The HyperTexts
Dr. Ivan Panin, the Bible Codes and Patterns of Sevens
It's very interesting that after Dr. Ivan Panin discovered patterns
of sevens in the Bible, the translation that he produced himself contains no
mention of "hell." And "hell" has virtually disappeared from
modern translations of the Bible such as the best-selling version (the NIV)
and even the HCSB version published and sold by the famously literal and
conservative Southern Baptist Convention. If you're concerned about innocent
children being terrorized by the debilitating fear that
they and other children may go to an "eternal hell" when they grow up, please read
this article No Hell in the
Bible. And if you're interested in the subject of biblical inerrancy,
please read Is the Bible
infallible?
The first article explains that "hell" was never mentioned in the entire Old
Testament. Obviously, the possibility of suffering after death was never
even suggested to Adam, Eve, Cain, Noah, Abraham, Lot, the people of
Sodom, Moses, the pharaoh who defied God, Joshua, David, Solomon, or a long
line of Hebrew prophets. "Hell" was never mentioned, even to the worst
people at the worst times. So according to the Bible itself, "hell" clearly did not
preexist. But neither is there any verse in the Bible in which God, Jesus or
any prophet or apostle ever mentioned the creation or purpose of "hell." So
according to the Bible, "hell" did not preexist and was never created. As the article
explains, the Hebrew word Sheol and the Greek word Hades clearly mean "the
grave," not "hell." All punishments mentioned in the Bible were temporal, for a period of time, not
for all eternity. For God to cause or allow anyone to suffer for all eternity would be mindlessly cruel, and
infinitely worse than the most atrocious actions of Hitler and his Nazi
goons. But in the Bible, to condemn someone to Sheol or Hades was to condemn
them to the grave (death), not "hell." Even conservative Bible scholars now agree, as
the word "hell" no longer appears anywhere in the Old Testaments of
accurate
modern Bible translations. Moreover, according to the most accurate
translations the word "hell" does not appear in the
book of Acts (the self-recorded history of the early Christian church), or
in any of the thirteen epistles of Paul. So why are innocent children being
terrorized with an "eternal hell" that most of the books of the Bible never
mentioned, and which was only
mentioned by name by one major writer of the Bible (since the gospels of
Matthew and Mark obviously derive from the same original text and the three
"hell" verses in each gospel are clearly duplications)? Why don't the other
gospels, or the book of Acts, or the epistles of Paul, or any of the books
of the Old Testament ever mention a place called "hell"? The
article offers a simple, logical proof that there is no reason for
Christians to terrify innocent children with the dogma of an "eternal hell."
Jesus Christ said that it would be better for a man to have a millstone
wrapped around his neck and be drowned in the deepest sea, than to mislead a
little one. So why do so many Christian pastors still allow the children in
their pews to believe that human beings go to "hell"?
A Very Mysterious Letter by Dr. Ivan Panin to the New York Sun
For some months preceding Sunday, November 19, 1899 the New York Sun had been
devoting the better part of a page of its Sunday edition to the discussion of
the truth of Christianity. On that date it printed a letter from one W.R.L., in
which he denounced Christianity, using the old oft-refuted "arguments"
and challenged "some champion of orthodoxy to come into the arena
of the Sun" and give its readers some "facts" in
defence of the Christian religion. The writer had not seen the N.Y. Sun for
years; but on his way from South Framingham to Grafton, Massachusetts, a copy of
the Sun of that date, left on a vacant seat in the train, "fell into his hands.'"
The following letter met that challenge.
The letter was reprinted by the writer himself in a pamphlet of some fifty
pages with the Greek text of Matthew 1:1-17, and the vocabularies thereto,
enabling the scholarly reader to verify his statements for himself. But first, a
brief introduction to the letter writer:
Ivan Nikolayevitsh Panin was born in Russia on December 12, 1855. As a young man he participated in plots against the Czar; as a result he was exiled from Russia. After studying in Germany, he
emigrated to the United States, where he entered Harvard University in 1878 and
graduated four years later with a Bachelor of Arts. After graduation, he became a lecturer on
Russian literature. He was also a firm agnostic, so
much so that
when he became a Christian,
newspapers carried headlines about his conversion.
