Properties of the number 72

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Symbolism

• Represent the number of the earth.

• According to R. Allendy, it is "the differentiation, 2, in cosmic series, 70, producing the extreme multiplicity of the aspects, moreover interdependent between them (7 + 2 = 9)". It would express also the solidarity in the multiplicity (8 x 9) showing the harmony and the reciprocity in universal relations of things.

• Sixty-twelve is considered as harmful in the apocryphal books of the Old Testament that speak about the 72 dead (Will of Abraham) and of the 72 sicknesses (Life of Adam and Eve).

Bible

• The 72 disciples sent by Jesus. (Lk 10,1)

• The 70 ancients accompanying Moses that received an outpouring of the spirit, plus the 2 absent ones which had remained in the camp, Eldad and Medad. (Nb 11,25-26)

• The 72 races resulting from Noah. They are enumerated in chapter 10 of the Genesis. There are fifteen descendants by Japhet, thirty by Cham, twenty-seven by Sem. The list is arbitrary since the descendants of Peleg are not taken into account, and that the fathers are counted at the same time that their sons.

• The 72 languages confused to the Tower of Babel.

General

• According to the Rule in the Order of Saint-Saviour, given by the Christ to saint Brigitte of Sweden which lived from 1303 to 1373, the number of the members of the convent did not have to exceed 72: there had to be at the most sixty sisters and no more, accompanied by four deacons and eight laity.

• In several mystical revelations, it is often question of the twelve Apostles and 72 Disciples of the last times, which will teach, preach and cure and this, in all the parts of the world on all the continents.

• The current distribution of the Revelation book is 22 chapters, adopted since the 13th century. But such was not always the case. The oldest known division of the text is that the Greek commentator Andrew of Cesary (6th century) in 72 chapters. Although made with enough accuracy, this structuring could be easily reduced to 70, while putting in the same chapter, the numbers 60, 61 and 62 which constitute a whole, the millennial Reign. Andrew had wanted moreover group these 72 chapters three by three, in order to obtain 24 sections, corresponding to the 24 old mans. These 24 sections were completely arbitrary, and divided the texts at the wrong moment. Let us mention that the Codex Amiatinus and the Codex Fuldensis share the book of the Revelation in 25 chapters, and that some Latin handwritten find some from 22 to 48.

• The 72 old men of the synagogue, according to the Zohar.

• According to the visions of Ann-Catherine Emmerich, after his temptation in the dessert, Jesus is served by 12 superiors angels and 72 angels of less rank.

• The Mahomet Prophet suggests to begin and to finish the meals by the salt because it is a remedy against the 72 sicknesses.

• In the Gospel according to Philip and in the Gospel of the childhood of Jesus, it is written that one day, while he was youth, Jesus entered in the dyeing of Levi. He took 72 colors and threw them in the cauldron. Then Levi was in anger, but Jesus "take out them all white and tells: 'It is thus indeed that the Son of the Man is come as dyer'".

• Gestation period of Laotseu.

• Duration of the seasons according to Tchouangtseu.

• The 72 disciples of Confucius.

• It is the number of the Immortals Taoism.

• The 72 companions of apotheosis of Houang-ti.

• According to the Zohar, the degrees of the Jacob's ladder were to the number of 72.

• The name of God is composed of 72 letters according to the cabalistic tradition. It comes from the mystical text (called Schemamphorash) of the Exodus, chapter 14 verses 19, 20 and 21 of which each one is composed of 72 letters in the original Hebraic text. It is this ineffable name of God whom murmured the great priest in the middle of the shouts of the crowd. It was replaced later by the sacred named, YHWH, than cabalists pronounce by spelling them one after the other: Yod, He, Waw, He. It is also by extraction and transposition of the three verses of the Schemamphorash that cabalists deduce the names of the 72 spirits (or angels) of the Cabal which they call the "explained divine name".

• Lenain mentions the 72 intelligences governing the 72 zodiacal terms according to the Cabal.

• The 72 Jewish translators (six of each tribe) that Ptolemy II, king of Egypt (283-246 before J.-C.), asked to Eleazar, great priest of Jerusalem, to send him to translate into Greek the books of Moses, written in Hebrew, for his library in Alexandria. It is the oldest Greek version of the Old Testament written in Hebrew. It is designated under the name of Septuagin because according to a legend these 72 translators would have produced separately the same translation without consulting each other and this in 72 days. This translation is recognized officially by the Church as well as the Vulgate. Note that according to others sources, it would be rather 70 translators, and not 72, from where the term of Septuagin.

• Osiris was enclosed in a coffin by 72 disciples and accomplices of Thyphon.

• The Chinese astrology has 36 beneficial stars and 72 malevolent stars, their sum constitutes the sacred number 108.

• The 72 instruments of charities of Saint Benoit given in his rule on the spiritual art governing the monastic existence.

• At the age of the puberty, the young Parsee received the investiture of the sacred cord Kucti made of 72 linens in symbol of the community.

• The axis of the earth moves of one degree every 72 years compared to stars and to the vault of heaven.

• Maspero mentions a fable of Egyptian origin where Mercury would have, according to the legend, played chess with the Moon and would have earned to him the 72th part of a day. And this 72th part of a day, multiplied by 360 (original number of day in one year) gives 5 days which have been added by the Egyptians and the Peruvians in their calendar.

• Since a high antiquity, the Chinese divide the year in 24 parts of 15 days called Tsie-Ki, and each Tsie-Ki, subdivided in three, produces 72 part called Keou.

• The Nostradamus prophet gives a precise date to the 72th quatrain of the second century: From the sky will come a great King of effrayor in July 1999.

• The second world war lasted 72 months, from the 1st September 1939 when Germany started the war by invading Poland, until the solemn signature of the act of surrender of Japan, September 2, 1945.

• The "sentūr" Persian has 72 cords, three by note.

• The life duration of the ovule is 72 hours.

• The mass of the Moon is the 72th of that the Earth.

• The volume of Saturn is 72 times of that the Earth.

• It is the average number of cardiac pulsations of the man per minute.

• Percentage of water of which the human body is composed.

Gematria

• The name of IEVE registered in a triangle gives as numerical value to each line 10, 15, 21 and 26, the sum giving 72:

     I
     IE
     IEV
     IEVE
  

Occurrence

• The number 72 is used 4 times in the Bible.

• In the Bible, 72 numbers written in their cardinal form are multiple of twelve.

• The word curse is used 72 times in the Bible: 66 times in the OT and 6 times in the NT.

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Last modification: December 19, 1998

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