The traditional figure of 40 days which Jesus spends in the wilderness according to the Gospels has deep resonance within the Hebrew Bible and Jewish tradition – and beyond. Far from being just another quantity, the number 40 evokes God’s mercy and forgiveness at pivotal moments in scripture. 

by Avigail Simmonds-Rosten, CCJ Programme Manager

Noah’s construction of an ark is a solace for human spirit, while the storm of Divine wrath rages for forty days and forty nights [Genesis 7:12]. The Ark of the Covenant, however, subverts this dynamic, and situates G-d within confinement; or rather allows for G-d to reside among human society [Exodus 25:8]. Moses’ study of the laws of G-d, his receiving of the contents of the Ark of the Covenant through interface with the Divine, takes place at Sini for the duration of forty days and forty nights [Exodus 24:12]. It is within this timeframe that the men of Israel commit the archetypal biblical sin – and create the golden calf. It is their miscount of the forty days and nights which precipitates this offence and their subsequent belief that G-d has abandoned them [Exodus 32:1].

Although the flood took place because G-d regretted his creation in Genesis [Genesis 6:6], at the sin of the golden calf G-d regrets Her planned punishment [32:14] and rescinds it upon Moses’ prayer on behalf of the children of Israel. It is this sin of the golden calf, and all that follows, which demonstrate the need for atonement, and is indeed why the day of atonement is born. 

On the annual day of atonement, the book of Jonah is read in Jewish congregations, a book in which forty days is granted to the inhabitants of Nineveh to change their ways and repent. The king of Nineveh adorns sackcloth and ashes. The city is redeemed from the brink of destruction. G-d does not abandon humankind to a fate of inevitable stray, but sketches into the fabric of existence the space to wander and to return. For forty years the children of Israel wander in the desert, as a consequence of their straying, yet G-d remains with them.

For forty days the spies scout the land and stray once more, rejecting the covenant of G-d and misleading the people of Israel on a day which would become Tisha Baav. Yet G-d does not remove Her presence. 

G-d chooses to establish Herself in the capital, Jerusalem’s temple later on – a temple built by Solomon, who ruled over the people of Israel for forty years.

Elijah, too, walked for forty days and forty nights to mount Horeb, the same location the Israelites reckon with their sin of the golden calf [Exodus 33:6] and there, in a cave, he finds G-d in the still quiet noise [Kings I 19:8]. This is the same mountain described as the mountain of G-d, where G-d reveals Herself to Moses while he shepherds Jethro’s flock [Exodus 3:1], and where G-d revealed Herself in “no shape” [Deuteronomy 4:15] to the entire people of Israel, and where the sacred covenant was forged [Deuteronomy 5:2]. It is to this mountain, and the moment of mass revelation of the Law of Moses, which the prophet Malachi harks back [Malachi 3:22], before he promises the return of the prophet Elijah and the reconciliation of parent and child. 

The mountain which literally translates to mean ‘destruction’ is the birthplace of divine instruction, revelation and reunification. It is the place where we are invited to return to G-d. 

The Sages say in the Ethics of The Fathers, that at forty years a person reaches understanding [Pirkei Avot 5:21].

Nachmanides expresses the view that at forty days in the womb a foetus contains an element of ‘life’ [Chiddushei Ramban on Yoma 82a:1]. 

The month of Elul, a time of return to G-d, begins forty days before the Day of Atonement, upon which the people of Israel are immersed in the divine [Jeremiah 17:13], and revert to their state of closeness. 

This number means much for the Abrahamic faiths and it binds us in our quest to encounter the Divine. 

In the Gospels, the Spirit leads Jesus to the desert, where he fasts for forty days and nights. 

In the Quran, Mohamed fasts for forty days before G-d’s revelation. 

The Hebrew word for regret is the very same as that of mercy and comfort. In the context of Noah’s flood, the sin of the Golden Calf, the penitent Nineveh, this same word is used. 

Forty is a number of transformation, of reversion to G-d, and of renewal. May the holy fasting month of Ramadan, the fast of Lent and the fast of Esther bring us all closer to G-d, to each other, and to the renewal of relationships between human and the Divine.