Alphabetic Numeration
To understand the practice of alphabetic numeration we have to travel back to biblical times. The Hebrew Bible was first recorded almost entirely in Hebrew, the New Testament in Greek. In those days, it was common practice among many peoples to use strings of letters from their alphabet to represent numbers. Each letter in the string represented a number, and they were summed to give a total. A vestige of this practice is the system of Roman numerals, where seven letters from the latin alphabet are assigned numerical values.
M = 1000, D = 500, C = 100, L = 50, X = 10, V = 5, I = 1
So the number 1160 can be represented as MCLX.
MCLX = 1000 + 100 + 50 + 10 = 1160
The ancient Greeks at first used a numeral system similar to the Romans. However, by the 4th Century BC, and possibly much earlier, this had been superceded by a more comprehensive system, known as Ionian numerals. Here, the twenty-seven numbers 1 to 9, 10 to 90 and 100 to 900 were each represented by a single letter. The numbers 6, 90 and 900 were represented by otherwise unused, archaic letters (1). However, only the numerical substitutions involving the twenty-four letters of the Greek alphabet are of interest here. This slightly abridged system of alphabetic numeration is shown below.
Sometime in the 1st Century BC, the Hebrews adapted the Ionian system of numeration to their own alphabet (2). This has only twenty-two characters, so only the numbers 1 to 9, 10 to 90 and 100 to 400 were represented by single Hebrew characters. However, the numbers from 500 to 900 were sometimes represented by the sufit (end) forms of five characters (3). As before, only the simpler substitution scheme is of interest. This is shown below.
Both the Hebrew and Greek numeration schemes were purely additive. Numbers were represented either by a single letter or, if necessary, by strings of letters, the individual values of which were summed to obtain a total. For instance the number 401 could be represented by placing the letters aleph (= 1) and taw (= 400) together (4), giving 401.
These strings of letters had no meaning in themselves: they were used purely for counting. However, words are also strings of letters and therefore can also be assigned numerical values, as can groups of words. For instance, the Hebrew word transliterated as ‘Yahweh’, which means ‘the Lord’, has a numerical value of 26, calculated as shown:
The numeration of words, phrases, etc, is associated with the kabbalistic art known as gematria to the Hebrews and isopsephia to the Greeks, whereby a kind of numerical cyphertext within each language has been discerned and studied. I will concentrate here on Hebrew gematria.
Hebrew Gematria
Hebrew gematria is associated with the Kabbalah, the mystical strain of Judaism. For kabbalists, Hebrew words and phrases of equal or related numerical value are thought to be ‘explanatory of each other’, which is seen as evidence that the Hebrew language is divinely inspired. Kabbalists also looked for numerical codes hidden within the Hebrew Bible, which has remained essentially unchanged since about the 10th Century AD (5). The word ‘gematria’ itself comes from a Greek word meaning ‘earth measures’. As hinted at by the word’s derivation, Hebrew gematria also involves the study of geometric figures—so-called ‘sacred geometry’.
As an example of Hebrew gematria, I showed above that the numerical value of the Hebrew word for ‘the Lord’ is 26, which is 13 x 2. The Hebrew words transliterated as ‘ahavah’, which means ‘love’, and ‘echad’, meaning ‘unity’, have numerical values of 13.
Love and unity are primary attributes of the Lord, and this similarity in meaning between all three Hebrew words is reflected in their numerical values. Another layer of meaning is found when we observe that 13 is a figurate number and can be represented by a hexagram—or Star of David—with 13 regularly-spaced units.
This is one of many examples that could be furnished to show that semantic relationships between Hebrew words and phrases are echoed in their numerical properties. Yet it has no reasonable naturalistic explanation, because words with similar meaning are often spelled very differently and the chances of such correspondances should therefore be low. So the claim made by kabbalists would appear to have substance: the lexicon, spelling rules and grammatical structure of the Hebrew language appear to have evolved not unconsciously, as we might assume, but under intelligent guidance, to create a cyphertext of information encrypted within the written word.
As gematria developed, other schemes of numeration were investigated and found to be useful. Perhaps the most commonly employed alternative scheme (and the most natural one) is the replacement of a letter by its ordinal (place) value in the alphabet. Another valid system is the reduction of the ordinal value to one digit by cross-addition. Both are used in the Kabbalah, in addition to the system outlined above (6).
