Numerical Secrets of the Bible: Introduction to Biblical Arithmology

by Casper J. Labuschagne

Overview

Were you intrigued, but disappointed by The Bible Code? Numerical Secrets of the Bible, written by one of Europe's leading biblical scholars, gives you the actual facts about one of the most important recent discoveries in the field of biblical study, namely that the books of the Bible are numerical compositions. The biblical writings were not written in an off-hand manner, but were meticulously composed according to compositional techniques in which the counting of words played a crucial role. This discovery has far-reaching consequences for our views on the formation and the structure of the text of the Hebrew Bible and of the Greek text of the New Testament. Labuschagne introduces you to the fascinating world of number symbolism in biblical times. He demonstrates how well-known symbolic numbers, such as 7 and 12, and especially the lesser known holy numbers 17 and 26, which represent the numerical value of the name YHWH, were used to give structure to the text and to deepen its contents. Among other fascinating findings, this study confirms the medieval Jewish tradition that the name of God is interwoven in the fabric of the text of Holy Scripture.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781725236356
Publisher:	Wipf & Stock Publishers
Publication date:	07/20/2016
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	208
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Casper Labuschagne was born in Heilbron, South Africa in 1929. He studied Semitic languages and theology at the University of Pretoria and at the State University in Groningen, The Netherlands, from 1947 to 1956. He holds an MA in Semitic languages and a Doctor of Divinity from the University of Pretoria. He was a minister of the Dutch Reformed Church in South Africa in 1957 and 1958. He was a senior lecturer in Semitic languages at the University of Pretoria and from 1967 to his retirement in 1991, was lecturer and later professor of Old Testament at the State University in Groningen. He has published a major, four-volume commentary on Deuteronomy in Dutch.

Table of Contents

Preface ix

A Personal Note xiii

1 Counting Hebrew Letters, Words, and Verses in Jewish Tradition 1

Introduction 1

The Function of Numbers in Antiquity 5

The Counting of Letters, Words, and Verses in the Masoret it Tradition 7

Seeking and Locating of the Center of the Text 9

The Significance of Such Counting Activities 10

Well-Known Numerical Compositions: the Alphabetic Poems 12

The Book of Lamentations as a Numerical Composition 14

Conclusions That Could Have Been Drawn Long Ago 18

2 Some Significant Numbers in the Bible 21

A New Awareness of the Significance of Numbers in the Bible 21

Explicitly Mentioned Symbolic Numbers in the Bible: 40, 12, and 7 22

Explicit References to the Number Seven in the Bible 26

The Hidden Presence of the Number Seven in the Old Testament 31

Examples from the Four Gospels 33

More Examples from Other Books of the New Testament 33

3 Clusters and Series of Seven Divine Speeches 41

The Divine Speech Formulas as an Incentive to Counting 41

Series of Seven in the Tabernacle Laws 42

The Significance of the Menorah in Center Position 48

Series of Seven in the Book of Leviticus and the Sabbath 49

More Examples of Manifestly Designed Series of Seven Items 53

4 The 7 + 4 = 11 Pattern in the Pentateuch 57

The Primeval History in Genesis 1-11 57

The Eleven Divine Monologuses in the Pentateuch 62

Three Genealogies in Genesis 1-11 64

The Eleven Toledoth-Formulas in Genesis 66

The Role of 7 in the Life Spans of the Patriarchs 67

Flow Did 7 Acquire its Symbolic Meaning? 69

The Number of Fulfillment, 11 70

5 The Secret of the Hidden Sacred Numbers 17 and 26 75

Significant Numbers in the Divine Speeches in Genesis 75

Examples from the Book of Exodus 79

Conspicuous Numbers in the Divine Speeches in Deuteronomy 82

Counting Verses in Deuteronomy 85

The Symbolic Meaning of 17 and 26 88

The Divine Name Interwoven in the Fabric of the Text 92

The Purpose of the Hidden Numerical Structures 93

The Divine Name Numbers Signifying God's Presence 96

17 and 26 in the Life Spans of the Patriarchs and in the Genealogies 98

The Watermark of the Name of God as the Hallmark of Holy Scripture 103

6 The Bible as a High-Grade Literary Work of Art 105

Investigating the Numerical Structure of the Biblical Text 105

The Layout Markers in the Hebrew Text of Genesis 107

The Numerical Architecture of the Hebrew Bible Rediscovered 111

The Pioneering Work of Clans Schedl 114

The Theoretical Foundations of Schedl's Thesis 117

Schedl's Numerical Analysis of New Testament Texts 120

Significant Compositional Models Discovered Schedl 121

a The "Minor Tetraktys" 121

b The "Major Tetraktys" 127

c The Pentateuch- and Decalogue-Model 127

d The YHWH-echad Model 128

e The Numerical Menorah-Structure and the Balance-Model 130

Keywords Determining the Number of Words in a Text 135

7 Proper Use and Misuse of Numbers 141

The Significance of the Numerical Aspects of the Bible 141

How Numerical Structures Support the Message of a Text 143

a Psalm 82 143

b Psalm 8 145

c Psalm 19 147

d Isa 8:19-9:6 149

The Misuse of Numbers by Numerologists 153

A theological Assessment of the Numerical Aspects of the Bible 157

Notes 163

About the Author 183

Index of Scripture Citations 185