Sju & de abrahamitiska religionerna : Ett heligt tal?

Abstract Purpose: The study focuses on the number seven in Judaism, Christianity and Islam. The purpose of this essay was to find out where in the Holy Scriptures and traditions the number seven can be found and also to understand what purpose the number have in these religions. Method: In order to answer the purpose of the work, various literature studies were used with previous research on the subject. The studies used gave a deeper understanding of the historical background of the number seven. In addition to literature studies, the religious scriptures, the Bible and the Qur'an were used. Theory: The theory used in the work is intertextuality. Intertextuality is based on the fact that most texts are based on other texts. Given that the religious scriptures were studied in the paper, this theory was very helpful. Result: The survey of the religious texts revealed that the number seven addresses the moderation of the creation myth which made the characters in the biblical story use the number seven as a symbol of moderation. The analysis part led to the second result which is based on intertextuality. This theory tells us that religious scriptures are part of an intertextual chain, for example, the Quran incorporates certain elements from previous writings. The same applies to, for example, the Bible. The result of this is that the religious texts are based on each other which means that the number seven may have been mentioned in early texts as a sacred element and texts that came later on incorporated that theory