60: The Importance of Numbers in the Bible

Sixty years: a diamond anniversary. Unlike the previous nine numbers, the number sixty appears multiple times in the Bible. It also appears numerous times in everyday life: sixty seconds in a minute, sixty minutes in an hour. It is the atomic number of neodymium, which can be found in some magnets, loudspeakers and electric cars. 
 
There are sixty marbles used in a game of Chinese chequers. In darts, sixty is the highest score that can be scored with a single dart. 
 
In old literature, sixty was sometimes called “three score” because it was three times twenty (a score). The Babylonians had a number system with a base of sixty, which is known as sexagesimal. In some cultures, sixty is considered to be the age in which someone becomes a senior citizen. In Buddhism, Buddha had sixty disciples.
 
The number sixty appears approximately thirty-two times in the Bible. Occasionally, a particular instance is repeated in different books. Take, for example, Deuteronomy 3:4, which says: 

• “At that time we took all his cities. There was not one of the sixty cities that we did not take from them—the whole region of Argob, Og’s kingdom in Bashan.”

And compare it with 1 Kings 4:13: 

• “Ben-Geber—in Ramoth Gilead (the settlements of Jair son of Manasseh in Gilead were his, as well as the region of Argob in Bashan and its sixty large walled cities with bronze gate bars).”

Plus, Joshua 13:30: 

• “The territory extending from Mahanaim and including all of Bashan, the entire realm of Og king of Bashan—all the settlements of Jair in Bashan, sixty towns.”

But don’t forget 1 Chronicles 2:23: 

• “(But Geshur and Aram captured Havvoth Jair, as well as Kenath with its surrounding settlements--sixty towns.) All these were descendants of Makir the father of Gilead.”

 
Here’s another example:

• 2 Kings 25:19 (NIV): Of those still in the city, he took the officer in charge of the fighting men, and five royal advisers. He also took the secretary who was chief officer in charge of conscripting the people of the land and sixty of the conscripts who were found in the city.
• Jeremiah 52:25 (NIV): Of those still in the city, he took the officer in charge of the fighting men, and seven royal advisers. He also took the secretary who was chief officer in charge of conscripting the people of the land, sixty of whom were found in the city.

 
The measurements of Solomon’s temple are mentioned in both 1 Kings and 2 Chronicles:

• 1 Kings 6:2 (NIV): The temple that King Solomon built for the Lord was sixty cubits long, twenty wide and thirty high.
• 2 Chronicles 3:3 (NIV): The foundation Solomon laid for building the temple of God was sixty cubits long and twenty cubits wide (using the cubit of the old standard).

 
In the book of Ezra, temple measurements are also given:

• Ezra 6:3 (NIV): In the first year of King Cyrus, the king issued a decree concerning the temple of God in Jerusalem: Let the temple be rebuilt as a place to present sacrifices, and let its foundations be laid. It is to be sixty cubits high and sixty cubits wide

 
Other measurements of sixty cubits include:

• Ezekiel 40:14 (NIV) He measured along the faces of the projecting walls all around the inside of the gateway--sixty cubits.The measurement was up to the portico facing the courtyard.
• Daniel 3:1 (NIV): King Nebuchadnezzar made an image of gold, sixty cubits high and six cubits wide, and set it up on the plain of Dura in the province of Babylon.

 
A handful of people have been quoted as being sixty years old at the times of certain events:

• Genesis 25:26 (NIV): After this, his brother came out, with his hand grasping Esau’s heel; so he was named Jacob. Isaac was sixty years old when Rebekah gave birth to them.
• 1 Chronicles 2:21 (NIV): Later, Hezron, when he was sixty years old, married the daughter of Makir the father of Gilead. He made love to her, and she bore him Segub.

The age of sixty is also mentioned in:

• Leviticus 27:7 (NIV): for a person sixty years old or more, set the value of a male at fifteen shekelsand of a female at ten shekels.
• Leviticus 27:3 (NIV): set the value of a male between the ages of twenty and sixty at fifty shekels of silver, according to the sanctuary shekel
• 1 Timothy 5:9 (NIV): No widow may be put on the list of widows unless she is over sixty, has been faithful to her husband

 
Let’s take a look at some more examples of the number sixty in the Old Testament:

• Numbers 7:88 (NIV): The total number of animals for the sacrifice of the fellowship offering came to twenty-four oxen, sixty rams, sixty male goats and sixty male lambs a year old. These were the offerings for the dedication of the altar after it was anointed.
• 1 Kings 4:22 (NIV): Solomon’s daily provisions were thirty cors of the finest flour and sixty cors of meal
• 2 Chronicles 11:21 (NIV): Rehoboam loved Maakah daughter of Absalom more than any of his other wives and concubines. In all, he had eighteen wives and sixty concubines, twenty-eight sons and sixty daughters.
• Ezra 8:13 (NIV): of the descendants of Adonikam, the last ones, whose names were Eliphelet, Jeuel and Shemaiah, and with them 60 men
• Song of Songs 3:7 (NIV) Look! It is Solomon’s carriage, escorted by sixtywarriors, the noblest of Israel
• Song of Songs 6:8 (NIV): Sixty queens there may be, and eighty concubines, and virgins beyond number

 
I have mentioned a couple of New Testament verses above already but I have a few more to share with you. Both Matthew and Mark write about the parable of the sower, therefore, the same information is repeated, including two mentions of the number sixty.

• Matthew 13:8 (NIV): Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop—a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.
• Matthew 13:23 (NIV): But the seed falling on good soil refers to someone who hears the word and understands it. This is the one who produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.
• Mark 4:8 (NIV): Still other seed fell on good soil. It came up, grew and produced a crop, some multiplying thirty, some sixty, some a hundred times.
• Mark 4:20 (NIV): Others, like seed sown on good soil, hear the word, accept it, and produce a crop—some thirty, some sixty, some a hundred times what was sown.

 
So, does the number sixty mean anything in scripture? The French psychoanalyst René Allendy believed it represented the global karma of the world. The German philosopher Jakob Böhme called this number “the earth”. There is, however, no obvious answer based on the examples above.
 
I leave you with the knowledge that the word “Sabbath” is used sixty times in the New Testament.