The Significance of the Forty Year Period

Significance of Forty Year Period
c.f. – A.D. 30 (Death of Christ) to A.D.70 (Fall of Jerusalem)

“Forty Years of Messiah”
“The Final Generation”
JEWISH AND CHRISTIAN SOURCES POINTING TO AD70 AS THE END TIME

“forty years was I grieved with that generation..”

Numbers 14:34 After the number of the days in which ye searched the land, even forty days, each day for a year, shall ye bear your iniquities, even forty years, and ye shall know my breach of promise.

Ezekiel 4:6 And when thou hast accomplished them, lie again on thy right side, and thou shalt bear the iniquity of the house of Judah forty days: I have appointed thee each day for a year.

4QpHab – Pesher Habakkuk
1QpHab 9:4-7: “Peshru about the priests of Jerusalem. The final (end time) ones who gather up wealth and take a cut from the spoils from the peoples and for the “Last Days” they give their wealth with spoil into the hands of The Roman army. ” (Moellerhaus Translation)

4Q171 Pesher Psalms
4Q171 2:5-9: Yet a little while (Heb: me’at, mem-ayin-tet) and the wicked one will be no more. I will discern his place but he will not be there (Psalm 37:10). “Its pesher refers to all wickedness at the end of 40 years (Heb:Mem = 40). They will be finished and no wicked man will be found on the earth.”

Forty Years “time is running out. Could we be at the end of the forty-year grace period? Could it have started with the Six Day War back in 1967? Our rabbis teach us that that in the seventh year – the Sabbatical year – will be wars, and the year after, the Messiah will come. In our recent history, we find that the Six Day War, the Yom Kippur War, the first and second Intifada all took place during a Sabbatical year. And now we are approaching (in late 2007) another Sabbatical year. Could this be the end of the forty-year grace period that started in ’67?”

Maimonides
“Jewish writings stipulate that forty years after the coming of the Messiah there will be a resurrection of the dead, and all who are lying in dust will rise to new life.” (The 13 Principles and the Resurrection of the Dead)

H.J. Schoeps (1966)
(on the traditional views concerning the length of the intermediate Messianic kingdom) “fix a very short interval for the interim period, namely, forty years (R. Eliezer ben Hyrcanus; Bar in Sanh. 99a; R. Aqiba: Midr. Teh. on Ps 90:15; Tanch. Eqeb 7b, Pes. Rabb. 4a). The two Tannaites, commenting on Ps 95:7, derive this time indication from the Messianically understood v.10 (forty years I loathed that generation) and from Deut. 8:2 by a parallelization with the forty years in the desert.” (Paul, p. 100)

The Talmud
“Our Rabbis taught: During the last forty years before the destruction of the Temple.. the doors of the Hekal would open by themselves, until R. Johanan b. Zakkai rebuked them, saying: Hekal, Hekal, why wilt thou be the alarmed thyself (Predict thy own destruction) ? I know about thee that thou wilt be destroyed, for Zechariah ben Ido has already prophesied concerning thee: Open thy doors, O Lebanon, that the fire may devour thy cedars” (The Soncino Talmud, Seder Mo’ed, vol. III Toma, p. 186)

‘R. Eliezer [c. 80-120 AD] said, The days of the Messiah will be forty years. …[quoted from Everyman’s Talmud, by Abraham Cohen, pub. by E.P. Dutton & Co., 1949. Page 356].

The Rebbe often quotes the Zohar to the effect that the Resurrection will take place 40 years after the advent of Mashiach. (See Igros Kodesh, Vol. II, p. 75; Sefer HaSichos 5752, Vol. I, p. 274. However, there are also other references in the sichos (e.g., Likkutei Sichos, Vol. XXVII, p. 206; Sefer HaSichos 5733, Shabbos Parshas Balak, footnote 3)

Kung and Moltman (1994)
“The reign of Jesus, God’s glorified servant, will last forty years, followed by the ‘Hour,’ the end of the world on the day when God alone will sit in judgment at the universal resurrected.” [Hans Kung and Jurgen Moltman, eds., Islam: A Challenge for Christianity (London: SCM Press, 1994), 108]

Hal Lindsey (1970)
“A generation in the Bible is something like forty years.” (The Late Great Planet Earth. p. 148)

