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Seven

Why do Christians value this magical and pagan number so much?

Seven, as a special number, goes way, way back.

In the 6th century Pope Gregory the Great defined a set of seven negative attributes that must be avoided. He instructed the best way to avoid these sins was to adopt seven positive attributes. The three Theological Virtues defined by St. Paul (faith, hope and love) added to the four Cardinal Virtues (prudence, temperance, courage and justice) give us the Seven Heavenly Virtues

In the Christian Church, for the Seven Deadly Sins, there are Seven Contrary Virtues. There are also medieval instructions for helping others, give us the Seven Corporal Works of Mercy. Originally there were seven Stations of the Cross and there are Seven Sacraments

Sometimes seven isn't specifically mentioned but there are seven events anyway. For example, many times people asked Jesus who He was, and in reply, Jesus compared Himself to different things to help us understand. The Gospel of John only records seven of these

More details can be seen on our page: Seven in the Church.

 

But why seven? Why not six? Or eight?

The answer is simple:

The seven celestial bodies

Since the earliest civilisations, man has realised there is more to life than his own little world. So he looked at the biggest and brightest physical entities as the most important and highest powers. The Sun is one obvious power and worshipped as a god. The moon is also pretty big, mysterious and powerful, and that too was considered to be a god. In fact all the celestial bodies were considered deities, and as far as the ancients were concerned, there were seven such astrological celestial bodies that influenced human affairs and personalities.

Later, more heavenly bodies could be seen by telescope but by that time, civilisations were already committed to the seven gods. Nearly all ancient religions adopted this number: the Egyptians had seven gods, Muslims seven heavens, Parsees seven angels, Persians seven sacred horses, and Phoenicians seven mysterious kabiris gods. (The kabiris were so mysterious that the Phoenicians didn't know for certain how many there were, but they believed seven anyway.)

Triskele

Nazis see three sevens as an anti-anti-Christ. Las Vegans see triple seven as a winning line on a slot machine. And being dealt three sevens in Blackjack is a winner.

Shichi Fuku Jin

There are lots of sevens in Japan - for example the Shichi Fuku Jin; the seven Japanese gods of happiness and luck.

The seven celestial bodies for Japan - see Rokuyo

Whilst the ancient Japanese day system is loosely based on a six-day cycle (see Rokuyo), the seven planets that were visible to the ancient Japanese astrologers means that seven was, and still is, an auspicious number in Japan:

• There are seven basic principles of the bushido, the philosophy and ethical code of conduct formulated for Samurai warriors in the 11th - 14th Centuries. No one can be too sure what these seven ideas were, since they were not written down. They were handed down, sometimes by word of mouth, but usually by veritable deed. Today the seven virtues are generally understood to be:

  gi righteousness, justice, morality

  yu courage, bravery

  jin benevolence

  rei respect, politeness

  makoto honesty, veracity

  meiyo honour

  chuugi loyalty

• Ancient Japan was divided into seven districts
• The Japanese Star Festival tanabata is on the 7th day of the 7th month when the two mythically lonesome star clusters, Vega and Altair (Orihime and Hikoboshi), are able to meet. It's a time for wishing on a star, and the best way to ensure your wish comes true is, or course, to write your wish on a piece of paper and tie it to a bamboo tree. The 7th July is when festivals (matsuri) start in earnest all over Japan, and continue through the muggy summer.
• On January 7th, nanakusagayu is eaten (rice porridge with seven herbs) to ward off evil for the coming year, in addition to inviting good luck and longevity
• A baby's birth is celebrated on the 7th day
• A death is mourned for seven days
• and again, after seven weeks
• In Buddhism, the main religion of Japan, people believe in seven reincarnations
• There is a saying: nana-korobi, ya-oki, which means fall down seven times, get up eight times. Life has its ups and downs; more ups than downs, so persevere when things are tough and you will surely get through them.
• The 7th July 2007 (7/7/7) was a Saturday and without doubt, one of the busiest wedding days for many years.
• Lucky 777 is even etched in some Japanese toilets!

Not only Japan of course, but around the world seven was the number of heavenly powers that man depended upon, and seven itself became a special number. Had there been eight planets visible to the naked eye, no doubt man would have designated another major Sea to add to the Seven Seas and an extra Wonder to the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. (See Christ the Redeemer for one of the New Seven Wonders of the World, designated on 7th July 2007).

