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The Number 5

The Number “5”

(Harmony, balance and divine grace)

 

Meaning and Symbolism

  • The number 5 in the Bible is significant because of his creation, the ‘man’ has five fingers, five senses, and five toes. Thus it is the number of God’s grace. There are five great mysteries: Father, Son, Spirit, Creation, and Redemption. After the fall of man, creation was cursed and it became subject to vanity. So man and creation needed to be redeemed therefore number 5 is the number of God’s grace. The number five may also speak of the inability of man and his weakness as only when ‘man’ is weak does he needs God’s Grace. As only if a man is incapable, he would require God’s Grace.
  • Number five in the Bible is synonymous with the creation of man. Man has five fingers and toes as well as five senses. There are five great mysteries, father, son, spirit, creation, and redemption. After the fall of man mankind and creation needed to be redeemed, therefore five is a number of God’s grace. 
  • The number 5 is a characteristic of the man. First, according to the Cabal, it is the number of the perfect Man (shedding his animal side). According to the Bible, it is the symbol of the Man-God by the five wounds of the Christ on the cross (for this reason, it is also considered as the number of the grace). But it is also associated with the man in general (2 + 3) having an unstable character of duality, 2, in spite of his divinity, 3. The 5 is also found on the human body: the five fingers of the hand and feet, the five senses (touch, taste, sense of smell, hearing and the sight), the five members (two arms, two legs, and the head, the bust being the center), the five bones forming the metacarpus, the metatarse and the brain-pan, etc.
  • Considered as the mediator between God and the universe, the five is regarded as a symbol of the universe.
  • Symbol of the will’s divine.
  • According to Manly P. Hall, the Pentad represents all the superior and inferior beings and is sometimes referred to as the Hierophant, or the priest of the Mysteries, because of its connection with the spiritual ethers, by means of which mystic development is attained. 
  • Symbol of the perfection in the Mayas.TSymol of the incarnated conscience – 4, Matter, + 1, Spirit.
  • Symbolize the force and the limits of the man in his control on the Universe.
  • The five-pointed star is utilized throughout all of western magick tradition.
  • According to Thibaut Of Langres, the number 5 is attributed to the world for some reasons. First, because the world is moved following a circular movement, just as the 5 when we multiply it by itself or by the other odd ones returns periodically. Also, it is called in this sense “periodical”. Five years make a luster, from “lustrare” which means “to make the turn”. On the other hand, 5 is attributed to the world due to the fact that it is composed of the first even and odd, 2 and 3. The world indeed, that is to say, the whole of things, increases by the male and the female – even is female and odd male.
  • In China, it is the number of the Center, in addition, to be considered as a male number amulet.
  • The number of life and nature, according to Aeppli.
  • Being the sum or rather the union of the first female number and the first male number, it is the symbol of creative life and erotic love according to Jung. But this one interprets also this number as that of the revolt.
  • A nuptial number for the Etruscans and Romans because it is the first number resulting from the addition the first female number and the first male number. For the same reason, C. Agrippa calls it the number of the marriage.
  • For H.- P. Blavatsky, “5” is the spirit of life and human love.”