Lohse, TDNT
“The idea of the millennium which the divine works out here is to be understood against the backdrop of the Jewish apoc. traditions that he adopts and uses. In the expectation of an intermediate Messianic kingdom which shall precede the end and the coming of the reign of God, Eth. En. 91:12f; 93:1-14; Sib., 3, 652-660; 4 Esr. 7:28f; S. Bar. 29:3; 30:1-5; 40:3, two forms of eschatological hope are combined. Acc. to the older view the Messiah will be the end-time king restoring the Davidic monarchy and raising it to new heights. In apoc., however, a very different concept of the future age of salvation develops. On this view God’s envoy will appear from heaven, the dead will rise again at his coming, and all men must come before his judgment-seat. Later an attempt was made to fuse the older national concept with the universal eschatology by putting the reign of the Messiah-King before the end of the world and the beginning of the new aeon. The earthly Messianic age will be for a limited term and it will be followed by a last assault of the powers of chaos prior to the commencement of the future world.” (TDNT, Vol. IX, page 470)

Randall Price
“The history of mankind is traced from the Creation (1QS 4:15-17) and leads up to the eschaton or the “latter generation” or the “end-time,” finally culminating in the “Latter Days” (QpHab 4:1-2, 7-8, 10-14; cf. 2:5-7). This culminating period also looks forward in its description of this age ending the era of wickedness as “the decreed epoch of new things” (1QS 4:25; cf. Dan. 9:26-27; 11:35-36; Isa. 10:23; 28:22; 43:19).”

“The Messiah of the Dead Sea Scrolls is clearly eschatological. His coming is at “the end of days,” and is royal (Davidic), priestly (Aaronic), and prophetic (Mosaic) in nature.”

“In Dead Sea texts which depict this period of great spiritual declension of Israel, the apostasy is said to be spearheaded by a figure refer to as “Belial” and a “son of Belial.” The term appears also in the New Testament at 2 Cor. 6:15. In other texts, this figure is called “son/man of sin” (cf. CD 6:15; 13:14; 1QS 9:16; 10:19). This expression is quite similar to an expression found in the Pauline description of the eschatological desecrator, the Antichrist, in 2 Thess. 2:3b. It is complemented by another term “son of iniquity” in 1QS 3:21, which is comparable to the phrase “the man of lawlessness” paired with “man of sin” in 2 Thess. 2:3. Even the phrase “the mystery of lawlessness,” found only at 2 Thess. 2:7, has an almost identical expression at Qumran: “the mystery of iniquity” (The Eschatology of the Dead Sea Scrolls)

J.A.T. Robinson (1976)
“I believe that John represents in date, as theology, not only the omega but also the alpha of New Testament development. He bestrides the period like a colossus and marks out its span, the span that lies between two dramatic moments in Jerusalem which boldly we may date with unusual precision. The first was when, on 9 April 30, ‘early on the Sunday morning, while it was still dark,’ one man ‘saw and believed’ (Jno. 20:1-9). And the second was when, on 26 September 70, ‘the dawn of the eight day of the month Gorpiaeus broke upon Jerusalem in flames.’ Over those forty years, I believe, all the books of the New Testament came to completion, and during most of that period, if we are right, the Johannine literature was in the process of maturation.” (p. 311)

Albert Barnes (1949)
“This generation, &c. – This age; this race of men. A generation is about thirty of forty years. The destruction of Jerusalem took place about forty years after this was spoken. See Notes on Mat. 16:28.” (Notes, Matthew 24:34)

John Bunyan
“A heathenish and prodigious act; for therein he showed, not only his malice against the Jewish nation, but also against their worship, and consequently their God. An action, I say, not only heathenish, but prodigious also; for the Lord Jesus, paraphrasing upon this fact of his, teacheth the Jews, that without repentance ‘they should all likewise perish.’ ‘Likewise,’ that is by the hand and rage of the Roman empire. Neither should they be more able to avoid the stroke, than were those eighteen upon whom the tower of Siloam fell, and slew them (Luke 13:1-5). The fulfilling of which prophecy, for their hardness of heart, and impenitency, was in the days of Titus, son of Vespasian, about forty years after the death of Christ. ” (The Doom and Downfall of Fruitless Professors)

John Gill (1809)
(On Psalm 95) Ver. 10. Forty years long was I grieved with this generation, &c.] The generation of the wilderness, as the Jews commonly call them; and which was a stubborn and a rebellious one, whose heart and spirit were not right with God, #Ps 78:8, wherefore, speaking after the manner of men, God was grieved with them, as he was with the old world, #Ge 6:6, or he was “weary” of them, and “loathed” them as the word {l} sometimes signifies; wherefore, after the affair of the spies, to which Aben Ezra thinks this had reference, they did not hear from the mouth of the Lord, there was no prophecy sent them by the hand of Moses, as the same writer observes; nor any history or account of them, from that time till they came to the border of Canaan; so greatly was their conduct and behaviour resented: and it was much such a term of time that was between the beginning of the ministry of John the Baptist and of Christ, and the destruction of Jerusalem; during which time the Jews tempted Christ, tried his patience, saw his works, and grieved his Spirit, which brought at last ruin upon them:”

