Numerology is the study of the occult meanings and esoteric relationship between numbers. Arithmomancy, also called arithmancy, from the Greek arithmos (“number”) and manteia (“divination”), was practiced by the ancients and was the predecessor to what we now call modern numerology.
The most commonly accepted use of numerology pertains the “number of the beast,” 666, from the biblical Revelation to John (13:18). Curiously, Revelation is the 66th book in the Bible, and the number of the beast occurs in verse 18, which is 6 + 6 + 6. The name Jesus in Greek has the numerological value 888, three repetitions of the number 8, which is often considered to be something other than a coincidence.
One of the interesting features of Hebrew and Greek is that in both written languages there are no numeric characters. Where we have numbers and letters, they have only letters. So, in each language, the letters are also used as numbers, and this is how numerology got started.
Almost any number can have religious significance. Take the number twelve. There were 12 tribes of Israel; 12 Apostles, 12 foundations in the heavenly Jerusalem; 12 gates; 12 pearls; 12 angels. The measurements of New Jerusalem are 12,000 furlongs or stadia, while the wall will be 144 (12 x 12) cubits.
Do hidden messages in the Bible prove it was written by God?
In the last years of his life, French mathematician Blaise Pascal had concluded in his philosophical work Pensees that “The Old Testament is a cipher.” Isaac Newton himself also belived that “the universe is a cryptogram set by the Almighty”. In his books The Bible Code and its sequel, the Bible Code II, Michael Drosnin claims that there are secret prophecies encoded in the Hebrew Pentateuch, that are readable using computer software.
“Bible Code” is also the name for the computer-generated sequences of letters taken from the Hebrew Bible. Researchers string all the letters together, deleting spaces between words. Then, instead of running through the text letter by adjacent letter, they run through the text by skipping a fixed number of letters. The resulting sequences, known as equidistant letter sequences (or ELSs), are then inspected for patterns that cannot reasonably be attributed to chance. The Bible Code comprises such equidistant letter sequences. Bible codes are alleged to foretell events that occurr long after the books were written. There are Christian and Jewish variants as well as Islamic analogues in the Koran. Drosnin claims that the code predicted Yitzhak Rabin’s assasination on November 4, 1995.
Let’s look at this passage from the King James version of Genesis: “And hast not suffered me to kiss my sons and my daughters? Thou hast now done foolishly in so doing.”
Start with the “r” in daughters, pick out every fourth letter ”¦ And hast not suffered me to kiss my sons and my daughteRs? ThOu haSt noW donE fooLishLy in so doing ”¦ and you have R-O-S-W-E-L-L. From there start with the u in thou, pick out every 12th letter ”¦ And hast not suffered me to kiss my sons and my daughters? ThoU hast now done Foolishly in sO doing ”¦ and you have U-F-O.
Could the Bible really contain a coded prediction of the supposed UFO crash in Roswell, New Mexico, in 1947? Calculations demonstrating the statistical improbability of such a message appearing by chance seem impressive. These patterns, if not attributable to chance, must stem from a non-human intelligence.
Scientists both Jewish and Christian all over the world are using computer software to search the scriptures for new codes and to compute their statistical significance, which in layman’s terms means whether or not they can be considered real. The International Torah Code Society (ITCS) has been formed, and held its first meeting in Jerusalem in 1999.
Take a look at this surprising video on bible codes: