Sufficiency

THE USE OF "THREE" IN THE BIBLE

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Dr. Paul Manuel—2010

Numerology sees particular meaning in the Bible's use of certain numbers. Seven, for example, is supposedly the number of God and, consequently, of perfection, marking His perfect work.

Gen 2:2 By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. 3a And God blessed the seventh day and made it holy....

Rev 21:9 One of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues came....

Indeed, the number seven does appear with reference to God but not exclusively so. Moreover, such a connection is nowhere stated. Silence, however, has not deterred some interpreters from making the link. To be sure, seven does occur with frequency and, in some settings, it seems to have significance, but what that import is, being unstated, remains uncertain.

One number that has significance, although in a cultural sense not a spiritual sense, is three.

Three often seems to indicate a sufficient amount of something.¹

Exod 23:14 "Three times a year you are to celebrate a festival to me.... 17 "Three times a year all the men are to appear before the Sovereign LORD.
Exod 34:23 Three times a year all your men are to appear before the Sovereign LORD, the God of Israel. 24 I will drive out nations before you and enlarge your territory, and no one will covet your land when you go up three times each year to appear before the LORD your God.
Num 22:32 The angel of the LORD asked him, "Why have you beaten your donkey these three times? I have come here to oppose you because your path is a reckless one before me. 33 The donkey saw me and turned away from me these three times. If she had not turned away, I would certainly have killed you by now, but I would have spared her."
Deut 16:16 Three times a year all your men must appear before the LORD your God at the place he will choose: at the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the Feast of Weeks and the Feast of Tabernacles. No man should appear before the LORD empty-handed:
1 Sam 3:8 The LORD called Samuel a third time, and Samuel got up and went to Eli and said, "Here I am; you called me." ¶ Then Eli realized that the LORD was calling the boy.
I Sam 20:20 I will shoot three arrows to the side of it, as though I were shooting at a target.
1 Sam 20:41 After the boy had gone, David got up from the south side of the stone and bowed down before Jonathan three times, with his face to the ground. Then they kissed each other and wept together— but David wept the most.
2 Sam 24:12 "Go and tell David, 'This is what the LORD says: I am giving you three options. Choose one of them for me to carry out against you."
1 Kgs 9:25 Three times a year Solomon sacrificed burnt offerings and fellowship offerings on the altar he had built for the LORD, burning incense before the LORD along with them, and so fulfilled the temple obligations.
1 Kgs 18:34 "Do it again," he said, and they did it again. "Do it a third time," he ordered, and they did it the third time.
2 Kgs 13:18 Then he said, "Take the arrows," and the king took them. Elisha told him, "Strike the ground." He struck it three times and stopped. 19 The man of God was angry with him and said, "You should have struck the ground five or six times; then you would have defeated Aram and completely destroyed it. But now you will defeat it only three times." ...25 Then Jehoash son of Jehoahaz recaptured from Ben-Hadad son of Hazael the towns he had taken in battle from his father Jehoahaz. Three times Jehoash defeated him, and so he recovered the Israelite towns.
Eccl 4:12 Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.
Ezek 14:14 even if these three men—Noah, Daniel and Job—were in it, they could save only themselves by their righteousness, declares the Sovereign LORD.
Matt 1:17 Thus there were fourteen generations in all from Abraham to David, fourteen from David to the exile to Babylon, and fourteen from the exile to the Christ.
Matt 2:11b Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold and of incense and of myrrh.
Matt 12:40 For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.
Matt 15:32a Jesus called his disciples to him and said, "I have compassion for these people; they have already been with me three days and have nothing to eat.
Matt 21:34 When the harvest time approached, he sent his servants to the tenants to collect his fruit. 35 "The tenants seized his servants; they beat one, killed another, and stoned a third. 36 Then he sent other servants to them, more than the first time, and the tenants treated them the same way. 37 Last of all, he sent his son to them. 'They will respect my son,' he said.
Matt 22:3 He sent his servants to those who had been invited to the banquet to tell them to come, but they refused to come. 4 "Then he sent some more servants and said, 'Tell those who have been invited that I have prepared my dinner: My oxen and fattened cattle have been butchered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding banquet.' 5 "But they paid no attention and went off—one to his field, another to his business. 6 The rest seized his servants, mistreated them and killed them. 7 The king was enraged. He sent his army and destroyed those murderers and burned their city.
Matt 26:34 "I tell you the truth," Jesus answered, "this very night, before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times." ...44 So he left them and went away once more and prayed the third time, saying the same thing.... 75 Then Peter remembered the word Jesus had spoken: "Before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times." And he went outside and wept bitterly.
Luke 10:36 "Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?"
John 21:14 This was now the third time Jesus appeared to his disciples after he was raised from the dead.
John 21:17 The third time he said to him, "Simon son of John, do you love me?" Peter was hurt because Jesus asked him the third time, "Do you love me?" He said, "Lord, you know all things; you know that I love you." Jesus said, "Feed my sheep.
Acts 10:16 This happened three times, and immediately the sheet was taken back to heaven.
Acts 11:10 This happened three times, and then it was all pulled up to heaven again.
1 Cor 13:13 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
2 Cor 11:25 Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, I spent a night and a day in the open sea,

Three as sufficiency is most evident in the formula "two or three."

Job 33:29 "God does all these things to a man—twice, even three times—
Ezek 21:14 "So then, son of man, prophesy and strike your hands together. Let the sword strike twice, even three times. It is a sword for slaughter—a sword for great slaughter, closing in on them from every side.
Matt 18:20 For where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them."
1 Cor 14:27 If anyone speaks in a tongue, two—or at the most three—should speak, one at a time, and someone must interpret.... 29 Two or three prophets should speak, and the others should weigh carefully what is said.

