400 and 430: The Importance of Numbers in the Bible

400 and 430: The Importance of Numbers in the Bible
Did you know the sun is 400 times the size of the moon? It is also 400 times further than us from the moon, which is why it does not look much bigger. 
 
In the Mayan calendars, a year lasted 400 days. In France, the idiom faire les quatre cents coupstranslates as “to make the 400 blows”. This apparently means “to cause trouble in every possible way.” 
 
The number 400 appears approximately twenty times in the Bible and has had several meanings attributed to it. The Mayans used it as a way of expressing inexpressible amounts, the same way we might use “thousands”, “millions” or “a thousand million billion” when telling someone there was a lot of something. Theobald of Langres (12thcentury AD), on the other hand, attributes the number to human fragility.
 
Some scholars maintain that because 400 is the result of 8 x 50, it is a divine number denoting a perfect period of time. There is some evidence to support this in the Bible, for example:

• Genesis 15:13 (NIV): Then the Lord said to him, “Know for certain that for four hundred years your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own and that they will be enslaved and mistreated there.”
• Acts 7:6 (NIV): God spoke to him in this way: ‘For four hundred years your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own, and they will be enslaved and mistreated.’

For four hundred years, the Israelites were slaves in Egypt. Whilst this time period could not be called “perfect” for the people involved, it was the perfect amount of time for God to prepare His people to be freed. 
 
There are other verses containing the number 400 that are worthy of note. Abraham’s wife Sarah is the only woman in the Bible whose age at death is recorded. She was 127 when she died and Abraham spent 400 shekels on a cave in which to bury her.

• Genesis 23:15-16 (NIV): “Listen to me, my lord; the land is worth four hundred shekels of silver, but what is that between you and me? Bury your dead.”Abraham agreed to Ephron’s terms and weighed out for him the price he had named in the hearing of the Hittites: four hundred shekels of silver, according to the weight current among the merchants.

It is also recorded that Abraham, Isaac and Rebekah were also buried in this cave.
 
When Jacob returned to his homeland, his brother Esau sent 400 men to meet him. Jacob thought he was going to be killed because of the things he had done to his brother in the past, however, after sending a gift ahead of him, the brothers met amicably.

• Genesis 32:6 (NIV): When the messengers returned to Jacob, they said, “We went to your brother Esau, and now he is coming to meet you, and four hundred men are with him.”
• Genesis 33:1 (NIV): Jacob looked up and there was Esau, coming with his four hundred men; so he divided the children among Leah, Rachel and the two female servants.

 
There are plenty of other occasions when groups of 400 men or women are mentioned:

• Judges 21:12 (NIV): They found among the people living in Jabesh Gilead four hundred young women who had never slept with a man, and they took them to the camp at Shilohin Canaan.
• 1 Samuel 22:2 (NIV): All those who were in distress or in debt or discontented gathered around him, and he became their commander. About four hundred men were with him.
• 1 Samuel 25:13 (NIV): David said to his men, “Each of you strap on your sword!” So they did, and David strapped his on as well. About four hundred men went up with David, while two hundred stayed with the supplies.
• 1 Samuel 30:10 (NIV): Two hundred of them were too exhausted to cross the valley, but David and the other four hundred continued the pursuit.
• 1 Samuel 30:17 (NIV): David fought them from dusk until the evening of the next day, and none of them got away, except four hundred young men who rode off on camels and fled. 
• 1 Kings 18:19 9 (NIV): Now summon the people from all over Israel to meet me on Mount Carmel. And bring the four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal and the four hundred prophets of Asherah, who eat at Jezebel’s table.
• 1 Kings 22:6 (NIV): So the king of Israel brought together the prophets—about four hundred men—and asked them, “Shall I go to war against Ramoth Gilead, or shall I refrain?“Go,” they answered, “for the Lord will give it into the king’s hand.”
• 2 Chronicles 18:5 (NIV): So the king of Israel brought together the prophets--four hundred men—and asked them, “Shall we go to war against Ramoth Gilead, or shall I not?” “Go,” they answered, “for God will give it into the king’s hand.”
• Acts 5:36 (NIV): Some time ago Theudas appeared, claiming to be somebody, and about four hundred men rallied to him. He was killed, all his followers were dispersed, and it all came to nothing.

 
Twice, a measurement of 400 cubits is recorded, however, as you will see, despite being in different books on the Bible, the verses are about the same thing:

• 2 Kings 14:13 (NIV): Jehoash king of Israel captured Amaziah king of Judah, the son of Joash, the son of Ahaziah, at Beth Shemesh. Then Jehoash went to Jerusalem and broke down the wall of Jerusalem from the Ephraim Gate to the Corner Gate—a section about four hundred cubits long.
• 2 Chronicles 25:23 (NIV): Jehoash king of Israel captured Amaziah king of Judah, the son of Joash, the son of Ahaziah, at Beth Shemesh. Then Jehoash brought him to Jerusalem and broke down the wall of Jerusalem from the Ephraim Gate to the Corner Gate—a section about four hundred cubits long.

 
Similarly, a description of Solomon’s palace featuring a decoration of 400 hundred pomegranates is also mentioned twice:

• 1 Kings 7:42 (NIV): the four hundred pomegranates for the two sets of network (two rows of pomegranates for each network decorating the bowl-shaped capitals on top of the pillars)
• 2 Chronicles 4:13 (NIV): the four hundred pomegranates for the two sets of network (two rows of pomegranates for each network, decorating the bowl-shaped capitals on top of the pillars)

 
Finally, in the dedication of the Temple, the people of Israel offered 400 males lambs amongst other animals to God:

• Ezra 6:17 (NIV): For the dedication of this house of God they offered a hundred bulls, two hundred rams, four hundred male lambs and, as a sin offering for all Israel, twelve male goats, one for each of the tribes of Israel.

 
Let’s move on briefly to the number 430. Why is this number worth mentioning? Whilst in Genesis 15:13 the Lord said the Israelites would spend 400 years in slavery, other evidence in the Bible suggests they were in Egypt for a total of 430 years. Exodus 12 states:

• Exodus 12:40 (NIV): Now the length of time the Israelite people lived in Egyptwas 430 years.
• Exodus 12:41 (NIV): At the end of the 430 years, to the very day, all the Lord’s divisions left Egypt.

Whilst at a glance the discrepancy of years is confusing, God never said the Israelites would be in Egypt for 400 years. He said they would be enslaved for that length of time. Jacob and his family were the first to move to Egypt; it was thirty years later that the oppression began. 
 
There are two other records of the number 430 in the Bible:

• Genesis 11:13 (NIV): And after he became the father of Peleg, Eber lived 430 years and had other sons and daughters.
• Galatians 3:17 (NIV): What I mean is this: The law, introduced 430 years later, does not set aside the covenant previously established by God and thus do away with the promise.