English Gematria
There is no tradition of using the letters of the English language to double as numbers, for which Roman and later Arabic numerials have always been employed. However, as knowledge of alphabetic numeration and gematria spread across Europe, the Greek and Hebrew systems were adapted to other languages, including English. Since then, numerous investigators have asserted that the English language, like its biblical cousins, contains a numerical cyphertext.
Two substitution schemes have emerged as particularly useful in cracking the New Bible Code. One is the English equivalent of the Greek and Hebrew schemes, which I call the standard value system. The other is the substitution of a letter by its ordinal (place) value, which I call the ordinal value system. Both schemes are tabulated below.
As with the Greek and Hebrew systems, the numerical value of an English word or phrase is calculated by summing the individual letter values under a single scheme. The scheme applied is indicated by its initial letter, shown in parenthesis. For example, the word ‘Jesus’ can be numerated under the standard and ordinal value systems as follows:
Jesus (s) = 10 + 5 + 100 + 300 + 100 = 515
Jesus (o) = 10 + 5 + 19 + 21 + 19 .......= 74
Two further numeration systems play a role within the new Bible Code. One is based on the reduction of the ordinal value to one digit by cross-addition, all letters taking on the values 1 to 9. This is known as the reduced value system, denoted by (r). The other is the sum of the values obtained under the first three systems and is called the combined value, denoted by (c). (7) Here are the reduced value and combined value of the name ‘Jesus’.
Jesus (r) = 1 + 5 + 1 + 3 + 1 = 11
Jesus (c) = 515 + 74 + 11 ...= 600
Two further notes:
1. The New Bible Code is actually based on two tiers of encoded numbers. The first tier is gematria itself, the meaningful connections between words and phrases that have been woven into our languages. The second tier is the encoding of numbers into lengthy portions of text, such as sentences and verses, within the NIV Bible. This level is, to some extent at least, independent of the one below, although it has apparently been created to exploit the connections that are found within the first level.
2. The New Bible Code is based on the English language, but a few Hebrew and Greek words also appear to be included. I have also applied the ordinal and reduced systems to the Hebrew and Greek words, as seems logical. Therefore, all three languages and all three keys were necessary for breaking the code. (8)
How Can We Be Sure?
Many numbers can be extracted from a string of words by numerating different portions of text. For instance, within a string of ten words, fifty-four shorter strings can be identified, some of which will, by chance, happen to coincide with a significant numerical value. How can we tell the difference between a real encoding and the ‘background noise’ of random numbers? Moreover, words occasionally share numerical values. How do we know what word a number is meant to imply? Two phenomena come to our aid here.
1. Confluence
Encoded numbers are usually found in clusters, often arranged within the text in regular patterns. These are statistically-unlikely and therefore significant phenomena. Furthermore, there is always a meaningful relationship between the words the encoded numbers represent and the passage with which they are associated, or the location in which they are found—another form of confluence.
2. The Ordinal-to-Standard Value Decoding Process
A unique feature of the New Bible Code is the way in which its numbers are meant to be decoded. This process utilises both numeration keys and has two stages:
Stage 1: A number is derived by calculating the ordinal value of a passage of biblical text, or occasionally from other significant sources.
Stage 2: The number derived is the standard value of a word or phrase meaningfully related to the passage itself. The encoded words are normally English, but may occasionally be Greek or Hebrew.
By this means one number serves as the link between two groups of words. Because the same input/output rules are repeatedly found (although there are minor variations on this basic format) this phenomenon is obviously of great significance.
An Example
A dramatic example of an encoded number is given below. This is a good example not only of the two-stage encoding process but also of the phenomenon of confluence (9).
Rev. 13:18 (NIV)
This calls for wisdom. If anyone has insight, let him calculate the number of the beast, for it is man's number. His number is 666.
NIV Rev. 13:18 (o). = 1151
Beelzebub (s) ..........= 1151
This is evidence for intelligent activity, rather than random action, on two counts. Firstly, it can be seen that the number is encoded within the entire verse, rather than one of the 324 substrings within the verse, which would be much less significant. Secondly, there is a highly meaningful relationship between the subject of Revelation 13:18 and the word “Beelzebub”. There is no known mechanism for a bleed-through of information from the surface text to create such a cyphertext; any meaning should be lost through the conversion of letters to numbers, especially when the reverse process uses a different numeration system.
