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December 23 2006

The Original Bible Revealed!

[This article is based on the book, ‘Restoring the Original Bible’ by Dr. Ernest L. Martin, ASK Publications, Portland, Oregon, 1994]

Our Bibles Are Different

You may be not be surprised to learn that the Bibles that the Christians use today (also in the past centuries) are not the same as the original Bible known to the Jewish world and to the early Christians. First, we use translations, not the original tongues (Hebrew and Greek); second, there are minor textual variations; and third, we do not have the original autographs.

What should surprise you (unless you have read on Bible’s origin) is that the total number of books and the arrangement of books in our Bibles are different from those of the original autographs as judged by the earliest preserved copies. Actually we have not lost any Bible text, so don’t think that I am talking about the ‘Lost Books of the Bible’. These so-called lost books are apocryphal in nature and was never part of the Bible. However, a set of books properly called Apocrypha found its way to the Greek translation of the Old Testament and then into the Latin Vulgate and into some English Bibles.

Our Bibles (that do not include the Apocrypha) contain 66 books, distributed as 39 books in the Old Testament and 27 books in the New Testament. What I am about to reveal is that the Original Bible had contained 22 books in the Old Testament and 27 books in the New Testament. But that is not all. The arrangement of the 39 books in the OT is different from the arrangement in the 22 books, though the total text is the same.

I shall show how important the original arrangement was, and what we miss in our Bibles. I shall also show how and why the original arrangement was changed.

The Original Old Testament

If you have chance to examine a Jewish Old Testament (translations would be sufficient), you will notice that it has only 22 or 24 books. Furthermore, the books after Judges are completely rearranged. There is much evidence for the original OT having only 22 books, but late first or early second century AD two of the books were split to give a total of 24. The reason for this can be guessed (I shall mention it later).

The 22 books of the Original OT are divided into three groups: The Law (Torah), The Prophets, and The (Holy) Writings; this last group is sometimes referred to as the Psalms because the Psalms appear first.

The division of the books are as follows:
I. THE LAW : The Pentateuch (Five Books of Moses)

    Genesis
    Exodus
    Leviticus
    Numbers
    Deuteronomy

      (Note: These titles are as found in our English Bibles, adapted from the Greek Septuagint (LXX); the Hebrew titles used the first word of each book (actually a Scroll). For example, Genesis would be called Bereshith which means (In)Beginning (of). The Septuagint titles emphasize the subject matter. The Jewish Bibles also use now the subject titles.)

II. THE PROPHETS
Six books are in this group:

    Joshua & Judges
    Samuel and Kings (‘Books of the Kingdom’)
    Isaiah
    Jeremiah
    Ezekiel
    The Twelve (Minor Prophets)

We might wonder about the inclusion of the first two and the omission of the book of Daniel. The reason is that these books were written by the prophets who occupied the second highest rank after the Priests. The Law was written by Moses who belonged to the Priestly class. In the organization of Bible books, proper care was given to rank of the authors. Notice that the Kings came third, hence their books are in the third group. The reason Daniel was not included was because he was ‘inferior’ in rank due to his being a eunuch, see Dan. 1:3,7 (eunuchs were prohibited from entering the Temple); and his interpretation of dreams of pagan kings dominated his book. However, we shall not consider Daniel as an unholy person. He led a most holy life and was beloved of God, receiving visions of great importance.

III. THE WRITINGS

This group contained 11 books known also as the ‘Royal’ or ‘Government’ group because the authors are royalty or of royal lineage, or high government officials.

    Psalms
    Proverbs
    Job
    Song of Songs
    Ruth
    Lamentations
    Ecclesiastes
    Esther
    Daniel
    Ezra/Nehemiah
    Chronicles

The Original New Testament

Here the difference is not in the number of books, but in the arrangement of books. After Acts the Original New Testament had three divisions as for the Old Testament:

I. THE ‘PENTATEUCH’ : The Gospels and Acts

    Matthew
    Mark
    Luke
    John
    Acts

What is the reason for the above order of books? Apostolic authority or connection and the eldership principle were followed. Ma thew was a Jew, and his gospel was written under the supervision of James who was the Head of the Church (also the brother of Jesus). Mark was an assistant of Peter who was second to James in rank. Luke was an associate of Paul. John was the beloved apostle, third in rank after James and Peter in the early Church. The reason for his book appearing after Luke is perhaps due to its compilation as the last book of the NT, and also because of its philosophical theme. The first three Gospels are called Synoptic because of similar coverage (of the life of Jesus).