(On Hebrews 3) and saw my works forty years; that is, God’s works of providence, in furnishing them with the necessaries of life, in guiding, protecting, and supporting them for the space of forty years, in the wilderness; and his miracles, and the punishment of their enemies; yet they saw and perceived not, but all this time sinned against the Lord, see #De 29:2-8 the space of time, forty years, is in the psalm placed to the beginning of the next verse, and is joined with God’s grief and indignation at the people, as it is also by the apostle, in #Heb 3:17 but the people’s sin, and God’s grief at it, being of equal duration, it matters not to which it is placed, and therefore to both; perhaps, one reason of its being repeated, and so much notice taken of it is, because there was just this number of years from Christ’s sufferings, to the destruction of Jerusalem; which the apostle might have in view.”

Philip Mauro (1923)
“Yet the predicted judgment did not immediately follow; for Christ prayed for His murderers in His dying hour, “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do” (Lu. 23:34). In answer to that prayer the full probationary period of forty years (A.D. 30 to A.D. 70) was added to their national existence, during which time repentance and remission of sins was preached to them in the Name of the crucified and risen One, and tens of thousands of Jews were saved. ” (Seventy Weeks, ch. 5)

Dr. Stafford North (1998)
“Just as Daniel predicted, in 70 A.D., forty years after the anointed one was cut off, the Roman armies marched on Jerusalem. After a siege of 134 days, designed to weaken resistance, the Roman army broke through the walls, destroyed the city and burned the temple. Then, they put their ensigns over the eastern gate of the temple and offered sacrifices to them. (Josephus: War VI, vi. 1 [316]).

There could not have been a more precise fulfillment of the prophecies of both Daniel and Christ. The city was destroyed and desecrated. Even the stones of the temple were cast down and not one remained upon another.” (Armageddon Again? A Reply to Hal Lindsey, Oklahoma City, OK: Author, 1991, p. 47-48)

C.H. Spurgeon (1868)
“The Kingly Prophet foretold the time of the end: “Verily I say unto you, All these things shall come upon this generation.” It was before that generation had passed away that Jerusalem was besieged and destroyed. There was a sufficient interval for the full proclamation of the gospel by the apostles and evangelists of the early Christian Church, and for the gathering out of those who recognized the crucified Christ as their true Messiah. Then came the awful end, which the Savior foresaw and foretold, and the prospect of which wrung from his lips and heart the sorrowful lament that followed his prophecy of the doom awaiting his guilty capital.” (in loc.)

“The King left his followers in no doubt as to when these things should happen: “Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass till all these things be fulfilled.” It was just about the ordinary limit of a generation when the Roman armies compassed Jerusalem, whose measure of iniquity was then full, and overflowed in misery, agony, distress, and bloodshed such as the world never saw before or since. Jesus was a true Prophet; everything that he foretold was literally fulfilled.” (Matthew, The Gospel of the Kingdom, in loc.)

Rudolph Stier (1851)
(On Matthew 24:34) “(this refers) to the generation living in that then extant and most important age.” (Reden Jesu, in loc.)

(On Matthew 12:43-45) “In the period between the ascension of Christ and the destruction of Jerusalem, especially towards the end of it, this nation shows itself, one might say, as if possessed by seven thousand devils.’ (Reden Jesu; Matt. xii, 43-45)

John Wesley (1754)
“This generation of men now living shall not pass till all these things be done – The expression implies that great part of that generation would be passed away, but not the whole. Just so it was; for the city and temple were destroyed thirty-nine or forty years after.” (Explanatory Notes Upon the New Testament)

B.F. Westcott (1889)
“Jewish teachers distinguished a ‘present age’ (this age) from ‘that age’ (the age to come). Between ‘the present age’ of imperfection and conflict and trial and ‘the age to come’ of the perfect reign of God they placed ‘the days of the Messiah,’ which they sometimes reckoned in the former, sometimes in the latter, and sometimes distinct from both. They were, however, commonly agreed that the passage from one age to the other would be through a period of intense sorrow and anguish, ‘the travail-pains’ of the new birth (Mt. 24:8). The apostolic writers, fully conscious of the spiritual crisis through which they were passing speak of their own time as the ‘last days’ (Acts 2:17; James 5:3; comp. 2 Tim. 3:1); the ‘last hour’ (1 Jno. 2:18); the ‘end of the times’ (1 Peter 1:20; 2 Pet. 3:3); ‘the last time’ (Jude 18).”

