The number 50
Pentecost, Jubilee, release
Fifty is Scripture's number of release by appointment. Seven sevens of days are counted from the sheaf of firstfruits, 'and ye shall proclaim on the selfsame day' the feast of weeks — the fiftieth day (Leviticus 23:15-16); on that calendar the Spirit falls in Acts 2 ('when the day of Pentecost was now come'). Seven sevens of years likewise lead to the fiftieth — the Jubilee: 'ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout the land' (Leviticus 25:10), when debts release, slaves go free, and land returns. The tabernacle's curtains are joined by fifty loops and fifty clasps into one dwelling (Exodus 26:5-6).
The mathematics
- 50 = 7² + 1 — the jubilee falling the year after seven sevens, which is exactly how Leviticus 25 counts it.
- The smallest number that is a sum of two squares in two different ways: 1² + 7² and 5² + 5².
Every property here was checked before it was printed.
What they have said about this number
Jubilee and deliverance — the issue of seven sevens.
“FIFTY is the number of jubilee or deliverance. It is the issue of 7 × 7, and points to deliverance and rest following on as the result of the perfect consummation of time.”
“Jubilee — deliverance from enemies and reward for faithfulness.”
In Hebrew and Greek
Greek
Pentēkostē — 'fiftieth' — is simply the Greek ordinal (Acts 2:1).
First occurrence
The breadth of the ark: fifty cubits.
The pattern in Scripture
- Jubilee — the fiftieth year of liberty (Lev 25:10)
- Pentecost — the fiftieth day from firstfruits (Lev 23:15-16; Acts 2)
- Fifty loops and clasps uniting the tabernacle (Exod 26:5-6)
- The Beth-shemesh number — 1 Sam 6:19 reads 50,070 slain, a genuine textual crux
Key verses
And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout the land unto all the inhabitants thereof: it shall be a jubilee unto you.
Even unto the morrow after the seventh sabbath shall ye number fifty days; and ye shall offer a new meal-offering unto Jehovah.
And when the day of Pentecost was now come, they were all together in one place.
And thou shalt make fifty clasps of gold, and couple the curtains one to another with the clasps: and the tabernacle shall be one.
Related numbers
The works behind these readings
- E. W. Bullinger, Number in Scripture (1894)The standing catalogue of what each number means and where it returns: the spine of this whole section. Public domain; free to read in full.
- John J. Davis, Biblical Numerology (1968)The counting discipline: which numbers the text itself repeats, and which readings run past what it says.
- Ryken, Wilhoit & Longman (eds.), Dictionary of Biblical Imagery (1998)The entries on Three, Seven, Twelve and Forty: how each image works across both testaments.
- Chuck Missler, Cosmic Codes (1999)The letter-value material and the design case built on it.
- Troy Brewer, Numbers That Preach (2007)What each number preaches: the founder's named guide, quoted here within the cap on living authors, with the book named so you can go and read it whole.