Despite the breathtaking speed at which we’re tearing through the book of Genesis, it’s entirely understandable that you may have been tempted to read ahead. Well, of course, temptation does indeed lie ahead but before then, you may have noticed there’s a whole lot of goodness going round, (vv 4, 10, 12, 18, 21, 25, 31), the last of which is very or wholly good.
Rather than the ten opening words usually comprising English translations of Genesis – In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth – the Hebrew text is in fact a sentence of seven words. Now, if you would kindly run an arithmetical eye over the above goods you should arrive at the same number. And, whilst we’re at it, how about counting the days of the week. Yes, seven is a sacred number.
For the mathematically-challenged amongst us (ahem), the wonder is how any number could ever be designated holy. But it’s catching. How many Signs in John’s Gospel? How many proto-churches, angels, seals, trumpets or stars in the Book of Apocalypse? How many times should I forgive my brother? Where’s the most perfectly mystical place to which you could ever travel?*
And it’s also there in the general Christian tradition. In the cardinal virtues and deadly sins. So weirdly ordered that there’s neatly seven each! How many principal Catholic Sacraments? It’s present in other faiths but equally not just an obsession of religion. How many wonders of the ancient world? How many habits of highly effective people? How many brides for how many brothers? Tell me the top prize on a slot machine? What’s most people’s favourite number? How many visible colours of the rainbow? Do you recall that classic Western The Magnificent Six? Right, I’m going to stop now due to the risk of sounding like one of those expositions in a Dan Brown novel. Yes, we get it: it’s seven!
That said, it isn’t all about the seven. There are other sacred numbers, like three (it isn’t seven persons in one God!), and twelve (tribes of Israel/Apostles), yet uncannily, seven just keeps popping up. Ok, so it is a prime number but, then again, there are also quite a few of those. Quite simply, there’s something about seven which seems curiously hard-wired. I mean, try imagining a week of a different number. Creation One appears to be attempting to reflect something deep in the human psyche relating to the idea of perfectibility.
So, how’s this for a mystical, creative, spiritual, number theory?
God metaphorically rests on the metaphorical seventh day (Gen 2:2). It’s a very different day from the six preceding ones. But they’re not a lump of days either. The first three are traditionally grouped together as something like The Days of Separation and the second three The Days of Ornamentation.
Effectively, we have two mirroring triduums and then a perfecting day. If you count up these groupings, you’re left with the sacred number three, (stay with me)! So, three and seven are mystically related here. Blessed is the first divine enterprise (separation), blessed the second (ornamentation), and blessed the third (rest). Good. Very good. And, err, super good. Thrice blessed: Holy, holy, holy (2:3). But why not three blocks of three, then, if it’s a question of symmetry? Good question! Well, it appears to come down to the meaning of the seventh day.
Sabbath is the day of divine rest. It’s also, therefore, creation at repose in her creator God and so a foretaste of heaven. The Eternal Day can’t be represented by a block of three days because it’s one never-ending day. The one day (heaven/rest) makes sense of the preceding two sets. This is why evening and morning comes for all the other days except the seventh.
Traditional stage plays tend to be set in three acts and even when that number changes, there’s something about the meaning behind the original structure that’s retained: Act One - the journey out, Act Two - the journey back, and Act Three - the journey on; the happy vale, the dragon threat, the conquering hero; thesis, antithesis, synthesis. There’s a psychological template here that’s somehow related to emphasis: then, then again, and finally. God speaks, He speaks again, then rests.
Hang on, why are we now discussing the number three? Well, it looks as though the divine number seven is a hyper-extension of the perfection of the divine number three where two sets of three are brought to completion by the single divine number one. Back to the hero’s journey of traditional theatre. One play. Three Acts. Seven key elements. Act One: everything’s cool, everything’s suddenly not so cool, everything needs fixing. Act Two: attempt to fix, abject failure, licking wounds and learning crucial lesson. Act Three: facing the monster again and finally overcoming. Hooray!
The point seems to be: look, there’s the utterly perfect amount of divine goodness going on in Creation which reflects God’s own perfect nature and is most curiously expressed in a vision of mathematical harmony.
It should be clear the writers aren’t trying to present a cogent Design Argument, ie that the harmonious intelligibility of the universe is cast iron proof of the existence of God as portrayed - all forms of which are fraught with intractable difficulties. Rather, it looks more like an elaborate portrait of some uncanny confluences between mathematics and symmetry on the one hand, and beauty, story and psychology on the other. And once you start looking, number significance appears everywhere in the Bible. Seven, though, retains its preeminence as the magic number of the divine sphere.
It really does seem to be the case that you can’t make the perfect cosmic omelette without breaking precisely the right amount of beautifully shaped eggs.
Header photo: Haley Hamilton, Unsplash
* Answers in the comments box please…
* I'll give you a clue: it's the title of a banging Gwen Guthrie track from back in the day...