Twelve and Scripture

Holding fast the faithful word as he hath been taught, that he may be able by sound doctrine both to exhort and to convince the gainsayers. For there are many unruly and vain talkers and deceivers, specially they of the circumcision: Whose mouths must be stopped, who subvert whole houses, teaching things which they ought not, for filthy lucre's sake.

Titus 1.9f

The letter Lamed represents the "rod of the teacher." It is the "pointer letter" - that's why its taller than the rest. And just as the role of the teacher is to point to the Truth, so the grammatical function of Lamed is to indicate the propositions "to", "for", "according to", and so forth, as discussed in the Lamed Alphabetic Verses.

If any Spoke displays the Wisdom of God, it is here on Spoke 12 governed by Lamed, the Teaching Letter. The theme manifests throughout the various Books, Inner Cycles, and Alphabetic Verses associated with Lamed. It gives great insight into the Number 12 and why God used it so prominently in His Word. I begin with the most obvious association, the Twelve Disciples, or Students, of the Master Teacher, the Lord Jesus Christ. This theme also manifests in the History of the World with the Twelfth Century Renaissance of Learning.

12 Disciples (Students/Limudim)

The first and foremost meaning of the Number 12 shines with such splendor! All we who are disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ can rejoice in the light of His infinite intelligence. He is our Master Teacher and we are his Limudim (S# H3928), which is Hebrew for disciples, learners, or students. This word appears in Isaiah 8:13f:

Sanctify the LORD of hosts himself; and let him be your fear, and let him be your dread. And he shall be for a sanctuary; but for a stone of stumbling and for a rock of offence to both the houses of Israel, for a gin and for a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem. And many among them shall stumble, and fall, and be broken, and be snared, and be taken. Bind up the testimony, seal the law among my disciples.

Isaiah 8:13f

Lamud (Disciple) is spelt with the same letters as Lamed and Lamad, just pronounced differently. Thus Christ had Twelve Limudim, that is 12 Lameds!

This integration of the idea of Learning, the Letter Lamed, and the Number 12 is extremely strong. When God led Peter to quote the verse above He also connected it to one of the primary activities of a true Limud; that is, to teach! We read:

But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear:

1 Peter 3:15

This is why Lamed means both to learn and to teach. How can you teach if you don't learn? And why learn if you are not going to give it to another?

12 OT History and 12 Minor Prophets

The Number 12 plays an extremely significant role in the structure of Scripture. It measures the size of the two symmetric canonical divisions of the Word - the Living Bread that feeds all Limudim/Disciples of the Lord. Thus we understand the its appearance in the Feeding of the Five Thousand and the 12 Baskets that remained.

12 Baskets Remaining

When Jesus then lifted up his eyes, and saw a great company come unto him, he saith unto Philip, Whence shall we buy bread, that these may eat? And this he said to prove him: for he himself knew what he would do. Philip answered him, Two hundred pennyworth of bread is not sufficient for them, that every one of them may take a little.

One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, saith unto him, There is a lad here, which hath five barley loaves, and two small fishes: but what are they among so many? And Jesus said, Make the men sit down. Now there was much grass in the place. So the men sat down, in number about five thousand. And Jesus took the loaves; and when he had given thanks, he distributed to the disciples, and the disciples to them that were set down; and likewise of the fishes as much as they would. When they were filled, he said unto his disciples, Gather up the fragments that remain, that nothing be lost. Therefore they gathered them together, and filled twelve baskets with the fragments of the five barley loaves, which remained over and above unto them that had eaten. Then those men, when they had seen the miracle that Jesus did, said, This is of a truth that prophet that should come into the world.

John 6:5ff

The miraculous feeding of the Five Thousand and remaining Twelve Baskets of leftovers is one of the few accounts that is recorded in all Four Gospels. This establishes a very strong association between the Number 12 and the elements of this story. It is then astounding to find that this miracle was itself first established in II Kings - the Twelfth Book! Searching the entire Bible for all verses that speak of barley loaves yields exactly two: John 6.13 quoted above, and 2 Kings. I begin a verse 4:42:

And there came a man from Baalshalisha, and brought the man of God bread of the firstfruits, twenty loaves of barley, and full ears of corn in the husk thereof. And he said, Give unto the people, that they may eat. And his servitor said, What, should I set this before an hundred men? He said again, Give the people, that they may eat: for thus saith the LORD, They shall eat, and shall leave thereof. So he set it before them, and they did eat, and left thereof, according to the word of the LORD.

2 Kings 4:42 (Spoke 12, Cycle 1)

The thematic integration is perfect. In both cases we have God feeding many by the Word of the Lord. This is a different kind of KeyLink, it is a link between the thematic use of the Number 12 in the text of Scripture with the order of the Canon.

The numbers used in John are profoundly integrated with the structure of Scripture:

• 2 Fishes: These represent the Two Covenants, the primary division of Scripture in the Old and New Testaments. This is deeply integrated via Thread 3 - Gematria - as explained in the article on the Number 612 = Covenant = Scripture.
• 5 Loaves: The Number 5 is the Number of Life. The Five Loaves therefore have a double association with Christ as the Bread of Life (note the Five Wounds in the broken Bread) and with the Bible as the Manna God feeds His People. Taking the latter sense, we immediately recognize the extremely strong association of the Number 5 with the structure of Scripture. Four of the seven canonical divisions contain five books each, and the size of the divisions - 5, 12, and 22 - are the second, third, and fourth terms in the Pentagonal Number sequence. Clearly, there is a deep connection between the Number 5, the Geometry of Life, and the Living Word!
• 12 Baskets: The Numbers 5 and 12 combine to define the sevenfold symmetric perfection of the Holy Bible, the Book God gave to teach His children. It is the Bread from Heaven that feeds the children of God.

The Elect

We study under Him - He is the Good Teacher. The pattern of Twelve Disciples originated in the Twelve Tribes. In both cases, the Number 12 is used by God as a symbol of the Elect. Revelation 14 then intensifies the relation by using the Number 144,000 which is 1000 times (Aleph means 1000 = He Who Overcomes). It is then a great marvel to behold the fundamental Greek identity:

This integrates with the Twelve Disciples (Limudim) - that is, the Twelve Lameds = 12 x 12 = 144 = The Elect. This is a double integration, with 144 = 12₇ (Spoke 12, Cycle 7) linking to the Inner Cycle of the Psalms (Level 2) as explained in Psalm 144: The Lord Teacheth Me. The "Elect" refers to those called out, the ek - Loge, selected (pointed out) by God Himself before the foundation of the earth. Its a very "Lamed - like" action, though the election as a concept originates in Aleph (God, Genesis, Avraham, etc) and Spoke 1 (cf. The Pot and the Potter).