Bible Studies: Essays on Phallic Worship and Other Curious Rites and Customs

SACRED SEVEN

It was natural that in the early ages of human intelligence man should attach a superstitious reverence to numbers. The mystery attached to the number seven has been variously accounted for. Some have explained it by the figures of the square and triangle, others by the stars of the Great Bear nightly seen overhead. Gerald Massey says: "The Constellation of the Seven Great Stars (Ursa Major) was probably the primordial figure of Seven. Seven was often called the perfect number. Its name as Hept (Eg.) is also the name for Plenty—a heap of food and good luck. The Seven were the great heap or cluster of stars, an image of plenty, or a lot that revolved together."

57

57

  Natural Genesis, ii., 219.

 My own opinion is that the superstition arose in connection first with the menstrual period, and then with the phases of the moon as a measurer of time. Its period of twenty-eight days could be twice divided until the week of seven days was reached, and then further division was impossible. Hence we everywhere find the superstition linked to the days of the week and the seven planets supposed to preside over these days.

The Egyptians worshipped the seven planets, and Herodotus tells us of their seven castes. So with the Babylonians. From them was derived the Jewish week. Hesiod, according to Eusebius, said "The seventh is the sacred day." What he says in his

Works and Days

 is, "On the seventh day Latona brought forth Apollo"; and Æschylus, in his

Seven Against Thebes

, says the number Seven was sacred to Apollo. The moon periods were sacred as measuring time and also in connection with female periodicity. Man discovered the month before the year. Hence the moon was widely worshipped. The worship of the queen of heaven in Palestine is alluded to in Jer. vii. 18 and xliv. 17. The superstition of the new moon bringing luck has descended to our own time. When the year was reckoned by thirteen moons of twenty-eight days, thirteen was the lucky number; but when this was changed for the twelve months of solar time, thirteen became one too many. The Parsee Bundahisli, according to Gerald Massey, exhibits seven races of men—(1) the earth-men, (2) water-men, (3) breast-eared men, (4) breast-eyed men, (5) one-legged men, (6) batwinged men, (7) men with tails.

Section 7 of the Kabbalistic Sepher Yezirah

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  Trans, by Dr. I. Kalisch, pp. 27 and 81.

 says, "The seven planets in the world are Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Sun, Venus, Mercury, Moon. Seven days in the year are the seven days of the week; seven gates in man, male and female, are two eyes, two ears, two nostrils and the mouth." Again, section 15 says, "By the seven double consonants were also designed seven worlds, seven heavens, seven lands, seven seas, seven rivers, seven deserts, seven days a week, seven weeks from Passover to Pentecost, there is a cycle of seven years, the seventh is the release year, and after seven release years is jubilee. Hence God loves the number seven under the whole heaven."

The Bible, it has been remarked, begins in Genesis with a seven, and ends in the Apocalypse with a series of sevens. God himself took a rest on the seventh day and was refreshed, or, as the Hebrew reads, took breath. The Passover and other festivals lasted seven days; Jacob bowed seven times; Solomon's temple was seven years in building; the tabernacle had seven lamps, a candlestick with seven arms, etc. In a variety of passages it seems, like 40, to have been a sort of round number—as people sometimes say a dozen for an indeterminate quantity. Thus in Daniel iii. 19 the fiery furnace was to be heated seven times more than it was wont to be heated. In Proverbs (xxiv. 16) we are told a just man falleth seven times and rises up again. One of the Psalmists says (cix. 164), "Seven times a day do I praise thee because of thy righteous judgments" (see too Lev. xxvi. 18, 28; Dent, xxviii. 7, 35; Job ix; Psalm xii. 6, lxxix. 12; Isaiah iv. 1, xi. 15, xxx. 26; Jer. xv. 9, Matt. xii. 45). The week induced reckoning by sevens, and led to such enactments as that the Jews on the seventh day of the seventh month should feast seven days and remain seven days in tents.

The root idea of the number is that of religious periodicity. We find it not only in the Sabbath, but in all other sacred periods. Thus the seventh month is ushered in by the Feast of Trumpets, and signalised by the celebration of the Feast of Tabernacles and Yom Kippur. Seven weeks is the interval between Passover and Pentecost. The seventh is the Sabbatical year, when bondsmen were to be released and debts go free. With this custom is connected the binding of youths for seven years apprenticeship, and of punishing incorrigible offenders for 7, 14, or 21 years. The year succeeding seven times seven is the Jubilee. The earliest form, that of the menstrual period, is shown in the duration of various kinds of legal uncleanness, as after childbirth, after contact with a corpse, etc. So we have the sprinkling of the house seven times with the water of purification (Lev. xiv. 51), the command of Elisha to Naaman to wash in Jordan seven times (2 Kings v. 10). Hezekiah, in cleansing the temple, offered seven bullocks, seven rams, and seven he-goats for a sin offering. Septuple actions and agents abound. Thus the blood of sacrifices were sprinkled seven times (Lev. iv. 6, 17; xiv. 7, 16, 27; xvi. 14, 15). So Jacob bowed to his brother Esau seven times (Gen. xxxiii. 3). Balak built for Balaam seven altars, and prepares seven oxen and seven rams (Num. xxiii. 1, 4, 14, 29), and Abraham employed seven victims for sacrifice (Gen. xxi. 28, 30). We are reminded of the lines in Virgil's Æneid (vi. 58).

Seven bullocks, yet unyoked, for Phoebus choose,

And for Diana, seven unspotted ewes.

The Hebrew verb

Shaba

, to swear, is evidently derived from

Sheba

 seven, and denoted a sevenfold affirmation. Herodotus (xiii. 8), tells us the manner of swearing among the ancient Arabians included smearing seven stones with blood. Sheba is allied to the Egyptian Seb-ti (5-2), the Zend Hapta, Greek Epta, Latin septem. The Pythagoreans said that Heptad came from the Greek

Sebo

 to venerate, but Egyptian and other African dialects suffice to prove it is far earlier.

The writer of the Apocalypse had the mystic number on the brain. Dr. Milligan has explained the 666 number of the beast, as a fall below the sacred seven John of Patmos gives us seven golden candlesticks, (i. 1), seven stars (i. 20), seven spirits and churches (iii. 1), seven seals (v. 1), trumpets (viii. 2), thunders (x. 34), vials (xvi. 1), and seven angels with seven plagues (xvi.) The beast has seven heads, horns and crowns (xii. 3, xiii. 1, xvii. 7). The Lamb with seven horns and seven eyes (v. 1 ). There are seven spirits before the throne of God (Rev. i. 4, etc.) like the seven Dhyani Chohans emanating from Parabrahm in Hindu Theosophy.

So Christians have