The Book of Acts covers the early history of the Church, and was written by Luke. In terms of content and appeal, the five books may be classified as Jewish, Jewish.Gentile, Gentile, Universal and Universal respectively. Note that Luke wrote his gospel to a Gentile ruler, Theophilus (Acts 1:1).

II THE CATHOLIC EPISTLES

The term ‘Catholic’ means ‘universal’, applicable for general readership. There are seven of them:

    James
    1 Peter
    2 Peter
    1 John
    2 John
    3 John
    Jude

These books appear after the Pauline epistles in our New Testaments, but the original New Testament had them following the Book of Acts. Apostolic authority and eldership were the governing rules for this placement. Among the apostles, the ranking followed the placement: James, Peter, John and Jude (last). We read in Galatians 2:9 of the leading Pillars of the church, James, Peter and John, in tha order.

III. THE PAULINE EPISTLES

This group has 14 books including Hebrews which is somewhat linked to Paul (my study has shown that Hebrews was written by Timothy, Paul’s close associate, except for the last paragraph which was written by Paul who endorsed the epistle with his apostolic authority. Timothy was in prison as he was finishing his epistle, but when Paul got the manuscript, he was released). In our Bibles, these books appear before the Catholic epistles.

The 14 books are:

    Romans
    1 Corinthians
    2 Corinthians
    Galatians
    Ephesians
    Philippians
    Colossians
    1 Thessalonians
    2 Thessalonians
    Hebrews
    1 Timothy
    2 Timothy
    Titus
    Philemon

    The first nine are addressed to churches; the last four are addressed to ministerial/professional leaders. Romans. Corinthians and Galatians present the ABCs of Doctrine to new believers, while Ephesians, Philippines and Colossians present the XYZs (the advanced doctrine for mature Christians). Thessalonians deal with end times. Hebrews present a millennial theme along with Temple symbolism.

IV. REVELATION

This final book covers future events and completes the story of mankind that started in Genesis.

Significance of Numbers
Biblical numbers are not there by chance. The numbers we have seen associated with the books of the Bible have special significance. Let us first look at the number 22 which denotes the OT books.

The Number 22

The Jewish people attached great importance to this number for the following reasons:

1. Adam, the last of God’s Creation, was the 22nd creation in the Six Day Creation. The number 22 signified completion and perfection.

2. Jacob (Israel) was the 22nd generation from Adam.

3. The Hebrew alphabet has 22 letters

Some of the OT authors used the acrostic of the 22 letter names. Examples:

Psalm 119 has 22 sections, each with a title of the Hebrew letter in succession;

The first section of 8 verses all start with the first letter, aleph; the second section of 8 verses all start with the second letter beth, and so on.

Proverbs 31: 10-31 describes a virtuous woman. Each verse starts with a letter of the Hebrew alphabet in order. We may note that the above passages describe a perfect God and a perfect woman!

There are other places also where the acrostic is used. When imperfection is implied, as in Psalms 9 and 10 which describe chaotic conditions, the acrostic is also imperfect.

The Number 7

Throughout the Bible 7 is a sacred number and it also signifies completion. The repetition of 7s in Revelation is very obvious. Multiples of 7 such as 14 are also sacred, and imply completion.

The Number 49

49 is 7 x 7, and signifies ultimate completion and perfection. If the Original Bible arrangement had been kept, we would have 49 books, and the Bible would be easily identified as God’s Book.

The Number 66

6 is man’s number (Adam was created on the 6th day). Multiples of 6 such as 60, 600 and 666 are found in the Bible, all associated with man. The last one, 666, is the Mark of the Beast (Rev. 13).

