Biblical Hebrew Forum

[peter_kirk AT sil.org]

Dear John,

Thank you for your contribution. I would be interested in seeing 
Satinover's study, but I don't have it available to me here so I 
cannot answer your question. This approach is relevant to the study of 
the Hebrew text as it offers a possible explanation of the numbers 
found in the text - the only other one I can think of is that they are 
real historical data. I don't think gematria of this type is a 
suitable case for Cindy's conspiracy theory studies. Maybe the Drosnin 
type Bible codes would be a better one.

Peter Kirk


______________________________ Reply Separator 
_________________________________
Subject: Re: Secret Codes
Author:  atombomb AT sirius.com at internet
Date:    16/06/1999 15:24


Glory to God!

Hi again--

It seems that regardless of whatever becomes of Drosnin's theories, 
the bible does contain numerical patters which are of interest to 
bible studies professionals and that would be of interest even to 
those outside the guild, which are worthy of exploring, and I will 
offer some patterns for your consideration below.  But let me preface 
this by saying I couldn't agree more wholeheartedly with Fred P 
Miller's comment about the need to master the actual meaning of the 
scriptural text itself, first of all-- at both the grammatical and the 
narrative levels!  Nevertheless, as I say, the text may actually 
contain some numerical devices, among the other ways it communicates 
its various meanings.

Regarding the "bible codes" currently under discussion, I don't know 
if people are aware that there are actually two "bible codes" books 
out-- the one, quite well known, by Drosnin, which is rather 
sensationalist to say the least; and another, published in an almost 
identical cover at just about the same time as Drosnin's-- Jeffrey 
Satinover, MD, Cracking the Bible Code (Wm. Morrow & Co., New York: 
1997)-- which strikes me as more sober, and he actually shows the math 
etc.  Satinover does not seem to be aware of Drosnin's book.  I don't 
have Drosnin's book, so I can't tell you if it's by the same 
publisher, but one has to wonder about publishers' strategies when 
they're so similar.

Anyway, as I mention, Satinover discusses the math, but not being a 
statistician myself, I can't comment on the pertinence of what he has 
to say.  Perhaps Peter Kirk, you could look at this and let us know 
what you think.

The new "bible codes" aside, though-- and whatever may be made of 
them-- as I said, there are numerical patterns of at least in some 
passages of the bible.  Consider not only the calculation of moon 
phases mentioned by the Talmud as present in the first lines of 
Genesis, which are discussed by Satinover-- and the following facts 
as well:

Age of Abraham at death:     175= 5x5  x7 
Age of Issac at death:       180= 6x6  x5 
Age of Jacob at death:      147= 7x7  x3 
Yrs Jacob was called Israel: 64=  8x8  x1

(The years of "Israel" are not given directly but derivable from scripture).

Note the nifty sequences, up and down the columns, 1-3-5-7 and 
5-6-7-8.  Note also that the factors of each number, (5+5+7), 
(6+6+5), (7+7+3), and (8+8+1) in each case add up to 17.

<snip>

Glory to God for all things!

John Burnett, MA (OT)

<snip>