Forty. A full number of meanings in the Bible
Article taken from Castello7, weekly letter to the parishioners, year 26 °, n. 19, of 5 March 2017
The forty number is a full number of meanings for the biblical man. When it designates a time it is always a period that marks a provisional and waiting situation. It is the time of punishment and penance, but also the time of mercy and forgiveness. It is the time of intimacy with God and the interview with him. It is the time when man becomes aware of himself and is preparing to welcome the gifts of God. It is the time of alliance and revelation.
To realize all these meanings it is necessary to keep in mind that in ancient times the numbers were represented with the letters of the alphabet and therefore, through the numbers (or rather the letters that served to indicate a number), concepts could be expressed that nothing They had to do with their numerical value. At some peoples, and in particular for the Jewish people, symbolic meanings could also be obtained from the form of these letters.
There letter (Jewish) Mem In addition to number 40 indicates with its shape the maternal belly and also a source of water. The forty days thus represent a specific period that contains an event or an experience that extends over time, but which is open to life.
Scrolling through the Bible we also see that with 40 years the duration of a man's life is indicated. With this criterion, Deuteronomy (34.7) can say that Moses lived 120 years old, that is 40 × 3, because three times he radically changed his life experience.
There are 40 years spent from the people of Israel in the desert; 40 days and 40 nights lasted the flood (Gen. 7,4); 40 days and 40 nights Moses remained on the mountain (eg 24:18); Elia walked for 40 days and 40 nights in the desert to escape the wrath of Queen Gezabele (1 king, 19.8); 40 days are the time granted to the inhabitants of Ninive to make penance (Jonah 3,4); 40 are the highest verge shots for corporal punishments (Deut. 25, 3).
In the New Testament the number 40 is located 22 times. The synoptic gospels speak of 40 days and 40 nights of fasting of Jesus in the desert (Matteo 4,1ss; Marco 1.13; Luke 4.2 SS) putting them in relation to the period spent by Moses on Mount Sinai. Matteo and Luca then also establish a comparison between the permanence of the people of Israel in the desert, a period in which "they tried and put God to the test" (Psalm 95.9-10), with the loyalty and obedience of Jesus.
In this way, using the simple number 40, the evangelists invite us to recognize the new Moses in Jesus, who starts the new people capable of giving a new sense to the alliance founded no longer on a written law, but on the same person as Jesus.
According to the book of the acts (1,3) for 40 days the Lord manifested himself to the disciples after the resurrection before climbing to heaven to complete his teaching and confirm them in faith.
The Church offers us the forty days of Lent because in the silence and listening to the word we can find the meaning of our pilgrimage here on earth, because we can discover our dimension of limit and sin, because we can welcome the gift of the Holy Spirit, which gives life and hope and arise again in the Easter of the Lord.
