By
Keith Newman
[Edited
by Bernie Koerselman]
Supernatural Mathematical Structure
Atheists
and theologians alike have attacked the authenticity of the Holy Bible at
regular intervals but none have explained away the mathematical seal beneath its
surface.
It
would seem the divine hand has moved to prevent counterfeiting in the pages of
the Bible in a similar manner to the line that runs through paper money. Bible
numerics appear to be God's watermark of authenticity.
Vital
research on this numeric seal was completed by a native of the world's most
renowned atheistic nation, Russia. Dr Ivan Panin was born in Russia on Dec 12,
1855. As a young man he was an active nihilist and participated in plots against
the Czar and his government. He was a mathematical genius who died a Harvard
scholar and a citizen of the United States in 1942.
Panin
was exiled from Russia. After spending a number of years studying in Germany he
went to the United States where he became an outstanding lecturer on literary
criticism.
Panin
was known as a firm agnostic - so well known that when he discarded his
agnosticism and accepted the Christian faith, the newspapers carried headlines
telling of his conversion.
It
was in 1890 that Dr Panin made the discovery of the mathematical structure
underlining the vocabulary of the Greek New Testament. He was casually
reading the first verse of the gospel of John in the Greek: "In the
beginning was the Word and the Word was with the God and the Word was God. .
.".
Dr
Panin was curious as to why the Greek word for "the" preceded the word
"God"' in one case and not the other. In examining the text he became
aware of a number relationship. This was the first of the discoveries that led
to his conversion and uncovered the extensive numeric code.
Dr
Panin found his proof in the oldest and most accurate manuscripts - the Received
Hebrew Text and the Westcott and Hort Text.
In
the original languages of the Bible, mostly Hebrew and Greek, there are no
separate symbols for numbers; letters of the alphabet are also used to indicate
numbers.
The
numeric value of a word is the sum total of all its letters. It was curiosity
that first caused Dr Panin to begin toying with the numbers behind the texts.
Sequences and patterns began to emerge. These created such a stirring in the
heart of the Russian that he dedicated 50 years of his life to painstakingly
comb the pages of the Bible.
This
complex system of numbering visibly and invisibly saturates every book of the
scriptures emphasizing certain passages and illustrating deeper or further
meaning in types and shadows. The 66 books of the Bible 39 in the Old and 27 in
the New were written by 33 different people.
Those
authors were scattered throughout various countries of the world and from widely
different backgrounds. Many of them had little or no schooling. The whole Bible
was written over a period of 1500 years with a 400-year silence apart from the
Apocrypha between the two testaments. Despite the handicaps the biblical books
are found to be a harmonious record, each in accord with the other.
Dr
Panin says the laws of probability are exceeded into the billions when we try
and rationalize the authorship of the Bible as the work of man. He once said:
"If
human logic is worth anything at all we are simply driven to the conclusion that
if my facts I have presented are true, man could never have done this.
"We
must assume that a Power higher than man guided the writers in such a way,
whether they knew it or not, they did it and the Great God inspired them to do
it''.
The
Bible itself states clearly that it is the literal “God-breathed” living
word of the Creator. The words "Thus saith the Lord"' and "God
said"' occur more than 2500 times throughout scripture.
In
2 Timothy 3:16 it states, "All scripture is given by inspiration of
God". Then in 2 Peter 9:20-21
it plainly states: "No
prophecy of the scriptures is of any private interpretation. For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man, but
holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost".
Let's
take the number seven as an illustration of the way the patterns work. Seven is
the most prolific of the mathematical series that binds scripture together. The
very first verse of the Bible, "In the beginning God created the heaven and
the earth" (Gen 1:1), contains over 30 different combinations of seven.
This
verse has seven Hebrew words having a total of 28 letters 4 x 7. The numeric
value of the three nouns "God", "heaven" and
"earth" totals 777. Any number in triplicate expresses complete,
ultimate or total meaning.
Also
tightly sealed up with sevens are the genealogy of Jesus, the account of the
virgin birth and the resurrection. Seven occurs as a number 187 times in the
Bible (41 x 7), the phrase "seven-fold" occurs seven times and
"seventy" occurs 56 times
(7 x 8).
In
the Book of Revelation seven positively shines out: there are seven golden
candlesticks, seven letters to seven churches, a book sealed with seven seals,
seven angels standing before the Lord with seven trumpets, seven thunders and
seven last plagues. In fact there are over 50 occurrences of the number seven in
Revelation alone.
There
are 21 Old Testament writers whose names appear in the Bible (3 x 7). The
numeric value of their names is divisible by seven. Of these 21, seven are named
in the New Testament: Moses, David, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Daniel, Hosea and Joel.
The numeric value of these names is 1554 (222 x 7). David's name is found 1134
times (162 x 7).
God's
seal also pervades creation as though it were woven into the very fabric of
nature.
