in the world two relatively antagonistic poles, and particularly the opposition: spirit-matter", according to R. Allendy.

• J. Boehme calls this number "the Devil", that is to say the material world opposed to the spiritual world.

• The number 20 is considered as ominous for saint Jerome because it indicates the universal fight, but it also represents the source of all energy of the world.

• This number is represented in Hebrew by the letter caph, in form of opened hand, to seize and hold. The eleventh mystery of the Tarot, which corresponds to this letter, and consequently with this number, is "the Force" which expresses energy, the activity, the work, according to R. Allendy.

• Number associated to the resurrection or to the reincarnation, according to Creusot.

Bible

• Samson had judged Israel for twenty years. (Jg 16,31)

• Under the commandment of Elisha, twenty barley loaves are enough to feed hundred persons. (2 K 4,42-44)

• God asked Moses to make the census of all the community of Israelis being twenty years old and more. (Nb 1,3)

• Jacob spent twenty years at Laban before to escape. (Gn 31,38)

General

• The devout of Krishna (whose it is told, in the Hindu religion, that he is one of the incarnations of Vichnou) prostrate, the face against ground, twenty times per day, in front of images of Krishna and in front of A.C. Bhaktivedante Swami Prabhupada, born in 1895, to who his believers attribute him a sixty of works, of which a translation of the "Bhagabad Gitâ" (The Song of the Blissful), poem Sanskrit of the 3rd century, in which is exposed the Hindu dogma of the universal soul - Atman.

• One month in the religious calendar Maya contained twenty days.

• The twenty volumes, named Nackas, of the Zend-Avesta (theological and philosophical books) which is the work of Zarathustra.

• According to the French book "La cybernétique des sens - ou si l'homme voulait" (The cybernetics of senses - or if the man wanted), Jose Jazan and John Rollet speak about "the Man factorial 5". They distinguish the "5 mental or subjective senses" and the "5 objective or physiological senses". These 10 senses act in two directions: from the man towards the outside and outside towards the man, giving 20 senses, as we have 4 times 5 fingers.

• Mathematical base (vigesimal numeration) in which worked the Gallic and the Mayas.

• Magic square of 20:

                     8 6 4 2
                     4 2 8 6
                     2 4 6 8
                     6 8 2 4
  

• Number of characters of the alphabet of bards.

• Anniversary of marriage: weddings of porcelain of China.

Occurrence

• The number 20 is used 117 times in the Bible.

• The number 24 is used 20 times in the Bible.

• The number 20 is used only once in the Koran. (Koran VIII, 66)

• The names of Cain and Rome are used 20 times in the Bible.

---

Return

Last modification: December 19, 1998

sdesr@globetrotter.qc.ca