Overwhelming
Mathematical Evidence
Of
the Divine Inspiration of the Scriptures
From The Works of Dr. Ivan Panin, Harvard Scholar
and Mathematician
Edited by Dr. Keith L.
Brooks
Re-Edited
by Bernie Koerselman
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Table of Contents
ONE
OF THE most remarkable occurrences in our time is God's preparation of one
individual to produce positive evidence that would completely undermine all
Biblical criticism and bring atheism toppling to the ground wherever honest,
thinking men will face the facts.
More
startling still is the fact that this individual was a converted Russian
Nihilist, a Harvard scholar, and a mathematician. At the very time when organized atheism was laying its plan
to get control of Russia and make use of its vast resources to sow the seeds of
atheism in every nation of the earth, God was preparing His Russian, Ivan
Panin, to bring forth scientific evidence of the verbal and plenary inspiration
of the holy Scriptures in the original languages.
Dr.
Panin, who passed away in October, 1942, after 50 years of work on Bible
numerics, was not the first to discover that there was a strange mathematical
structure running through the Bible. There
was Browne in his Ordo
Saeculoreum,
and Grant in his Numbers of the Bible and
Bullinger in his Numbers
of the Scriptures. These
all brought forth many striking examples of numeric features in the Bible.
It
remained for Dr. Panin, however, by giving his very life to the task, to find
that every letter of the Hebrew and Greek manuscripts is numbered and occupies
its own special place in the order of the total number of letters in the Bible,
the slightest variations of orthography being all God ordained.
Since every Greek and Hebrew letter carries a numerical value (letters
being used for figures in these languages), every word, phrase, sentence and
paragraph has a definite arithmetical sum.
Dr.
Panin devoted himself so persistently to counting letters and working out
mathematical problems, that he often wore himself out physically.
His works were voluminous and his discoveries seemingly without end. He
was the author of a volume, Structure of
the Bible and of a revision of the New Testament
based upon his numeric discoveries.
Panin's
establishing of the practically infinite series of complex systems, in the
Hebrew and Greek texts, all sequences, combinations, ratios, etc., following a
uniform design from Genesis to Revelation, is undoubtedly God's answer to modern
atheism and higher criticism and His vindication of the verbal and plenary
inspiration of Scripture.
The
discovery settles many questions of text. It
proves that the books of our present Bible, and they alone, have the required
features. It settles disputes of long standing as to some portions which
scholars have said should be eliminated from the Bible.
The
doctrine of the divine authority of the Scriptures has always been fully
sustained by the proofs from fulfilled prophecy, from the inexhaustible depths
of truth revealed, from its matchless power over the lives of men, from its
indestructibility and from the testimony of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
However, some have been won to wave these lines of evidence aside as
unscientific.
Dr.
Panin has submitted conclusive scientific
proof that the Bible could not have been produced by the unaided human mind.
This
proof is found in the amazing numeric phenomena in the very structure of the
Hebrew and Greek manuscripts. Dr.
Panin demonstrated, either that every writer of Scripture was an unparalleled
literary and mathematical genius, or that he wrote as he was moved by the Holy
Ghost. Prof. John C. Banks, a
worthy successor of Dr. Panin, has been offering numeric evidence to the same
proposition.
Panin
laid his discoveries before the readers of a New York paper, copies of which
were sent to leading skeptical educators and scientists with a challenge they
disprove, if
It is a well-known fact that the
number 7 is found throughout the universe.
It is evidently the number of the Creator and the number of fullness,
rest, and completeness.
Not only is this law of seven
found running through creation, but it is found scores of times on the surface
of Scripture, and always appears to be significant.
Furthermore, careful students have often been amazed to find this number
always appearing in unexpected ways. However, skeptics might attribute this to
the writer considering 7 a mystical number, and studying to write important
sentences in exactly seven words, or to cleverly develop subjects under seven
points.
Panin's work, however, deals not
with translations but the Hebrew and Greek.
One is foolish who attempts to maintain verbal inspiration of the King
James Version or any other version. Translation
difficulties have been tremendous. It
is a well known fact that the constant change going on in language usage, has
rendered many words in our English translation practically obsolete, hence the
various attempts at "modern speech" translations.
But how could Panin get back to
originals since we do not know that we have originals? The answer is that the
comparison of hundreds of manuscripts presented to us shows a uniformity that
proves a common source.