Our present Bibles have 66 books, and would give the impression it is a human Book, not divine. This is exactly the devil wants the world to believe. The attackers of the Bible are secular humanists!

More about numbers will be given in another article in this section. Suffice it to say that the reorganization of the Bible in the 4th century by Jerome (who translated the Bible into Latin Vulgate) was an unholy step! Later on, the Church tried to rectify this by adding 11 apocryphal books to make the total number 77, but later this number has been reduced to 66 books as we find in present day Bibles that contain the Apocrypha. These added books are not as divinely inspired as the canonized books, hence should not be added to the Bible to make it look divine.

Jesus, the Central Theme of the Bible

If the book order had been preserved, we should get the following array:

In other words, central part of the Bible would be the books covering the life of Jesus Christ and his activity in the early Church. We have lost this obvious marker as a result of the reorganization in our Bibles. The Gospel of Luke which deals with the Incarnation occupies the central position (the 25th book). The five books on Jesus may be called the New Testament Pentateuch!

More on the OT Books: The Temple Analogy

There is a remarkable parallel between the OT books and the division and items in the Jewish Temple (see drawing below).

Old Testament
The Temple
3 divisions 3 divisions
– The Law – Holy of Holies
– The Prophets – The Holy Place
– The Writings – The Outer Court

The Law (Pentateuch) reveals the holy God and his Commandments; the Holy of Holies contained the Ark of the Covenant which had the books of the Law. The Holy of Holies was the earthly abode of God. The five items in this room were: Manna, Aaron’s rod, the Tablets of stone, the two Cherubim and the Mercy Seat; these could be connected to the five books of Moses:

Manna, the ‘hidden’ food Genesis (God was ‘hidden’)
Aaron’s rod that budded Exodus, the creation of Israel
Tablets of Stone Leviticus and the Laws
Two Cherubim Numbers (describes the Ark)
Mercy Seat, cover of the Ark Deuteronomy, final book

The three divisions of the Temple also signified Three Heavens:

Outer Court First heaven (atmosphere, air)
Holy Place Second heaven (outer space with heavenly bodies)
Most Holy Place Third heaven (God’s abode)

It is significant to note that on the floor of the Holy Place had imprinted on it a Zodiac circle with the twelve signs (representing the 12 tribes). The seven lamps of the menorah represented also the seven planets. All these fitted with the symbolism of the Holy Place with the Second Heaven.

I must point out that the Temple layout and its contents have a Messianic message because Jesus Christ is symbolized everywhere – as our sacrifice, atonement, and High Priest who has made it possible for all believers to approach God the Holy Father. The reader can find books on this topic to get more understanding.

The Prophets and the Holy Place

There were six pieces of furniture in the Holy Place. These are placed in relation to the six books of the Prophets group:

Golden altar of incense
(Holy of Holies and the Holy Place)
Joshua & Judges
(connecting link to the Law and the Prophets
The Menorah (7-branched Lamp) The Kingdom Books
(describing the kings: of Judea: Saul, David, Solomon, Hezekiah, Josiah and Jehoachin)
The Laver (wash basin) Isaiah (who called for cleansing the sins.)
Altar of burnt offerings Jeremiah (Judgement scenes)
The Slaughter place Ezekiel (foresaw massive slaughter)
Table of Shewbread with 12 loaves of bread The 12 Minor prophets

Of course, the Temple furniture have more profound meanings attached to them, especially in relation to the Messiah which we shall not cover here.

The Writings

The Outer Court was for the public, and had sections for men and women. The Writings were considered less holy than the other two groups, and some of these books (actually scrolls) were not kept in the Temple, e.g. Ezra/Nehemiah, Chronicles because of the public records they contained.

Reasons for Changing the Original Bible

The following reasons can be given for the arrangement of books in our Bibles.

1. Pagan influence in the Greek Translation: It was a King of Egypt of the Ptolemy period that ordered the translation known as the Septuagint. In the third century B.C. The Greek mind preferred subject-wise division and therefore abandoned the divine order.