Other Related Passages of Scripture

Forty Years

Ge 25:20 And Isaac was forty years old when he took Rebekah to wife, the daughter of Bethuel the Syrian of Padanaram, the sister to Laban the Syrian.

Ge 26:34 ¶ And Esau was forty years old when he took to wife Judith the daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and Bashemath the daughter of Elon the Hittite:

Jos 5:6 For the children of Israel walked forty years in the wilderness, till all the people that were men of war, which came out of Egypt, were consumed, because they obeyed not the voice of the LORD: unto whom the LORD sware that he would not shew them the land, which the LORD sware unto their fathers that he would give us, a land that floweth with milk and honey.

Jos 14:7 Forty years old was I when Moses the servant of the LORD sent me from Kadeshbarnea to espy out the land; and I brought him word again as it was in mine heart.

Jud 3:11 And the land had rest forty years. And Othniel the son of Kenaz died.

Jud 8:28 Thus was Midian subdued before the children of Israel, so that they lifted up their heads no more. And the country was in quietness forty years in the days of Gideon.

Jud 13:1 ¶ And the children of Israel did evil again in the sight of the LORD; and the LORD delivered them into the hand of the Philistines forty years.

1Sa 4:18 And it came to pass, when he made mention of the ark of God, that he fell from off the seat backward by the side of the gate, and his neck brake, and he died: for he was an old man, and heavy. And he had judged Israel forty years.

2 Sam 15:7 And it came to pass after forty years, that Absalom said unto the king, I pray thee, let me go and pay my vow, which I have vowed unto the LORD, in Hebron.

Ezekiel 29:11 No foot of man shall pass through it, nor foot of beast shall pass through it, neither shall it be inhabited forty years.

Ezekiel 29:12 And I will make the land of Egypt desolate in the midst of the countries that are desolate, and her cities among the cities that are laid waste shall be desolate forty years: and I will scatter the Egyptians among the nations, and will disperse them through the countries. (cf. Rev. 11:8)

Ezekiel 29:13 Yet thus saith the Lord GOD; At the end of forty years will I gather the Egyptians from the people whither they were scattered:

Acts 4:22 For the man was above forty years old, on whom this miracle of healing was shewed.

Acts 7:42 Then God turned, and gave them up to worship the host of heaven; as it is written in the book of the prophets, O ye house of Israel, have ye offered to me slain beasts and sacrifices by the space of forty years in the wilderness?

Acts 13:18 And about the time of forty years suffered he their manners in the wilderness.

Acts 13:21 And afterward they desired a king: and God gave unto them Saul the son of Cis, a man of the tribe of Benjamin, by the space of forty years.

1 Kings 2:11 And the days that David reigned over Israel were forty years: seven years reigned he in Hebron, and thirty and three years reigned he in Jerusalem.

2 Chron 9:30 And Solomon reigned in Jerusalem over all Israel forty years.

2 Chron. 24:1 Joash was seven years old when he began to reign, and he reigned forty years in Jerusalem.

Acts 7:23 And when he (Moses) was full forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his brethren the children of Israel.

Acts 7:30 And when forty years were expired, there appeared to him in the wilderness of mount Sina an angel of the Lord in a flame of fire in a bush.

Hebrews 3:17 But with whom was he grieved forty years? was it not with them that had sinned, whose carcases fell in the wilderness?

Forty Days

Using The Following Principles for the Forty Days:

Nu 14:34 After the number of the days in which ye searched the land, even forty days, each day for a year, shall ye bear your iniquities, even forty years, and ye shall know my breach of promise.

Ezekiel 4:6 And when thou hast accomplished them, lie again on thy right side, and thou shalt bear the iniquity of the house of Judah forty days: I have appointed thee each day for a year.

Ge 7:17 ¶ And the flood was forty days upon the earth; and the waters increased, and bare up the ark, and it was lift up above the earth.

Ex 24:18 And Moses went into the midst of the cloud, and gat him up into the mount: and Moses was in the mount forty days and forty nights. (After which he “came down”)

Numbers 13:25 And they returned from searching of the land after forty days.

Jonah 3:4 And Jonah began to enter into the city a day’s journey, and he cried, and said, Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown.

Luke 4:2 Being forty days tempted of the devil. And in those days he did eat nothing: and when they were ended, he afterward hungered.