The
Bible has declared man's years to be three score and ten (70). The development
of the human embryo is in exact periods of sevens or 28 days (4 x 7). Medical
science tells us the human body is renewed cell for cell every seven years.
We're
told the pulse beats slower every seven days as if it were in accord with the
seventh day of rest proclaimed in the Genesis creation week. And God formed man
of the dust of the ground (Gen 2:7); science confirms the human body is made of
the same 14 elements (2 x 7) found in your average handful of dust.
The
light of the sun is made up of seven distinct colors as shown in the rainbow. In
music there are seven distinct notes that climax in a chord or octave at the
beginning of a new seven.
In
almost all animals the incubation or pregnancy period is divisible by seven.
Seven is often referred to as "God's seal" or the number of spiritual
perfection.
Eight
is the number of new life or "resurrection". It is the personal number
of Jesus. When we add together the letter values of the name Jesus in the Greek
we get 888. Jesus was called The Christ; the numeric value of this title is 1480
(185 x 8). He was Savior, which has the value 1408 (2 x 8 x 88).
Jesus
is also Lord, which again is a multiple of eight being 800 (100 x 8). Messiah
has the numeric value 656 (82 x8). Jesus also called himself the Son of man. The
term occurs 88 times and is valued at 2960 (370 x 8).
Jesus
said, "I am the truth": the numeric value of "the truth" is
64 (8 x 8). The last book in the Bible is the Revelation of Jesus Christ, which
has exactly 888 Greek words. Eight persons were saved in the Ark at the great
Noahic flood. God made a covenant with Abraham that every male Jewish child was
to be circumcised on the eighth day of his life.
There
are eight individual cases of resurrection spoken of in the Bible apart from
Jesus. Three occur in the Old Testament, three in the gospels and two in Acts.
It was on the eighth day or the first day of the new week that Jesus rose from
the dead. The Holy Spirit also came down from heaven on the eighth day.
Nine
is finality or completion. The first example of its use is that infinitely
sealed first verse of the Bible: "In the beginning God'' that in Hebrew is
Brayshith Elohim, which has the numeric value of 999. The very next statement
"created the heaven" is also sealed with 999.
The
number nine is endowed with a peculiar quality; it is finality in itself.
Not only is it the final single number, but also if you multiply it by any other
number, the addition of the resulting figures will always revert back to nine (2
x 9 = 18 / 1 + 8 = 9 etc).
There
are nine basic gifts available to the Christian believer through the power of
God's Holy Spirit (1 Cor 12:8-10). There are nine basic fruits that should be
evident in the life of the believer (Gal 5:22-23). The words "my
wrath" have the numeric value 999. The word Amen or verily is valued at 99
and occurs 99 times.
The
work on the cross was completed at the ninth hour when Jesus said, "It is
finished". The shedding of his blood was final. It saw an end to the old
system of animal sacrifice to atone for sin. The word "blood" in this
sense occurs 99 times.
Great
superstition has always surrounded the number 13 as being unlucky or dark.
Perhaps there is good reason. One of the most convincing proofs of the origins
of this number can be found by unravelling all the names by which Satan is
known. Drakon or dragon has a value of 975 (13 x 75) and it occurs 13 times.
Peirazon or tempter has a value of 1053 (13 x 81). Belial, which is
personification of evil, has a value of 78 (13 x 6).
Anthropoktonos
or "murderer" has a value of 1820 (13 x 40). Ophis or
"serpent" is 780 (13 x 60). The phrase used by the Holy Spirit Ho
kaloumenos diablos kai ho Satanas or "called the Devil and Satan" is
valued 2197 (13 x 13 x 13).
This
article is in truth an oversimplification of the work of Dr Panin and others who
followed in his footsteps. Dr Panin's work initially involved some 40,000 pages
of material on which he had written millions of small neat calculations. It
involved volumes.
He
often labored up to 18 hours a day exploring the vast numeric structure. By and
large it was a thankless task. Dr Panin said "When I first made the
discovery I was of course, taken off my feet - I was in the same condition as
our friend Archimedes who when he solved a great mathematical problem while in
the bath, rushed in to the street naked, crying 'I have found it'. I thought
people would be delighted to embrace the new discovery, but I found human nature
is always the same. So I quietly withdrew and did my work all by myself".
Although
it would appear that his work has been largely lost from popular reading today
Dr Panin did accomplish several outstanding works. He published Structure in the
Bible the Numeric Greek New Testament and the Numeric English New Testament.
The
works of Dr Ivan Panin have been put before the experts many times. Dr Panin
once challenged nine noted rationalists and Bible critics through the medium of
the New York Sun newspaper Nov 9, 1899. He dared them to publicly refute or give
explanation for a few of his presented facts. Four made lame excuses. The rest
were silent.
Dr Panin issued a challenge throughout leading newspapers of the world asking for a natural explanation or rebuttal of the facts. Not a single person accepted.
Find this and other articles by and about Dr. Ivan Panin, and other proofs of Scripture, at:
http://www.bereanpublishers.com Click on Apologetics.