NUMBERS, SYMBOLISM OF. In the Old and New Testaments there is frequent use of symbolical numbers. Seven, for instance, is a significant number. We read of a seven-branched candlestick, of a sevenfold sprinkling, of seven sacrificial lambs, of seven angels, seven stars, seven churches of Asia. As W. It Bennett says (Hastings' D.B.), " a similar use of seven ' is found in the Egyptian, Assyrian, and Persian religions, and is often derived from astral worship of the seven heavenly bodies, the sun, moon, and the five planets known to the ancients." In Egyptology there is frequent reference to the seven Hathors. The seven-headed dragon is found in the Scottish dragon-myth, as well as in the legends of Cambodia, India, Persia, Western Asia, East Africa, and the Mediterranean area. According to Elliot Smith, (Dr.), " the seven-headed dragon probably originated from the seven Hathors." The moon determined the earliest sub-division of time into months; and the moon goddess (the Great Mother) " lent the sanctity of her divine attributes to the number twenty-eight." The
number four derives its sanctity from the four cardinal points, and was associated especially with the sun.
Having invested the numbers four and twenty-eight with special sanctity and brought them into association with the measurement of time, it was a not unnatural proceeding to subdivide the month into four parts and so bring the number seven into the sacred scheme. Once this was done the moon's phases were used to justify and rationalize this procedure, and the length of the week was incidentally brought into association with the moon goddess, who had seven avatars, perhaps originally one for each day of the week. At a later period the number seven was arbitrarily brought into relationship with the Pleiades."