Acts 1:3 To whom also he shewed himself alive after his passion by many infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God:

PERIODS AND NUMBERS
(1) Forty Days

— Flood lasted # Ge 7:17
— Noah sends forth a raven at end of # Ge 8:6
— The embalming of Jacob occupied # Ge 50:3
— Moses on the mount fasting # Ex 24:18 34:28
— Spies in the land of Canaan # Nu 13:25
— Moses in prayer for Israel # De 9:25
— Goliath’s defiance lasted # 1Sa 17:16
— Elijah’s meal lasted # 1Ki 19:8
— Ezekiel’s typical period # Eze 4:6
— Jonah’s warning concerning the destruction of Nineveh # Jon 3:4
— Christ’s Temptation # Lu 4:2
— Christ’s appearance after the resurrection # Ac 1:3

The rains (in Noah’s day) fell for 40 days and nights (Genesis 7:4).
Israel ate Manna for 40 years (Exodus 16:35).
Moses was with God in the mount, 40 days and nights (Exodus 24:18).
Moses was again with God 40 days and 40 nights (Exodus 34:28).
Moses led Israel from Egypt at age 80 (2 times 40), and after 40 years in the wilderness, died at 120 (3 times 40; Deuteronomy 34:7).
The spies searched the land of Canaan for 40 days (Numbers 13:25).
Therefore, God made Israel wander for 40 years (Numbers 14:33-34).
40 stripes was the maximum whipping penalty (Deuteronomy 25:3).
God allowed the land to rest for 40 years (Judges 3:11).
God again allowed the land to rest for 40 years (Judges 5:31).
God again allowed the land to rest for 40 years (Judges 8:28).
Abdon (a judge in Israel) had 40 sons (Judges 12:14).
Israel did evil; God gave them to an enemy for 40 years (Judges 13:1).
Eli judged Israel for 40 years (1 Samuel 4:18).
Goliath presented himself to Israel for 40 days (1 Samuel 17:16).
Saul reigned for 40 years (Acts 13:21).
Ishbosheth (Saul’s son) was 40 when he began reign (2 Samuel 2:10).
David reigned over Israel for 40 years (2 Samuel 5:4, 1 Kings 2:11).
The holy place of the temple was 40 cubits long (1 Kings 6:17).
40 baths (measurement) was size of lavers in Temple (1 Kings 7:38).
The sockets of silver are in groups of 40 (Exodus 26:19 & 21).
Solomon reigned same length as his father; 40 years (1 Kings 11:42).
Elijah had one meal that gave him strength 40 days (1 Kings 19:8).
Ezekiel bore the iniquity of the house of Judah for 40 days (Ezekiel 4:6).
Jehoash (Joash) reigned 40 years in Jerusalem (2 Kings 12:1).
Egypt to be laid desolate for 40 years (Ezekiel 29:11-12).
Ezekiel’s (symbolic) temple is 40 cubits long (Ezekiel 41:2).
The courts in Ezekiel’s temple were 40 cubits long (Ezra 46:22).
God gave Nineveh 40 days to repent (Jonah 3:4).
Jesus fasted 40 days and nights (Matthew 4:2).
Jesus was tempted 40 days (Luke 4:2, Mark 1:13).
Jesus remained on earth 40 days after resurrection (Acts 1:3).
Women are pregnant for 40 weeks (time of testing).

After Adam and Eve Sinned	Moses gives Israel God’s Law	Jesus’ ministry begins at age 30	Jesus’ death on the cross	God sends destruction on Jerusalem in 70AD
Old Testament Era
		Transition Period
			New Testament Era

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Date: 02 Apr 2010
Time: 15:34:51

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DR. ME/WE/YOU/US and THEM.

Why! 40 days or 8.9 month to the gestation rate or average bith cycle of a human/god.

Why track 40th days?

It is most remarkable that each passing solar year can very effectively (even perfectly!) be measured and metered out by keeping track of every 40th day. Essentially, the annual transit which completes every 365.24219 days can just about EXACTLY be cross-referenced to a tally of those days that make up a 40-day cycle!

This respective axiom is easy to prove in the regard that 1 day in a cycle of 40 days (the 40th day) inherently comprises 2.5 percent of the time stream. This rate is also inherently equal to 9.131055 days per year (on average).

2.5 percent of all days = 9.131055 days per year

For the purposes of presenting a clear analysis, the rate of a unique day in each and every cycle of 40 days (the 40th day) will be typed or classed to be a rate of those days that are accounted for apart from other days comprising the annual cycle.

Through this interpretation, those days classed or typed as “40th days” should routinely be counted outside or set apart from the other days–which are generally classed or typed as “annual days”.

The rate of the solar year can quite perfectly be correlated to a fixed count of the other day units (a number of “annual days”) using a calendar count of 9 years–as is diagrammed below.