Chakra (Sanskrit for circle or wheel) is a centre of spiritual energy in the human body according to Indian yoga philosophy (see also Suavastika). There are six of these wheels spinning away, stacked vertically from the base of the spine to the top of the head. And there is a seventh which is above all these, beyond the physical body. Different cultures at various times have described chakras differently, and a popular understanding is that the seven chakras correspond to different aspects of a human being:

Body

Instinct

Vital energy

Deeper emotions

Communication with others

An overview of life

Communication with God

The diatonic scale of seven notes

Some natural phenomena support the notion that seven is important. For example, the moon changes phase every seven days and seven phases of the moon are visible.

There are seven continents (Europe, Asia, Africa, North America, South America, Australia, and Antarctica).

We see seven colours in the rainbow and the seven musical notes of the diatonic scale (do, rei, me, fa, so, la, te) are considered the most pleasing to the human ear.

But that's about as far as it goes. Seven, in fact, is no more a 'natural' number than any other. Similar claims could be made about other numbers, such as:

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Two

Three

Four

Five

Six

Eight

And so on.

Similar claims have been made about other numbers, especially double or triple numbers.

Six hundred and sixty six

Eleven

But back to seven.

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In addition to the supposed connection between eleven and the World Trade Center attack, seven appears in another famous U.S. story: The coincidences between Presidents Lincoln and Kennedy.

There are a few other 'natural' interesting things about seven; for example, depending on whether it's a weekday or week-end, the average person falls asleep in seven minutes and sleeps for around seven hours. It is the smallest positive integer requiring two syllables in English, and the opposite sides of a six-sided die always total seven. Yet English, as we all know, is full of quirks. And the six-sided die, whilst mildly interesting, is not very useful information unless you are a gambler (seven is statistically the most common combined numbers of two rolled dice.)

Nevertheless, because of the astrological connection described above, seven has become an important number in all civilisations. To name a few, we have:

• The Seven Deadly Sins, Seven Contrary Virtues, Seven Heavenly Virtues, and the Seven Corporal Works of Mercy, as described above
• When 'time' was being measured by astronomers, seven became the basis of counting hours and days (see days-months-seasons)
• Man decided that there were Seven Natural Wonders of the World
• The number seven is popular in literature: 'Salome and the Dance of the Seven Veils', Akira Kurosawa's Shichi-nin no Samurai ('Seven Samurai') and the American copy 'The Magnificent Seven', 'Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs', 'Seven Brides for Seven Brothers', 'The Seven Year Itch', 'The Seven Deadly Sins', Enid Blyton's 'The Secret Seven', 'Seven Ravens' and the Grimm's Fairy Tale 'The Seven Swabians'.

Seven is popular in corporate culture too. 'Seven Principles of Good Practice' frequently pops up in Mission Statements and Harrods staff in London are one of many groups expected to perform 'Seven Steps of Exceptional Service'. (Even on this site, we've identified Seven steps for fixing problems with awkward relatives and friends who insist on 'helping' at your wedding, and Seven steps for dealing with procrastination)

The understanding that seven is 'lucky', has not escaped the attention of marketing people. Take for example the Seven-Eleven convenience store. Born in 1927, it is over 70 years old, has over 27,000 stores in the U.S. and 17 other countries, had it's first billion sales year at the start of the 70's (1971) and it's first billion sales quarter at the end of the 70's (1979). The store was originally open from 7 a.m. until 11 p.m. but now is usually open round the clock. Yet despite the confusion of the opening hours, seven has not only been retained but is prominent in the company's logo. Seven is also prominent on cans of the popular soft drink 7-Up.

Then there's that delicious dark chocolate bar with a white fondant centre. The makers, JS Fry and Sons (now owned by Cadbury), moulded the chocolate bar into seven pieces. Their unforgettable jingle for the TV adverts from the 1960's was: "Seven pieces of Heaven, Fry's Chocolate Cream". The original seven-section mould designed by Francis Fry in 1875 is the same today and this successful product is the oldest of Cadbury's brands.

