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[Wheel] > Fulfillment of Zechariah's Capstone Prophecies

Hear now, O Joshua the high priest, thou, and thy fellows that sit before thee: for they are men wondered at: for, behold, I will bring forth my servant the BRANCH. For behold the stone that I have laid before Joshua; upon one stone shall be seven eyes: behold, I will engrave the engraving thereof, saith the LORD of hosts, and I will remove the iniquity of that land in one day.

Zechariah 3:8-9 (Spoke 16, Cycle 2)

Behold! One Stone with Seven Eyes

Topics in this article

Divine Revelation is True Light. When the Spirit of God illuminates His Word, we know His Truth with the same certainty a blind man would have if he received sight. Everything suddenly comes into focus with perfect clarity. We can walk without stumbling in the Daylight of God's Word. All the pieces effortlessly fit together with supernatural grace when the vision of the Whole is received. Ten thousand witnesses lift their voices in unison to confirm God's Word. There is no perplexing doubt, no confusion. Scripture superabundantly conforms to its own reiterative command that "every word" must be established "in the mouth of two or three witnesses" (Deut 19:15, Mat 18:16, 2 Cor 13:1). There is nothing but light, Light, LIGHT that drives out any shadow of darkness. The Gates of Heaven are thrust open; the Divine Perfection of the Holy Word shines like the noontime sun in a cloudless sky for all to see. This is the overwhelming power of God's prophetic Capstone. Enigmatic clouds that have shrouded the self-reflective prophecies of God's Word given within the Word itself, such as Ezekiel's Wheels and Zechariah's Stone, simply evaporate in the light of its blazing glory.

Words based on Galal (to roll)

The revelation (galah) of the Divine Unity of all Scripture burst forth fully formed from the "single and surprisingly simple act" of rolling up (galal) the list of Sixty-Six Books like a scroll (megillah) on a spindle wheel (galgal) of Twenty-Two Spokes (BW book pg 16). God prophetically anticipated and confirmed its design by using the same alphabetic template as the foundation of Psalm 119, the great Psalm of His Word set as a jewel in the very heart of Scripture (BW book pg 17). The Wheel immediately exposed a host of "unanticipated correlations" spanning every aspect of the Holy Word, most notably its sevenfold symmetric perfection (BW book pg 33) which is now easily and unmistakably recognized as the fulfillment of Zechariah's prophecy of the One Stone with Seven Eyes.

The ONE STONE of Zechariah 3:9

Zechariah's vision of the One Stone is part of an extremely dense prophecy that has three primary applications. First, it applies to the time of Haggai and Zechariah when Joshua and Zerubbabel led the rebuilding of the Temple after their return from the Babylonian Exile. Second, it is a prophecy of the Spiritual Temple, the Church, built by the Lord Jesus Christ who is doubly signified by Joshua the High Priest and the Servant of the Lord, the BRANCH. Third, it is a prophecy of the Lord's Capstone which reveals the Divine Unity of all Scripture, the completion of the prophetic Temple of God's Word (BW book pg 180). Its description as one stone uses the Aleph KeyWord echat (one, the feminine form of echad, BW book pg 121). This emphasizes its unity. When echat follows a noun it usually means one in number, as opposed to a plurality, but it can also mean unified, as in the one language (saphah echat) of Genesis 11:1. This seems to be the intent here.

We touched upon this prophecy in the synopsis of Spoke 16 where we saw that the distribution of the name of the Sixteenth Letter, Ayin (Eye), is greatly maximized in Zechariah (BW book pg 299), and that the identification of the seven eyes with the "eyes of the Lord" (Zech 4:10) links it to 1 Peter 3:12 (Spoke 16, Cycle 3) which itself forms an Alphabetic KeyLink to the Ayin verse of AV Psalm 34 (BW book pg 293). This is one of the most amazing things about this prophecy – not only is it given on Spoke 16, governed by the letter Ayin (Eye), but it is also interwoven with an Alphabetic KeyLink to 1 Peter! Furthermore, the Book of 1 Peter also explains the full typological significance of Zechariah's prophecy, as we soon shall see.

