‘Then Peter came and said to him, “Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? Until seven times?” '
Peter here reveals how God's compassion has come home to him through the teaching of Jesus, but even he has not yet perceived the magnanimity of God. The Scribes taught, on the basis of Amos 1, that a man might be forgiven three times, but that on the fourth judgment must come on him. Thus Peter's ‘seven times' was an extension of that principle to an even greater level. ‘Three times' indicated ‘a few times'. Thus ‘seven times' indicated the next stage up, ‘many times' (a divinely perfect number of times). But clearly there had to be a limit on how many times a person could be forgiven.