Three is often applicable to petition.

Num 24:10 Then Balak's anger burned against Balaam. He struck his hands together and said to him, "I summoned you to curse my enemies, but you have blessed them these three times.
1 Kgs 17:21 Then he stretched himself out on the boy three times and cried to the LORD, "O LORD my God, let this boy's life return to him!"
2 Kgs 1:9 Then [King Ahaziah] sent to Elijah a captain with his company of fifty men. The captain went up to Elijah, who was sitting on the top of a hill, and said to him, "Man of God, the king says, 'Come down!"' 10 Elijah answered the captain, "If I am a man of God, may fire come down from heaven and consume you and your fifty men!" Then fire fell from heaven and consumed the captain and his men. 11 At this the king sent to Elijah another captain with his fifty men. The captain said to him, "Man of God, this is what the king says, 'Come down at once!" 12 "If I am a man of God," Elijah replied, "may fire come down from heaven and consume you and your fifty men!" Then the fire of God fell from heaven and consumed him and his fifty men. 13 So the king sent a third captain with his fifty men. This third captain went up and fell on his knees before Elijah. "Man of God," he begged, "please have respect for my life and the lives of these fifty men, your servants! 14 See, fire has fallen from heaven and consumed the first two captains and all their men. But now have respect for my life!" 15 The angel of the LORD said to Elijah, "Go down with him; do not be afraid of him." So Elijah got up and went down with him to the king.
Ps 55:17 Evening, morning and noon I cry out in distress, and he hears my voice.
Dan 6:10 Now when Daniel learned that the decree had been published, he went home to his upstairs room where the windows opened toward Jerusalem. Three times a day he got down on his knees and prayed, giving thanks to his God, just as he had done before.... 13 Then they said to the king, "Daniel, who is one of the exiles from Judah, pays no attention to you, O king, or to the decree you put in writing. He still prays three times a day."
Matt 26:39 Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, "My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will." ...42 He went away a second time and prayed, "My Father, if it is not possible for this cup to be taken away unless I drink it, may your will be done." ...44 So he left them and went away once more and prayed the third time, saying the same thing.
2 Cor 12:8 Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me.
Did 8:3 Three times in the day pray ye so [i.e., the Lord's Prayer].
b Yoma 87a R Jose b Hanina [mid-3d c.] said: One who asks pardon of his neighbor need do so no more than three times.

Three is especially important in legal matters.

Deut 19:15 One witness is not enough to convict a man accused of any crime or offense he may have committed. A matter must be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.
2 Cor 13:1 This will be my third visit to you. "Every matter must be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses." [Deut 19:15]
1 Tim 5:19 Do not entertain an accusation against an elder unless it is brought by two or three witnesses.
Heb 10:28 Anyone who rejected the law of Moses died without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses.
1 John 5:7 For there are three that testify: 8 the Spirit, the water and the blood; and the three are in agreement.

The formula "3+1" seems to indicate more than enough or an excessive amount.

Prov 30:15 "The leech has two daughters. 'Give! Give!' they cry. "There are three things that are never satisfied, four that never say, 'Enough!': ...18 "There are three things that are too amazing for me, four that I do not understand: . . .21 "Under three things the earth trembles, under four it cannot bear up: ...29 "There are three things that are stately in their stride, four that move with stately bearing:
Amos 1:3 This is what the LORD says: "For three sins of Damascus, even for four, I will not turn back my wrath. Because she threshed Gilead with sledges having iron teeth.... 6 This is what the LORD says: "For three sins of Gaza, even for four, I will not turn back my wrath. Because she took captive whole communities and sold them to Edom.... 9 This is what the LORD says: "For three sins of Tyre, even for four, I will not turn back my wrath. Because she sold whole communities of captives to Edom, disregarding a treaty of brotherhood.... 11 This is what the LORD says: "For three sins of Edom, even for four, I will not turn back my wrath. Because he pursued his brother with a sword, stifling all compassion, because his anger raged continually and his fury flamed unchecked.... 13 This is what the LORD says: "For three sins of Ammon, even for four, I will not turn back my wrath. Because he ripped open the pregnant women of Gilead in order to extend his borders.... 2:1 This is what the LORD says: 'For three sins of Moab, even for four, I will not turn back my wrath. Because he burned, as if to lime, the bones of Edom's king.... 4 This is what the LORD says: "For three sins of Judah, even for four, I will not turn back my wrath. Because they have rejected the law of the LORD and have not kept his decrees, because they have been led astray by false gods, the gods their ancestors followed.... 6 This is what the LORD says: "For three sins of Israel, even for four, I will not turn back my wrath. They sell the righteous for silver, and the needy for a pair of sandals.
Luke 13:7 So he said to the man who took care of the vineyard, 'For three years now I've been coming to look for fruit on this fig tree and haven't found any. Cut it down! Why should it use up the soil?' 8 "Sir,' the man replied, 'leave it alone for one more year, and I'll dig around it and fertilize it.

While various numbers may seem to indicate more than their bare, enumerative value (so Davis 1968), their appearance multiple times in the biblical text is usually coincidental (e.g., 12 tribes and 12 apostles, Israel's 40 years in the wilderness and Jesus' 40 days in the wilderness) and conveys no particular significance.² That is, the 'meaning' of most such connections is speculative, being derived from too few examples to establish a pattern.³ The number three, however, does seem to have a simple, culturally (linguistically) accepted connotation of sufficiency, being implied in several biblical examples.

For a pdf including Bibliography and Endnotes see here.