85 | Forty Days required for the Fetus to acquire Human Form In oldest times this number is found to be in favour . the Bible Concordance enumerates some 130 passages dealing with this number and its combinations . also its occurrence in Moslem religious books is frequent . Both Jews and arabs seem, therefore, to have an unaccountable preference for this same number . and as Palestine was hardly ever more than a mere link between Syria and Egypt, we cannot expect to find here anything original in the use of this much used number . “Forty” stands for a concrete quantity as against the indeterminate “many” or “some . ” It is the first large number which has been arbitrarily selected to note the idea of an inconceivable amount, selected even in preference to a hundred . It commonly occurs multiplied by three, but its double as well as its half are also used . In the Bible the occurrence of “Forty” is so common as to suggest that it is peculiarly a Semitic characteristic . the Koran has tw...
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