Significance of 33

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Thermopylae

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I brought this up in ?Everything you know?? but it was buried. In the Bible, Jesus is said to be 33 when he dies and is resurrected. Adam, the mythical first man, was estimated to be around 33 at his creation. In ?At the End of the World? ? Bono is 33 at the end of the book and the author points out the link between Bono?s age and the age of Jesus at the end of his ministry. In ?Vanilla Sky?, the main character is 33. (a movie about immortality)

It is said that our souls will eternally be 33 in heaven, no matter what age we were when dead.

I was just wondering if anyone could add some insight or knowledge to this theme.

Thanks
 
Can I be 25 instead in heaven?
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Regardless, I never once heard that before. As for the age of Adam, no one can remotely tell his age, and anyone who claims to know is lying.

But I never realized this "33" connection in literature. I will have to use it more often in my own writing...heh.

~Melon

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"Oh no...my brains."
 
As far as the REAL age - you are right, nobody will ever know. By why chose 33 as the mythical age?

I am 31 - so I wonder if when I am 33 I will understand...
 
Watch the movie "Pi" someday, if you haven't yet. The quote I love is that if you look for a specific number, you'll find it anywhere.

The "666" thing, to me, was the biggest joke. Three Hebrew characters for Satan are now supposed to be numbers? Because I find that amusing, considering that Arabic numerals didn't hit Palestine and the Western world until the Crusades in c. A.D. 1200, and the Old Testament was written at least 1700 years prior.

And I remember the biggest hype about "666": 666 x 3 = 1998. So, all these numerologists were trying to pin the end of the world on 1998 and it never happened.

But I've gone way off topic here. The hype over the number "3" is that it is half of "6." That's all. "333" is the supposed number of God and "666" is the supposed number of Satan, but the Bible is full of seemingly arbitrary numbers...7...12...40...

Basically, I guess, my point is not to put much store in it (even though I know you weren't per se).

~Melon

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"Oh no...my brains."
 
I do not think there is any real significance other than a symbolic one. I am just curious what point the authors and artists were trying to get across.

Is 33 our peak (in physical form and appearance - if not in sexual performance)?
It is sort of a crossroads age - a time when we are still young enough to have the energy to apply our new found wisdom. An age when we have built up enough experience to see the world with mature eyes, yet old enough to not be so quick to anger and to judge.
 
WoW , 33? , really , but ofcource even God understands that to see ZOO TV / Zooropa shows live deserves even to re-write the holy bible , LoL
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Originally posted by Hans Moleman:
The quote I love is that if you look for a specific number, you'll find it anywhere.
Click to expand...

I agree. You could do this with any number...the numbers 40 and 7 show up a lot in the Bible and other places also...

------------------
One love, one life...
Give peace a chance!
Don't let the bastards grind you down!

Create Light
Create Unity
Create Joy
CREATE PEACE!
 
I've never been much for numerology but here goes:

Jesus Christ died and was resurrected at the age of 33.

Larry Bird wore number 33. The Celtics have never been the same since he retired. *Sob*

U2 lyric: "They want you to be Jesus/They'll go down on one knee/But they want their money back if you're alive at 33."

"thirty-three" is the title of a gorgeous Smashing Pumkins song. "Speak to me in a language I can hear/Humor me before I have to go/Deep in thought I forgive everyone..."

MAP
 
Originally posted by hippyactress:
I agree. You could do this with any number...the numbers 40 and 7 show up a lot in the Bible and other places also...
Click to expand...


I think you are missing the point of the discussion. I am not trying to unlock the mystery of the universe with numbers or numerology. All I was trying to do was point out that I saw a trend about the AGE 33, not the number. Again - the AGE 33. Why have poets, artists, and writers made this in important milestone in a person's life? Perhaps it is the true age of accountability? Just theorizing - and I would like to hear other theories.

For those that are younger than 33, what do you hope you will be like at 33? For those over 33 - can you see that as a turning point in your life (better or worse?)

