I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning
and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to
come, the Almighty.
Revelation 1.8
As is common knowledge amongst most scholars of the biblical languages, both
Hebrew and Greek are intrinsically alphanumeric, which means that the signs used to
denote letters also serve to represent numbers.
The correspondence between letter and number for the Greek alphabet is found on
inscriptions as far back as the fifth century BC, and the values given in
the Alphabet Table are found in many
standard Greek dictionaries.
Likewise, the Hebrew alphanumeric correspondence has been discovered on coins dating
from the second century BC, and to this day the chapters and verses in Hebrew
Bibles are indexed primarily using letters rather than Arabic numerals. As with
the Greek, these values may be found in most standard Hebrew dictionaries.
Simply stated, the alphanumeric structure of the alphabets is
incontrovertible; it is as well established as the alphabets themselves.
Historically, some of the most profound thinkers in the Jewish and Christian
communities have used this alphanumeric correlation to derive relations that
appear to be nothing less than a glorious divine revelation. Yet we must
understand that this.phpect of God’s Word is "strong meat" that "belongeth
to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses
exercised to discern both good and evil."
It must never be forgotten that there are portions of the Bible "in which are some
things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as
they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction." Many who have lacked a
proper foundation in the plain teachings of Scripture have erred greatly in
their abuse of God’s numerical system to “prove” their own fallible,
home-spun doctrines. Others erred simply because they lacked an understanding
and appreciation of mathematical beauty and truth. Such is what fills most,
though certainly not all, of the published treatises on this subject. That being
said, "let us go on unto perfection" to behold the incomparable wisdom of
God.
Law and Number
The Exodus from Egypt, which immediately preceded the reception of God’s
Law, the Torah, provides an apt example of the inherent precision of God’s
works. We read:
Now the sojourning of the children of Israel, who dwelt in Egypt, was four
hundred and thirty years. And it came to pass at the end of the four hundred and
thirty years, even the selfsame day it came to pass, that all the hosts of the
LORD went out from the land of Egypt.
Note the degree of exactitude expressed in this verse. God specified that the
Exodus began after the passage of four-hundred and thirty years to the very day.
Moses then led the Israelites to Mount Sinai where God made a covenant with them
and gave them the Torah, his Law.
Many centuries later, the Apostle Paul used these facts when he explained “that
the covenant, ... the law, which was four hundred and thirty years after” did
not destroy the original promise of righteousness through faith given to
Abraham. The word written in this verse, translated as Law, is
(nomos), the nominative form of the standard word used throughout the New Testament. In
accordance with the Table,
we derive the following identity:
Law
Nomos |
= 50 + 70 + 40 + 70 + 200 = 430 |
This presents the natural mind with quite a quandary. To deny, in the face of
this identity, that God’s hidden hand guided the development of History,
Scripture, and the Greek alphabet leaves one with a paltry set of possibilities.
At best, the scornful mouth may mutter something about "mere coincidence"
which would, perhaps, be an acceptable non-explanation if this identity did not
involve one of the most important words in all the Bible, and if God had not so
carefully established this relation through History and Scripture. Yet this is
but the beginning. It is generally understood that this study of alphanumeric
relations, called Gematria in Hebrew and Isopsephia in Greek, is precisely what
the Apostle John had in mind when he wrote:
Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the
beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore
and six.
As an aside, the Greek phrase translated as "the number of a man" has no
definite article in the Greek, so that it could accurately be translated as "the
number of man". This coheres with the significance of the Number Six as
revealed by the creation of Man on the Sixth Day and the prohibition against his
unjust destruction in the Sixth Commandment. The Number Six, encompassing both
the concepts of the creation and destruction of Man, is therefore the Number of
Man.
Returning to the main point, the word that John used in this verse,
translated as Number, is
(arithmos), the nominative form of the
standard Greek word used throughout the New Testament. This is the root of the
English 'arithmetic'. Thus we have a second identity:
Number
Arithmos |
= 1 + 100 + 10 + 9 + 40 + 70 + 200 = 430 |
Law and Number have an equal weight
when reckoned according to the intrinsic
alphanumeric structure of the Greek alphabet. They are both members of the
numerical category defined by the Number 430:
The Number 430 |
Law - |
Number - |
Just as the Cosmos was designed in accordance with exquisitely exact
numerical laws, so also the Word by which it was created. The miracle of God is
that sets such as this arise from the explicit message of Scripture coupled with
the intrinsic alphanumeric structure of the biblical languages. And like the
Bible itself, these languages form a completely self-consistent, indeed,
self-descriptive semantic system. The wisdom of God teaches itself to the
student through its own self-reflective symmetry and supernatural
self-consistency. It is as if God took the semantic coal of human language and
compressed it to form the purest diamond. And what a multi-faceted jewel it is!
What a polychromatic fountain of light it displays!
The self-descriptive property of the Hebrew alphabet manifests most elegantly
in its own name,
(Aleph-Beyt). This word, formed from the names of its
first two letters, gives rise to the following numerical value:
Alephbet
|
= 400 + 10 + 2 + 80 + 30 + 1 = 523 |
This large prime number coincides exactly with the value of the phrase
defining the beginning and end of the Aleph-Beyt1:
Aleph and Tav
Aleph V'Tav |
= 6 + 400 + 6 + 80 + 30 + 1 = 523 |
The Aleph-Beyt has the same weight, or magnitude, as the Aleph and Tav.
