Properties of the number 40

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Symbolism

• According to the Bible, it is the number of the waiting, the preparation, the test or the punishment. Also the Bible often resorts to the number 40 when starts a new chapter of the history of the salvation. On the other hand, forty would indicate the duration of a generation or a long period, whose we ignore the exact length.

• Symbolize the death with oneself and the spiritual rebirth.

• According to R. Allendy, "it is the achievement of a cycle in the world, or rather the rhythm of the cyclic repetitions in the Universe".

• According to saint Augustin, forty expresses the perfection "because the Law was given in ten commandments, then it is through the whole world that the Law has been preached, and the whole world is composed of four parts, Orient and Occident, South and North; therefore, by multiplying ten by four, we obtain forty. Or well, it is by the four books of the Gospel that the Law is accomplished."

• Represent the man incorporated in the Universe and combatting the prince of the disorder, according to Claude of Saint Martin.

• Represent the complete and sufficient period to finish a work, according to Lacuria.

• Represent the eternal hell, according to J. Boehme, because it is the constraint with the cycles of the incarnation whose form does not change.

• Symbol of penance, but these 7 aliquot parts - 1, 2, 4, 5, 8, 10, 20 - generate for our joy the number 50 in which the inheritance returns to the antique owner, in which, if we make penitence as it is appropriate, the ancient dignity is rendered to us with an increase. According to Thibaut Of Langres, it is for this reason that it is sung the psalm 50 "Miseree" for the remission of sins.

• It corresponds to the thirteenth Hebraic letter, mem, and to the Arcane 13 of the Tarot: the Death, marking the completion of a stage.

Bible

• Forty days after the birth, Jesus was presented to the Temple of Jerusalem for his legal purification, according to the established law.

• The 40 days of fast of Jesus in the desert. (Mt 4,2)

• Forty days separate the Ascension of Jesus of his Resurrection. (Act 1,3)

• The Flood of Noah lasted 40 days. (Gn 7,4)

• Elijah walked 40 days and 40 nights before to reach the Horeb mount. He fasted during 40 days before to begin his public ministry and he remained 40 days on the Carmel mount. (1 K 19,8)

• The priest Eli had been judge of Israel for 40 years. (1 S 4,18)

• Moses was 40 years old when he was called by God and that he killed an Egyptian, and escaped in the desert of Midian. He kept the herd of Jethro during 40 years. He resided finally 40 days and 40 nights to the summit of the mount Sinai before to receive the Tables of the Law. (Ex 24,18)

• During 40 day Goliath defied David.

• The children of Israel lived during 40 years in the constraint with the Philistines. (Jg 13, 1)

• The Hebrews wandered 40 years in the desert. (Nb 32,13)

• The reign of Joash lasted 40 years in Jerusalem. (2 Ch 24,1)

• The people of Nineveh had to repent during 40 days. (Jon 3,4)

• Isaac was 40 years old when he married Rebekah. (Gn 25,20)

• The embalming of Jacob was prolonged during 40 days. (Gn 50,3)

• The reign of David on Israel lasted 40 years, just as the reign of Solomon in Jerusalem. (1 K 2,11 and 11,42; 2 Ch 9,30)

• Ezekiel supported the iniquity of the house of Juda during 40 days.

• The 40 emissaries of Canaan.

• The 40 years of repentance of Adam after his corrupt practice.

• Forty is the number of chapters of the book of the Exodus of the Old Testament.

General

• Jesus preached for 40 month.

• Saint John takes care 40 hours near to the body of the Very Holy Virgin Mary before her Assumption to the Sky.

• It is 40 years after the crucifixion of the Jesus Christ that Jerusalem was taken by the Romans and that the Temple was destroyed.

• The body of Jesus remained 40 hours in the sepulchre.

• Jesus received 40 blows of whip during his whipping, according to visions of Maria Valtorta. However, according to visions of Mary Agreda, Jesus would have received 5115 blows of whip!

• The 40 days of the Lent before Easter.

• Number of years that no man and no beast would have crossed Egypt, according to an old prophecy.

• According to the book of secrets of Enoch, the four rivers of the terrestrial Paradise are subdivided by forty and surround all the Earth.

• The stigmatized Martha Robin was fed only the Eucharist during 40 years.

• The 40 days of fast that Buddha made to the desert before to exert his apostolate.

• It is to 40 years that Buddha and Mahomet would have begun their preaching.

• According to the Egyptians, it is the number of days necessary in order that the soul becomes definitively delivered of his body. Indeed, following the death of the physical body, the etheric body spends globally 40 days to be dissolved in the universe. As long as it is not fully dissolved and that particles which constitute it did not join the various elements of the nature, the conscience of the defunct will remain linked, more or less closely, to the terrestrial world in which he evolved. This is why a religious ceremony is celebrated 40 days after a death in some traditions in order to facilitate the definitive liberation of the conscience of the being with his habits and his material fasteners. It should however not confuse with what it is called the etheric energy which it is totally extracted of the body after the three days following the death.

• According to the Gospel of Barnabas, chapter 54, at the end of the world, there will be 40 darkness years on the world, after what, God will give the life to his Messenger, as well as to his angels and all the elect.

• For Islam, the number 40 occupies an important place: the 40 companions, the 40 perfect; the universe is supported by 40 pillars; the 40 supports of the dome of the Mosque of Omar in Jerusalem; And at the Means-Age the Muslems were made depilate the armpits every 40 days.

• In some savage tribes, after the circumcision, the males had to withdraw themselves in the bush for a period of solitude of 40 days at the end of which they could then return to the village.

• There had 40 mourning nights in the mysteries of Persephon and 40 days of sacrifices in the greeting of Mithra.

• Philip-August and Saint-Louis enforce the regulation "Forty-the-Roy", period of 40 days where it was forbidden to any Lord to attack the nearest relatives of the offender.

• Birthday of person in Japan: beginning of the old age - shoro.

• Anniversary of marriage: weddings of ruby.

Occurrence

• The number 40 is used 98 times in the Bible.

• The number 1 under its cardinal form is used 40 times in the Gospel of saint John.

• The number 40 is used 5 times in the Koran. (Koran II,48, V,29, VII,137, X,17 and XLVI,14)

• The term "city of David", designating Jerusalem, appears 40 times in the OT. The verb to adore is used 40 times in the NT and the verb to disavow, 40 times in the Bible.

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Last modification: December 19, 1998

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