2. The Influence of Rome: by the fourth century AD, Rome had become the center of Christianity; it was also the emperor’s capital city. The Jewish epistles took a second place, and the gentile epistles (written by Paul) took the first place; the Book of Romans was the first of these Pauline epistles. Is it any wonder why the book of Romans appear after the Book of Acts? Jerome who knew the Original Bible boldly changed the order of NT books. Our present day Bible publishers do not want to change the order because they find no support from the Church for it. The Church does not want to return to the biblical order of ‘Jew first, Gentile second’.

3. This change is in relation to the change from 22 books to 24 books by Jewish editors.

Why would they want to change the ‘perfect’ number 22 to 24? The only answer is that when the Christians added the 27 NT books, the total was 49 books, and claimed the complete Bible should have both the OT and NT books. The Jews who did not accept Jesus and Messiah did not like that, so by increasing the number to 24 books, the divine ’49’ would vanish, at the expense of making the OT less than perfect.

Conclusion

It should now be obvious to the reader that our present Bible is the result of deliberate alteration by people with special interests. As a result of the changes they made, we have lost the divine message transmitted through the order and number of books in the Original Bible. It is unlikely that Bible publishers will go back to the original format because such a change could be quite confusing to most Bible readers.

UPDATE: December 7, 2005: The Original New Testament now available

The Original New Testament in English was published a year ago by York Publishing Company in California. This is a monumental work undertaken by Fred R. Coulter, a Bible scholar, who faithfully translated the Stephanus 1550 Greek New Testament, but in the original order of the 27 books as explained in my article. In addition to the 352 page text in full size paper, a voluminous 528 page commentary section is included. At this time there is no word on the Original Old Testament under preparation. The book is available from Amazon.com under the title, ‘The New Testament In Its Original Order’. The cover page is shown at right.

 

UPDATE: The Complete Bible Available

In 2007 York Publishing Company published the Holy Bible In Its Original Order. Read more on it in the Update section on the Home Page.

 

The Mysterious Bible Codes Sulfur and Ash from Gomorrah

Related Posts

Bible Quest

The Mysterious Bible Codes

In this section I shall cover two types of Bible Codes: (i) Word Codes, (ii) Number Codes. The word codes are hidden words that are in the original text of the Bible that relate to people, places, events and other items all through history. The number codes are specific number values of words and phrases that appear again and again in the text of the Bible whenever the same item is described. These codes have been suspected all through the centuries, but only with the aid of the computer extensive investigations could be made. All the significant works on these Codes have appeared since 1994. There are several Internet sites you can find dealing with the Codes mystery, pro and con. I acquired the major published books on the Codes to write this exploratory article.

The Word Codes

In most references, these are simply referred to as Bible Code. In this century, the person who started Codes discoveries is undoubtedly Rabbi Weissmandl, a brilliant Czechoslovakian Jewish scholar who had escaped from the Nazi Holocaust and emigrated to America. Following the clues left by a 14th century Jewish sage Rabbenu Bachya, Weissmandl spent his time studying the Torah text which he wrote with his own hand, all the 304,805 consonantal letters, in a 10 x 10 array. From this text he discovered the name of Abraham encoded in the opening chapter of Genesis (1:22-26) where God (Elohim) gave his first blessings to the fishes and birds to be fruitful and multiply. Abraham, likewise was blessed by God.

Abraham Code

The hidden word ABRHM was found on a vertical line, each letter being separated from the other by exactly the same number of letters, 49. Even more surprising, Elohim (ALHYM) was in the plain text between every letter of the name ABRHM (horizontal text, read right to left). See the passage below with ABRHM (vertical) and ALHYM (horizontal, right to left). The full text may be found in Jeffrey Satinover’s book, Cracking the Bible Code (1997).

The Hebrew letters transliterated above will be given in a later context. Weissmandl had indeed discovered the Equidistant Letter Sequence (ELS) which was further researched by later investigators. Oren, a follower of Weissmandle found that the name ‘Aaron’ was encoded in Leviticus 1:1-13 where only the sons of Aaron are mentioned repeatedly.