The text used by Panin in his
counts is the Received Hebrew Text for the Old Testament and the Wescott and
Hort Text for the New Testament. He
has had reference to many other texts. The
count be it noted, almost invariably sustains Wescott and Hort on the New
Testament.
Following
is an abbreviated example of
the kind of phenomena found by Dr. Panin in these texts:
1.
He takes a given subject like the genealogy of Christ in Matt
1:1‑17, or a book of the Bible as a whole, or the Bible in its entirety,
and shows the following kind of phenomena:
2.
The number of words in the vocabulary will divide by the number seven.
3.
The number of words beginning with a vowel is divisible by seven.
4.
The number of words beginning with a consonant is divisible by seven.
5.
The number of letters in the vocabulary is divisible by seven.
6.
Of these letters, those which are consonants and those which are vowels
both divide by seven.
7.
The number of words in the
vocabulary occurring more than once is divisible by seven. Those occurring
only once likewise divide by seven.
8.
The number of words occurring in more than one form is divisible by
seven. The number occurring in only one form likewise divides by seven.
9.
The number of nouns is divisible by seven. The number that are not nouns
divides by seven.
10.
The number of proper names divides by seven. The male names divide by
seven. The female names divide by seven.
11.
The number of words beginning with each of the letters of the alphabet is
divisible by seven.
The
Bible is written in two languages; the Old Testament in Hebrew (the few chapters
in Chaldee being for numeric purposes the same as Hebrew); the New Testament in
Greek. Both these languages have this peculiarity: they have no separate symbols
for numbers, corresponding to our modern Arabic figures, 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,0.
In their place they make use of the letters of their alphabet, so that
each Hebrew and Greek letter stands also for a certain number.
This is called the numeric value of the letter.
As each word consists of letters, the numeric value of a word is the sum
of the numeric values of its letters. The
numeric value of a sentence, paragraph, chapter, book or volume, or library, is
the sum of numeric values of the words of which these consist.
By
means of these numeric values the Greeks and Hebrews performed all their numeric
operations. But in Scripture an
additional system is used for the purpose of numeric construction of the text,
that of Place Values.
The
Place Value of a letter in the Scripture, whether Hebrew or Greek, is the
number of the place the letter occupies in the alphabet.
Accordingly, in the Hebrew the place values and the numeric values of the
first ten letters are the same. And
the same is the case with the first five letters in the Greek.
But the eleventh Hebrew letter does not stand for eleven, but twenty.
Accordingly its numeric value is 20, but its place value is 11; the last
letter of the Hebrew alphabet, the twenty‑second, stands for 400.
Accordingly its numeric value is 400, but its place value is 22.
The same applies to the Greek alphabet.
Its sixth letter stands for 7; this is its numeric value, but its place
value is 6.
The
full value of a Hebrew or Greek letter or word is the sum of its numeric and
place values: thus the value of the word for “Jesus" in Greek is 975, of
which the numeric value is 888, and the place value is 87. Now notice further features.
·
The numeric value of the
vocabulary is divisible by seven.
·
The numeric value of the various
alphabetical groups of words is divisible by seven.
·
The numeric value of the various
forms in which the words occur produce the same phenomenon.
The
above enumeration barely touches the
surface of the numerics Panin brought to light. He
challenged any man to write one paragraph
of 300 words intelligently and produce some numeric phenomena of like designs
and complete it in six months. Any
man who can it do it will prove himself a wonder.
No man has offered.
Many
of the Scriptures writers were men chosen from very ordinary walks in life,
having little or no schooling. If Matthew, Mark, Luke or John, for instance, had
attempted to write by unaided human wisdom, and produced the harmonious numeric
features found throughout their books and in each topic of their books, how long
would it have taken them? Remember that with each additional sentence the
difficulty of constructing on this plan increases in arithmetical and
geometrical progression, for they contrive to write each paragraph so as to
develop constantly fixed numeric relations to what goes before and comes after.
But an
even more amazing feature remains: the
number of words found in Matthew, not found in any other new Testament book,
displays elaborate numeric design. How
did Matthew know that he had used words that would not be used in any of the
other 26 books? He would have to have before him all these books, and would have
to have written last.
It so
happens, however, that each of the other
books shows the same phenomena. Did
each writer write last?
