What is the connection between Jesus’ name and the number eight? Why was it significant that Jesus was raised on the eighth day? And what is the theological meaning of this for his followers? To consider this, we need to think about the culture of the first century and how people understood numbers.
In the modern world, we live in an age of abundance of texts, and therefore we have to consider carefully the culture of the first century, and their very different relation to texts, when reading the New Testament. When texts are few and comparatively short, one’s approach to reading is different from being in a world like ours where texts are long and abundant.
In the same way, our approach to numbers in the modern world is very different from the approach to numbers in the ancient world. For us, numbers are all around us; the digital world means that we take numbers for granted, and don’t think about them whilst using them all the time; and by and large they are abstract entities more than tangible realities.
Most people in the West don’t even realise that we have a distinct number system (ours is called Indo-Arabic) which has entirely different origins from our writing system (which is in Latin script); that we use a symbolic place-holder system, where the actual value designated by a digit depends entirely on its position within a number; and that, despite Fibonacci introducing Indo-Arabic numbers in 1202, Roman numerals continued to be used in business and accounting in the West into the 1600s. (You can find ledgers from the period which include the two number systems in parallel.)
The first century was a world where numbers were designated by letters, so that number systems and writing systems were much more closely connected, and where numbers were mostly thought of in connections with numbers of actual things, rather than as abstract entities. We need to bear these things in mind in thinking about the importance of numbers, and in particular the significance of the number 8.
Mikeal Parsons wrote a fascinating article on this some years ago: “Exegesis ‘By the Numbers’: Numerology and the New Testament” Perspectives in Religious Studies, volume 35 (2008), pages 25–43, which you can read online here.
He gives an overview of some of the ways that numbers features in the composition of the text; some are well-known, but a good number were new to me. For example, apart from the large number of occurrences of the number seven (88 times), seven also serves as a structuring principle:
- John’s gospel begins and ends with a series of seven days (which you have to count).
- John 2.13–11 is organised around seven events which demonstrate that Jesus both fulfils and supersedes Jewish worship.
- There are seven ‘I am’ sayings in John.
- The genealogy in Matt 1 is structured around 14 = 7 x 2 generations.
- The opening narrative of Matt 1-4 contains seven fulfillments of Scripture by Jesus (1:22-23; 2:5-6, 15, 17, 23; 3:3; 4:14).
- Matthew 13 is a collection of seven parables about the kingdom of heaven.
- Matthew 23 is a collection of seven woes.
- In Rom 3: 10–18, Paul quotes seven Old Testament passages that have been collected together to prove the charge that both Jews and Gentiles are under sin.
It is worth noting that these observations are quite different from two other ways of including numerology in exegesis. The third century Saint Methodius of Olympus wrote a treatise on virginity, in which he comments on Revelation, and interprets the 1260 days of Rev 12 as a sign of the Trinity (1000 = the Father, 100 + 100 = the two natures of the Son, and 60 = the Spirit). This is imposing a numerological scheme on the text rather than observing what the author might have been thinking of. Another way of using numerology is to demonstrate the ‘divine authorship’ of the scriptures by finding numerical patterns across difference books, often including reference to chapter and verse numbers. One of the most popular here the often-repeated assertion that Ps 118.8 is the middle verse of the Bible—which it isn’t. All these kinds of theories fail to recognise that the chapter and verse numbering was not part of the original composition of the text, but a much later addition.
By contrast, Parsons recognises that numerical composition reflects the importance of numerological symbolism to the ancient writers. He quotes Francois Bovon of Harvard and Adela Collins of Yale:
It is my hypothesis that the early Christians used the categories of ‘name’ and ‘number’ as theological tools. Often they consciously interpreted names and numbers in a symbolic way. (Bovon)
Numerical symbolism is part of the activity of discovering order in environment and experience . . . . First, [numerical symbolism] is used to order the experience of time . . . . Numerical symbolism also expresses order in the experience of space. The perception of such order is expressed in the Greek idea of the cosmos. (Collins).