First Major Publication

The ELS code got worldwide exposure in August 1994 when three Israeli researchers Doron Wutztum, Eliyahu Rips and Yaov Rosenberg published a scholarly scientific paper in the journal, Statistical Science (see below part of the front page).

These researchers were able to locate in the Torah the names of 66 Jewish rabbis listed in the Encyclopedia of Great Men in Israel spanning several centuries. In each case the place and dates of birth and death were also encoded in close proximity (the ‘cluster phenomenon’).

A Bestseller

However, the general public did not come to know of ELS until a New York Times Bestseller, The Bible Code, appeared in the Spring of 1997. This was authored by Michael Drosnin, a former reporter to Washington Post, who did his own computer search for coded words. The front cover of his book (shown below) shows Drosnin’s identification of Yitzhak Rabin whose name appeared in a vertical column, crossed by ‘Assassin That Will Assassinate’, a reference to Rabin’s death. According to Drosnin, his efforts to warn Rabin ahead were futile; a year later Rabin was shot (November 4, 1995). Drosnin’s book contains many other coded names of celebrities, dictators, major world events past and present, and makes claim of future catastrophes such as earthquakes and comet collision. No wonder the book became a bestseller. Drosnin’s critics are many, attacking him of his ‘loose’ methods to discover ‘coded’ words.

Other Books

Dr. Jeffrey Satinover, a Jewish scholar and psychiatrist defended the Codes by his articles and by his scholarly book, Cracking the Bible Code (1997), an excellent reference on Bible Code history and development.

The Christian researchers followed the lead of their Jewish counterparts. Yacov Rambsel, a Messianic Jew, published his book, Yeshua (means Jesus) in 1996 in which he presented evidence of Yeshua’s name coded throughout the Old Testament, beginning with Genesis 1:1. Christians know that that Christ is in every book of the Old Testament, specific persons representing him as types. Thus Isaac is a type of Christ; so is Joseph and David and Solomon Christ’s role as Redeemer is foretold throughout the OT. Every sacrifice done at the Temple foretold his sacrifice. Every part of the Tabernacle and Temple represented him.

Shown below are the covers of the three books I mentioned above.

The Torah Code

The name Torah (meaning The Law) itself was found encoded in Genesis One, in fact starting with the first word, beresit or braisheet (vowels are not in the text). By skipping 49 letters after each letter, one can find the next letter for Torah The other books of the Torah also contains the coded word Torah except in Leviticus, pretty much at the same interval (some times in backward sequence).

Eden Code

Gen. 2:4-10 describes the Garden of Eden in just 379 Hebrew letters. In this passage the word ‘Eden’ is encoded 16 times. The second chapter of Genesis also has in code form every one of the 25 trees mentioned in the rest of the Old Testament, date, vine, oak, fir, olive, and so on. You may refer to Grant Jeffrey’s book, The Signature of God (WORD Publishing, 1998) for more details.

Yeshua Code

I already mentioned that Yacov Rambsel discovered the Yeshua code in many parts of the OT. Yeshua in Hebrew has only four letters (read from right to left). The four letters are (transliteration): ‘yodh’, ‘sheen’, ‘vav’ and ‘ayin’. Yeshua in Hebrew is shown below along with the Hebrew alphabet.

The most remarkable passage in the Old Testament that deals with the suffering of Christ is Isaiah 53. Grant Jeffrey (see above) lists 42 code words in this chapter which contain the names of Jesus and his disciples, the high priests, King Herod, Caesar, the three Marys, places such as Galilee and events such as Passover and Crucifixion. Jesus and his disciples are encoded in Exodus 30 also.

The Critics

The critics and skeptics have started attacking the Codes as fraudulent or fictitious. They are attempting to show the Code phenomenon is not limited to the Hebrew Bible, but could be found in famous literary works in English. ELS is bound to happen in any text of length. The defenders of the Code argue that the clustering phenomenon described above cannot be explained by chance, and has not been found in other books. The absence of vowels in Hebrew makes it possible to coin several words from any group of consonantal letters. Interestingly enough, the Jewish scholars who defend the Torah Codes find fault with the Yeshua Codes! They argue that the letters making up the word Yeshua is so short (of four letters) that its repeated appearance should not be much of a surprise.

