

What’s the origin of the phrase ‘Three score and ten’? The use of threescore as a name for sixty has long since died out but is still remembered in this phrase. What does 3 score mean in the Bible?Īn old word meaning ‘sixty’ threescore years and ten (=70 years): He had lived for threescore years and ten. ” (that is, 87 years ago.) What does 4 score mean in the Bible? To refer to a period as “five score years” is a deliberate echo of the famous opening of Abraham Lincoln’s address at the cemetery at Gettysburg, which began “Four score and seven years ago.

The speech was made, then, seven score and seven years ago. Lincoln’s address starts with “Four score and seven years ago.” A score is equal to 20 years, so he was referencing 87 years ago - 1776, when the Declaration of Independence was signed. In modern language, it would be simply “87 years ago”. Origin of four-score-and-seven-years-ago In Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, he used this (at the time) commonplace measure of score, meaning “20 years”. Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address begins with the words, “Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth, upon this continent, a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.” A score is another way of saying 20, so Lincoln was referring to 1776, which was 87 … What does four score mean in years? 8 What does the Bible say about three score and ten years?.1 What does 4 score and 7 years ago mean?.
