There is absolutely no reason to say it is idiomatic, when that passage has several others numbers included. When Noah was told to take animals into the Ark two by two, it did not mean 200, or 2000 or any such nonsense. The same applies to forty day and forty nights. That does not mean 400 days or 4000 years.
The Number 40
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The inspired and signified language of God uses the things seen to help us understand the eternal things of God not seen. . .like spoken of in Revelation 1:1 .It is designed to give more than one level of understanding sometimes three. .Without parables Christ spoke not, purposely hiding the unseen understanding from the literalist that have no faith coming from above the understanding of parables. faith that comes by hearing the doctrine of God.
Deuteronomy 32:2 My doctrine shall drop as the rain, my speech shall distil as the dew, as the small rain upon the tender herb, and as the showers upon the grass:
God has desired to teach us of His doctrines that fall like rain from above to indicate the direction of inspiration. . . or water, dew or little rain .
If another came and said inspired as cats and dogs then we would know where the power came from that they are trying to bind in heaven. God did not uses . cats and dogs or tears of God. Those are human idioms .
James 3:15This wisdom descendeth not from above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish.
Three levels. The first historical. When Jesus taught using parables he was not describing historical events but the spirit witness . with a few exceptions like these parables the bible gives us a accurate account of things and conversations which did occur. The second level the moral as to the letter it kills warning us. And third the gospel understanding.
Deuteronomy 32:2 My doctrine shall drop as the rain, my speech shall distil as the dew, as the small rain upon the tender herb, and as the showers upon the grass:
God has desired to teach us of His doctrines that fall like rain from above to indicate the direction of inspiration. . . or water, dew or little rain .
If another came and said inspired as cats and dogs then we would know where the power came from that they are trying to bind in heaven. God did not uses . cats and dogs or tears of God. Those are human idioms .
James 3:15This wisdom descendeth not from above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish.
Three levels. The first historical. When Jesus taught using parables he was not describing historical events but the spirit witness . with a few exceptions like these parables the bible gives us a accurate account of things and conversations which did occur. The second level the moral as to the letter it kills warning us. And third the gospel understanding.
I would agree nothing according to the letter of the word. . . but something according to the spirit of the word .The law of mercy, suffering.
Jesus 40 day 40 nights.
Don’t hit anyone more than 40 times during punishment, because more than that means that their life is not important to you. Deuteronomy 25:3
Jesus 40 day 40 nights.
Don’t hit anyone more than 40 times during punishment, because more than that means that their life is not important to you. Deuteronomy 25:3
A bit more on the whole “40 days and 40 nights” –
I think people tend to confuse the use of the number “40” by itself, and the idiomatic expression “40 days and 40 nights”.
When used alone, 40 often carries the more esoteric/symbolic meaning of testing, trial, probation, the ending of a cycle, etc. It can certainly mean a literal count of 40; however, due to its highly symbolic nature, I have to wonder if a valid argument could be made that it too is not always a number meant literally as a count of 40, particularly when a more symbolic meaning is obvious.
As far as 40 days and 40 nights goes, this was just an idiomatic expression in Hebrew meaning “for a long time”; it was not meant as a literal count of 40. Unfortunately, we don’t have anything in English that really comes close to this expression. About the closest I can think of is the Southern American idiom “a month of Sundays” – used to mean, as I understand it, an indeterminate long period of time.
What follows below is an example of its use as an idiomatic expression denoting “long period of time”. I’m not suggesting it’s “proof positive”, but I think it serves as a good example.
For this exercise, we’ll use the journey of Elijah as described in 1 Kings 19:4-8. This is paraphrased and added on to from an article published in, I believe, 2015.
We are told in the narrative that Elijah makes a trip from his then present location to Mt. Horeb, the mountain of God. Mt. Horeb it seems is synonymous with Mt. Sinai. The issue is that the exact location of Sinai is not known with 100% certainty. It has long been associated with ‘Jabal Mousa’, a tall mountain the southern tip of the Sinai Peninsula. Let’s assume, for the sake of this exercise, that that’s where he was headed.
Where did he start from?? 1 Kings 19:3-4 gives us the answer. After fleeing Jezebel, he ended up in Be’er-sheva, a city on the southern border of Judah. From there, he went a day’s journey into the Negev where he found a solitary broom tree and rested.
The distance from Be’er-sheva to Jabal Mousa is about 260 miles. That’s using modern roads. Elijah’s journey may have been more direct, but to be conservative, let’s stick with the 260 miles.
Since Elijah had already gone one day into the Negev when he had the angelic encounter at the broom tree, and since he travelled another 40 days and 40 nights, that would be a 41-day total journey if we use a literal count.
Since he traveled ‘day and night’, it’s reasonable to suggest 10-12 hours a day/evening of walking time. Let’s go a bit more conservative though and say 8 hours a day. Whether said hours were consecutive or broken up doesn’t really matter; it’s 8 hours a day/evening of walking/travel time in a 24-hour period.
The average person walks between 3-6 miles an hour depending on how fast s/he walks. Again, let’s go conservative and use 3mph.
A total distance of 260 miles over 41 days equates to covering a bit over 6 miles a day. To walk 6 miles a day over an 8-hour period to cover the distance in “40 days and 40 nights” equates to walking at a pace of ¾ mph.
That’s a wicked slow pace! A painfully slow pace, actually.
The alternative – walking at 3mph to cover the little over 6 miles per day equates to about 2 hours a day of walking – hardly walking ‘day and night’ – what would one do for the other 10 hours of day/evening??
For the average person, walking at a speed of 3mph for 8 hours a day would cover around 24 miles a day. To make a journey of 260 miles would only require about 11 days, if you want to go conservative, call it two weeks - tops.
