61-69: The Importance of Numbers in the Bible

Once again, I am going to combine several numbers together. Despite the number sixty being prevalent in the Bible, the rest of the sixties appear very little, however, they are still worth studying.
 
Sixty-one is the eighteenth prime number and is the atomic number of promethium – a very rare element. It is the number of points required to win a standard game of Cribbage. 
 
The only mention of the number sixty-one in the Bible appears in an inventory of the spoils of war mentioned in the book of Numbers: 30,500 donkeys, of which the tribute for the Lord was 61. (31:39; NIV)
 
Interestingly, 2 Peter, which is the sixty-first book of the Bible, also has sixty-one chapters.
 
The number sixty-two, the atomic number of Samarium, is found at least four times in the Bible. The first occurrence is in 1 Chronicles 26:8, which states that Obed-Edom had sixty-two descendants:“All these were descendants of Obed-Edom; they and their sons and their relatives were capable men with the strength to do the work—descendants of Obed-Edom, 62 in all.” (NIV)
 
In the book of Daniel, the number sixty-two is mentioned on three separate occasions:

• Daniel 5:31 (NIV): and Darius the Mede took over the kingdom, at the age of sixty-two.
• Daniel 9:25 (NIV): “Know and understand this: From the time the word goes out to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until the Anointed One, the ruler, comes, there will be seven ‘sevens,’ and sixty-two ‘sevens.’ It will be rebuilt with streets and a trench, but in times of trouble.
• Daniel 9:26 (NIV): After the sixty-two ‘sevens,’ the Anointed One will be put to death and will have nothing. The people of the ruler who will come will destroy the city and the sanctuary. The end will come like a flood: War will continue until the end, and desolations have been decreed.

The ‘sevens’ mentioned in Daniel 9 refer to weeks, i.e. seven days.
 
The number sixty-three does not appear in scripture, however, you may be interested to know it is the atomic number of europium, which was discovered in 1892. In pre-decimal currency, there were sixty-three groats in a guinea. 
 
The number sixty-four does not appear in the Bible either. It is the atomic number of gadolinium. There are sixty-four squares on a chessboard. It is the subject of a song by The Beatles: When I’m Sixty-Four. There are sixty-four generations from Adam to Jesus according to the Gospel of Luke.
 
Sixty-five, the atomic number of terbium, is represented in years with a sapphire jubilee. 
According to Christian historians, the emperor Domitian arrested the apostle John sixty-five years after Jesus’ crucifixion. John was thrown into a vat of boiling oil but came out unscathed. 
 
The number sixty-five appears three times in the Bible. Mahalalel was sixty-five years old when he became the father of Jared (Genesis 5:15). Enoch was also sixty-five when he fathered Methuselah (Genesis 5:21). 
 
The third mention of the number sixty-five is in Isaiah 7:8 (NIV): “Within sixty-five years Ephraim will be too shattered to be a people.”
 
Now we reach sixty-six: the number of books in the Bible. It is also the atomic number of dysprosium and the number of laps in the Spanish Grand Prix. There are sixty-six chapters in the book of Isaiah. 
 
In the Bible, the number sixty-six is mentioned twice. The first occurrence is in Genesis 46:26, which says that sixty-six members of Jacob’s family (not including his son’s wives), went with him to Egypt. 
 
Leviticus 12:5 gives instructions about the purification process after a woman has given birth: “If she gives birth to a daughter, for two weeks the woman will be unclean, as during her period. Then she must wait sixty-six days to be purified from her bleeding.” (NIV)
 
Sixty-seven is the nineteenth prime number and atomic number of holmium. It appears once in the Bible at the end of a list of exiles that returned to Jerusalem and Judah after spending time as captives under King Nebuchadnezzar:

• Nehemiah 7:72 (NIV): The total given by the rest of the people was 20,000 darics of gold, 2,000 minas of silver and 67 garments for priests.

 
Sixty-eight, the atomic number of erbium, also only appears once in the Bible. 

• 1 Chronicles 16:38 (NIV): He also left Obed-Edom and his sixty-eight associates to minister with them. Obed-Edom son of Jeduthun, and also Hosah, were gatekeepers.

 
Lastly, we reach number sixty-nine, the atomic number of thulium, which does not appear in the Bible. The only thing worth mentioning here is according to the visions of Mary of Jesus of Ágreda (1602-65), Saint Joachim, the father of Mary and Jesus’ grandfather, was sixty-nine years old when he died. 
 
So, that ends the sixties. There are no apparent meanings associated with them, although, some suggest the number sixty-four being the sum of eight times eight is a perfect number.