The symbol of the eye naturally represents insight and intelligence, and when coupled with the Number Seven, omniscience, which is how almost all commentators understand the seven eyes. But the word Ayin can also denote a fountain of water or a facet of a gemstone. The "seven eyes" therefore can be understood as "seven fountains" (of wisdom) or "seven facets" or "aspects" of the One (unified) Stone of God's Word.

God marked this prophecy with a unique phrase – Hinney HaEhven (Behold the Stone) – to guide us to its meaning as a witness of His Word. This phrase is found in one and only one other passage, which "just happens" to speak of Joshua, a covenant, God's Book, and a "great stone" he set up as a witness of "all the words of the Lord":

Behold the Stone

So Joshua made a covenant with the people that day, and set them a statute and an ordinance in Shechem. And Joshua wrote these words in the book of the law of God, and took a great stone, and set it up there under an oak, that was by the sanctuary of the LORD. And Joshua said unto all the people, Behold the stone, this shall be a witness unto us; for it hath heard all the words of the LORD which he spake unto us: it shall be therefore a witness unto you, lest ye deny your God.

Joshua 24:25ff

The stone bore witness of all the words of the Lord written in His Book. This follows the pattern of the Ten Commandments that were originally engraved on Two Stone Tablets by the very "finger" of God Himself (Exo 31:18). The Tablets of Testimony – the prototypical Word of God – were later placed in the Ark of the Covenant in the Holy of Holies of the Tabernacle, prefiguring the incarnation of the Son of God, when the Living Word "became flesh and dwelt (lit. tabernacled) amongst us" (John 1:14, BW book pgs 138, 355). And just as God Himself engraved the two Stone Tablets, so also He declares that He Himself "will engrave the engraving" of the One Stone with Seven Eyes. The intended implications are obvious – God's Word is permanent and unchangeable, sure and secure, eternally WRITTEN IN STONE.

Jesus used this symbolism when He likened His Word to a Rock, saying "Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine [His Word], and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock" (Mat 7:24). And as would be expected given the integrated thematic and geometric structure of the Wheel, God presented the symbolic relation between Stone and the Word with the utmost clarity in the First Epistle of the Apostle Peter (The Rock, Matthew 16:16ff), which aligns with Zechariah on Spoke 16:

Wherefore laying aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speakings, As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby: If so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious. To whom coming, as unto a Living Stone, disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God, and precious, Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house [tabernacle], an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. Wherefore also it is contained in the Scripture, Behold, I lay in Zion a chief corner stone, elect, precious: and he that believeth on him shall not be confounded. Unto you therefore which believe he is precious: but unto them which be disobedient, the stone which the builders disallowed, the same is made the head of the corner, And a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offence, even to them which stumble at the Word, being disobedient: whereunto also they were appointed.

1 Peter 3:1ff (Spoke 16, Cycle 3)

Here we see the Written Word – Scripture – presented in parallel with the Living Stone, a typological image of Jesus Christ. The disobedient stumble over the Written Word just as they stumble over the Living Word/Stone. Furthermore, this passage links back to Zechariah to illuminate the typological meaning of his prophecies concerning the rebuilding of the literal historical Temple after the Babylonian Exile. They are a pre-image of the building of the True Temple, the Body of Christ (John 2:21), with each member typified as a living stone on the pattern of Christ as the prototypical Living Stone in whom we all are "fitly framed together" to grow into a "holy temple in the Lord" (Eph 2:21). Thus both Christ and each believer is likened to the Temple in which God is made present in the world, for we are the Temple of God (1 Cor 6:19). Christ is in us and we are in Christ. This is our "hope of glory" (Col 1:27).

The density of typological imagery can be very challenging to the excessively rationalistic modern mind that wants to explain Scripture in terms of "this means that and only that." Such thinking manifestly contradicts the way that God Himself presents His Truth in the Bible in which the symbols overlap. This follows the principles of stereoscopic vision in which two slightly different overlapping images are used to achieve depth perception. Christ is simultaneously presented as the foundational Cornerstone (Alpha/Aleph) and the finishing Capstone (Omega/Tav) even as both He and His Body are represented by the entire Temple with Him as the Head (Rosh) of His Church, "which is his body, the fullness of him that filleth all in all" (Eph 1:23).