Numerically, they are the same size, reflecting the simple fact that they
encompass the same thing, the Hebrew alphabet. They are both elements of the
numerical category defined by the Number 523:
The Number
523 |
Aleph-Bet ( ) |
Aleph and Tav ( ) |
Further insight emerges when the composite word Aleph-Beyt is taken as an
acrostic, yielding the first word of the Hebrew language,
(Av, Father). Jesus
used the Aramaic form of this word when he said, "Abba, Father, all things are
possible unto thee." More generally, Av signifies the idea of the founder,
author, source or origin of something. No more fitting word could be set as the
fountainhead of the alphabet. Like the Bible itself, the alphabet begins in the
beginning, and it bears the title of its Author, God the Father.
Being composed
of an Aleph and a Bet, it encodes the ultimate purpose of the Alphabet, which was
designed to guide us to our Aleph Bet – Av – our heavenly Father. This is the wisdom given by our blessed Abba
Who teaches us our divine ABCs. It is the alphabet created by the everlasting
God, the Alpha and Omega, the Aleph and Tav, to reveal Himself to us. Glory to
God in the highest!
Alpha and Omega
Yet there is more. The only explicit references to any letters of the Greek
alphabet in the surface text of Scripture are from the verses in which God
declares I am Alpha and Omega. This gives rise to what is without
question one of the greatest identities to emerge from the intrinsic
alphanumeric structure of the Greek language. The value is:
Alpha + Omega
|
= 801 |
This value coincides with that of (Ho Ktisas, The Creator)
which Paul used in Romans 1. This word and its Hebrew equivalent Bara are discussed
in the Spoke 1 article
(cf. Creation)
where their frequency is shown to be integrated with the geometry of the Wheel.
Here is the context where the
term appears:
Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, And changed the glory of
the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds,
and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things. Wherefore God also gave them up to
uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies
between themselves: Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and
served the creature more than the
Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen.
The actual phrase written is
ton ktisanta, the accusative form of the absolute
.
Most literally, it means "He who is creating."
The exact nominative phrase
is found in the following ancient Greek texts, translated as indicated:
- Matthew 19.4: He who created (NU text)
- 3 Maccabees 2.3: the Creator
- Sirach 24.8: the Creator
The great miracle of God is that we have this mathematically exact identity:
The Creator
Ho Ktisas |
= 801 |
If God were to write His name in the stars of heaven and cause each bird to
sing Gloria Dei in one great chorus, would we have a greater witness to the
truth of the God of the Bible than what we find in this simple pair of
identities?
Yet there is more. When Jesus was baptized, God chose the form of a Dove to
identify Himself as the Holy Spirit. Since at or before the time of the early church father
Irenaeus (2nd century), it has been known that this relates to Alpha
and Omega via the simple identity:
Dove
Peristera |
= 801 |
Thus we have the three-fold set of alphanumeric identities that identify the Almighty Everlasting
God:
The Number
801 |
Alpha Omega ( ) |
The Creator( ) |
Dove ( ) |
Just as the identity Law = 430 unites the explicit biblical
message with the
intrinsic numerical values of the Greek alphabet, so now we witness the eternal nature of
God our Creator encoded in the first and last of these holy letters. If there
remained any doubt that the Lord God Almighty designed the Greek alphabet for
"the praise of the glory of his grace," this one identity should forever
dispel such folly. These identities are immutable, incontrovertible, and
absolutely uncontrived. They are derived from nothing but the eternal Word of
God analyzed in terms of the universally accepted values of the Greek and Hebrew
alphabets.
This means that the numerical identity relating the Creator to the
first and last letters of the Greek alphabet – in absolutely perfect agreement
with God’s own Word and the essence of the Eternal Deity – is, was, and
always will be enshrined in the intrinsic alphanumeric structure of the
God-given Greek language!
The Everlasting God
The results above cast an utterly new light upon the origin of language.
Nearly all modern scholars - in direct contradiction of biblical witness -
have thought and taught it to be a mere human invention. It now must be
understood as one of the greatest of all God’s works. Of course, this has alsways been common knowledge
to biblically literate Christians - In the beginning was the Word ....
Such an understanding is
entirely consistent with the Christian faith, which is fundamentally mystical,
as any genuine encounter with God must be. But this mystery will not always
remain hidden, for by grace our eyes may be opened, as declared by the Apostle
Paul when he said the "revelation of the mystery, which was kept secret since
the world began” has now been made manifest "according to the commandment of
the everlasting God." Though this verse was primarily speaking of the mystery
of "Christ in you," I am convinced that it also implies this
mystery seen in the numerical value of the nominative form of the phrase he
used:
The Everlasting God
Ho Aionios Theos |
= 1495 |
This value coincides exactly with the sum of the letters from Aleph to Tav,
thereby integrating this Greek title of God with the alphanumeric structure of
the Hebrew alphabet, and demonstrating that both alphabets were harmoniously
designed to bear the fullness of God’s self-revelation, which is the ultimate
purpose of all Scripture. Thus we have another set:
The Number 1495 |
The Everlasting God - |
Sum of the letters from Aleph to Tav |
This set is extremely significant as an example of the integration of the
alphanumeric structures of the Greek and Hebrew alphabets. Just as the apparent
distinction between the Hebrew and Greek Testaments fades when they are
integrated upon the Wheel, so also the apparent distinction between the Hebrew
and Greek languages fades when they are integrated via their intrinsic
alphanumeric structures. Bathed in the light of such revelation, mere words must
turn to song and sing the praises of our God who has given such gifts to his
children, for "Great is our Lord, and of great power: his understanding is
infinite!"
1) This phrase is formed from the names of the letters with the letter Vav
() prefixed to the second word, which is how the conjunctive, “and” is
indicated in Hebrew.
|