Originally posted by Matthew Panchisin:
Dear in Christ DJS,
God be with you DJS and forgive me 70 times 7 comes to mind. If my memory serves me correctly some fathers taught that it adds up to infinity.
Matthew Panchisin
It seems to be the First Temple formula for calculating the Sabbath cycles (the Lunar months of the First Temple calendar). It is a different calendar than the civil calendar used by the Second Temple (which was now Solar to agree with other nations).
The Sabbath cycles of the First Temple are a bit confusing and that calendar is lost to us. I am just researching it now� so I am not sure if it is months (in this particular formula) or 70 years or seventy Sabbath years. It appears to be any and all - a generic formula for calculating any of the Sabbaths within the cycle.
As such - it is the same as saying �the day of the Lord�. The word �day� here does not just mean 24 hours (sundown to sundown) but includes also a year (Sabbath year or Jubilee). So it means in our words - to calculate the �time of the Lord� or the moment (however long it lasts) of God being present. It rather names - an experience - rather than a literal time span.
In the gospels where Peter asks �How many times should I forgive?� the reply �Seventy times seven� means �until the great day of the Lord is upon you�. As Jesus is speaking to Peter when he uses the Temple formula phrase - it is more like saying �until� I come to get you� as way of the particular Judgment at the moment of death.
That - is in the ball park.
To sum it up: We are to forgive ever instance until - the moment of our own death in which moment Jesus will come and judge us individually (the 'Particular Judgement' according to the CCC).
-ray