Having established the symbolic meaning of Stone as a witness of God's Word, we now can easily understand the parallel vision given in Revelation 5 when the Apostle John saw the Lamb with Seven Eyes (Jesus) receive the Book sealed with Seven Seals (Bible):

And I saw in the right hand of him that sat on the throne a book written within and on the backside, sealed with seven seals. And I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, Who is worthy to open the book, and to loose the seals thereof? And no man in heaven, nor in earth, neither under the earth, was able to open the book, neither to look thereon. And I wept much, because no man was found worthy to open and to read the book, neither to look thereon. And one of the elders saith unto me, Weep not: behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, hath prevailed to open the book, and to loose the seven seals thereof. And I beheld, and, lo, in the midst of the throne and of the four beasts, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God sent forth into all the earth. And he came and took the book out of the right hand of him that sat upon the throne.

Revelation 5:1-7

Zechariah saw One Stone with Seven Eyes (Bible) placed before Joshua (Jesus) just as John saw the Lamb with Seven Eyes (Jesus) receive the Book with Seven Seals (Bible). These visions are one. In both cases, we have a revelation of the Living Word in conjunction with a sevenfold object representing the Written Word, quite literally in the case of Revelation where the object itself is a book. We have here two independent witnesses that mutually corroborate the prophetic revelation of the sevenfold unity of God's Word. Just as Ezekiel's vision reveals the Bible as a "wheel within a wheel" so the visions of Zechariah 3 and Revelation 5 point to its sevenfold structure. Yet there is more. God gave yet another witness in the subsequent vision of Zechariah 4 that explicitly reveals its full integration with the sevenfold Menorah, which, as will be recalled, was designed by God Himself (Exo 25:40, pg 47).

Zechariah's Prophetic Vision of the Whole Bible

And the angel that talked with me came again, and waked me, as a man that is wakened out of his sleep, And said unto me, What seest thou? And I said, I have looked, and behold a candlestick [menorah] all of gold, with a bowl upon the top of it, and his seven lamps thereon, and seven pipes to the seven lamps, which are upon the top thereof: And two olive trees by it, one upon the right side of the bowl, and the other upon the left side thereof. So I answered and spake to the angel that talked with me, saying, What are these, my lord? Then the angel that talked with me answered and said unto me, Knowest thou not what these be? And I said, No, my lord.

Then he answered and spake unto me, saying, This is THE WORD OF THE LORD unto Zerubbabel, saying, Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the LORD of hosts. Who art thou, O great mountain? before Zerubbabel thou shalt become a plain: and he shall bring forth THE HEADSTONE thereof with shoutings, crying, GRACE, GRACE UNTO IT. ...

Then answered I, and said unto him, What are these two olive trees upon the right side of the candlestick and upon the left side thereof? And I answered again, and said unto him, What be these two olive branches which through the two golden pipes empty the golden oil out of themselves? And he answered me and said, Knowest thou not what these be? And I said, No, my lord. Then said he, These are the two anointed ones, that stand by the Lord of the whole earth.

Zechariah Chapter 4 (Spoke 16, Cycle 2)

If ever there were a time when "all the pieces" effortlessly fell together with supernatural grace, it was in December 2003 when my wife and I were discussing this prophecy. It had been more than eight years since I had first discovered the Wheel, and about four years since I had noticed its integration with the Menorah (BW book pg 48). But I had yet to understand the meaning of the Two Olive Trees, primarily because I spent most of my time focused on a much finer level of detail as I explored the endless links amongst the three Books on each of the Twenty-Two Spokes. But on this day we were just chatting, taking in a high-level view of the prophecy. I suddenly had a flash of insight and said "I wonder if they are the Two Testaments?" I did a quick internet search to see if anyone else had ever suggested this interpretation and once again found myself sitting in utter astonishment. As it turns out, I was not the first to think this thought. No, not by a long shot. One of the earliest records is from the Explanatio Apocalypsis (Explanation of the Apocalypse) written by the Venerable Bede around 710 AD, whom we also encountered in the discussion of the Song of Songs (BW book pg 74). Here's what he had to say about the Two Olive Trees This link takes you off the Bible Wheel site and opens a new window in Revelation 11, which, as he noted, correspond to those in Zechariah:

OLIVE TREES: The Church is irradiated by the light of the TWO TESTAMENTS, and ever waits upon the commands of the Lord. So also the prophet Zechariah saw one candlestick with seven branches, and these TWO OLIVE-TREES, that is, TESTAMENTS, pouring oil into the candlestick. This is the Church with its oil, which never fails, which makes it shine for the light of the world.

