Conventions of Names and Numbers

 

In trying to understand how the Bible was interpreted by the people who first spoke or wrote or read it, there are two things (not really conventions) that I feel are so pervasive throughout that we need to think about them before we start reading at all.

 

Names

 

Throughout Biblical times and even today, in some societies, names have been dealt with very differently. We tend to take names rather casually. Not so in ancient times and other societies. To know someone’s name (or even something’s name) was to have control over it. When God gives Adam permission to name the animals, He is also giving him control over them. The reason many Judaic, Islamic, and even some Christians will not speak or write the name of God is that to do so suggests that they have some control over God. That would be sinfully bold. When Moses asks God for a name so that he can tell the people who sent him, he is not given a name, but is told to tell them that he is sent by “I am.”

 

In many societies, people would keep their “real” name a secret. They gave people a special public name so that people could not control them. A tiny vestige of this is found in our custom of nicknames.  When my mother called for “Bobby,” I knew all was well.  If she called for “Robert,” I knew she was about to exercise control!

 

It is hard to emphasize strongly enough how important names are throughout Bible times and even to some groups today.

 

Another facet of this is that when people change in important ways, their names change. God changes the names of Abram and Sarai to Abraham and Sarah.  This indicates that their lives have changed dramatically, but also that God is in control.  Jesus changes the name of Simon to Cephas (or Peter) indicating the same thing. When people change their lives they may take on new names. Saul became Paul. Cassius Clay became Mohamed Ali. Married couples often take on new names. (Okay, granted it is usually the wife in this country, but it still is indicative of a major change in ones life.)

 

Numbers

Numerology was important throughout Biblical times. Numbers were felt to have a special relationship to events. They were also symbolic of certain things.  There are probably numbers in the Bible that had meaning to folks of ancient times that we have not been able to discover.  But a few are really important and prevalent.

 

The number seven is the perfect number. It is not clear whether that is because it is the number of days of the creation or that the number of days of creation was made seven because the creation was perfect.  There are seven good years followed by seven years of famine. We are to forgive seventy times seven. In Revelation, seven is everywhere. For example, there are seven churches, seven angels, and seven attributes. (“Worthy is the lamb that was slaughtered to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing.”)

 

The number six, falls short of perfect and is therefore the symbol of sin or evil. Thus 666 is the ultimate evil (as well as the sum of the letters in the name Nero).

 

The number twelve is the sign of a powerful group. There were twelve sons of Jacob, twelve tribes, and twelve disciples.

 

Forty is a long time. The flood was caused by a rain that lasted forty days. The people of Israel wandered in the desert for forty years, and Jesus was in the wilderness for forty days. I doubt if anyone had a calendar at any of these events, but we can be assured that it rained for a long time to cause a massive flood, the people of Israel wandered in the desert until those who had rejected God’s call to move into the promised land had died (about forty years), and Jesus certainly spent considerable time in the wilderness as He prepared Himself for His ministry.

 

In a more general sense, ten means a lot, a hundred is a very large number, and a thousand is almost uncountably large.

 

Given that much of the Bible was passed by word of mouth, is it unreasonable to believe that the exact numbers were lost (or never known) and these special numbers were used? They would have helped to convey the meaning of the text by adding to the context.