All
numbers in Scripture are significant, some more so than others.? On one level, the Law of Moses specified
certain ages for specific purposes.? For
example, no one could work in the
tabernacle until age 30, except Kohenim (Levites) who could
start a five-year training period at age 25 (Numbers 4:35; 8:24).? Jesus’ ministry therefore started per the
Mosaic age requirement.
Three is the Hebrew gematria
number of divine and heavenly perfection (e.g., Trinity). Fittingly, Jesus’
ministry during His First Coming was three years long.
Twelve is the?product?of
3 and 4 (the earthly, the number of what is material and organic). It is a mathematically perfect
number that
signifies?governmental perfection. It is found as a multiple in all gematria
numbers that have to do with?“rule”.?
Rabbinic
literature regarded it as the threshold of adulthood. For many boys and girls,
this was the age that their formal religious instruction ended. For some, this
was the age where one began formal apprenticeship under a Rabbi. Interestingly,
this was the age where Jesus demonstrated in the Temple the completeness of His
learning.
Ten is the number of
ordinal perfection.
Twenty is one short of twenty-one; if 21 is 3x7 (the
Divine times spiritual perfection), then?twenty signifies “one short”, or expectancy: the Bible has many examples of people waiting 20
years. Age 20 marked the transition to adulthood in the biblical period. This meant different
things for boys and girls.
Whereas the obligations taken on by a young man at?bar mitzvah?were public and visible, a
young woman’s obligations were more private.?
This was the age that the taxation began for both men and women (Exodus
30:14, and conscription began for men (Numbers 1:3, 24).?
Thirty (three times ten) denotes in a higher degree
the perfection of Divine Order and marks the moment Christ commenced His ministry.
