For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot [iota] or one
tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.
Matthew 5.18
The iota subscript is the smallest letter in the Greek language. It is easily overlooked
and mistaken for a mere diacritical mark as opposed to an actual letter that needs to be
included in the calculation of the numerical weights of the words. This all changed on
June 19, 2001 when Vernon Jenkins published his article
From First Principles in which he demonstrated the divine integration of Genesis 1.1 and John 1.1 which is fully dependent on the
inclusion of the iota subscript.
I was very skeptical when I first read his article because I had been studying Greek Gematria for a decade and had
never included the iota subscript in my calculations. I had about 18,000 entries in my Gematria database and
couldn't help but wonder how many would have to be altered. It was a very unsettling moment.
Would it destroy the Holographs I had
cherished all these years? But before worrying too much about the possible difficulties that may
arise from the truth, I chose to continue the race towards it and to see what was the reality of the iota
subscript.
My first effort was to find basic grammatical information about the iota subscript. Here is what it looks
like in the text of John 1.1:
These words mean "In the beginning was the word" and are pronounced "En archei en ho logos."
The iota subscript is the little mark under the last letter of the second word, archei.
Here is a magnification, with the iota subscript highlighted red:
All the other marks around these words are diacritical marks that are used to lead the reader to
correct pronunciation. They do not add meaning or affect the translation, and are missing in many manuscripts.
The iota subscript, on the other hand, is a true letter and does affect the meaning. This is explained in
the Greek Lesson
Iota Subscript and Diaeresis found at Christ.com.
Here is a statement found in that lesson:
Note that the iota subscript can be difficult to spot when reading, but is
important. It has no effect on pronunciation, but is definitely part of the
word, and affects the translation.
There are many online resources to help in the study of Greek,
and many of them discuss the iota subscript.
An excellent example is the work of Dr. Lorin Crawford, Professor of Religion in the
Department of Religious Studies and Philosophy at Gardner-Webb University. He has provided
abundant resources which can be accessed from his
personal site . In particular,
Lesson 3 (PDF format) in his basic
Greek series discusses the iota subscript and shows how it looks in uncial manuscripts.
Many other resources can be easily found by searching the web for "iota subscript".
After establishing the status of the subscript as a true letter that should at least be
considered in the study of the alphanumeric structure of Scripture, I then proceeded to take another look
at the Divine Prologue (John 1.1 - 1.5). The impact was overwhelming. As is clear from the hundreds
of articles on this site,
I have been studying Gematria in depth and in excruciating detail for
some years. During this time, I have
discovered astounding structures like the
Unity Holograph, the Logos Holograph
and the Grace Manifest Holograph. Likewise, I have done an extensive analysis of
Genesis 1.1 which also has impressed me with its incomparable divine design.
Given the profound beauty and divine intelligence revealed in the structure of many of the
most significant passages such as Genesis 1.1, Deuteronomy 6.4, and Hebrews 4.12, I remained
utterly disappointed in my analysis of the Divine Prologue of John.
Intuitively, I was convinced that it should have had a
structure akin to the Logos Holograph - how could it be that these verses had no obvious design to
them? During the last ten years, I revisited these verses time and time again, always feeling as if
I were missing something, but not knowing what. Though I had a database with some 18,000 alphanumeric
identities, essentially nothing integrated with John 1.1. How could this be?
It is my hope and prayer that this introduction will convey the kind of wonder and awe I experienced when
I analyzed the Divine Prologue in light of the iota subscript. The depth of divine integration is breathtaking!
My database immediately sprang to life! Here is a little of what I found within mere hours of analyzing
in the light of the smallest of letters:
This is explained in depth in the Creation Holograph article called The Divine
Prologue. The full explanation begins in the Genesis 1.1 article.
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