This is expressed even in the composition of the NT canon. Have you ever noticed that we have Pauline letters to seven churches (Romans, Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, Thessalonians) and four letters to individuals (Titus, 1 and 2 Timothy, Philemon)? (It looks as though part of the reason for the inclusion of Hebrews in early text collections was to make up the total number of these ‘Pauline’ letters to 14.) And that there are seven ‘catholic’ epistles (1 and 2 Peter; 1, 2, and 3 John; James; Jude)? Although the actual reasons for including each of these letters in the canon of scripture was quite different, for the early followers of Jesus, the fact that the number seven occurs here so often served as confirmation that the canon of apostolic writings was complete.
Numbers in the text are also connected with gematria or isopsephism, the numerical evaluation of words (in a world without a separate number system). Parsons notes the unusual occurrence of the number 18, only three times in the NT, all three times in Luke, and two of them in a unique repetition of a period of illness (Luke 13.11, 16; the third occurrence is Luke 13.4, the number who died when the tower of Siloam fell). The odd thing about this repetition is that the second time the number is spelt out differently. In 13.11 we have the word dekaokto, but in 13.16 it is expressed as deka kai onto. Parsons cites other early texts to demonstrate that Luke is connecting the healing of the crippled woman with the name of Jesus. The common manuscript abbreviation (the nomen sacrum) consists of the first two letters of Jesus’ name, whose numerical values add up to 18.
Parsons’ study includes an interpretation of the 153 fish in John 21 and the 276 people in the ship in Acts 27—and you also can explore these in my own articles here.
I have often mentioned, in face-to-face teaching, the significance of Jesus’ being raised on the eighth day of the week; the importance of the number 8 here is striking given how important 7 is in the above examples. One person who heard me say this asked for more details, so here they are.
As you, dear reader, might well be aware, the name of Jesus is a version of the name Joshua in the Old Testament. In Hebrew, it is actually Yehoshua (יְהוֹשֻׁעַ) meaning ‘Ya[weh] saves’. Following the exile, and in common with other names, this was often shortened to Yeshua (יֵשׁוּעַ) and in Greek, both in the Septuagint (the Greek translation of the Hebrew OT) and in the New Testament, this was translated as Iēsous (Ἰησοῦς) since Greek lacks the “sh” (ש) sound, and it ends masculine names with -s for grammatical reasons.
(Note that we have the English version not directly from Greek, but via Latin; Latin lacks the vowel diphthong ‘ou’ and so Iesous became Iesus which then became Jesus in modern English.)
The movement from Yehoshua to Iesous can be seen very clearly in the Septuagint of Exodus 17.9, where Joshua is named Ἰησοῦς, (εἶπεν δὲ Μωυσῆς τῷ Ἰησοῦ… ‘And Moses said to Joshua…) and even in Hebrews 4.8, where in Greek again Joshua is actually Ἰησοῦς, though modern translations hide this by using the usual OT name. This avoids confusion—but also hides the very clear and close connection.
In the most common number system in the first century (generally called gematria in Hebrew or isopsephism in Greek; note the connection here with the name of this blog!), numbers were allocated to letters in sequence, first in single digits, then in tens, and then in hundreds (for a table of the values, see here). This gives the name the value 888 as follows:
| I | Ἰ (iota) | 10 |
| E | η (eta) | 8 |
| S | σ (sigma) | 200 |
| O | ο (omicron) | 70 |
| U | ῦ (upsilon) | 400 |
| S | σ (sigma) | 200 |
| Total | 888 |
In a world where numbers mattered, and where every word had a value, this was clearly important to the early followers of Jesus. We can see this in the third century document, the Sibylline Oracles, which claims that the coming messiah will have a name whose number is 888. Although this is cast as a future prophecy, most scholars think it is a Christian rewriting of the text in the light of Jesus’ name. The Christian interpolation is Book 1 lines 324–400, and lines 327 to 329 say:
I will state explicitly the entire number for you. For eight units, and equal number of tens in addition to these, and eight hundreds will reveal the name.
