SACRED NUMBERS. — For the primitive mentality, the number assumes a sacred meaning insofar as it is linked to the image of objects that frequently occasion counting. Among groups of inferior culture, numbers designated by a name do not exceed ten.
Not all peoples venerate the same numbers as sacred, because the sacredness of these numbers does not depend on psychological motives—which would be the same for all—but on special circumstances that have led various peoples to assign religious value to certain numbers rather than others. It can nonetheless be affirmed that, above all, the observation of the heavens and the great divisions of the universe determined, among many peoples, the sacred character of certain numbers. The principal ones are:
One. — The foundation of numbering, of predominantly philosophical-mystical value, from the Pythagorean monad to the One of Plato and the Neoplatonists.
Three. — It is preeminently the sacred number in religions and folklore. In Babylon, there is the divine triad of Anu, Bel, and Ea, corresponding to the three great divisions of the world: heaven, earth, and water. Among the Hebrews, David must choose between three plagues: a famine of three years, flight for three months, or feasts for three days. In India, the triad of Brahma, Viṣṇu, and Śiva represents the threefold principle of creation, preservation, and destruction. In Greece and Rome, the number three governs ritual norms: triple libation, triple pronunciation of sacred words, three animals in the suovetaurilia sacrifice, triple circumambulation for purification. Multiples of three (6 and 9) are the offerings that the Arval Brethren make in the great rite of May; 27 (3 × 3 × 3) are the boys and girls who sing before the temple of Juno Regina on the Aventine in 207 BC (Livy, XXVII, 37) and in the Secular Games of 17 BC and 204 AD. In Christianity, apart from the Most Holy Trinity and the mystical value of its exemplarism in the universe, the number three dominates in liturgy: three Agnus Dei, three Sanctus, three Mea culpa, three Domine non sum dignus.
Four. — Among the Pellirose of North America, the number four has sacred value, determined by the four cardinal points to which correspond colors, gods, and fixed qualities. Among the Babylonians too, the number four symbolizes the four regions of the earth. Among the Hebrews, there are four rivers of Paradise and four days of mourning that the daughters of Israel observe in memory of Jephthah’s daughter.
Seven. — It is preeminently the astrological number, sacred to the Babylonians for the seven planets, the seven evil spirits, the seven divisions of hell, and the seven stages of the ziggurats (temple towers); seven repetitions for every rite of incantation, magic, or purification, etc. Seven is, in short, the number that indicates completeness and means “all”; seven times seven is equivalent to “always.” It is also sacred to the Hebrews, who adopted it especially in apocalyptic contexts: the seven heavens, the seven rivers of the seven mountains; and in liturgy: seven altars, seven sacred springs, the seven branches of the candelabrum, seven anointings with oil, seven pairs of clean animals that enter the ark, etc.
In Hindu mythology, there are the seven oceans, the seven ṛṣis, the seven Adityas, the seven horses of the sun, the seven wells into which one must gaze to be cured of rabies, etc. In Christianity too, the number seven is highly symbolic: the seven Sacraments, the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit. The belief in the sacredness of seven gave rise, in classical antiquity, and persisted into the Christian era, in the belief in the climacteric year, that is, the year of life that is a multiple of seven, especially 49 (7 × 7) and 63 (7 × 9).
Ten. — It is the sum of two sacred numbers, three and seven; there are ten plagues of Egypt, ten virgins in the parable; in Jewish liturgy, there are ten tents of the tabernacle, the cherubim of the Temple are ten cubits high, there are ten bronze basins; ten are the horns of the apocalyptic beast.
Twelve. — This number forms the basis of the numeral system of the Sumerians, later adopted by the Babylonians; there are twelve signs of the Zodiac, twelve months of the year, twelve hours of the day, twelve parts of paradise, twelve tribes of Israel, twelve bronze bulls supporting the great basin of the Israelite sanctuary, twelve loaves of the Presence, and twelve stars around the head of the woman clothed with the sun in the Apocalypse.
Forty. — It is the number adopted for periods of expectation and penance. There are forty days of the Flood, forty years that the Hebrews spend in the desert, forty days Moses spends on Sinai, forty days announced by Jonah for the destruction of Nineveh, forty days from the Resurrection to the Ascension, and in the Eastern Church, forty (instead of thirty) days must pass for the third commemoration of the dead.
Seventy. — It is sacred as a multiple (7 × 10) of seven. There are seventy nations in the ethnological table of Genesis, seventy elders of Israel, seventy weeks of years in apocalyptic literature, and seventy (or seventy-two) disciples of Jesus.