Numbers in Creation
How were numbers used to create the BIBLE?

What is the MOST important work of God?

We now come to the Word of God, which is the greatest and most important of all God's works. May we not look for, and expect to find, numbers used not only with the same wondrous design, but, here, with significance also? If there be design, there must be significance.

Who is the WONDERFUL NUMBERER?

Does God want us to SEARCH for SECRETS?

"It is the glory of God to conceal a matter, but the glory of kings is to search out a matter." (Proverbs 25:2).

"The works of the Lord are great, studied by all who have pleasure in them." (Psalm 111:2).

This is quite different, of course, from trying to find out what God calls His "secret things":

"The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but those things which are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law." (Deuteronomy 29:29).

Our searching must be confined to what is revealed. With what God has been pleased not to reveal, but to keep secret, not only have we nothing whatever to do, but we are guilty of the sin of presumption in even speculating about it. If a child of God is observed to be much occupied with God's "secret things," he will be found to be one who neglects the study of the things which God has revealed.

Are numbers used with DESIGN or by random CHANCE?

We can have neither words nor works without numbers. The question which we have to answer is — Are numbers used with design or by chance? Surely if God uses it, it must be with infinite wisdom and with glorious perfection. And so it is. Each number has its own significance and its meaning is found to be in moral harmony and relation to the subject matter in connection with which it stands. This harmony is always perfect. Every word of God's Book is in its right place. It may sometimes seem to us to be deranged. The lock may be in one place, and the key may sometimes be hidden away elsewhere in some apparently inadvertent word or sentence.

For example: In Genesis 11 and 12, we see how Abram came out of Ur of the Chaldees, but instead of going on at once to Canaan, he stops a long time in Haran. The explanation of this delay is not given there. It is hidden away in Acts 7:

"Then he came out of the land of the Chaldeans and dwelt in Haran. And from there, when his father was dead . . ." (Acts 7:4)

From which we learn that Terah was the hindrance; and we are taught by the fact, thus emphasized, how earthly relationships may sometimes hinder our complete obedience.

Many other examples might be given to show how a name, or a word, or a genealogy, or a date, may be found, which is seemingly of little or no importance in its context, and yet may throw wondrous light on a passage written elsewhere, and be a key to a difficulty, otherwise, inexplicable. "But one and the same Spirit works all these things," (1Corinthians 12:11) whose infinite wisdom is seen inspiring the whole of Divine revelation and securing a uniformity in results which would be absolutely impossible in a work written separately by different writers.

What does the ORIGINAL number of Bible books symbolize?

Ezra the prophet and what was known as the Great Assembly or Synagogue (a collection of priests and Levites) completed the final editing and canonization of the Old Testament Scriptures in the late fifth century B.C. (The Holy Bible in Its Original Order - A Faithful Version, Second Edition, page 4). They brought together all the writings inspired by God and produced an Old Testament composed of 22 manuscripts or books.

The original number of books (manuscripts) in the New Testament, finalized by the apostle John, was twenty-seven (27). The apostle John grouped these books into four major divisions: 1) the Gospels, 2) the General Epistles, 3) the Epistles of Paul and 4) the book of Revelation.

The Bible, as a whole, was originally divided into seven (7) major divisions (see our article entitled Is the Bible OUT OF ORDER? for more information). The total number of books in the original Bible was forty-nine (49), or 7 times 7. The number 7 symbolizes spiritual perfection.

How do word occurrences show the DESIGN of the Bible?

Let's look at a few facts which show a manifest design pervading the whole Bible, by which various agents, writing at different intervals, and thus separated both by place, and time, and circumstance, are yet made to use certain words a definite number of times.

The actual number depends upon the special significance of the word; for the significance of the word corresponds with the significance of the number of the times it occurs. Where there is no such special significance in the meaning or use of the word, there is no special significance in the number of its occurrences. But where there is a general importance in the word, apart from its direct significance, then the word occurs according to law.

All such general and important words — i.e., such words on which the Holy Spirit would have us place special emphasis, or would wish us to lay special stress — occur a certain number of times. These are either:

1. A square number (x² or x times x)

2. A cube (x³ or x times x times x)

3. A multiple of seven (7, 14, 21, 28, etc.)

4. A multiple of eleven (11, 22, 33, 44, etc.)

It is interesting to notice why these numbers should be thus associated together. They are significant in themselves, for seven is one of the four so-called perfect numbers.

