Meaning of Numbers in the Bible
17 (Seventeen)

Meaning of Numbers in the Bible
Number 17 (Seventeen)

stands out very prominently as a significant number. It is not a multiple of any other number, and therefore it has no factors. Hence it is called one of the prime (or indivisible) numbers. What is more, it is the seventh in the list of the prime numbers.

The series runs 1, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13, 17, etc. Thirteen, it will be noted, is also a prime number, and is therefore important; but it is the sixth of the series: hence it partakes of the significance of the number 6, and is indeed an intensified expression of it.

In like manner Seventeen being the seventh of the series, it partakes of and intensifies the significance of the number seven. Indeed, it is the combination or sum of two perfect numbers—seven and ten—seven being the number of spiritual perfection, and ten of ordinal perfection.

Contrasted together the significance of these two numbers is clear; and when united in the number Seventeen we have a union of their respective meanings, viz., spiritual perfection, plus ordinal perfection, or the perfection of spiritual order.

We see a beautiful illustration in

ROMANS 8:35-39

which concludes the first great division of that all-important Epistle, and sums up the blessings of those who are dead and risen in Christ. First we have a series of seven, then a series of ten. The seven are marked off by being put in the form of a question, while the ten are given as the answer to it.

"Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall

1. Tribulation,
2. Or distress,
3. Or persecution,
4. Or famine,
5. Or nakedness,
6. Or peril,
7. Or sword?

as it is written, For Thy sake are we killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us. For I am persuaded, that,

8. Neither death (1),
9. Nor life (2),
10. Nor angels (3),
11. Nor principalities (4),
12. Nor things present (5),
13. Nor things to come (6),
14. Nor powers (7),
15. Nor height (8),
16. Nor depth (9),
17. Nor any other creature (10),

shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord."

Thus is set forth the spiritual and eternal perfection of the believer's standing in Christ.

By forming the conclusive answer to the question, and giving us the positive assurance (though in a negative form), it seems as though the number ten is of more weight than seven when thus used together. It is so in 2 Chronicles 2, where, in verse 7, Solomon sends to Hiram for a cunning workman, and seven particulars are specified; and in verse 14 a man is sent and his qualifications are enumerated in ten particulars. A more important illustration will be found in

HEBREWS 12:18-24,

where the Old Dispensation and the New are thus contrasted:

"Ye are not come

1. Unto the mount that might be touched,
2. And that burned with fire,
3. Nor unto blackness,
4. And darkness,
5. And tempest,
6. And the sound of a trumpet,
7. And the voice of words...

but ye are come

8. Unto Mount Zion (1),
9. And unto the city of the living God (2).
10. The heavenly Jerusalem (3),
11. And to an innumerable company of angels (4),
12. To the general assembly (5),
13. And church of the firstborn which are written in heaven (6),
14. And to God the judge of all (7),
15. And to the spirits of just men made perfect (8),
16. And to Jesus the Mediator of the New Covenant (9),
17. And to the blood of sprinkling that speaketh better things than that of Abel (10)."

Here again the blessings of the New Covenant are seen to be higher than those of the Old, both in number and in importance. The Old were spiritual (7), but the latter are more so, for they are doubly the manifestation of Divine grace, ten, or 2 x 5.

PSALM 83:6-11

gives us the ten and the seven in a different order. Verses 6-9 give us a confederation of ten enemies for the purpose of making Israel extinct, and "to cut them off from being a nation"; while verses 10 and 12 give us an enumeration of seven enemies which the Lord had destroyed in the past, with the prayer that He would do to the confederacy of the ten what He had done to the seven in the past.

The commentators agree that no such confederacy can be found in the past history of Israel, so that we are shut up to the conclusion that the Psalm is Proleptic, and speaks of a yet future confederacy of which the later Prophets speak more particularly.

Verses 6-9: The ten-fold confederation:—

1. Edom
2. The Ishmaelites
3. Moab
4. The Hagarenes
5. Gebal
6. Ammon
7. Amalek
8. The Philistines
9. Tyre
10. Assur (Assyria)

Then follow, in verses 10-12, the seven enemies which had been destroyed in days of old:

11. Midianites (1), Judges 7:8
12. Sisera (2), Judges 4:5, 21
13. Jabin (3), Judges 4:5, 21
14. Oreb (4), Judges 7:25
15. Zeeb (5), Judges 7:25
16. Zebah (6), Judges 8:5
17. Zalmunna (7), Judges 8:5

The number seventeen (not the word merely) has a significance of its own, and therefore an importance which must be taken into account wherever it appears in the Word of God by itself or as a factor.

It forms a great factor in the number 153 (see note).

ADDITIONAL MISCELLANEOUS ILLUSTRATIONS

Seventeen Angelic appearances are recorded in the Gospels and Acts:—

1-3. Three to Joseph, Matthew 1:20, 2:13,19
4. To the Lord in the wilderness, Matthew 4:11
5. In Gethsemane, Luke 22:43
6. On the stone at the sepulchre, Matthew 28:2
7. Within the sepulchre, Mark 16:5
8. To Zecharias, Luke 1:11
9. To Mary, Luke 1:26
10, 11. Two to the Shepherds, Luke 2:9,13
12. At the pool of Bethesda, John 5:4
13. To the disciples, Acts 1:11
14. To the disciples in prison, Acts 5:19
15. To Cornelius, Acts 10:3
16. To Peter in prison, Acts 12:7
17. To Paul, Acts 27:2 3