Many hold this interpretation to this day. Here is how Dr. James Burton Coffman put it in his entry on Zechariah 4 This link takes you off the Bible Wheel site and opens a new window in his thirty-seven volume Commentary on the Bible:

The central features of [this vision] are the seven branched golden candlestick and the two olive trees, one on each side of it. Fortunately, we do not need to rely upon the subjective guesses of liberal commentators for the interpretation of this vision, which in the light of related passages of the Bible appears simple and easily understood. The golden candlestick from the very first appearance of it in the ancient tabernacle TYPIFIED THE WORD OF GOD by virtue of its being the only light in the sanctuary representing both Israels of God. Zechariah's vision adds a significant detail to the metaphorical candlestick of the tabernacle, namely, the two olive trees; but that merely changed the symbolism to show the source of THE WORD OF GOD, i.e., the OLIVE TREES, which undoubtedly stand for THE OLD AND NEW TESTAMENTS.

Coffman recognized the whole vision as a revelation of God's Word, a view he supported with citations from two other scholars (Coffman's emphasis):

The first six words of the angel's explanation contain the whole explanation: THIS IS THE WORD OF JEHOVAH! As Unger observed:

"Zechariah's vision was THE WORD OF THE LORD, vitally real and effective for the pressing problems of the hour in which it was initially revealed."

Nor should the meaning of it be restricted to that immediate portion of the word of the Lord addressed to Zerubbabel. ... Gill properly discerned the meaning thus: "The multiple menorah of the vision represents the Word of God to Zerubbabel and through him to the people," a most excellent demonstration that it is the candlestick of God's Word that provided guidance for Israel.

Like Bede, Coffman understood the Menorah as a symbol of the Church, but went on to note that it is also a symbol of God's Word:

As for the meaning of this candlestick: "It symbolizes the Jewish Theocracy, and ultimately the Church." It also undoubtedly symbolizes "the Word of God," as revealed in verse 6. The whole figure is that of the Jewish theocracy holding forth the Word of God for all the world in the pre-Christian centuries. This vision placed the candlestick, not in a sanctuary, but in the world, hence the necessary application to the true Israel of God among the Jews. This also represents the Church, because the first Israel was a type of the second Israel. Moreover, the function of the Church today is the same as God's intended use of the old Israel to spread his truth and that through them and by such means, "All the families of the earth should be blessed" (Genesis 12:3).

We saw the same symbolic overlap with the Stone that simultaneously represents Christ, His Word, and His Church. We are in Him only if His Word abides in us:

I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing. If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned. If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.

John 15:5-7

With this insight into the meaning of the Two Olive Trees, we can now easily behold the stunning fulfillment of Zechariah's prophesy in the revelation of the Bible Wheel.

Zerubbabel Brings Forth the Capstone

Then he answered and spake unto me, saying, This is THE WORD OF THE LORD unto Zerubbabel, saying, Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the LORD of hosts. Who art thou, O great mountain? before Zerubbabel thou shalt become a plain: and he shall bring forth THE HEADSTONE thereof with shoutings, crying, GRACE, GRACE UNTO IT.

Zechariah 4:6f (Spoke 16, Cycle 2)

The Capstone

The word headstone is a very literal translation of the Hebrew phrase Ehven HaRoshah found in the verse above. Others render it as capstone (NKJV, NIV), top stone (NASB, NRSV), final stone (NLT), and excellent stone (JPS). We are familiar with rosh as head from the review of Spoke 20. God used it as a KeyWord in one of the Resh verses of AV Psalm 119:

Thy word is true from the beginning (rosh): and every one of thy righteous judgments endureth for ever.