If not, then, is each of the writers a mind reader as well as a
literary and mathematical artist, never equaled and hardly even conceivable?
Panin
proceeded to prove by numerics that every book of our Bible carries such
features, that each one is necessary to cause the numerical scheme of the entire
Bible to work out correctly, and that nothing can be added to or subtracted from
the Bible, as we have it, without spoiling these features.
From
the first verse of Genesis to the last verse of Revelation, these divine
evidences are found. The God of nature is, therefore, proved to be the God of
Scripture. The quarrel of modern skeptics, therefore, is not with believers of
the Bible, but with God Himself.
But
seven is not the only number that proves of interest. There are equally
interesting developments with other numbers, all of which are significant in
their places.
Our
Bible has 66 books, of which some assign themselves to some author by name while
others are anonymous. Those which assign themselves, either in whole or in
part to certain writers, are as follows: Exo., Lev., Num., and Deut., ascribe
themselves at least in part to Moses, or are quoted as the works of Moses in
other parts of the Bible. Isa., Jer., Ezek., and the 12 Minor Prophets, ascribe
themselves to the writers whose names they respectively bear. Psalms is ascribed
to David. Prov. and Song of Sol. ascribe themselves to Solomon, and Eccl.
ascribes itself to "the son of David." Dan., Ezra, and Neh. ascribe
themselves to these respective writers. Jas., 1 and 2 Pet., and Jude bear the
names of the writers. The epistles of Paul, with exception of Heb., ascribe
themselves to Paul. Rev. ascribes itself to John. The anonymous books are
Gen., Josh., Judg., l and 2 Sam., 1 and 2 Kings, Job, Ruth, Lam., Esth., 1 and 2
Chron., Matt., Mk., Lk., Jno., Acts, 1, 2, and 3, Jno., and Heb.
Of the
writers named as the authors of the books of the Bible, some have ascribed to
them more than one book. Moses has 4, Solomon 3, Peter 2, Paul 13. Other writers
have only one book ascribed to them.
Now
bear in mind that the books of the Bible are, in the Hebrew Received Text and
the Greek Text, arranged differently from the English Bible. In the original
texts, the order is thus:
1. Gen
23. Zeph.
45. James
2. Ex.
24. Hag.
46. 1 Pet.
3. Lev.
25. Zech.
47. 2 Pet.
4. Num. 26.
Mall
48. 1 John
5. Deut. 27.
Psa.
49. 2 John
6. Josh. 28.
Prov.
50. 3 John
7. Judg. 29.
Job
51. Jude
8. 1 Sam. 30. S. of
Sol. 52. Rom.
9. 2 Sam. 31. Ruth
53. 1 Cor.
10. 1 Kings 32. Lam.
54. 2 Cor.
11. 2 Kings 33. Eccl.
55. Gal.
12. Isa. 34.
Esth.
56. Eph.
13. Jer. 35.
Dan.
57. Phil.
14. Ezek. 36. Ezra
58. Col.
15. Hos. 37.
Neh.
59. 1 Thes.
16. Joel 38.
1 Chr.
60. 2 Thes.
17. Amos 39. 2 Chr.
61. Heb.
18. Obad. 40. Matt.
62. 1 Tim.
19. Jonah 41. Mark
63. 2 Tim
20. Mic. 42.
Luke
64. Titus
21. Nah. 43. John
65. Phile.
22. Hab. 44. Acts
66. Rev.
The
number is 66, or 6 11's. The anonymous
books are 22, or 2 l 1's. The
non‑anonymous books are 44, or 4 11's.
Of these 44, 22, or 2 l l's belong to writers of more than one book, and
22 or 2 l l's belong to writers of only one book.
The sum of the 66 numbers or 6 11's is 2,211, 20 11's. This number is divided thus: the 22 books of the authors of
more than one book have 946 or 86 l 1's. The
other 44 have 1,265 or 115 11's.
Of the
66 books, 21 are epistles. Their
numbers are (James to Phile. ) 45‑65.
Now the sum 2,211 for the 66 books is divided thus between epistles and
non‑epistles: the epistles have 1,155 or 105 11's, and the
non‑epistles have 1,056 or 96 11's.
Moses,
David, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Hosea, Joel and Daniel are expressly quoted in the N.T.