What are the four PERFECT Biblical numbers?

The four perfect numbers as used in the Bible are:

• 3 is the number of Divine perfection.

• 7 is the number of Spiritual perfection.

• 10 is the number of Ordinal perfection.

• 12 is the number of Governmental perfection.

The product of these four perfect numbers forms the great number of chronological perfection, 3 x 7 x 10 x 12 = 2,520, the times of Israel's punishment, and the times of Gentile dominion over Jerusalem.

The association of the numbers 11 and 7 connects this arithmetical law with the geometrical, and calls our attention to the phenomena presented by the sides of the four primary straight line forms:

• In the plane: The triangle has 3 sides and the square has 4 sides = 7

• In the solid: The pyramid has 5 sides and the cube has 6 sides = 11

The number 18 (the sum of these, 7 + 11) in Scripture and in nature is usually thus divided into 7 and 11, or 9 and 9. As the number 7 is to 11, so is the height of a pyramid (whose base is a square) to the length of its base. As 7 is to 11 expresses also the ratio between the diameter of a circle and its semi-circumference; or between a semi-circle and its chord. Further, as the number 18 in Scripture and in nature is divided into 7 and 11, so 7 is divided into 3 and 4 (3 + 4 = 7), and 11 is divided into 5 and 6 (5 + 6 = 11).

Why are 3, 4, 5, and 6 IMPORTANT Biblical numbers?

The numbers 3, 4, 5, and 6, are related by a perfect arithmetical progression, whose difference is unity (the number 1). Their product gives us the well-known division of the circle into 360 degrees (3 x 4 x 5 x 6 = 360) *. No one can tell us why the great circle of the heavens (the Zodiac) should be divided into 360 parts, instead of any other number, for apart from this it appears to be perfectly arbitrary. This is the number, however, which gives us the great Zodiacal, Prophetic, and Biblical year of 360 days, which was given originally to Noah, and employed by the Babylonians and Egyptians.

* The number 360 is divisible without a remainder by all the nine digits except seven.

What is the number of chronological PERFECTION?

It is the multiplication by 7 of the prophetic or Biblical year length of 360 days which gives us the great number expressive of chronological perfection - 2,520 (360 x 7).

The number 2520 is, perhaps, the most remarkable of all the other numbers, for:

1. It is the summary of all the primary rectilinear forms.

2. It is the product of the four great numbers of completion or perfection, as shown above (for 3 x 7 x 10 x 12 = 2,520).

3. It is the Least Common Multiple (LCM) of all the ten numbers from which our system of notation is derived; for the LCM of 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, is 2,520.

Finally, in the musical scale, as we have already seen, we again meet with these numbers seven and 11 as the expression of the seven primary notes and the 11 semitones.

It is sufficient for our purpose now, merely to note that these two numbers, 7 and 11, have been specially selected to play so important a part;* and that there is such a remarkable relation between them must be due to design.

* Why they should have been so selected we cannot tell. That there must be a peculiar adaptation in certain numbers and certain things is clear, even according to man's usage of them. Man speaks of "three cheers" and "forty winks," but why no other number would do no one can tell.

Why should it be these two numbers 7 and 11? Why not any other two numbers? or why two at all? Why not three? We may or may not be able to explain why, but we cannot close our eyes to the fact. We are now merely observing phenomena and noting the working of laws.

How many people did God use to write the Bible?

If we take the writers employed, we have 28 writers (4x7) in the Old Testament, and 8 (2³) in the New Testament; or together, 36 (6²). Of the 21 Epistles of the New Testament, 14 (2x7) are by the apostle Paul, and seven by other writers.

In this we have an argument for the belief that the apostle Paul did indeed write the book of Hebrews; an argument which is confirmed by the numbers of verbal occurrences shown below:

1. Peter wrote his First Epistle to the Διασπορα, the Dispersion:

   "Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, To the pilgrims of the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia . . ." (1Peter 1:1)

2. His Second Epistle was addressed to the same dispersed of Israel:

   "Beloved, I now write to you this second epistle (in both of which I stir up your pure minds by way of reminder) . . ." (2Peter 3:1)

3. To these same he says:

   "as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given to him, has written to you," (2Peter 3:15)

4. Where is this Epistle if it be not the one which is addressed to "the Hebrews"?