The gospel of Mark records two occasions when Jesus fed thousands of people by multiplying loaves and fish. Between those two events, several incidents are recorded which refer in different ways to ‘bread’. These incidents include:

• Jesus walking on the water and calming the storm which ends with a thought about bread
• Jesus confronting the Pharisees over their attitude towards the way his disciples ate bread
• Jesus indulging in repartee about bread with a woman who had come to ask him to cast a demon out of her daughter.

This so-called ‘Bread Portion’ of Mark’s gospel contains—you guessed it!—seventeen references to bread all up.

Following on from both the overt and implied seventeens of Hebrews 11, there’s another set of them in Hebrews 12. The format is similar to Paul’s list of the things that cannot separate us from the love of God in its list of seven, a short interlude, then a list of ten.

You have NOT come:

1.   to a mountain that can be touched

2.   to burning fire

3.   to darkness

4.   to gloom

5.   to storm

6.   to a trumpet blast

7.   to a voice speaking  such words that those who heard it begged that no further word be spoken to them, because they could not bear what was commanded.

…

But you have come:

As well as being seventeen instances of an overcomer in the book of Revelation—as mentioned yesterday—there are also seventeen promises to the overcomer.

1. granted to eat of the tree of life (Revelation 2:7)
2. not to be hurt of the second death (Revelation 2:11)
3. granted to eat of the hidden manna (Revelation 2:17)
4. given a white stone (Revelation 2:17)
5. given a new and secret name (Revelation 2:17)
6. given power over the nations (Revelation 2:26)
7. given white raiment (Revelation 3:5)

Seventeen of the twenty-eight occurrences of nikao—to overcome or to conquer—in the New Testament are found in the book of the Revelation. Five of the seventeen refer to the Lord, three to the Beast and nine to the people of God.

1. To him who overcomes, I will grant to eat of the tree of life which is in the Paradise of God. (Revelation 2:7)
2. He who overcomes will not be hurt by the second death. (Revelation 2:11)
3. To him who overcomes, to him I will give some of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, and a new name written on the stone which no one knows but he who receives it. (Revelation 2:17)
4. He who overcomes, and he who keeps My deeds until the end, to him I will give authority over the nations. (Revelation 2:26)
5. He who overcomes will thus be clothed in white garments and I will not erase his name from the book of life, and I will confess his name before My Father and before His angels. (Revelation 3:5)
6. He who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the temple of My God, and he will not go out from it anymore ; and I will write on him the name of My God, and the name of the city of My God, the new Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from My God, and My new name. (Revelation 3:12)
7. He who overcomes, I will grant to him to sit down with Me on My throne. (Revelation 3:21)

The boast of Paul listed in 2 Corinthians 11:23–26 contains seventeen ‘perils’…

I have:

1. worked much harder
2. been in prison more frequently
3. been flogged more severely
4. been exposed to death again and again.
5. Five times I received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one.
6. Three times I was beaten with rods
7. once I was stoned

Love is:

1. patient
2. kind
3. not envious
4. not boastful
5. not proud
6. not rude
7. not self-seeking

The roll–call of faith in Hebrews 11 is not only another list of seventeen but is specifically marked at its golden ratio. Look who gets the coveted eleventh spot.

1. Hebrews 11:4 By faith Abel
2. Hebrews 11:5 By faith Enoch
3. Hebrews 11:7 By faith Noah
4. Hebrews 11:8 By faith Abraham
5. Hebrews 11:20 By faith Isaac
6. Hebrews 11:21 By faith Jacob
7. Hebrews 11:22 By faith Joseph

This is the set of seventeens that started my investigations into its meaning as a metaphor in Scripture. I was reading Joost Smit Sibinga who happened to mention there are 17 instances of the use of ‘Father’ in Matthew’s narration of The Sermon on the Mount. He pointed out they are distributed so that the Lord’s Prayer divides them in the golden ratio. Sibinga was puzzled by the use of 17: was it, he wondered, something to do with the fact the Pythagoreans didn’t use it?

1. Matthew 5:16 In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.
2. Matthew 5:44-45 But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven.
3. Matthew 5:48 Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

Seventeen words, in both Greek and English. This is the marvellous poem that opens John’s gospel and is sometimes called the ‘Hymn to the Logos‘.

From Acts 2:5–12 NIV—Now there were staying in Jerusalem God–fearing Jews from every nation under heaven.  When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard them speaking in his own language. Utterly amazed, they asked: ‘Are not all these men who are speaking Galileans?  Then how is it that each of us hears them in his own native language?

1. Parthians
2. Medes
3. Elamites
4. residents of Mesopotamia
5. Judea
6. Cappadocia
7. Pontus

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall

1. trouble

2. hardship

3. persecution

4. famine

5. nakedness

6. danger

7. sword?

As it is written: “For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.” No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither

Sometimes, when I’m editing, I come across an author’s humongously long sentence which rambles on and on—often, so the authors tell me in insouciant comments when I express my concern, because they are imitating the apostle Paul who, after all, wrote excessively long sentences like the famous one at the beginning of his epistle to the Ephesians which is 202 words in length and has such a complex structure that it is actually able to be interpreted more than one way—and when I suggest that paragraph–long sentences are inappropriate in the age of Twitter, they baulk at the thought.

The publisher I work for, however, is delighted. He uses my remark about the age of Twitter to try to get his more verbose authors to see reason. It doesn’t always work. A pity. Because authors who have a significant message are not being given a chance, due to their resistance to cutting the words into bite–size chunks. Communication is important, in whatever age. Since today’s Christians have no idea what 202 means, it’s pointless having such a long sentence. Still I have seen sentences as long as 140 words; they make my effort of 101 words in the first paragraph look a bit puny.