This ultimately means that–through the time track of an unbroken cycle of 40 days–a fixed count of annual days or calendar days (356 days) can always be counted out in correspondence with each passing year cycle.

The following diagram attempts to show that a fixed number of solar-day units can effectively be correlated to the rate of each passing solar year. This correlation or cross-reference only requires that each passing 40th day (9.131055 days per year on average) always be counted apart from all of the other days (or those days counted as annual days or calendar days).

A PERFECT 9-YEAR CALENDAR *
_____________________________________

Renewal = 1 day
Year 1 = 356 days
Year 2 = 356 days
Year 3 = 356 days
Year 4 = 356 days
Year 5 = 356 days
Year 6 = 356 days
Year 7 = 356 days
Year 8 = 356 days
Year 9 = 356 days

* – Each 40th day (a perpetual rate)
must be leaped or intercalated
apart from days comprising the
the cited calendar count.

Biblical and miscellaneous sources somewhat graphically describe that a cycle of 40 days was time tracked among the ancients.

The early time track of 40 days can be recited from the book of Exodus where it is shown that Moses was in the mount for 40 days and 40 nights (refer to Chapter 24: 10-18). The calendar term “40 days and 40 nights” is again recorded in the book of Deuteronomy, where Moses wrote:

“And I stayed in the mount … to the rishown yowm [or to the 1st day , or the beginning day], 40 days and 40 nights… ” (refer to Chapter 10:10).
This respective passage shows “the 1st day” as immediately following 40 days and 40 nights. This usage of “rishown yowm” (or 1st day, or beginning day) tends to indicate the early use of a cyclical or a chronological count of 40 days.

It here seems pertinent to note that the ancients would probably have understood the “epoch day” or the “beginning day” of a cycle of 40 days to be special or unique–as is further shown below.
The track of 40 days and 40 nights–as probably a cyclical count–can also be recited from the book of Genesis–refer to Chapters 7 and 8. In this respective book, a span of 40 days is shown in the 2nd month of the year, and again a span of 40 days is listed in association with the 10th month of the year. These two spans of 40 days obviously pertain to two different time cycles. Of further significance is that the two respective cycles are listed in an order or in a sequence that could be chronological.

The Jewish philosopher: Philo Judaeus (c. 25 BC – 45 AD) made a reference to the cyclical 40-day count of Genesis–as follows:

“… the overflow of the deluge took place for forty days… [thereafter] a hope of RENEWAL took place at intervals of forty days… ” (Questions and Answers on Genesis, Part 2:33).
Other passages in the book of Genesis do further point to the possibility that the ancients did once time track 40 days in an unbroken cycle. Of considerable significance is that the author of Genesis has the flood of Noah occurring 1656 years from the epoch of creation. This number of years (1656) happens to exactly be divisible by 9 years. Furthermore, the number of days in 1656 years happens to be divisible by 40 days (plus 1 day).

Based upon the several usages of a cycle of 40 days–as they appear in the book of Genesis–it can ultimately be concluded that the author of Genesis was probably knowledgeable of the cited system of tracking time across a 9-year calendar.

A time span of 40 days can further be recited from the book of Genesis. This instance is in reference to a formal process for embalming the Egyptian dead (refer to Genesis 50:3).
Other Biblical books also contain instances of the ancient reckoning of a time cycle that was “40 days” in length. Some passages of text show “40 days and 40 nights”, or more than “40 days”. The additional wording (40 nights) was possibly added to distinguish that a respective instance was in reference to time tracking the rate of the solar year. Essentially, a cyclical (unbroken) count of 40 days and 40 nights would have been required so as to effectively measure and meter out each passing solar year–as previously described.

The following other instances of the usage of a time cycle of “40 days”, or “40 days and 40 nights”, can be recited from various passages of the Bible–as follows:

According to certain precepts recorded in Chapter 12 of the book of Leviticus, a woman who had given birth to a male child was to endure a period of 40 days in her purfication. However, a woman who had given birth to a female child was to endure a period of 80 days in her purification.
In the book of Numbers, the Israelites are shown to have first searched the promised land (Canaan) for a duration of 40 days (refer to 13 and 14).
According to the book of 1 Kings, the prophet Elijah fasted for 40 days and 40 nights during his journey to the mountain of God (refer to 19:8).
A superstitious regard for this respective time cycle (40 days) appears to have also been held among others of the prophets. For example, the prophet Jonah warned: “Yet 40 days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown” (refer to Jonah 3:4).
Primal Christians can also be recited to have held special regard for a time span of 40 days. According to the synoptic Gospels, Jesus fasted and was “there in the wilderness forty days, tempted of Satan… ” (refer to Mark 1:13).
Christians subsequent to the time of the 1st century appear to have likewise held a superstitious regard for this particular span of time. For example, a Lenten period of 40 days is mentioned in Christian literature of the 4th century. A very early method for computing Easter each year appears to have been predicated–at least in part–upon a cyclical count of the 40th day (Greek: tessarakoste). This practice of counting a 40-day cycle can perhaps most clearly be recognized among Celtic Christians–where Passover/Easter appears to have been celebrated in association with an 84-year cycle. (Note that the number of days in 84 years is exactly divisible by 40 days). The annual custom of observing Lent continues to be practiced among a large segment of modern Christians.