This is clearly pointing to the gematria value of the name of Jesus.
But the number 8 was associated with Jesus and his resurrection in several other way. We should note that, in the usual way of counting the signs in the Fourth Gospel, the resurrection of Jesus is the eighth ’sign’, as follows:
| 1 | Water into wine | John 2:1–11 |
| 2 | Healing the official’s son | John 4:46–54 |
| 3 | Healing the lame man at Bethesda | John 5:1–15 |
| 4 | Feeding the 5,000 | John 6:1–14 |
| 5 | Walking on water | John 6:16–21 |
| 6 | Healing the man born blind | John 9:1–41 |
| 7 | Raising Lazarus | John 11:1–44 |
(Note that there is some debate about exactly how the signs should be counted, since only the first two are actually enumerated in the text.) But noting these seven makes Jesus’ resurrection the eighth, and it follows on most naturally from the seventh being the raising of Lazarus.
The association of the resurrection of Jesus with the number 8 is also found in the early shift from the Jewish sabbath as the last day of the week, the completion of God’s creation, to the followers of Jesus meeting for worship on Sunday, the first day of the week. We can see the first signs of this in Acts 20:7, where Luke describes Paul meeting with believers in Troas “on the first day of the week” to break bread and teach. In light of this, it is striking that Paul explicitly mentions organised action on the ‘first day of the week’ in 1 Cor 16.2:
On the first day of every week, each one of you should set aside a sum of money in keeping with your income, saving it up, so that when I come no collections will have to be made.
This only really makes sense if the Corinthians were meeting together then in some way. This is a very striking shift, given the importance of Sabbath observance as a key distinctive of Jewish life in the pagan world, and given that all these early communities were a Jew-gentile mix.
We see a similar a reference to this in the mention in Rev 1.10, where John says it was ‘on the Lord’s day’ (ἐν τῇ κυριακῇ ἡμέρᾳ) that he first encountered his vision of Jesus.
But quite soon, this ‘first day of the week’ is actually described as ‘the eighth day’, that is, one beyond the seven days of this age, and so the beginning of the new creation. (Compare the use of ‘eight days’ in the Beatles song, where it signifies more than everything!)
Barnabas 15:8-9 (c. 100 AD): “The eighth day is the beginning of another world. And for this reason we also keep the eighth day with joyfulness, the day also on which Jesus rose again from the dead.”
Justin Martyr, First Apology 67 (c. 150 AD): “We all assemble on the day of the sun… because it is the first day on which God… created the world, and Jesus Christ our Saviour rose from the dead on the same day.”
There are a number of references to this idea in Augustine, in the fourth century:
“The seventh shall be our Sabbath, which shall be brought to a close not by an evening, but by the Lord’s Day, as an eighth and eternal day, consecrated by the resurrection of Christ…” City of God, 22.30
Latin: Dies autem Dominicus, quasi octavus et primus, significat vitam non temporariam, sed aeternam…
Augustine, Letter 55 (to Januarius), Chapter 12: “The eighth day, which is also the first day of the week, was sanctified by the resurrection of the Lord, and it prefigures the eternal rest after this life…”
Augustine, Sermon 8, On the New Testament: “The eighth day, that is, the first day after the Sabbath, was made holy by the resurrection of the Lord…”
What is the significance of all this? Theologically, it expresses in the language in Paul (and elsewhere) of Christian faith as a stepping into the new creation. The most explicit is 2 Cor 5.17, but he also talks of the ‘end of the ages’ coming on believers (and so the new age) in 1 Cor 10.11.
But, as Parson’s quotations from Bovon and Collins show, it does this not in an abstract way, but in a concrete and tangible way or ordering space and time.
We meet on the first day of the week because our encounter with God, effected by the death and resurrection of Jesus, and made real by the Spirit, is both an expression of the new creation, when we will enjoy perfect union with God, and a foretaste of it.