Some critics argue that there are textual variations between one Hebrew OT and another, hence Codes will not be found in each of them. This criticism is not sound. First, the textual variations between three ancient manuscripts of the Torah show only a 9-letter variation in the entire 300,000 letter text (see Satinover’s book cited above). There are over 6000 letter variations between these Torah versions and the corrupted Samaritan Pentateuch. Yet, even here, the textual meaning has not been affected. The Codes will not fall apart like a domino, because the words and letters that form the text are not interconnected rigidly, so a corrupted part may not affect the rest of the text for code identification.

Caution

More light will be shed on the Codes as time goes on. One thing is certain: even if the Codes are genuine, the skeptics will refuse to believe it. If the Codes are fraudulent, we do not need to defend them blindly. The Bible has withstood the test of time based on its plain text, and there is ample evidence for its divine inspiration. The Codes, if true, could reinforce this position, that’s all. Furthermore, the Codes do not give any doctrine, and they don’t show us the way of salvation. So Christians must reject claims such as made for the Codes, e.g., ‘the greatest discovery of all time’. The Bible is the greatest book ever written, and its message is the greatest message we humans can find. We shall not reduce the Bible to a fortune telling book, which is the way some Code hunters use it.

The Number Code

Numbers in the Plain Text

The Bible text contains several special numbers that are used for special occasions and purposes. In my article, ‘The Original Bible Revealed!’ I cited a few, such as the number 22, 7 and multiples of 7, the number 6 and its multiples. Since these occur in the plain text, they are not mysteriously coded. Yet, these numbers have special significance. The number 7 is indicative of divine perfection and completion: it is God’s number. God rested on the 7th day of Creation and called it holy. The Book of Revelation uses 7 repeatedly: 7 candlesticks, 7 churches, 7 seals, 7 trumpets and 7 vial judgments.

More on the Number 7

Chuck Missler’s chapter in the book, Mysteries of the Bible Now Revealed (Edited by David A Lewis and Jim Combs; New Leaf Press, March 1999) is entitled, The Mysterious Mathematical Design of the Bible. He brings out an array of instances where the number 7 or its multiples appear. In fact, the first verse of the Bible is, ‘In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth’. If we take the Hebrew text of this we find:
Number of Hebrew words 7
Number of letters 28 = 4×7
(There are more 7s if we count the letters by selecting fewer words)
See the original text of Gen. 1:1 below

Dr. Ivan Panin of Russia discovered in the 19th century many interesting number patterns in the Bible. For example, in the Gospel of Ma thew (Greek text) the first section (1-17)dealing with the genealogy of Jesus. has 56 nouns (7×8), the article ‘the’ of 7 different types occur 56 times. The first section has two parts, 1-11 and 12-17. The first section has exactly 49 Greek words, of which 28 (=7×4) begin with a vowel. The number of words that occur once is 7; the total number of letters in the 49 words is 266 (=7×38). The number which are not male names is 7. Three women are named, and their letters add up to 14 (=7×2). Only one city is mentioned, and the letters add up to 7. We all know that the plain text of the genealogy of Jesus describes 42 generations divided into three equal parts of 14 each.

Chuck Missler cites many other examples. The following is a selection of the words that appear in both the OT and the NT together as shown below:
Hallelujah 28 (7×4)
Hosanna 7
Shepherd 21 (7×3)
Isaac 126 (7×18)
Aaron 448 (7×64)

The Number 6

In contrast with 7, six is man’s number: Adam was created on the 6th day. It is also associated with man’s rebellion with God. The most noted example is the number 666, the Mark of the Beast (Rev. 13:18). Some manuscripts give it as 616. Nebuchadnezzar’s golden idolatrous statue was 60 cubit high. I had mentioned in my article on the Bible that due to pagan influence the total number of books of the Bible is 66 instead of the original 49. The Israelites who set out from Egypt were 600,000, and they all perished in the wilderness due to their rebellion except for two people.

