Properties of the number 7

There's a secondary symbol Alexander uses in the Kindheitslied and also in the Zion-lied, and this is the symbolism around number 7. I would like to give here a selection of the properties of the number 7 (source: http://www.ridingthebeast.com/numbers/nu7.php); I tried to pick the relevant meanings to this research.

• The number 7, according to Ambroise, corresponds to the Old Testament but he sees it also as the number representing the virginity. Thibaut of Langres gives also this attribute to this number because it is the only one of the first nine numbers which does not father and the only one which is not fathered. It is considered as virgin and representative of the Holy Spirit to which are attributed the same properties. Macrobe goes in the same way telling that it symbolizes Minerve, born of his father without passing by a mother.

• Perfect number and symbol of the divine abundance, it is also according to the Bible the number of the punishment, the purification and the penitence. It is also attributed to Satan who tries to copy God being the monkey of God. Also the infernal beast of the Revelation (Rv 13,1) has seven heads.

• Saint Augustin sees the seven like the perfection of the Plenitude. He made it also the number of the creature, considering not the life of this one but its become, the evolution.

• The seven indictments to the scribes and to Pharisees announced by Jesus. (Mt 23,13-31)

• The seven requests in the prayer of the Our-Father.

• The number seven is often used in the Revelation: the seven golden lamp-stands (Rv 1,12-20), the mystery of the seven stars (Rv 1,16-20), the seven seals (Rv 7 and 8), the seven letters addressed to the seven churches (Rv 2 and 3), the seven trumpets (Rv 8,6 and 11,15), the seven thunders (Rv 10,3-4), the seven kings (Rv 17,9), the seven heads of the Beast (Rv 13,1), the seven plagues of the seven bowls (Rv 15,5), etc. "Bush of thorn", during one of her visions, has understood that the seven lamps and the standard lamps mentioned in the Revelation, represented the seven principal Churches or Beliefs, that is to say: Roman Catholic, Orthodox, Muslim, Anglican, Protestant, etc. but only the Roman Catholic Church is remained lighted with the true fire of the Holy Spirit.

• The seven donations of the spirit of Yahweh: Wisdom, Insight, Counsel, Power, Knowledge, Piety, Fear of God. (Is 11,2-3)

• The mourning for the people of Israel lasted seven days. (Gn 50,10; Jdt 16,24; Si 22,12)

• The infidelity receives a sevenfold punishment.

• The seven priests carrying seven trumpets, during the catch of Jericho, have to walk, the seventh day, seven times around the city. (Jos 6,11-16)

•  Jacob served seven years for Rachel. (Gn 29,20)

•  The seven virtues. Three theologicals: faith, hope, love - or charity. Four cardinals: force, justice, prudence and temperance.

• The seven capital sins, corresponding to the seven material desires: the pride, the avarice, the impurity, the envy, the greed, the anger and the laziness.

• The seven sacraments of the Roman catholic Church: Baptism, Confirmation, Eucharist, Penitence, Unction of the patients, Order, Marriage.

•  The number seven is a characteristic of the Virgin Mary: the seven mysteries of the rosary commemorating the pains of the Virgin Mary; we represent the Virgin with a crown of seven roses to a heart and also seven daggers stung in her heart (from where the designation "Our-Lady of the Seven Pains"), 3 on a side and 4 of the other; the seven feasts of the Virgin Mary celebrated in the catholic Church: the purification, the Annunciation, the Visitation, the Assumption, the Nativity, the presentation of the Virgin and the Immaculate Conception; the Christians of the first centuries were making born the Virgin Mary gave birth after seven months of gestation.