And the bringing of the new creation is not only the result of the work of Jesus, and the meaning of who he is—it is expressed in the very shape and letters of his name!
Following Jesus means beginning to live a new life—the life of the new creation, even though we persist in the old, this age which is passing away. For the first followers of Jesus, this was so important that they organised and structured their lives around this reality, making use of the number 8, and we have followed in their footsteps.
(For an overview of issues around the end of the world, the new creation, and Christian hope, see my Grove booklet here).
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Is it a coincidence that 8 is the most propitious number in Chinese thought e.g the Beijing Olympics started on 8/8/2008?
It is a coincidence, but an interesting one. I found online:
The main reason is that “bā” (八) sounds very similar to “fā” (发) in Mandarin.
“发” is short for “发财” (fācái), which means “to get rich” or “to make a fortune”.
So, the number 8 is associated with wealth, prosperity, and success.
I wonder whether Jesus being 888 has been significant for Chinese Christians?
Bah!
You may be old enough to remember Larry Norman’s lyrics, ‘Why should the devil have all the good music’? Ian is asking much the same sort of question. We should all try and redeem culture., not flee from it into a holy huddle.
A blog post on all this would be a good idea.
It could be divinely providential but I guess not deliberate and of course there are many associations to be wary of there. What is sure is the depiction of the Genesis story in Chinese characters.
Fascinating, but I worry that one can overdo it. Persons who comment on scripture are necessarily highly educated, yet ours is a faith for all and the scriptures were written for all; most of the Books of Moses comprise the law code of ancient Israel which was meant to be read out to the people every seven years, while the New Testament is deliberately written in koine (simple) Greek.
Of course, a priestly and rabbinic culture is to do with sealing a closed system. Calendars, precise text and enumeration of syllables. The germs of kabbalah.
Hebrew, Greek and to an extent Latin have an equivalence between letters and numbers. What source more readily drawn on for secret messages and truths? Numbers and letters are everywhere.
if it reflects the reality of how writers composed their texts then, I dont see how it can be overdone.
Yes but does it? How many of these things are coincidence?
The good thing about it is that the data is so extremely large-scale and so precise that we can see with confidence which authors have a pattern of being intentional in this and which do not.
And how much of it is scholarly. eisegesis? Is not the Bible code a derivative and extended example of such a monocle reading?
What parts of my article do you think is eisegesis?
so because some take it to an erroneous extreme, where it starts from is wrong?
Well worded, PC1.
Geoff, restrict ourselves to the first century (and whoever said that we were talking of anything outside the first century in the first place) and the perceived problem disappears.
The scriptures are both simple enough to bring a child to salvation and deep enough to occupy the greatest intellects all their lives. Such is the wisdom of God.
Have you ever noticed that the OT year of jubilee (following seven cycles of the Sabbath year) corresponds with Pentecost, the 50th day from the resurrection? And that this is what Jesus meant when he said he would free the captive and proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour?
How to make ‘Chefofsinners’ add to 666:
https://discover.hubpages.com/religion-philosophy/Numerology-is-Nonsense
Yes, well, how many legs on an ant, Anton?
And how many body sections?
The linked website is good but fatally flawed. It uses as its main example the name Hitler, and thereby highlights the curious fact that the name’s six letters, if each accorded the value of their place in the alphabet, sum to 66.
So anyway, my advice to you is avoid bunkers. And bunk.
Actujally that was the advice I gave at the start of this subthread.
I appreciate your arguments at Jack’s blog. Memories of arguments gone by…
I don’t see how that is relevant, Anton. The study is of numerical patterning in a culture where (a) letters already equalled numbers and where (b) no-one involved in that area of study disputes that authors (some more than others) not infrequently did such things. It’s not a study of anything post first century.
That is way numerological arguments need to be rooted in historical used systems which are evidenced from the first century.
Revelation 17:11
The beast who once was, and now is not, is an eighth king. He belongs to the seven and is going to his destruction.
Does the beast mimic the One on the throne before whom the Seven blaze?