One final point should be noted here. Because standard values are much higher than ordinal and reduced values, very few words share standard values, which are therefore more significant than ordinal values, these being more significant than reduced values. In fact, within the New Bible Code, almost the only purpose for ordinal values is the revealing of numbers that have meaning under the standard value system. Similarly, reduced values provide supplimentary information only. So, the standard value of ‘Jesus’, 515, is shared by only around 1 in 1000 words, and no other biblical name of which I am aware. Similarly, the standard value of ‘Beelzebub’, 1151, is, in all likelihood, unique to this name. Therefore the use of the standard value system to decode numbers (even though they are encoded using the ordinal value system) guarantees very little confusion about which word a number is meant to signify.
Further Sources Of Numbers
The very structure of the Bible itself appears to be the result of intelligent design, for the purpose of encoding yet more numbers. In particular, many biblical passages appear to have been strategically placed so as to make use of various textual features:
1. Chapter and verse numbers.
2. The place values of books, chapters, verses, words and letters.
3. The place values of key words and letters within passages of text.
4. The number of words and letters in clauses, sentences and verses.
5. Numerical tables.
6. Numbers appearing within passages of text.
Furthermore, several outstanding numerical or positional features of the NIV Bible seem to be encoded, for instance the total number of verses in the NIV bible and the text beginning and ending each testament.
Equidistant Letter Sequences
Since around 2008, it has become clear to me that information also appears to have been encoded within the NIV by the equidistant letter sequence (ELS) method, a phenomenon supposedly found in the Torah (the first five books of the Hebrew Bible). In this type of code, words and phrases are encoded within the text by separating their constituent letters from each other, rendering them undetectable to the reader of the text. The message can only be decoded by knowing the number of letters (the ‘skip interval’) between each encoded letter (the skip interval is always the same between each letter of information thought to be encoded).
The search for ELS codes requires the decoder to render the text as a continuous string of letters, chop it up into equal numbers of letters, then place them below each other in sequence. Any information that might be encoded at that skip interval will then be clearly visible, running vertically down the text. The encoded information is in the form of confluences of meaningfully-related words, rather than numbers. However, the skip interval itself can encode numbers.
Biblical Numerics
Certain biblical numbers are wrapped in symbolic meaning, being repeatedly found in association with the same ideas or themes. The study of these relationships is known as biblical numerics and some familiarity with this subject is necessary for a full appreciation of the code, which makes use of traditional biblical numerics. A brief summary of the meanings associated with some common biblical numbers, taken from E. H. Bullinger’s Number In Scripture and from other sources is given below.
Biblical Themes Associated With Selected Numbers
For information on figurate numbers, see Figuring Numbers.
For information on fractal snowflakes, see A Flurry of Snowflakes.
Bill Downie
24/2/05
Latest update: 14/1/10
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Notes:
1. These were digamma (6), stigma (6), koppa (90) and sampi (900).
2. For the historical background, I am summarising parts of the online paper Numeration Systems, by Gary Hardegree, University of Massachusetts, 2001.
3. The five characters are kaph (500) mem (600), nun (700), pe (700), tsadhe (900).
4. Hebrew words and letter strings are read from right to left.
5. The Masoretic Text.
6. There are still other methods of numeration employed by kabbalists. For instance, each character has its own Hebrew word, which is numerated to give another value for each character. Kabbalists also practice character permutations and study initial characters.
7. The combined value system has no real precedent and should be regarded as tentative. However, by the unusual way I was taught the scheme and from the spectacular results I have obtained by employing it, I am now convinced that it is divinely wrought.
8. Gematria may well be built into in other, or even all, languages. For instance, the standard value of the Latin name for Jesus Christ, Iesum Christum, is 754. This is the same as the standard (absolute) value of the Hebrew name for Jesus Christ, Yehoshua Ha Mashiach! Whether or not the New Bible Code incorporates Latin gematria - or is perhaps part of a larger message involving more languages - I do not as yet know. If appropriate, I may include Latin gematria in future pages.
9. the digits of 666 are counted as three sixes, as if they were letters.