The peculiar ancient reckoning of 9th parts of the year (40 days) can also be interpreted from various early artifacts and monuments. For example, the ruins of a second-century synagogue near Tiberias indicate an ancient regard for the seasons of the year. At this respective site, a floor moziac depicting a zodiac wheel and nine columns arranged in three rows of three was recently discovered. Also, in the region of Stonehenge in England, recent digs have detected the ancient placement of nine circles of wooden poles. The Nebra Sky Disk–discovered in Germany–has rather conclusively been dated to the time of the Bronze Age. This artifact, in particular, indicates that the ancients would have been familar with calendar count of 40 days:

The indicated Hebrew regard for tracking time in cycles of 40 days may have grown as a result of coming into contact with Egyptian astronomers. Egyptians are on record as having reckoned each third part of the year. (This determination of third parts could conveniently and accurately have been made by tracking a cycle of 40 days–as previously has been shown).

It here seems pertinent to note that the ruling aristocracy of certain ancient cultures (including Egyptian) claimed ancestry from 9 specific gods (the ennead). This reverence for the ennead (nine) points to the ultimate possibility that some among the ancients did reckon each 9th part of the year (or each term of 40 days) in reference to the dominion of a specific god (9 per year).
Various flood stories from around the world can also be recited in evidence that the ancients did once track time in 9th parts. Though most of these flood stories seem preposterous, and though many of these tales tend to exceed an interpretation can be considered to be real or literal, it remains to be somewhat significant that a time track of “nine” or “nines” is rather frequently referenced. The following instances of time cycles pertaining to the number “nine” or “nines” are subsequently listed from various of the several stories that pertain to a cataclysmic flood:

Ancient Greek literature relates that “Zeus sent a flood to destroy the men of the Bronze Age. Prometheus advised his son Deucalion to build a chest… after floating in the chest for nine days and nights, landed on Parnassus. When the rains ceased, he sacrificed to Zeus, the God of Escape.” [Apollodorus, 1.7.2]
Plato wrote that a number of “great deluges have taken place during the nine thousand years” since Athens and Atlantis were preeminent”. [“Timaeus” 22, “Critias” 111-112.]
According to Lithuanian legend water and wind once destroyed the Earth in 20 days and 20 nights. Those who survived the flood did jump 9 times and 9 other couples rose up. From the 9 couples that rose, the Lithuanian tribes originated. [Gaster, Myth, Legend, and Custom in the Old Testament, 1969.]
According to Burmese legend, a flood came and a brother and sister took refuge in a boat. In this boat were 9 birds and 9 staves. In correspondence with each day of the flood, a bird and a stave were let loose from the boat. On the 9th day, the 9th bird was heard to sing and the 9th stave did strike the bottom. After the flood was over, the sister gave birth. Unfortunately, a witch cut the baby into pieces where 9 roads met. Along these 9 roads, the nations of the Earth sprang from the slain child’s parts. [ibid.]
In a Transylvanian legend, a certain man promised he would return in 9 days. On the 9th day, the man returned and announced the coming of a cataclysmic flood. This great flood lasted for the duration of a whole year. [Frazer, Folk-Lore in the Old Testament, 1919.]
Indians of the Sacramento Region relate that the chief of all the nations did once overlook great flood waters for the duration of 9 sleeps. He ultimately grew invincable after the 9 sleeps were past. [ibid.]
Certain Chinese writings relate that 2 children lived inside a gourd for 99 days. A flood eventually lifted the gourd to the top of a mountain. After the flood was past, the sky then held 9 Suns and 7 Moons. Using a dragon’s bow, the children shot down all but a single Sun and Moon. The 2 children then became married and–from their 12 offspring–the various races on Earth originated. [Miller, South of the Clouds: Tales from Yunnan, 1994.]
Of related significance is that numerous (other) stories about the event of a cataclysmic flood have been passed down among many societies (from all around the world).

Summary
It is remarkable that the time track of a cycle of 40 days can be used to very effectively (almost perfectly) measure and meter out the rate of each passing solar year.