In the Bible

  • The five wounds of Jesus on the cross.
  • The five parts of the clothing remaining of Jesus during his crucifixion after the soldiers had made four parts of his dress, plus his tunic which they did not tear. (Jn 19,23)
  • Saint Paul declares that by five times he received the 39 lashes from the Jews. (2 Co 11,24)
  • The five mad and wise virgins of the parable of Jesus. (Mt 25,1)
  • The five porticos of the pool of Bethesda. (Jn 5,2)
  • The five pebbles which made it possible to small king David to kill the giant Goliath.
  • The five kinds of animals that God asked Abraham to present to him to conclude with him an alliance: a heifer of three years old, a goat of three years old, a ram of three years old, a turtledove and a young dove. (Gn 12, 5-18)
  • Babylon’s King Nebuchadnezzar was given, by God, a dream where he saw a giant statue of a man. This statue, according to the interpretation given by the Eternal to Daniel, represented 5 periods of world-ruling empires.
  • The five books of the Torah (the Law) according to the Judaism that corresponds to the number of the first books of the Bible. The book of the Lamentations of Jeremiah contains also five chapters.
  • The ten commandments were split into 2 sets of 5. David used only 1 stone out of the five, signifying the divine.
  • There are 5 primary types of offerings God commanded Israel to bring to him. They are the Burnt Offering (Leviticus 1; 8:18 – 21; 16:24), Sin (Leviticus 4; 16:3 – 22), Trespass (Leviticus 5:14 – 19; 6:1 – 7; 7:1 – 6), Grain (Leviticus 2) and Peace Offering (Leviticus 3; 7:11- 34).
  • King Nebuchadnezzar was given a dream where he saw a giant statue of a man. This statue, according to the interpretation given to Daniel, represented 5 periods of world-ruling empires.
    • The statue’s head of gold represented Babylon (Daniel 2:32, 38)
    • The Chest and Arms of Silver symbolized the Persian Empire (Daniel 2:32, 39)
    • The Belly and Thighs of Bronze (brass) represented the Macedonian Empire under Alexander the Great
    • The Two Legs of Iron symbolized Rome’s Empire (Daniel 2:33, 40 – 43)
    • Period 5 is the Ten Toes of Iron mixed with Clay are the successors to the Roman Empire (Daniel 2:41 – 44)
  • The Book of Psalms is divided into 5 major sections. Section 1 (Psalm 1 to 41) refers to the Passover, Israel’s beginning, and the start of the God’s plan of salvation that centers around Christ. Section 2 (42 to 72) sings about a unified Israel in the land and pictures the creation of the New Testament Church. Section 3 of 5 (73 to 89) bemoans the destruction of both God’s Temple and Jerusalem. This section also hints at prophecies regarding the End Time Great Tribulation. Section 4 (90 to 106) rejoices over the 1,000 reign of Jesus and shows Israel gathered again. Section 5 (107 to 150) pictures a time when Judah (representing all Israel) shall again be delivered.
  • The 4 Gospels plus Acts equals five books which, as a set, can be designated as “the New Testament Pentateuch.” They reveal Jesus’ teachings concerning the Law and the Prophets.
  • The apostle John wrote 5 books centered on the grace of God and eternal life (the gospel of John, 1John, 2John, 3John, and Revelation).
  • Jesus multiplied five loaves of barley to feed 5,000 (Matthew 14:17).
  • The ‘tabernacle in the wilderness’ makes much use of the number 5. This tabernacle, whose design was given directly by God, contained five curtains (Exodus 26:3), five bars (Exodus 26:26 – 27), five pillars and five sockets (Exodus 26:37) and an altar made of wood that was five cubits long and five cubits wide (Exodus 27:1). The height of the court within the tabernacle was five cubits (Exodus 27:18).
  • The Holy anointing oil (Exodus 30:23 – 25), used to consecrate the furniture of the tabernacle was comprised of 5 parts, (4 herbs + 1 oil) for it was a revelation of pure grace. The proportion of spices used in making the oil were a multiple of five, which then had a Hin of olive oil added to it. Of which when divided and added = 300 or 3. Or the holy trinity. 
    • Pure Myrrh, 500 shekels
    • Sweet cinnamon, 250 shekels
    • Sweet calamus, 250 shekels
    • Cassia, 500 shekels

Occurrences

  • Five is used 300 times in the Old Testament and 45 times in the New Testament.
  • Jesus pronounced himself by his own name (Jn 17,3; Act 9,5 and 22,8 and 26,15; Rv 22,16).
  • There are five books in the Bible that contain only one chapter (2John, 3John, Philemon, Jude, and Obadiah). Moses wrote 5 books,

Judaism

  • The gematria of the Hebrew letter ה
  • Five are the books of the Torah – חמישה חומשי תורה
  • The sections of the book of Psalms
  • The number of knots in the tzitzit
  • Number of aliyot on Yom Tov that does not coincide with Shabbat
  • Date in Iyar of Yom Ha’atzmaut
  • Number emphasized during Mimouna

