significant number in judaism and the stations of the cross

7 - old testament

Seven came to symbolize completeness and perfection. God's work of creation was both complete and perfect—and it was completed in seven days. All of mankind's existence was related to God's creative activity. The seven-day week reflected God's first creative activity. The sabbath was that day of rest following the work week, reflective of God's rest. Israelites were to remember the land also and give it a sabbath, permitting it to lie fallow in the seventh year. Seven was also important in cultic matters beyond the sabbath: major festivals such as Passover and Tabernacles lasted seven days as did wedding festivals. In Pharaoh's dream, the seven good years followed by seven years of famine.

7 - new testament

The seven churches (Revelation 2-3) perhaps symbolized by their number all the churches. Jesus taught that forgiveness is not to be limited, even to a full number or complete number of instances. We are to forgive, not merely seven times (already a gracious number of forgivenesses), but seventy times seven (limitless forgiveness, beyond keeping count).

multiples of seven frequently had symbolic meaning. The year of Jubilee came after the completion of every forty-nine years. In the year of Jubilee all Jewish bondslaves were released and land which had been sold reverted to its former owner. Another multiple of seven used in the Bible is seventy. Jesus sent out the seventy (Luke 10:1-17). Seventy years is specified as the length of the Exile.

12

The Sumerians used twelve as one base for their number system. Both the calendar and and the signs of the Zodiac reflect this twelve base number system. The tribes of Israel and Jesus' disciples numbered twelve. The importance of the number twelve is evident in the effort to maintain that number. When Levi ceased to be counted among the tribes, the Joseph tribes, Ephraim and Manasseh, were counted separately to keep the number twelve intact. Similarly, in the New Testament, when Judas Iscariot committed suicide, the eleven moved quickly to add another to keep their number at twelve. Twelve seems to have been especially significant in the Book of Revelation. New Jerusalem had twelve gates; its walls had twelve foundations.

Multiples of twelve are also important. There were twenty-four divisions of priests (1 Chronicles 24:4), and twenty-four elders around the heavenly throne (Revelation 4:4). An apocryphal tradition holds that seventy-two Jewish scholars, six from each of the twelve tribes, translated the Old Testament into Greek, to give us the version we call today the Septuagint. The 144,000 servants of God (Revelation 7:4), were made up of 12,000 from each of the twelve tribes of Israel.

just remembered we spoke about number systems, seeing as were talkin about 12 step programs etc, btw the stations of the cross, there are 14 not 12 but, 7 x 2...

so you all dont think im mad

here's a clip of the one off drama about the nativity i was trying to explain earlier



it useful to see how a 150% set works