AV Psalm 119:160

This links back to the first word of the Bible, Bereshith (BW book pg 89), which is based on the root rosh (head, beginning) prefixed with a Bet to signify the preposition "in" (BW book pg 138). It is a double entendre; God's Word is true from the beginning (rosh), indeed, from its very first word, Bereshith! This also links to the theme of Wisdom – a primary characteristic of God's Word – symbolized by the Twentieth Letter (BW book pg 337). The words ehven (stone) and rosh (head) also appear together in the corresponding prophecy of Psalm 118:

This gate of the LORD, into which the righteous shall enter. I will praise thee: for thou hast heard me, and art become my salvation. The stone (ehven) which the builders refused is become the head of the corner (rosh pinnah). This is the LORD’S doing; it is marvellous in our eyes. This is the day which the LORD hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it. Save now, I beseech thee, O LORD: O LORD, I beseech thee, send now prosperity. Blessed be he that cometh in the name of the LORD: we have blessed you out of the house of the LORD.

Head of the Corner

This is an exceedingly significant prophecy. All three synoptic Gospels quote Christ using it to describe Himself as the stone which the builders rejected, and all Four Gospels record the cry of the crowd "Blessed be he that cometh in the name of the Lord" that attended His Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem. The word pinnah denotes a corner, or turning point. It is from the verb panah meaning to turn as we have seen a number of times (BW book pgs 306, 387). The phrase "head of the corner" is a very literal translation of rosh pinnah, as is the Greek phrase kephale gonia which Peter used in his first Epistle when he quoted Psalm 118:22. Here is how the Theological Dictionary of the New Testament describes this term:

In the NT kephale gonia is consistently used of Christ. According to Mk 12:10 Jesus described Himself as the stone, rejected by the builders, which has been chosen by God as the chief cornerstone in the heavenly sanctuary. The saying is one of the lofty declarations of Jesus in which He relates Himself to the heavenly sanctuary. He is not merely the final stone, i.e., the Consummator, but also the Builder of the new temple (Mk. 14:58; cf. Mt. 16:18). ... With this description we are to link very closely the lofty predicates which describe Jesus as the cosmic rock dispensing the water of life.

The "chief cornerstone" is also denoted by the Greek word akrogoniaios, from the roots akro (sharp, pointed, or angular) and gonia (corner). This word is used in Ephesians 2:20f:

And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone (akrogonaiaos); In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord:

Here is how two Greek dictionaries define it:

Analytical Lexicon of the Greek New Testament: akrogoniaios: literally lying at the extreme angle; cornerstone; capstone, the final stone placed at the top of a building structure to integrate it; figuratively, of the place of Christ in the believing community (Eph 2:20)

Theological Dictionary of the New Testament: akrogoniaios: The "final stone" in a building, probably set over the gate. In the NT the word is found only in 1 Pt. 2:6 (= Isa 28:16) and Eph. 2:20, in both cases with reference to Christ. Eph. 2:20, like 1 Pt. 2:6, describes the community as a spiritual temple. The apostles and prophets are the foundation, and Christ is the cornerstone who binds the whole building together and completes it (Eph 2:20 f). Underlying the image is the lofty declaration of Jesus that He is the final stone in the heavenly sanctuary.

Jerusalem Cross on Keystone over chapel door  at Golgotha
Jerusalem Cross This link takes you off the Bible Wheel site and opens a new window on Keystone
over chapel door at Golgotha

When the Headstone is placed at the top turning point in an arch, it is called a Keystone. It bears the weight and holds the arch together as all the other stones lean on it. This is an excellent symbol of Christ who bore the weight of all our sins on the Cross at Golgotha. This is the Keystone that holds the whole Bible together, revealed in the final letter Tav (BW book pg 366). The phrase "chief cornerstone" can denote either a foundation stone or a top stone depending on context. Both apply to Christ, as explained by Matthew Henry with regards to Psalm 118:22:

His exaltation. He has become the headstone of the corner; He is advanced to the highest degree both of honour and usefulness, to be above all, and all in all. He is the chief cornerstone in the foundation, in whom Jew and Gentile are united, that they may be built up one holy house. He is the chief top-stone in the corner, in whom the building is completed, and who must in all things have the pre-eminence, as the author and finisher of our faith. Thus highly has God exalted him, because he humbled himself; and we, in compliance with God’s design, must make him the foundation of our hope, the centre of our unity, and the end of our living. To me to live is Christ.

