[AssinHT]

Hmm...I'm not even sure the suttas were ever ver batim records of actual conversations. To me, a much more likely process would have included, first, a conversation, second, a meeting to formalize that conversation into concise verse (for ease of memorization) and third, a repetition of the finalized form to others for dissemination.

But my point didn't have much to do with faulty memory. I just meant that the original suttas contained allusions and symbolic imagery that would have been obvious to the listeners of that day. Two and a half milennia later and in a foreign culture, most of those allusions and symbolisms are lost on us.

For example, the suttas usually start out giving a place name, like "Rajagaha in the Bamboo Grove, the Squirrel Sanctuary." Scholars have figured out what the Squirrel Sanctuary was, but did the specific location "Rajagaha" carry any other connotations? Let's say I'm telling you a story and I tell you it takes place in Texas. You'd automatically get a certain image of not just the surroundings, but of the people, the sound of their voices, their history, etc. If I told you the same story but placed it in London or Madrid, you'd make very different connotations of it. The unspoken connotations in the suttas are lost to us.

With regards to the OP, the "lives" vocabulary may have been such a connotation, or it may have been a best guess by later interpeters. Either way, I think it's taken way too literally. I think all we need to do is consider the difference between 7 lives and endless cycles of rebirth. The image is more important than the exact numbers.

I read this sutta as an exhortation for beginners to get started, as well as an indication of what they should start working on first - the first three fetters, which are belief in self, doubt about the teachings and clinging to rites and rituals.