There is an excellent study of biblical numbers @ .agapebiblestudy.com/documents/The Significance of Numbers in Scripture.htm
Here just No.8
EIGHT: sh’moneh in Hebrew, from the root shah’meyn “to make fat” or “to cover with fat” which means to super-abound. The first of a new series: there are seven days in a week; the 8th day is the beginning of a new series of days. It is the number of salvation, resurrection, and new birth/regeneration.
Eight is the first cubic number (2 x 2 x 2). This is significant because the Holy of Holies in the Tabernacle and in the Jerusalem Temple was the same height, length and breadth–a perfect cube [1 Kings 6:20].
Eight is the number of our salvation and the Second Coming. It is the day Christ arose from the dead [Matthew 28:1-8; Mark 16:1-8; Luke 24:1-8; John 20:1-10].
Eight (okto in Greek) days after the resurrection (in the literal Greek translation) Jesus appeared to his disciples a second time; this time with Thomas [John 20:26].
The eighth day, which is Resurrection Sunday (the day after the seventh day Jewish Sabbath), is the first day of the New Covenant.
Eight people were saved in the ark during the Great Flood including Noah, his wife, his three sons and their wives [Genesis 7:13].
On the 8th day of an Israelite male child’s birth, he entered the Sinai Covenant by the ritual of circumcision [Genesis 17:10-12; Exodus 22:29-30; Leviticus 12:3].
On the eighth day of the dedication of the desert Tabernacle, during the morning liturgical service, God lit the fire of the sacrificial altar. This day was commemorated in the Feast of Tabernacles (Sukkoth) which was an eight day feast [Leviticus 23:36-39].
The feasts of Passover (Nisan 14th) and Unleavened Bread (Nisan 15th -21st ) lasted 8 days and marked the beginning of the Liturgical year [Leviticus 23:5-8], while the Feast of Tabernacles lasted 8 days and marked the end of the Liturgical year.
The priesthood of Aaron and his sons was consecrated on the eighth day [Leviticus 9:1].
David, God’s anointed, is the eighth son of Jesse [1 Samuel 16:10-13].
There were eight classes of furniture in the Jerusalem Temple [1 Kings 6:15-8:9].
Solomon finished building the Temple in the eighth month of the seventh year [1 Kings 6:37-38; 8:1-2]. The celebration and dedication lasted eight days [1 Kings 8:66].
The dimensions of the Temple are based on the number eight [1 Kings 7:10].
The prophet Elijah performed eight miracles [1 Kings 17 – 2 Kings 13].
Jesus rose from the dead on the eighth day of His week of Redemptive Passion (Sunday is both the first day of the week and the day that follows the seventh day the old covenant Sabbath– the eighth day) [Matthew 28:1; Mark 16:1-2; Luke 24:1-3].
There are seven or eight petitions in the Lord’s Prayer depending on how they are counted [Matthew 6:9-13].
There are seven or eight Beatitudes depending on how one counts them [Matthew 5:1-12].
The gematria of Jesus in Greek, Iesous, is 888 (I = 10, e= 8, s=200, o=70, u=400, s=200). All the names for Jesus are multiples of 8
Scientists have identified eighty-eight constellations
Scientists now believe there are only eight planets (Pluto’s erratic orbit suggests it was once a moon of Neptune)
In the Book of Revelation:
There are twenty-four elders around the throne of God (3 x 8) [Revelation 4:4].
There are four beasts with six wings each = 24 (3×8) [Revelation 4:6-8].
Twelve thousand from each tribe of Israel 144,000 = (8x15x100) [Revelation 7:4-8].
SEVEN AND EIGHT: together these numbers form a remarkable connection. As we have noted seven, according to its etymology, means that which is spiritually complete, while eight denotes that which is superabundant. God’s holy covenant name is expressed in Hebrew by the four consonants YHWH which have a value of 10, 5, 6, and 5. Added together their total is 20 + 6 but multiplied by 3 (the Triune God) their value is 70 (7×10) + 8 or spiritual perfection times perfection of order plus superabundant salvation.
