Universality and the Created
The number four represents the created world and its universal extent. There are four corners of the earth, four winds, and four seasons. In Eden's garden, the river divided into four branches (Gen 2:10). Ezekiel's vision contains four living creatures with four faces and four wings, representing all creation (Ezek 1:5–6). These four beings reappear in Revelation as the four living creatures around God's throne (Rev 4:6–8). In the New Testament, Jesus sends his disciples to all four corners of the earth, and the four gospels carry the message to the whole world. In Kabbalistic tradition, the number four corresponds to the four worlds (olamot): Atzilut (emanation), Beriah (creation), Yetzirah (formation), and Assiyah (action). These represent different levels of reality from the divine to the material. In the Passover Haggadah, four sons appear who represent different approaches to faith: the wise one, the wicked one, the simple one, and the one who does not know how to ask. This pattern highlights the function of the number four as an expression of wholeness and diversity. God's name YHWH (yod-he-vav-he) consists of four letters and is therefore called the Tetragrammaton (from Greek 'four letters'). In Jewish interpretive tradition, these four letters have been linked to the four elements and the four corners of the earth. The Romans divided the night into four watches, a practice reflected in the New Testament (Mark 13:35). In Jewish temple tradition, the night was divided into three watches, but during Jesus' time, the Roman division into four was common in Israel.*