The ancient people gave number values to the letters of the alphabet. We are familiar with the Roman numerals such as I (=1), V (= 5), X (=10), L (=50), C (=100), D (=500), M (=1000). So 1999 would be MCMXCIX where CM = 900, XC = 90, and IX = 9. Interestingly, M was introduced later, so if we put together all the number letters as DCLXVI, we get 666!

More on 666

In the Bible the most mysterious number is 666 which is the number of a man, says Revelation. Numerous attempts have been made to match this number with past dictators beginning with Nero Caesar of Rome. In Latin, if we add the number value of the letters of his name NERON, 50+6+500+60+50 = 666 (see William Barclay, Revelation , Vol 2, p.102,The Westminster Press, 1976). If the last N is dropped, we get 616, which is found in some ancient copies of Revelation. If the Hebrew name of Nero is used, and Hebrew number values are used, we get 666 for Nero Caesar. One attempt to equate Hitler with the Antichrist was to show that HITLER added up to 666 if we assign A=100, B=1=1 etc. Unfortunately, people have found ways to come up with 666 for others such as the Pope, John Knox, Martin Luther and Napoleon. In our own time, the strong feeling is that it is a computer code. When the bar code was introduced, there were three double lines, one in the middle, and one on either end. The number value of the double line is 6, so we get 666. There is no doubt the speculations on this mysterious number will continue.

The Number 40

It is associated with trials and testing. Moses spent 40 days on Mt. Sinai. Noah’s Flood lasted 40 days and nights. Jesus fasted for 40 days.

Number Value of Hebrew and Greek Letters

We are now going to enter into a more detailed examination of the number codes found throughout the Bible which can be found only by applying the number values to key words and phrases. Del Washburn’s book, The Original Bible Code (Madison Books, 1998) is the most elaborate treatise on this subject. He uses the word Theomatics (‘Divine Mathematics’) to describe the phenomenon, that God arranged the plain text of the Bible in such a way that every time a key word or phrase appears anywhere in the Bible, it has the same number value of its multiple, while the plain text itself is logically connected and well harmonized. No human endeavor could have accomplished this feat, he says.

The number values of the ancient Hebrew and Greek alphabetic letters are shown below.

Some Examples:
The Number value for ‘Jesus’: 888

This number is associated with Jesus Christ. ‘Jesus’ in Greek has a number value of 888 Jesus rose from the dead after the Sabbath, the first day of the week (or the 8th day). The Greek word for Jesus is shown below. The number values of the letters add as 10+8+200+70+400+200 = 888

The Number value for ‘World’ (kosmos) : 600

The various letters of the Geek word add as 20+70+200+40+70+200 = 600

The Mark of the Beast : 666

This number is spelled out in the plain text of Rev. 13.18, but in some early Greek manuscripts it is coded in three letters whose number values add as 600 + 60 +6 = 666.

‘Theomatics’

Washburn’s book gives many examples of the number values which he calls ‘Theomatic values’. The following examples are a small selection:

Love: ( ): 93

The New Testament word for divine love is ‘agape’ (). When this word is used with other words, the phrases also have theomatic values, all of which are multiples of 93. Examples (I am giving the English text only):
Matt. 24:12 THE LOVE OF MANY WILL GROW COLD: 93 x 30
Luke 11:42: THE LOVE OF GOD : 93 x 15
Rom. 8:35 SEPARATE US FROM THE LOVE: 93 x 26

However, when this word is used along with Christ in the same verse, the number value is a multiple of 8: LOVE OF CHRIST : 8 x 310.

The word ‘agape’ is used with two other spellings also in the New Testament (adding another letter at the end), and in these instances, its value changes to 144 and 294 in passages that contain these spellings.

It is also interesting to note that in some passages LOVE OF GOD adds up to 777, e.g. Rom. 8:39, while the ‘agape’ part retains its value of 93. When IN is added (to mean CHRIST), the value changes to 800 x 2 because of the CHRIST influence. When perfection is implied, we find multiples of 70 such as 70 x 7 appearing in passages such as: Psa. 19:7, 1 John 4:18. Note that the Psalms word is in Hebrew, hence Hebrew numbering has to be used.