Yahweh’s covenants are also seven and eight: Seven covenants are revealed in the Old Testament and the eighth covenant in the New Testament, in the New Covenant in Christ:
Covenant with Adam [Genesis 1:28-30; 2:15-17; Hosea 6:7]
Noah and the earth [Genesis 6:18; 9:9-17; Sirach 44:17-18]
Abraham [Genesis 12:3; 15:1-18; 18:18; 22:18; Sirach 44:19-20]
Sinai Covenant [Exodus 19-24; 34:10, 27, 28; Deuteronomy 5:2-3]
Aaron & Sons high priestly covenant[Exodus 40:15; Leviticus 2:13; Numbers 18:19; Sirach 45:7; Jeremiah 33:21]
Phinehas: perpetual priesthood [Numbers 25:11-15; Sirach 45:24]
David &descendant [2 Samuel 7:11; 23:5; Sirach 45:25]
Jesus the Priest-King of the New Covenant [Luke 22:20; 1 Corinthians 11:25; Hebrews 7:22-24; 8:6; 9:15-20; 12:24; 13:20]
The decision to deprive Pluto of planethood was certainly the correct one. Its orbit is far more elliptical (i.e. deviates far more from circular) than the other planets, and is at a considerable angle to the ecliptic plane in which the others move. It also moves round the sun in the other sense (clockwise or counter-clockwise) than the other planets.
As I recall, Jewish tradition has tacked a further and eighth day on to the Festival of Tabermacles in which believing Jews symbolically get married to the Law.
Typical scientist comment. What you fail to consider is the devastating impact on the mnemonic “my very easy method just speeds up naming”.
I know – the ethnic cleansing of Pluto from the solar system totally ruined my one children’s talk. Mind you, since I told the chur-, sorry, congregation, that Jesus wasn’t born in a stable (thanks, Ian), I haven’t been invited back to preach at Christmas either.
For those interested in the power of the Resurrection, “the power that works within us” The power is not seen as something achievable through human effort alone, but rather as a gift and a divine enablement. Ephesians 3:20: It is that power which in fact raised Jesus from the dead.ROM.8 V11
The challenge for many is not the wanting of resurrection life, but knowing how to live it out.
It is only when we surrender control of our lives and give Him the reigns, that we experience the true fulfillment and satisfaction we long for.
righteousness, joy and peace in the Holy Spirit.
That doesn’t mean we will not go through tough or challenging times, or not experience emotions that make us human (including sadness, depression and anger, it does mean we will learn to discern things aboutis right and wrong, when we have God’s peace, when there is healthy conviction of sin, or unhealthy condemnation from the enemy of our souls. The mark of life in the Spirit is not a perfect life, but a life that continues to seek what pleases Him, and that is able to get back on track by receiving His grace through forgiveness and repentance when we miss the mark. https://alikennedylive.substack.com/p/4-steps-to-living-the-resurrection
Yes, numbers were certainly significant to writers in the NT culture, but little appreciated by most commentators today. Fascinating article Ian.
Thanks!
Are there not 8, I am’s of Jesus, beginning John 8:58?
Eternal zoe.
It’s a bit more complicated than that. There are 3 organised systems of I AMs, of which one is complex and the others simple.
I AM, Triune is both simple and complex, the other I ams, are enfolded therein and fold out from the Shekina Glory I AM. That is who Jesus is and claims to be.
The pattern I see is 1+7:
In John we read Jesus gives a BBQ on the beach for the seven. (1+7)
One on the throne + 7 torches
The Lamb + 7 horns/eyes.
Then there is the counterpoint:
7 kings + 1 ‘an eighth’.
and maybe 7 thunders + 1 earthquake.
What I’m saying is sevens don’t exist on their own, we should keep a look out for the hand that holds them.
put me right here but even at the Resurrection we have 2 angels, Peter and John + assorted Marys. and Salome. And Jesus…just thinking out loud …do we have another 7 +1?