Though similar words are used to describe both the foundational Cornerstone and the crowning Capstone, we know that the Ehven HaRoshah is the Final Stone because Zerubbabel had already laid the foundation before he brought it forth:

And he shall [future tense] bring forth the Headstone [Ehven HaRoshah] thereof with shoutings, crying, grace, grace unto it. Moreover the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, The hands of Zerubbabel have laid [past tense] the foundation (Alpha/Aleph) of this house; his hands shall [future tense] also finish it (Omega/Tav); and thou shalt know that the LORD of hosts hath sent me unto you.

The true miracle of the Capstone Prophecies is that they fully integrate the revelation of the Divine Unity of the Written Word with the essential Gospel message of Christ. We have seen this repeatedly throughout this study, most notably in the word galgal (wheel) which simultaneously describes the Bible's structure even as it points to its central message, the crucifixion of Christ at the Place of the Skull (Golgotha). God engraved the Gospel itself in the body of His Holy Word, as He said, "I will engrave the engraving thereof" (Zech 3:9).

The Stone of Division

Moreover the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this house; his hands shall also finish it; and thou shalt know that the LORD of hosts hath sent me unto you. For who hath despised the day of small things? for they shall rejoice, and shall see the Plummet in the hand of Zerubbabel with those seven; they are the eyes of the LORD, which run to and fro through the whole earth.

Zechariah 4:8ff

The Stone of Division

A plummet is a standard building tool made from a line with a weight and used to determine if a wall is plumb, that is, vertical or true. The Hebrew words translated as plummet, Ehven HabBadeel, literally denote a "stone of tin," the latter term being based on the Bet KeyWord badal (to divide) which was discussed at length on Spoke 2 (BW book pg 144). It is generally assumed that badeel acquired its meaning as tin because tin is separated from silver or gold by smelting. The idea of a "plummet" is not actually present in the text. Translators inferred it in their efforts to understand the meaning of the "tin stone." The Bible produced by the Jewish Publication Society, the standard used in most synagogues today, renders it quite literally (and accurately, I believe), as the Stone of Distinction. It gives us a third view of the Capstone as the One Stone that reveals the perfect symmetry of the seven divisions of the Holy Word, as is emphasized in the passage above with the words "they shall rejoice, and shall see the Ehven HabBadeel in the hand of Zerubbabel with those seven." It is, therefore, literally a Stone of Division. It is particularly striking that the vertical line of bilateral symmetry divides between the Aleph and the Tav. Thus Zechariah's visions give us three views of the Bible Wheel:

  1. THE ONE STONE (Ehven Echat): The Aleph KeyWord echat (one) signifies the perfect unity of the Bible Wheel, specifically the seven eyes (canonical divisions).
  2. THE CAPSTONE (Ehven HaRoshah): The Resh KeyWord rosh (head) signifies the Bible Wheel as the culmination and apex of the revelation of the Divine Unity of God's Written Word.
  3. THE STONE OF DIVISION (Ehven HabBadeel): The Bet KeyWord badeel (division) signifies that its design is based on "rightly dividing the Word of God" (1 Tim 2:15, pg 246) according to the seven canonical divisions and the Hebrew Alphabet. It also is the "Stone of Distinction" in the same sense as the Ehven HaRoshah is the "Premier Stone" or "Stone of Preeminence."

The Golden Bowl - The Revealer

And said unto me, What seest thou? And I said, I have looked, and behold a candlestick (menorah) all of gold, with a bowl (gullah) upon the top of it, and his seven lamps thereon, and seven pipes to the seven lamps, which are upon the top thereof: And two olive trees by it, one upon the right side of the bowl, and the other upon the left side thereof.

Zechariah 4:1ff

Related Words

Zechariah's vision of the golden menorah is similar to the one God revealed to Moses. The difference is in the surrounding images of the two olive trees and the golden bowl with the seven pipes that fed oil to each of the seven lamps. Here the word translated as bowl is gullah, from the root galal. It primarily means "a round thing." It is spelt with exactly the same Letters as galah (to reveal), only the vowel points differ. This word appears in conjunction with galgal in Ecclesiastes 12:3:

Or ever the silver cord be loosed, or the golden bowl (gullah) be broken, or the pitcher be broken at the fountain, or the wheel (galgal) broken at the cistern.

Saint Gregory identified the symbol of the bowl with the Wheel of God's Word in his comment on Ezekiel 1:15 in his Homilies on Ezekiel This link takes you off the Bible Wheel site and opens a new window:

Just as the teaching of prophecy is interpreted as a bowl in [the menorah of] Moses, so Holy Scripture itself is here meant by the wheel.