In other Religions

  • The five wounds of Egypt sent by God by the intermediary of Moses, according to the Koran: the flood, grasshoppers, lice, frogs, and blood.
  • The five paths leaving from the Calvary and directing to the whole world, according to visions’ of Ann-Catherine Emmerick.
  • In the visions of Maria Valtorta, Jesus classifies the kinds of love in five categories, each one of different power and which are in the order: the love of God, the paternal or maternal love, the conjugal love, the love of the neighbor, the love of the science and the work. The three firsts are of a higher power, while the last three are of lower power. But these six divisions are reduced to five because the love of the neighbor and the conjugal love are of identical nature even if they have not the same force, the conjugal love being indeed only a particular case of the love of the neighbor.
  • In the revelations received by Don Stefano Gobbi, of the Marian Movement of Priests, it is question of the five famous mountains climbed by Jesus: it is on the mountain that he promulgated the evangelical law of Beatitudes; it is on the Thabor mount that he lived the ecstasy of his transfiguration; it is to Jerusalem, city located on the mountain, that he gathered one’s people for the Last Supper and that he passed painful hours of his internal agony; it is on the mountain of the Calvary that he consumed his sacrifice, on the mount of Olives that happened his definitive detachment of one’s people by his glorious ascension to the heaven.
  • A rosary of the Virgin Mary has five mysteries meditated.
  • The practice of the five first Saturdays of the month asked initially by the Virgin Mary to Lucy of Fatima on October 10, 1925.
  • In Italy, in Lanciano, exists a reliquary, since the 13th century, where is found a miraculous devoted host. While celebrating the mass, a priest came to doubt the real presence of Jesus-Christ in the Eucharist; and, under his eyes, the devoted host becomes a slice of flesh, and the wine, blood which coagulated in five clots. The analyses, undertaken between November 18, 1970, and March 4, 1971, by professors Limoli and Bertelli, from the Faculty of Medicine of Siena, in Italy, concluded, after examination of the host and the blood preserved since the 13th century, that they had no modification! The flesh is a slice of human cardiac muscle, resulting from the myocardium. The blood corresponds to the blood of which it would have been taken out of a human being the same day of the examination. And the five clots of blood, of unequal size, weigh all the same weight each one separately; and all together, put in the same plate of the balance, the weight remains identical without variation.
  • The five commandments of Buddha Gautama: You will not kill; You will not steal; You will not be impudic; You will not lie; You will not drink intoxicating liquors. Buddhism distinguishes also five great evils: the ignorance, the anger, the desire, the malevolence, and the envy.
  • In the mythology of “Dogons,” we find some themes which seem to remind some beliefs of others religions. For example, the bad angel Ogo revolts over Lucifer after having killed his twin sister as Cain had killed his brother Abel. The good angel Nomo, twin brother of Ogo, is crucified to save men from sin, but he resuscitates five days later, period as sacred as the week of Easter for Christians, and became the week of five days which is still practiced nowadays by the “Dogons”.
  • The five couples of Adam and Eve that they would have had there simultaneously and this, in five different places on the planet, on the five continents, like prototypes of five different races, according to Edgar Cayce. However, according to the mythology of “Dogons”, it is rather four amphibious couples men and women that the god Ama would have created and placed on Earth. Those first humans were immortal, but their descendants became mortals because of their sins.
  • According to visions of Ann-Catherine Emmerich, the forbidden fruits of the Tree of the Knowledge of the good and the evil of the Garden in Eden hung by five bunches.
  • In the Gospel of Thomas, Jesus mentions that there are “five trees in the paradise that do not move neither Summer nor winter and their leaves do not fall. Those who will know them won’t die.” (log 19.7-11)
  • The five fundamental virtues: wisdom, love, truth, goodness, and justice.
  • The five commandments of the Church: to sanctify the feast days, to assist the mass on Sunday and the feast days, to confess his sins at least once a year, to receive the communion at least during Easter, and to pay the tithe to the Church – instead of that, others versions speak about the respect of the obligatory fast-days. The Church recommends also five acts to believers before the Communion: the act of faith, love, humility, desire, and hope.
  • The visions of the saints are classified according to five categories: beatific or intuitive vision, “abstract” vision, intellectual vision, imaginary vision, and the corporal vision.
  • The trip of Mary and Joseph to Bethlehem, for the birth of Jesus, lasted five days. They arrived on a Saturday, around four o’clock in the evening, according to visions of Mary Agreda.
  • The five pillars of the Islam: profession of faith, CHAHADA; ritual prayer, SALAT; legal alms, ZAKAT; fast of the Ramadan, SAWM; and the pilgrimage to Mecca, HADJDJ.
  • The Greeks philosophers admitted five principles in the man: body, animal soul, psyche, intelligence, and divine spirit.
  • The five cycles of the Chinese lunar calendar of twelve lunar years each.
  • The five elements of the Chinese theory: water, fire, wood, metal, ground.
  • For the Tibetans, the five elements connected to five geometrical forms: the cube to the ground, the sphere to the water, the cone to the fire, the half-circle to the air, and the flame to the ether.
  • The five “takbirs” or formula of prayer, in the Islamic religion. The Moslems insist that the prayer is done five times every day. Let us mention that Mahomet was five years old when his Abdallah father died.
  • The five suns or eras at the Aztecs.

In General

  • Boron is 5th on the Periodic Table.
  • In Hebrew, the number 5 means “seizure, contraction like the five fingers”. It is, told Fabre D’Oliver, the matter seized by the most material of the five senses.
  • There is in Quebec 5 archbishoprics.
  • The spatial representation of the number 5 is the pyramid (5 summits with 5 faces) and also the pentagram (5 sides) so the man would be included there.
  • The five Zener cards used for some tests of parapsychology. The graphics of each card corresponds to the first five numbers.
  • The five lines of the stave in music.
  • The five reigns: elemental, mineral, vegetable, animal and human.
  • The five oceans (Pacific, Atlantic, Indian, Arctic and Antarctic) with the five parts of the geographical world: Europe, Asia, Africa, America, Oceania.
  • In the continuation of fundamental numbers of 1 to 9, 5 is in the center, as it is in the center of the magic square using the first 9 numbers.
  • Anniversary of marriage: wood’s wedding.

 

For More Studies on Numbers Please Visit the “Number Studies” page.

 

Sources

http://www.biblestudy.org/bibleref/meaning-of-numbers-in-bible/5.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Significance_of_numbers_in_Judaism

http://www.ridingthebeast.com/numbers/nu5.php

The Secret Teachings of All Ages – Manly P. Hall

 

Comments (2)

Kingdom of God Amen king of king

My life number in this reincarnation is 5 ~ and in this lifetime I have Awoken ~ I found this article on the number 5 to be very enlightening ~

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