The person of Jesus is “the resurrection and the life.”
Do you believe this?
John11:25-26
Count on Jesus. He can be counted on.
Slightly surprised that no one has commended Ian’s sense of humour in posting this on the eighth day of the eighth month 😉
Not only is the name of Jesus 888 as a number, but several of his common titles are also numerically multiples of eight – “Christ”, “Saviour”.
Several years ago I noticed that I was parked behind a car with the registration: J888 LJC. I just had to take a photo before the owner could return to drive it off! Remarkably, nobody I’ve shown this to in church has ever spotted what I think everyone on this thread must by now be able to see. Nor could such a number plate be a coincidence. Moreover, this was on a Porsche Cayenne, so the owner evidently had material as well as spiritual riches 😉
Most astonishing of all is the following. As Ian notes, the number 8 is strongly associated with Jesus (there are other links one could list), as is of course the divine number 7. Now, if one goes through the NT and picks out all distinctive statements made by/about Jesus, one gets a list which in my case came to well over 700 such phrases. And when I noted the numbers of letters in these strings of Greek words, the result proved astonishing.
The chance of a random number being a multiple of either 7 or 8 (or both) is 0.25. By contrast, the number of those 700+ strings that fit this criterion was close to half. An online binomial distribution calculator confirmed that the chance of this happening at random was comparable to you and me both selecting at random the same atom out of all the atoms in the universe….
Admittedly, there’s going to be a degree of fuzziness involved in the selection of the data set – if you have a go you’re likely to come up with a slightly different list – but the overall statistical effect is so overwhelmingly strong that marginal alterations are going to make no practical difference. The effect was conclusively strong in each of the majority of the NT books, and when I reviewed my selection for Matthew and made a couple of changes, needless to say the effect remained beyond possibility of dispute.
If, then, this conclusion is correct, it provides possibly the most amazing proof of the divine inspiration of the NT (and therefore of the OT for which it covers) I’ve yet to see.
To take as an example the famous text Geoff quoted above: in Greek,
“I am the resurrection and the life” contains 24 letters = 8 x 3.
“he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live” contains 32 letters = 8 x 4.
(so the entire saying contains 56 letters = 8 x 7, for a double “match”.)
“and whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die” contains 49 letters = 7 x 7 (another double match)
Another well-known place, Acts 2:24:
“whom God hath raised up” – 16
“having loosed the power of death” – 24
“because it was not possible that he should be holden of it” – 40
And a third to round this off, Acts 4:11-12
“{This is} the stone… which is become the head of the corner” – 32 (42)
“which was set at nought of you builders” – 35
“there is no salvation in any other” – 28
“there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved” – 72
That is very interesting. Have the details been published anywhere?
Thanks Ian – Not to my knowledge – people who really go in for numerics in a big way seem to go way beyond this, into letter-number summations as you’ve described, and frequencies of words and phrases (you may have heard that in John the “verily, verily” sayings come 25 times which some take as significant as a square number, though I don’t particularly see an a priori reason why).
I intended this trial as an investigation into the whole concept of Biblical numerics, to test if it really has validity. If it failed this most superficial of tests, I would be content to conclude that it’s all a mirage and not to proceed further… though the 888 continues to marvel.
But the fuzziness of the data set is the crucial thing, and makes it hard to tidy up as an apologetics tool for example – anyone meaning to dispute it would have to go through the NT in the same way I did, in hopes to come up with a very different set yielding a statistical null result – and who has time for that?
Dan, Thanks for this.
Please find a link to two grids of 7×7 on which I’ve placed the first chapter of Revelation. I suspect that if I carried on with the rest of Revelation I could find similar patterns/highlights.
What can I do with this???