Of course, seven is not always lucky:

• Many people think there are seven nail holes in a horseshoe - itself a lucky symbol - but actually there are usually eight. Anyway, Lt. Colonel Custer's last stand against the Cheyenne in the 1876 Battle of the Little Bighorn was not lucky for him. His regiment was the 7th Cavalry. ('Seventh' 7 letters, 'Cavalry' 7 letters)
• In Tenerife at 17.06 on March 27, 1977, a KLM 747 crashed into a PanAm 747 flight number 1736 killing 583 people making this the worst ever plane disaster. (On the other hand, since its maiden flight in 1994 the Boeing 777 has had no fatal accidents to date 15th February 2008)
• And whilst talking about flight, here's an old English rhyme about crows and magpies, that links seven with Satan:
  One means anger
  Two means mirth
  Three, a wedding
  Four, a birth
  Five is heaven
  Six is hell
  But seven's the very devil himself.
• The beast has seven horns (see Revelation 17) interpreted as the seven hills on which Rome stands
• One superstition says that if you break a mirror, you'll have seven years of bad luck. Unless you bury the broken pieces of course, then you transfer the bad luck to whoever accidentally digs them up and contracts tetanus.

Does the Bible show seven as a special number?

Seven is popular in other religions, including Judaism and Islam, as well as Christianity. And Seven does appear in the Bible significantly more frequently than adjacent numbers.

six/sixth/sixty	199 times
seven/seventh/seventy	320 times
eight/eighth/eighty	117 times

Let's look at a few examples:

Menorah

The Menorah was used with the tabernacle and its seven-branch design was dictated by God to Moses (Exodus 25:31-40). There are lots of sevens in the story of the Fall of Jericho (Joshua 6) and seven is particularly popular in these chapters of the final book of the Bible. In Revelation we read of seven:

angels	8 10 11 15 16 17 21	mountains	17
beasts	17	plagues	15 21
candlesticks	1 2	sardius	21 (a precious stone)
churches	1	seals	5 8
crowns	12	spirits	1 3 4 5
eyes	5	stars	1 2 3
horns	5	thousands	11
heads	12 13 17	thunders	10
kings	17	trumpets	8
lamps	4	vials	15 15 21

In Leviticus 25:3-4 we read that fields should lie fallow on the seventh year. And of course, the seventh day is an important day in the Bible. Exodus 20:8-11 says:

Remember the sabbath-day to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: But the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy man-servant, nor thy maid-servant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the sabbath-day, and hallowed it.

The seventh day is the Sabbath and the premise is given in Genesis 2:1-3. In total the seventh day is mentioned 50 times, including: Exodus 16, 31, 35, Isaiah 58, Mark 2, Luke 4, Acts 13, 17, 18, & Numbers 15. (See also reference to Sabbath and Sunday.)

As explained above, the roots of seven being a special number is based on polytheism and has no place in a monotheistic religion. The frequency of seven in the Bible shows just how strong an influence the number has had in civilisations for thousands of years.

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Courtesy of United States Geological Survey (USGS)

There is nothing magical about seven. Despite what we said above, there have only been seven continents in recent history. The planet's land mass above sea level is constantly shifting, merging and splitting, rising and sinking. In the Permian Period (about 250 million years ago) there was effectively just one continent (a pretty big one) and one ocean (even bigger).

There are not seven colours in the rainbow; there are six main colour bands and an infinite number of hues. And there are not seven musical notes of the scale in all cultures. Seven was chosen to grade and measure such things, because seven is a number we have become comfortable with.

Similarly, there is nothing magical about seven in the Bible - it's common sense to speak in familiar terms to the reader. If there were eight days in the week, then the eighth would be the day of rest. The important point is not seven, or eight, or any other number - the point is that we should observe some time for God. We should keep a regular time in our lives to reflect, worship, or whatever our religion requires to prevent us from becoming self-centred.

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Q: If one's lonely, two's company, and three's a crowd, then what is four and five?
A: Nine!

Other 'lucky' pages:

• Isn't religion simply glorified superstition?
• Lucky days for weddings (Rokuyo)
• Wedding superstitions
• Lucky talisman
• Lucky Four-leaf clover
• Lucky Horseshoe
• Good luck - Fingers crossed
• Cross myself for good luck
• Lucky Cross
• Relic Cross
• Sanskrit good-luck symbol (Suavastika)
• Seven lucky Japanese gods (Shichifukujin)
• Pagan customs