Light : 1500

Passages that mention LIGHT abound with 150 and its multiples. As in ‘light has come into the world'(John 3:19).

Separate: 172

See Rom. 8:39 and Psalm 78:13 where the word ‘separate’ (in Greek) and ‘separated’ (in Hebrew) has the number value of 172. We also see the number 86 and its multiples (172 = 86 x 2) when God is also part of the passage. God (Elohim) has a number value of 86. In New Testament passages that deal with Christ’s trial, the number 172 is seen repeatedly is in THEY DIVIDED MY GARMENTS, WHY HAS THOU FORSAKEN, WAS RENT IN TWO, DARKNESS etc.

Fish, Net: 153

The famous NT passage where this number appears in the plain text is John 21:11. However, this number is encoded in passages that refer to ‘fish’ and ‘net’ as in ‘Fishes’ Luke 9.13 (153 x 8), John 21: 11: ‘The Net’; FISHERS OF MEN in Mark 1:17 has a number value of 153 x 14.

153 is the sum of numbers 1-17, and 17 is the largest prime number in this. We see multiples of 17 also scattered in the Bible text. Note also that 153 = 17 x 9

In Luke 5:6 we read about the disciples casting the net at Jesus’ command. Words and phrases in this text abound with 153 as in AT THY WORD (153 x 8), WORD (153 x 3), MULTITUDE OF FISHES (153 x 8 x 2). In similar passages it could be multiples of 17. In the passage on Loaves and Fishes in the miracle of Jesus, the numbers 153 and 170 are seen again associated with the Loaves and the Fishes.

The Parable of the Prodigal Son (Luke 15:11-32) : 90 and its multiples

The number 90 and 900 are associated with people, multitude, and angels. The parable of the Prodigal Son abounds with the number 90 as in:
SONS (90 x 12)
THE YOUNGER (90 x 17)
HE CAME TO THE FATHER (90 x 11)
THIS IS THY BROTHER (90 x 33)
THIS THY (90 x 19) BROTHER (90 x 9) WAS DEAD AND IS ALIVE (90 x 9)

Comments

‘Theomatics’ is shunned at this time by most Christian scholars who at the same time support ELS described above. My own feeling is that these scholars have not taken the time to examine it, and are making some rash judgments. I have to disagree with Washburn on one or two points. He exalts the number codes above the plain text of the Bible and frowns on the literal interpretation of the Bible. He does not, for example, believe that 144,000 and the millennium (1,000 years) in Revelation as literal. They are just large numbers, he says. He denies the Millennium and is an ‘amellennialist’. So on the one hand he is awed by the divine plan of the Bible, and on the other hand he is unwilling to accept God’s revelations in the plain text of the Bible.

As I have commented on ELS Word Codes, the plain text of the Bible is far more important and revealing than the coded information (if true). The Bible is God’s inspired Word, so we should take God’s Word at its face value. Symbolic passages are easily distinguished, so such passages may be excluded from literal interpretation.

Some Christians equate the number codes to the magical use of numbers which is forbidden in the Bible. I do not see it that way. The truth is that the Bible does attach special significance to certain numbers as we have seen. The consistency of the use of these numbers in all parts of the Bible is one more proof for its divine inspiration.

Bible Quest

The Jesus Boat

This photo was taken during my December 1998 Israel trip sponsored by Wyatt Archeological Tour. I am standing next to my wife in the red sweater. Ron Wyatt, the renowned explorer of many biblical sites including Noah’s Ark, Mt. Sinai and the Crucifixion site is the white haired man in the back, and next to him is his wife and co-explorer, Mary Nell. This was Ron’s last Israel trip, so it was a divine favor to be able to go with him in this tour.

The ‘Jesus Boat’ is a replica of a first century boat found buried and recovered. You can read more about this fascinating discovery at Jesus Boat.

All of us who wish to go safely to ‘The Other Side’ must get into the ‘Jesus Boat’. Jesus is our Guide and Savior.

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