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/rumx6y0qa9p1dfd7egyw1/First-7×7-words.pdf?rlkey=uil6leu09l1v8lovul5rn6djn&dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/t56ecrm7tbg736tbyc82j/2nd-7×7-words.pdf?rlkey=2bnj5ll0l5yib95eqdl0lp74p&dl=0
Good work there Steve, though it looks more 49 than 7×7 and some of the partitions could be made more consistent, e.g. nos. 3 and 4 combined strike more of a balance with no. 6. Plus the point that chapter divisions are somewhat arbitrary and I doubt many of us believe they’re as divinely inspired as the content itself.
Anyway I’ll try with chapter 2 – and in this case I’d look for patterns of 7 to appear within EACH of the 7 letters…
Thanks Dan,
I’ll look at my original and update it if It looks better. It’s all just a bit of fun. I’ve tried spiraling in on an 8×8 grid. Looks interesting as ‘the island of Patmos’ is in a corner and so is ‘I turned to see…’
I expect it will be difficult for an imposed grid of 7×7 for chapters 2&3. A different pattern may appear. Perhaps 8×8 or 7×8 &8×7. Then back to 7×7 for chapter 4.
I feel the first part of chapter 4 continues in a 7×7 grid
I hope you post again!
You’ll have to pardon me for getting up to my old tricks – but as the texts involved are considerably bigger than those I handled in my initial study, I’ve looked specifically at the *word* counts in Greek for each of the seven letters as a whole.
Remarkably, for each of the first three, they’re multiples not just of 7 but of 7×7 (147, 98, 147). The next three aren’t, but the seventh is of 7 (189). That already is far beyond coincidence by any measure….
ALL Verses regarding: EIGHTH DAY mentioned in the Bible and IT’s REFERENCE:
Nehemiah 8:18–Offering
Luke 1:59 circumcision
Luke 2:21 circumcision
Leviticus 23:36 food offerings and on the eighth day you shall hold a holy convocation (Old Testament)
Leviticus 12:3 circumcision (Old Testament)
Numbers 29:35 solemn assembly (Old Testament)
Genesis 17:12 circumcision (Old Testament)
Philippians 3:5 Circumcised
Exodus 22:30 offering (Old Testament)
Leviticus 23:39 Feast day (Old Testament)
Leviticus 22:27 Offering (Old Testament)
Leviticus 14:23 Offering (Old Testament)
Ezekiel 43:26-27 Offering (Old Testament)
Numbers 6:9-10 Offering (Old Testament)
Leviticus 15:13-14 Offering (Old Testament)
2 Chronicles 7:9 Solemn assembly (Feast day) (Old Testament)
Ezekiel 43:27 Offering (Old Testament)
Acts 7:8 Circumcision
1 Kings 8:66 People sent home (Old Testament)
Numbers 7:54 On the eighth day Gamaliel the son of Pedahzur, the chief of the people of Manasseh:
(Old Testament)
Numbers 6:10 Offering (Old Testament)
Leviticus 15:29 Offering (Old Testament)
Leviticus 15:14 Offering (Old Testament)
Leviticus 14:10 Offering (Old Testament)
NOT ONE is about the weekly Sabbath!!!!!! NOT ONE!!!!
Nor about the Resurrection!!!
Gosh, Leviticus does not mention the resurrection of Jesus? I wonder why…?!
When I was first saved and I was reading the Bible, I came to a passage which mentioned the Lord being raised on the 8th day of the week? Did I dream this? I cannot find it in my Bible for the life of me but it stood out so clearly. I began to then understand that we are outside of the normal 7-Day week. We are now in an age of Grace or the 8th day of the week. When I try to explain this to others, I do believe it was the holy spirit that impressed it upon me, I have struggled to find scriptures to match this where I swear I saw it in the scriptures, either one of the gospels or in the Pauline Epistles, where it discusses this. I think this is super important to understand. Especially, with people wanting to go back to the ways of the Torah. I know that this is something that believers in the early century believed according to searches on the internet, but I truly read it in the scripture somewhere. Please help me find it. Thank you for your article! It is so joyous to know that we are in the eighth Day of the Lord’s Lord’s Resurrection as we speak and in his grace.
How fascinating!