The numbers of their books are 2,3,4,5,12,13,15,16,27,35.
The sum is 132 or 12 11’s.
Now
take the numeric
values of
the Bible authors (those to whom the books ascribe themselves), by adding up
the value of each letter.
Moses
345
Zechariah
242
Isaiah
401
Malachi
101
Jeremiah 271
David
14
Ezekiel
156
Solomon
375
Hosea
381
Daniel
95
Joel
47
Ezra
278
Amos
176
Nehemiah
113
Obadiah 91
James
833
Jonah
71
Haggi
21
Micah
75
Peter
755
Nahum 104
Jude
685
Habakkuk 216
Paul
781
Zephaniah 235
John
1069
Total: 7,931
11 x 7 x 103
The
sum is 721 11's. The sum of the factors 7, 11, and 103, is 121 or 11 11's.
The
presence of these factors of l l's in connection with the number, order and
names of writers is either accidental or designed.
That the number of books in the Bible should be a multiple of 11 might be
purely accidental. Since, however
only every 11th number is a multiple of 11, the chance for any being a multiple
of 11 is only 1 in 11.
That
this number be so divided between anonymous and non‑anonymous books that
each class be also a multiple of 11—this may also be accidental, but the
chance of this is only one in 11 X 11, or one in 121.
That
this number be so divided between anonymous by l l's among the authors of only
one book and those of more than one may be due to chance, but the chance of its
being accidental is only one in 11 X 11 X 11, or 1,331 .
Going
thus far through the 8 features of 11's noted, every one might be accidental,
but the chance for their being so is only one in the 8th power of 11, or one in
214,358,881.
Now
the sum of the numeric values of the authors (7,931) is also a multiple of 7.
Of this number the 21 writers of the O.T., or 3 7's, have 3,808, or 544
7's, and the N.T. writers have 4,123 or 589 7's. Of the 3,808 belonging to the
O. T., 2,933, or 419 7's belonging to the writers of the Law and the Prophets,
from Moses to Malachi, and 1,190 or 170 7's belong to the writers of the
so‑called Hagiographa, from David to Nehemiah.
Seven of the 21 O.T. writers, or one 7, are expressly named as such in
the N.T.; Moses, David, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Daniel, Hosea, Joel.
Their numeric value is 1,554 or 22 7's.
The numeric value of Moses, who heads the list, and John, who closes it,
345 and 1,069, make 1,414 or 202 7's.
The
Bible begins with the Hebrew word "beginning" and ends with the Greek
word hagios, "saint".
The Hebrew word occurs in the following books: Gen., Exo., Lev., Num.,
Deut., 1 Sam., Isa, Jer., Ezek., Hosea, Amos, Mic., Psa., Prov., Job, Eccl.,
Dan., Neh., 2 Chron. The Greek word occurs in the following N.T. books: Matt.,
Mk., Lk., Jno., Acts, 1 and 2 Peter, 1 Jno., Jude, Rom., 1 and 2 Cor., Eph.,
Phil., Col., 1 and 2 Thess., Heb., 1 and 2 Tim., Tit., Phile., Rev.
These books are 42 in number, or 6 7's. Take the respective numbers of
these books, in the order of their place, and their sum is 1,575 or 225 7's.
These
eight features of 7's in connection with the order and writers of the books may
also be accidental, but the chance for these features of 7's and l l's happening
together is one in billions.
It is
clearly shown that the present number of the books of the Bible is not
accidental but designed. It is seen
that the proportion between anonymous and non‑anonymous books is designed.
It is seen that the proportion between the number of books belonging to
one writer and the number of books belonging to writers of more than one book is
designed. It is seen that the
proportion in the Bible between epistles and nonepistles is designed.
It is seen that the number of books of writers quoted in the N.T. from
the O. T. is designed. It is seen
that the order of the Bible books in the Heb. and Greek is designed.
It is seen that the names of the 26 writers are designed.
On the
assumption of mere human authorship, these numeric phenomena in the order and
unanimity and non‑unanimity of the books are wholly unaccountable, but the
assumption that a Superior Mathematical MIND, the mathematical author of nature,
has planned these numerics (unwittingly by the writers themselves) at once
explains not only these phenomena, but thousands of similar ones that can be
brought forward.
