Today is a day full of superstition for those with triskaidekaphobia or paraskevidekatriaphobia – the fear of the number 13 or the fear of Friday the 13th, respectively. For the non-superstitious, we wonder why anyone would panic over this number – or any number for that matter. The answers revolve around misinterpretation of the Bible and a lot of complex overthinking.
According to the Smithsonian magazine, “The number 12 is a recurring motif in Western traditions. Our clocks have 12 hours, our years have 12 months, our feet span 12 inches and our Christmases last 12 days. Mathematically, 12 is one of the two “sublime numbers.” As the standard “dozen,” it also governs batches of muffins and cartons of eggs. Its neighbor, 13, primarily strikes us as odd because it lands just outside of our familiar mark.”1
What is a sublime number? Take a couple of aspirins before reading this explanation. “Sublime numbers are defined as positive numbers whose sum of positive divisors and count of positive divisors are both perfect numbers. 12 is a sublime number because its divisors are 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, and 12. So there are 6 factors of it and 6 is a perfect number and 1+2+3+4+6+12=28, which is also a perfect number. So 12 is a Sublime number.”2
“While Western cultures have historically associated the number 12 with completeness (there are 12 days of Christmas, 12 months…, 12 labors of Hercules, 12 gods of Olympus and 12 tribes of Israel, just to name a few examples), its successor 13 has a long history as a sign of bad luck.
“The ancient Code of Hammurabi, for example, reportedly omitted a 13th law from its list of legal rules. Though this was probably a clerical error, superstitious people sometimes point to this as proof of 13’s longstanding negative associations.”3
The explanations given that have been misplaced upon the Bible revolve primarily around the Last Supper. The Last Supper was fine with 12 dining but the 13th, Judas Iscariot, would deceive everyone and betray Jesus. Church tradition teaches that the next day,
Good Friday, Jesus died. Those in fear of a Friday the 13th also claim that this is “the day Eve gave Adam the fateful apple from the Tree of Knowledge, as well as the day Cain killed his brother, Abel.”4 Hopefully, you can spot the fallacies in these quotes but this is how a lost world sees things and rationalizes!
Sadly, once a notion is perceived, it conceives and the mind and spirit are carried away on a destructive journey. People contrive all sorts of evil that come from the number 13 or on a day with today’s date. Satan motivates the horror movie industry to perpetuate this fear, playing on people’s emotions with a series of Friday the 13th movies that started in 1980. To avoid this number, a building with 13 floors will often disguise the number for the 13th floor. Some airlines eliminate the 13th row. Those climbing a ladder will avoid the 13th rung.
From the Christian perspective, superstition is unwarranted and ungodly. It undermines faith, creates an idol out of the fear, promotes fear and anxiety, and distracts us from truth.
Romans 14:23 says, “And he that doubteth is damned if he eat, because he eateth not of faith: for whatsoever is not of faith is sin.” There is no faith in the Lord exercised when we fearfully hold on to superstitions.
2 Timothy 1:7 reminds us, “For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.” The fear of a day or a number – doesn’t that sound like a sound, rational mind came up with that? Yet, the darkness of fear overwhelms many in our world, causing them to believe irrational things and act in ways dictated by the fear.
Jesus is the answer. He is always the answer. We need to share Him with this world and when they are afraid, they may be more apt to listen as a place of safety and security is offered to them. Take 1 John 4:18 to the world. “There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love.”
1https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/why-scared-friday-13th-unlucky-date-180965147/
2https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/dsa/check-whether-a-number-is-sublime-number-or-not/
3https://www.history.com/articles/friday-the-13th
4https://www.history.com/articles/friday-the-13th
Images are taken from https://pixabay.com/, https://www.pexels.com/, or https://unsplash.com/images or created in Windows Copilot. According to the websites, they are Royalty Free and free to be used for our purposes.