Quite simply - I find it fascinitating from a literary perspective. Writers use symbols to help "universilize" their story. There is oviously a reason they see 33 a symbol - I am just trying to discover what that is.
 
Perhaps you are reading too much into all this. Whether or not you believe him to be the Son of God, you can not argue that anyone has impacted this world more than Jesus of Nazareth. Maybe this very fact has influenced others to incorporate his age at crucifixion and resurrection into their own works. That would be my guess.
 
Originally posted by Thermopylae:

I think you are missing the point of the discussion. I am not trying to unlock the mystery of the universe with numbers or numerology. All I was trying to do was point out that I saw a trend about the AGE 33, not the number.
Click to expand...

Guess I did misunderstand.

------------------
One love, one life...
Give peace a chance!
Don't let the bastards grind you down!

Create Light
Create Unity
Create Joy
CREATE PEACE!
 
Originally posted by Hewson:
Do the brewers of Rolling Rock know something the rest of us don't?
Click to expand...

They know that the legal prohibition on drinking alcohol in the United States ended in 1933. Thus the joyfull '33' on the bottle.
That it was actually illegal to drink alcohol in the U.S. as recently as 68 years ago is proof positive that we Americans are occasionally insane.

It's all the evidence I need that I never want "concerned" Christian Womens groups and the Government involved in my affairs.

MAP
 
I guess I just haven't seen the age of 33 to be much of a literary device. Ok, jesus is believed to have been about 33 when he was killed. But no writer of the Bible ever states that he was 33. It is assumed, based primarily on the fact that the book of Luke states that Jesus was about 30 years at his baptism, and an estimated length of his public ministry of 3 years. So I would argue that the writers of the gospels were not using 33 as a symbol.
Bono was 33 at the end of Flannagan's book. I think the author is more interested in making the comparison between Jesus and Bono, than the specific age of 33.
I haven't seen Vanilla Sky.
I've never heard it said that our souls will eternally be 33 in heaven.
I've never heard it said that Adam was created with an apparent age of 33.
Who's saying this?

From these examples, I just don't see 33 being used symbolically more than any other age. I don't think 33 is any more our "peak" than 32 or 34.

Are you 33, by chance?
 
Maybe when you turn 33 God lets you know what it's all about. Hmmm...I only have 16 years more to go...

------------------
Taste is the enemy of art.
 
I've always heard that when people reach the Afterlife, whatever a person believes that to be, he or she will be the age that was the prime of his or her life. This always made me wonder: What if one person's prime age was 16 while someone else's was 45? This might make for an odd situation, especially if those two people were close to eachother. But this "33" thing, if true, could solve that mystery. If everyone was 33, in theory, there wouldn't be any real crazy confusing age differences.
 
Originally posted by Thermopylae:
I brought this up in ?Everything you know?? but it was buried. In the Bible, Jesus is said to be 33 when he dies and is resurrected. Adam, the mythical first man, was estimated to be around 33 at his creation. In ?At the End of the World? ? Bono is 33 at the end of the book and the author points out the link between Bono?s age and the age of Jesus at the end of his ministry. In ?Vanilla Sky?, the main character is 33. (a movie about immortality)

It is said that our souls will eternally be 33 in heaven, no matter what age we were when dead.

I was just wondering if anyone could add some insight or knowledge to this theme.

Thanks
Click to expand...

Yeah, I've heard of that before, though won't pretend to know the origins of the idea.

It makes sense in a way, though. For a lot of people, 33 (or thereabouts) really is the physical and mental peak. Though it could be foolish to interpret it in modern terms. If the idea dated back to early Christianity (it probably does not, but I'm unsure), the sort of lifespan people expect today would be irrelevant to the issue.
 
OMG i learned/was told it meant something *totally* different, er and trust me it wasn't very 'biblical' erhuhm

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--U2002revolution
(not-a-newbie)

U2: Rock's Unbreakable Heart!

[This message has been edited by U2002revolution! (edited 12-23-2001).]
 
Originally posted by Thermopylae:
Adam, the mythical first man, was estimated to be around 33 at his creation.

It is said that our souls will eternally be 33 in heaven, no matter what age we were when dead.
Click to expand...