Does
this mean that the critical scholars of the world and the atheists and infidels
will now all be brought to bend the knee to Jesus Christ and to accept the
Scriptures? NO,
indeed!
For scores of them who already have been confronted with these facts,
push them aside, saying either they have no time to investigate or they are not
interested in mathematics of the Bible. "The
world by wisdom knows not God," and "the natural man receiveth not the
things of the Spirit of God," no matter how strong may be evidences of
divine inspiration presented. If
the infinite Christ Himself could not convince the scholars of His day, no
numeric phenomena revealed in our day will convince those who do not want to be
convinced.
"This
is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men love darkness
rather than light, because their deeds are evil." The value of these
discoveries lies chiefly in their power to confirm the faith of born‑again
ones in these last days, encouraging them, like the great disclosures of
archaeology of these last days, to proclaim with renewed power the old Gospel,
which, accompanied by the convicting power of the Holy Spirit, is able to
break down the infidelity of those who are blinded by the enemy of souls.
Prof.
A. Gordon Melvin, of New York City, prominent in the field of secular education,
made a pilgrimage to Aldershot, Canada to see Dr. Panin, and the following
report was given us: "After
talking with Dr. Panin and looking over his work thoroughly, I feel it is time
for a concerted effort of those who know this work to make it available to
many who do not know of it. I find
that Dr. Panin has in his possession data in the form of numeric concordances
which represent years of labor."
Dr. W.
Bell Dawson, well‑known Canadian scientist, wrote us: "I quite concur in what you say about Dr. Panin's work,
which I have known for a number of years. I
am specially interested in its bearing on the decision between 'various
readings' which would be very valuable. I trust his great work may be followed up."
Dr. D.
M. Panton, editor of The Dawn and
well‑known Bible teacher of London, says:
"Mr. Panin's discovery, as astounding as any discovery that could be
made, is one of God's solvents for the final crisis.
It is the deathblow of all
disintegrating criticism, not alas, that the critics will be convinced, for
the foundations of their doubt lie far deeper than the intellect, and where
confirmed belief is confuted, it merely shifts its ground; nevertheless it
remains for all who appeal to the intellect, a response from the intellect, in
the mercy of God who meets every soul on its own grounds.
The destructive analyzer of the Scripture stands revealed as an infant
analyst in the grasp of a complexity of which he never dreamed.
Verbal inspiration is here mathematically proved, past all cavil.
The Scripture discloses itself as a parchment which, when held up to the
light, reveals the autograph of its Maker; a script that bears exactly that
imprint of a miraculous arithmetic which is borne by the snowflakes falling in
a flawless mathematical pattern, or by the perfect convolutions of a shell.
To Dr. Panin's critics I would say, ‘Do you challenge his figures?
If so, where are they wrong? If
not, his inferences are indisputable. You
can not argue with mathematics’.”
With
these indisputable FACTS before us, how utterly foolhardy it would be to turn
them aside and deliberately go on our way to an eternal HELL.
The Scriptures (the Word of God) distinctly place before us the two,
and only TWO, destinations for man:
Heaven or Hell. Every
individual will spend ETERNITY in one or the other of these two places.
Surely wisdom would dictate that we make sure of Heaven.
How wonderful, and eternally blessed that God in His love for us (for
all mankind) has made a WAY for all who will come to Him through the finished
Work of His Only Begotten Son on the Cross.
He tells us, "I am THE WAY, the Truth, and The Life:
No man cometh unto the Father, but by ME." (John 14:6). What folly to deny, or dispute with HIM!
And why?! Far better, yes,
wiser, to take the Publicans place and cry, "God be merciful to me, the
sinner," and receive the Savior so graciously given.
See John 3:16 and 1:12. His
Word is "COME," (Matt. 1 1:28). Come
"NOW." Tomorrow may be
too late. "Behold NOW is the
accepted time; behold NOW is the day of salvation" (2 Cor. 6 :2).
He still graciously cries, "Him that cometh to ME I will in no wise
cast out." (John 6:37). Came
to the Savior, Make no delay. Here
in His Word He's shown us the Way.
[This material was
discovered in a booklet (Tract No. 1219) published by Book Fellowship, Box 164,
N. Syracuse, N.Y. 13212]
This article and others on a similar subject matter can be found at:
http://www.bereanpublishers.co.nz. Click on Apologetics.