Currently, the track of a cycle of 40 days can be used to determine the epoch of the annual transit to within the average limits of only 2.2 seconds per year.

The cited measure of the annual transit only requires keeping a tally of one day in each cycle of 40 days. The result of subtracting 40th days from out of the time stream is a fixed calendar count of 3205 days in correspondence with every cycle of 9 years.

_____________________________________

A PERFECT 9-YEAR CALENDAR *
_____________________________________

Renewal = 1 day
Year 1 = 356 days
Year 2 = 356 days
Year 3 = 356 days
Year 4 = 356 days
Year 5 = 356 days
Year 6 = 356 days
Year 7 = 356 days
Year 8 = 356 days
Year 9 = 356 days

* – Each 40th day (a perpetual rate)
must be leaped or intercalated
apart from days comprising the
the cited calendar count.

____________________________________

Calendar count = 3205.00000 days
40th (uncounted rate) = 82.17949 days
Average 9-year rate = 3287.17949 days

Annual calendar rate = 365.24217 days
Actual solar-year rate = 365.24219 days
Average difference = 2 seconds (!!!)

A fixed count of 3205 days in association with the passage of 9 solar circles requires that the intercalation each 40th day be continued in perpetuity. (The cited count of 40 days must never be preempted or be broken). Essentially, the respective cycle of 40 days must here be interpreted to be primary and independent from the confines of the annual circle.

Of additional significance concerning the track of 40 days is that some early cultures appear to have attributed religious significance to this respective time span. To the princes of Egypt, adherence to this respective cycle was probably believed to mirror a lifestyle that was lived by the gods. Among ancient Hebrews and early Christians, a cycle of 40 days was probably not held in the same religious regard. Even so, the passage of this respective time cycle was given a certain amount of very serious consideration. Primal or original Christians did probably routinely fast on the 40th days. By the 4th century, a 40-day fast was widely practiced. This custom of fasting for 40 days (Lent) continues to be practiced by a segment of modern Christians.

According to Biblical and related sources, YHVH commanded the Israelites to track and celebrate a jubilee calendar as a condition of living in the promised land. Even though early adherence to a jubilee calendar appears to be indicated, the Israelites were seemingly also aware of the cited calendar system of counting 40 days. The Genesis record–in dating the epoch of the flood–is just short of being explicit in showing that a calendar predicated upon a track of 40 days did originate with the epoch of creation.

Returning to more of the astronomical significance of time tracking a 40-day cycle, each passing solar year can effectively (almost perfectly) be measured and metered out by simply counting solar days–as cited. In this modern era, the epoch of each passing solar year can inherently be determined to within the limits of 2.2 second (on average). Because Earth’s spin appears to be slowing down by a tiny amount with each passing century, it can be recognized that the track of a 40-day cycle could have been used to exactly (perfectly!) measure and meter the solar-year rate in some era of the past. The era when the solar year could have been perfectly measured and metered out using a track of 40 days was probably within very recent centuries.

All of the codes in the God/Good book have been passed down to us sinners to allow us to make our way back home and along the way we will stummble fall down get back up sin some more get back in the ring for another round get knocked back down get back up and one day we make it back to us! As all of you are me and we have the GOD DNA and free will. We need to work together to get back to us! Each of me/you/us/them were formed from the Creator and have each evolved to be different colors, shapes and sizes based on our where we live on this planet! Once this puzzle is complete what a fantastic picture we will form.

When each of us started this Human race we were bare ass! Quite stealth with limmited resistance able to fly and win the race!

Along the way we have amassed all of HIS physical stuff! It boggs us down so we are struggling to keep up and we sometimes think we will not win the race! We say I have worked hard for the MY THINGS. I earned them all! And if I/ME/US/THEM or YOU come to take them you will be one sorry human! Then we get to 40 years!, the age the wize men felt we needed to be to bask in the glory or words of the ZOHAR and we relize that when we check out of this body on our way back to us and look down at that life less body! We then understand that we don’t
own shit not even the bare ass we came into this world with! All we are taking with us are the vibrations both positive and negative and the spark of light we gave to ourself as a gift our GOD DNA!

Guys you all seem to have the knowledge and are conscience that we gave ourselves! Don’t waste it trying to figure it all out! You already know it all! Get in the human race and help yourself! Ensure that tomorrow you love your selves as you do your fellow man! Lets make sure none of us wakes up tomorrow hungry and unable to get a drink of water or have a hot shower! I love all of YOU/US/ME/THEM! Have a great solar holiday! 4/2/10! Hope I be myself at this Human race!