------------------
Well the God I believe in isn't short of cash..Mister!
 
Originally posted by Thermopylae:
Adam, the mythical first man, was estimated to be around 33 at his creation.

It is said that our souls will eternally be 33 in heaven, no matter what age we were when dead.
Click to expand...

*Sorry in advance if this double posts*

Just curious what you view as mythical and actual fact. Most religions do not debate the existance of Adam. Just curious as you seem to belive in some sort of religious system as you mention heaven and immortality.


------------------
Well the God I believe in isn't short of cash..Mister!
 
Originally posted by cmb737:
*Sorry in advance if this double posts*

Just curious what you view as mythical and actual fact. Most religions do not debate the existance of Adam. Just curious as you seem to belive in some sort of religious system as you mention heaven and immortality.
Click to expand...

Unlike many believers I do not accept that every single word in the Bible is absolute fact. I accept evolution, I accept the Scientific Method as an important human process in understanding who we are and how we got here, and I also accept that there is always some truth behind the myth. Sometime there is a little ? sometimes quite a bit.

I believe that Jesus was God in human flesh. Do I believe he was 33 at death and resurrection? I really don?t know. Was there a man named Adam? Probably not. Was he 33? Probably not. I just find interesting that there seems to be a myth about being 33 ? that it appears to be a symbolic age for a human. I am 31, and I do feel like I am seeing the first glowing colors on the horizon of a new dawn. I feel that there is more to being Christian than being ?born again.? One must learn to mature in their walk with Christ. Like the Joshua Tree ? there are many painful twists and turns as we grow closer to Heaven. There is a sense of sedation and confidence that comes when we see a glimpse of God?s love and plan. Perhaps I finally realize I will not know all the answers in this lifetime ? and with that comes peace and deeper faith. My faith is now built on a profound sense of wonder, something much more real than any ?physical? evidence. And that is what makes my faith unshakable.

Of course, I have not always felt this way. I have had times of extreme doubt and heartache. I did not wake up one day and proclaim: ?Wow! What is the point of asking why God does something?! It is just simply God?s will!!!? There is much more to it than that. My faith comes from 31 years the witnessing the power of love forever married to the frailty of human existence. My faith has grown stronger as if I am walking towards a warm fire in a deep, cold, dark forest. I am not ?there? yet?and I will probably not get ?there? in this lifetime. But I am getting warmer and filled with comfort the closer I get to ?there.?

Anyway ? I feel that by 33 ? or early 30?s ? we (generally speaking of course) have experienced enough joy, pain, success, failure, love, anger?etc ? to realize that our souls will always be walking towards that flame (fire, light, God) while we are trapped in the flesh. That is the focus of our journey. We have realized that the pleasure of falling in love, the ?high? of a drug experience, or the rush of achievement ? are not ends in themselves. They are not that warm fire in the forest. They may or may not be ?good? things. They are good if they keep us on the right path (teach us compassion, love in the higher sense, empathy, gentleness) and bad if they direct us way from the light (promotes selfishness, anger, cruelty to our own soul as well as others).

Some people understand this at a younger age ? some at an older age. I feel I am about on target with the ?mythical? age of 33.

Did that answer your question?
 
Originally posted by Zooman91:
Dammit, I still got 18 more years until total enlightenment. What the hell am I supposed to do until then?
Click to expand...

Go sleep under a tree. It's really just a day or two, once you take out meals and sleep.

------------------
"It wouldn't be a cry from the heart
or a high, hurtin' wail
we could look down and laugh now
I'd be all together
I'd be totally removed..."
 
You may find this completely silly, but I couldn't help but notice the following paragraph on the official Lord Of The Rings site:
For example, Hobbits are gentle and close to nature, an almost child-like group who live off the land. With an average height of 3?6", the furry-footed creatures dwell deep in furnished holes on the sides of hills. They love the simple things in life: smoking pipes, eating, and, of course, storytelling. They live to around 100 years old, with the age of 33 marking the start of adulthood.
Click to expand...
 
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