In the original menorah, each side-branch had a three bowls, with four bowls on the central branch (Exo 25:33f):

Three bowls made like unto almonds, with a knop and a flower in one branch; and three bowls made like almonds in the other branch, with a knop and a flower: so in the six branches that come out of the candlestick. And in the [central] candlestick shall be four bowls made like unto almonds, with their knops and their flowers.

The Menorah therefore has a total of Twenty-Two Bowls since each side branch has three and the central branch four, yielding 6 x 3 . 4 = 22. The text distinguishes these bowls from the gullah standing above Zechariah's Menorah by using a different word, gavia. Rabbinic tradition teaches that these correspond to the Twenty-Two Letters of the Hebrew Alphabet, the containers (delimiters) of God's creative impulse. I concur, though the details must wait for a later book. For now, the significant point is that the Menorah represents three fundamental aspects of the Bible Wheel:

  1. The Seven Branches correspond to the Seven Canonical Divisions of the Bible Wheel.
  2. The Twenty-Two Bowls correspond to the Twenty-Two Letters that define the Wheel.
  3. The fact that it is a lamp fulfills AV Psalm 119:105: "Thy Word is a Lamp."

And now we are able to see with great simplicity and perfect clarity how Zechariah's visions, given over 400 years before Christ, prophesied the complex structure of the entire Bible:

  • The Two Olive Trees are the Two Testaments (Old and New) that testify (bear witness) to the Lord of all the earth.
  • The Two Olive Trees (Testaments) pour the Golden Oil of Spirit-Inspired Books through two Golden Pipes into the Golden Bowl (Gullah).
  • The Golden Bowl is the Revealer, the One Stone with Seven Eyes, the Capstone, the Stone of Division. It is the Bible Wheel that reveals the sevenfold symmetric perfection of the Bible and its supernatural integration with the Twenty-Two Hebrew Letters.
  • The Seven Golden Pipes distribute the Golden Oil (Inspired Books) from each of the Seven Canonical Divisions revealed by the Golden Bowl to the Seven Lamps of the Golden Menorah, to enlighten the whole world with the everlasting Light of God's Word through the power of the Holy Spirit.

Tehillah (Praise) spelt by the distribution of books on the MenorahThe image below graphically displays all these ideas. I marked the Seven Lamps with the number of corresponding Books so that we can see the repeated 5-12-5 symmetry. Each pair of branches represents divisions with the same number of Books. They are marked by the corresponding Hebrew Letter where they meet on the central branch. When read from top to bottom, the Seven Canonical Divisions spell the Tav KeyWord Tehillah which we discussed at the very end of Spoke 22 in the section called "Universal Praise and Worship" (BW pg 374):

  • My mouth shall speak the praise (tehillah) of the LORD: and let all flesh bless his holy name for ever and ever. AV Ps 145:21

This means that the numbers of the Books symmetrically placed on the arms of the Menorah alphanumerically spell the Tav KeyWord PRAISE! The Wheel has another message engraved in its body: PRAISE TO THE LORD GOD ALMIGHTY! It is the everlasting declaration of His Praise that will be the joy of every soul redeemed by the Lamb in the new heaven and earth. It is this message, based on the Tav KeyWord Tehillah that appears now at the consummation of the age, when we perceive the Divine Unity of the whole body of Scripture.

The Bible Wheel fulfills each and every detail of the prophecies of both Ezekiel's Wheels and the Stones and Menorah revealed in the third and fourth chapters of Zechariah. It is the Capstone of the Bible! Who can but cry "Grace, grace unto it!"? This revelation brings us one step closer to the day when "the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea" (Hab 2:14), and when "the LORD shall be king over all the earth" and there shall be "one LORD, and his name one" (Zech 14:9). I pray that day come soon! Come King Jesus!

ALL THY WORKS SHALL PRAISE THEE, O LORD; and thy saints shall bless thee. They shall speak of the glory of thy kingdom, and talk of thy power; To make known to the sons of men his mighty acts, and the glorious majesty of his kingdom. Thy kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and thy dominion endureth throughout all generations.

Psalm 145:10ff


Zechariah's Vision of the Whole Bible






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