The 11 days is very significant, because in Deuteronomy 1:2 we read:
“It is eleven days’ journey from Horeb by the way of Mount Seir to Kadesh-barnea.”
The precise location of Kadesh-barnea is also debated, but it is clear that it was on the southern border of Israel, placing it near Be’er-Sheva.
Deuteronomy thus gives us a remarkable confirmation of the approximate time it would take to travel from Be’er-Sheva to Mt. Horeb: It’s around 11 days under normal travel conditions, hardly a “40 days and 40 nights” journey.
A journey walking 3mph, 8 hours a day for 40 days would cover about 1,000 miles. Well out of the borders of the Holy Land in any direction. The modern State of Israel is only 290 miles long! By comparison, if you picked up the pace a bit and walked at 4mph and increased the walking time to 10 hours a day, you could start in Jerusalem and make Paris in about 53 days.
This example seems to demonstrate the use of “40 days and 40 nights” as an idiomatic phrase meaning simply “a long time” (with “long” being a somewhat relative term); not a literal count of 40.
I think people tend to confuse the use of the number “40” by itself, and the idiomatic expression “40 days and 40 nights”.
When used alone, 40 often carries the more esoteric/symbolic meaning of testing, trial, probation, the ending of a cycle, etc. It can certainly mean a literal count of 40; however, due to its highly symbolic nature, I have to wonder if a valid argument could be made that it too is not always a number meant literally as a count of 40, particularly when a more symbolic meaning is obvious.
As far as 40 days and 40 nights goes, this was just an idiomatic expression in Hebrew meaning “for a long time”; it was not meant as a literal count of 40. Unfortunately, we don’t have anything in English that really comes close to this expression. About the closest I can think of is the Southern American idiom “a month of Sundays” – used to mean, as I understand it, an indeterminate long period of time.
What follows below is an example of its use as an idiomatic expression denoting “long period of time”. I’m not suggesting it’s “proof positive”, but I think it serves as a good example.
For this exercise, we’ll use the journey of Elijah as described in 1 Kings 19:4-8. This is paraphrased and added on to from an article published in, I believe, 2015.
We are told in the narrative that Elijah makes a trip from his then present location to Mt. Horeb, the mountain of God. Mt. Horeb it seems is synonymous with Mt. Sinai. The issue is that the exact location of Sinai is not known with 100% certainty. It has long been associated with ‘Jabal Mousa’, a tall mountain the southern tip of the Sinai Peninsula. Let’s assume, for the sake of this exercise, that that’s where he was headed.
Where did he start from?? 1 Kings 19:3-4 gives us the answer. After fleeing Jezebel, he ended up in Be’er-sheva, a city on the southern border of Judah. From there, he went a day’s journey into the Negev where he found a solitary broom tree and rested.
The distance from Be’er-sheva to Jabal Mousa is about 260 miles. That’s using modern roads. Elijah’s journey may have been more direct, but to be conservative, let’s stick with the 260 miles.
Since Elijah had already gone one day into the Negev when he had the angelic encounter at the broom tree, and since he travelled another 40 days and 40 nights, that would be a 41-day total journey if we use a literal count.
Since he traveled ‘day and night’, it’s reasonable to suggest 10-12 hours a day/evening of walking time. Let’s go a bit more conservative though and say 8 hours a day. Whether said hours were consecutive or broken up doesn’t really matter; it’s 8 hours a day/evening of walking/travel time in a 24-hour period.
The average person walks between 3-6 miles an hour depending on how fast s/he walks. Again, let’s go conservative and use 3mph.
A total distance of 260 miles over 41 days equates to covering a bit over 6 miles a day. To walk 6 miles a day over an 8-hour period to cover the distance in “40 days and 40 nights” equates to walking at a pace of ¾ mph.
That’s a wicked slow pace! A painfully slow pace, actually.
The alternative – walking at 3mph to cover the little over 6 miles per day equates to about 2 hours a day of walking – hardly walking ‘day and night’ – what would one do for the other 10 hours of day/evening??
For the average person, walking at a speed of 3mph for 8 hours a day would cover around 24 miles a day. To make a journey of 260 miles would only require about 11 days, if you want to go conservative, call it two weeks - tops.
The 11 days is very significant, because in Deuteronomy 1:2 we read:
“It is eleven days’ journey from Horeb by the way of Mount Seir to Kadesh-barnea.”
The precise location of Kadesh-barnea is also debated, but it is clear that it was on the southern border of Israel, placing it near Be’er-Sheva.
Deuteronomy thus gives us a remarkable confirmation of the approximate time it would take to travel from Be’er-Sheva to Mt. Horeb: It’s around 11 days under normal travel conditions, hardly a “40 days and 40 nights” journey.
A journey walking 3mph, 8 hours a day for 40 days would cover about 1,000 miles. Well out of the borders of the Holy Land in any direction. The modern State of Israel is only 290 miles long! By comparison, if you picked up the pace a bit and walked at 4mph and increased the walking time to 10 hours a day, you could start in Jerusalem and make Paris in about 53 days.
This example seems to demonstrate the use of “40 days and 40 nights” as an idiomatic phrase meaning simply “a long time” (with “long” being a somewhat relative term); not a literal count of 40.
There really isn't - I'm not saying it couldn't be a literal count, though personally I'd be more comfortable with a literal count if the "...and 40 nights" wasn't there and the passage just read '40 days' (i.e. there wouldn't be an idiom being used). Using the expression '40 days and 40 nights', strongly suggests a more idiomatic (i.e. an indeterminate length of time) than literal usage (literally 40 days) .
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