Bible numerics

Back in September (2023), discussion on the Textus Receptus Academy Facebook group brought back to mind some things of which I had not thought of much in a while. The focus there was positive promotion of and negative detraction concerning using numerics to support the King James Bible.[i] 

According to dictionary sources, numerics is the field of numerically-controlled engineering.[ii] Bible numerics, also called biblical numerology, is the study of and belief that the Scriptures exhibit a numerical design that can only be explained by the direct inspiration of a Creator, or the study of how numbers are used in Scripture and what they reveal about God and his word.

I have two books in this general genre in my library. One is That Ye May Marvel, Or, The Significance of Bible Numbers (Jonesboro, AR: Sammons, 1953), written by George Elliott Jones (1889-1966). He was a well-respected author and Baptist preacher in Arkansas. Some older preachers when I was growing knew of and made use of it. The other is Number in Scripture: Its Supernatural Design and Spiritual Significance, by E. W. Bullinger, a well-known, respected, and somewhat controversial figure in dispensationalism.

Another thing I had not thought of in several years came to mind. When I was a young preacher, I knew of some teachers and preachers who used The New Testament in the Original Greek; The Text Established by Means of Bible Numerics, by Ivan Panin. Panin was believed by some (himself included) to have recovered and restored the text of the original autographs by the use of numerics. I am not a partisan for or believer in what Panin did, or the success of it. Nevertheless, it is an interesting memory to come up after having no reason to think about it for a long long time. I do not know whether this Greek text finds much use today. Popular author Chuck Missler was a proponent of Panin’s work.

Ivan Panin

Some forms of Bible numerics are limited to the study of the meaning and significance of numbers mentioned in the text of the Bible. Other forms of Bible numerics seek hidden numerical patterns in the letters, words, chapters, and books of the Bible. Oswald T. Allis describes these two categories as (1) open numeric phenomena, in which the numerical evidence is plain and incontestable, and (2) hidden numeric phenomena, in which the numerical evidence cannot be determined by normal (such as simple counting, the frequency or places of their occurrence, etc.) but are based on assigning numeric value to the letters of the alphabet. Great care should be taken to not think too little of the obvious use of numbers in the Bible, neither add too much mystical esoteric importance on unclear and unknown humanly devised systems not interpreted by God. These become “secret codes” hidden to all but the initiated.[iii]

Here are some books in the Bible numerics genre. This is not a recommendation of these books, but a list (in chronological order) for informational and research purposes.[iv]

• Number in Scripture: Its Supernatural Design and Spiritual Significance, Ethelbert William Bullinger. London: Eyre and Spottiswoode, 1894
• The Numerical Bible, being a Revised Translation of the Holy Scriptures with Expository Notes: Arranged, Divided, & Briefly Characterized according to the Principles of their Numerical Structure, Frederick W. Grant. New York, NY: Loizeaux Brothers, The Bible Truth Press, 1904
• Bible Numerics: a Periodical Devoted to the Numerical Study of the Scriptures, Ivan Nikolayevich Panin. Grafton, MA, No. 1, January 1904
• The Last Twelve Verses of Mark: Their Genuineness Established, Ivan Nikolayevich Panin. Lowestoft: Green and Co., 1910
• The New Testament from the Greek Text as Established by Bible Numerics, Ivan Nikolayevich Panin, Editor. New Haven, CT: Bible Numerics Co., 1914
• Ivan Panin’s Scientific Demonstration of the Inspiration of the Scriptures, A. B. K, W. T. Swinnerton, J. J. Summerbell, E. H. Moore, Daniel B. Turney, Ivan Panin. Toronto, Ontario: Armac Press, Ltd., 1915
• The New Testament in the Original Greek: The Text Established by Means of Bible Numerics, Ivan Nikolayevich Panin. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1934
• Astounding New Discoveries: Thousands of Amazing Facts discovered beneath the very surface of the Original Bible Text, Karl George Sabiers. Robertson Publishing Company, 1941
• That Ye May Marvel, Or, The Significance of Bible Numbers, George Elliott Jones. Jonesboro, AR: Sammons, 1953
• Biblical Numerology: a Basic Study of the Use of Numbers in the Bible, John James Davis. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1968
• Biblical Mathematics: Keys to Scripture Numerics, Edgar Franklin Vallowe. Midnight Call, 1995
• By Divine Order: Scripture Numerics and Bible Prophecy, Michael W. Hoggard. Hearthstone Publishing Ltd, 2000
• The King James Code: More Scripture Numerics and Bible Prophecy, Michael W. Hoggard. Prophetic Research Ministry, 2001
• Sealed by the King: Intricate Patterns and Details Pointing to God’s Inspiration over the 1611 Holy Bible in English, Brandon Peterson. sealedbytheking.com, 2022

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[i] For example, the name Jehovah is found in the King James Bible 7 times; the title of the Lord Jesus Christ as “the Word” is found in the King James Bible 7 times. Or, more esoterically, both the first and last verses of the King James Bible (Genesis 1:1; Revelation 22:21) have the same number of letters (44), consonants (27), and vowels (17).
[ii] Gematria (Hebrew) and Isopsephy (Greek) are subsets of numerics or numerology which look at the Hebrew or Greek letters of a word and their corresponding numerical values in order to find possible patterns and meanings.
[iii] As an example of this, Ed Vallowe says, “Only to the students of the Word, those to whom God's Spirit has given spiritual insight, will the code be plain.”
[iv] Some may be beneficial, and some definitely are not.