> It's funny how an offhand remark not intended to be much more than a silly joke can provoke such a thoughtful discussion.
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> When I wrote that, I was thinking of the book of Revelation and some of the sermons I've heard from that book. In it, many of the visions that John saw contained the number seven (seven stars, seven churches, seven seals, seven trumpets, seven bowls, etc.) and always had to do with God. Seven represented "godly perfection" while six fell short of that and was the number of man, because we always fall short of godly perfection without Christ. The number "666" was the ultimate number of imperfection and the mark of the beast or the Antichrist.
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> Grishny

What I'd like to know is why the number thirteen went so quickly from being "Lucky 13" to the Unlucky version of its numerical being. :-) The cultural transition must have been very recent. You know, part of the symbols of the Great Seal of the United States has an eagle bearing 13 tail feathers, 13 arrows, 13 olives on an olive branch, etc. In fact I think there are thirteen 13's in the image itself. Strange, no?

Wolfspirit