In 1890 Dr. Panin made his discovery of what he believed to be the
mathematical substructure of the Greek New Testament. He
was casually reading the first verse of the gospel of John in the Greek: "In the
beginning was the Word and the Word was with the God and the Word was God." Panin
became curious as to why the Greek word for "the"' preceded the word
"God"' in one case and not the other. In examining the text he became aware of a
numeric relationship. This was the first of the discoveries that led to his
conversion. Panin went on to devote 50 years to the exploration of the
mathematical properties of the Bible. What follows is his letter to the New York
Sun about his research and conclusions.
Dr. Ivan Panin's Letter to the New York Sun
Sir: In to-day's Sun Mr. W.R.L. calls for a "champion of
orthodoxy" to "step into the arena of the Sun;' and give
him some "facts." Here are some facts:
The first 17 verses of the New Testament contain the genealogy
of the Christ. It consists of two main parts: Verses 1-11 cover the period from
Abraham, the father of the chosen people, to the Captivity, when they ceased as
an independent people. Verses 12-17 cover the period from the Captivity to the
promised Deliverer, the Christ.
Let us examine the first part of this genealogy.
Its vocabulary has 49 words, or 7 x 7. This number is itself seven (Feature
1) sevens (Feature 2), and the sum of its factors is 2 sevens (Feature 3). Of
these 49 words 28, or 4 sevens, begin with a vowel; and 21, or 3 sevens, begin
with a consonant (Feature 4).
Again: these 49 words of the vocabulary have 266 letters, or 7 x 2 x 19; this
number is itself 38 sevens (Feature 5), and the sum of its factors is 28, or 4
sevens (Feature 6, while the sum of its figures is 14, or 2 sevens (Feature 7).
Of these 266 letters, moreover, 140, or 20 sevens, are vowels, and 126, or 18
sevens, are consonants (Feature 8).
That is to say: Just as the number of words in the vocabulary is a multiple
of seven, so is the number of its letters a multiple of seven; just as the sum
of the factors of the number of the words is a multiple of seven, so is the sum
of the factors of the number of their letters a multiple of seven. And just as
the number of words is divided between vowel words and consonant words by
sevens, so is their number of letters divided between vowels and consonants by
sevens.
Again: Of these 49 words 35, or 5 sevens, occur more than once in the
passage; and 14, or 2 sevens, occur but once (Feature 9); seven occur in more
than one form, and 42, or 6 sevens, occur in only one form (Feature 10). And
among the parts of speech the 49 words are thus divided: 42, or 6 sevens, are
nouns, seven are not nouns (Feature 12). Of the nouns 35 or 5 sevens, are Proper
names, seven are common nouns (Feature 12). Of the Proper names 28 are male
ancestors of the Christ, and seven are not (Feature 13).
Moreover, these 49 words are distributed alphabetically thus: Words under A-E
are 21 in number, or 3 sevens; Z-K 14, or 2 sevens; M-X also 14. No other groups
of sevens stopping at the end of a letter are made by these 49 words, the groups
of sevens stop with these letters and no others. But the letters A, E, Z, K, M,
X, are letters 1, 5, 6, 10, 12, 22, of the Greek alphabet, and the sum of these
numbers (called their Place Values) is 56, or 8 sevens (Feature 14).
This enumeration of the numeric phenomena of these 11 verses does not begin
to be exhaustive, but enough has been shown to make it clear that this part of
the genealogy is constructed on an elaborate design of sevens.
Let us not turn to the genealogy as a whole. I will not
weary your readers with recounting all the numeric phenomena thereof: pages
alone would exhaust them. I will point out only one feature: The New Testament
is written in Greek. The Greeks had no separate symbols for expressing numbers,
corresponding to our Arabic figures, but used instead the letters of their
alphabet: just as the Hebrews, in whose language the Old Testament is written,
made use for the same purpose of theirs. Accordingly, the 24 Greek letters stand
for the following numbers: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9, 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70,
80, 100, 200, 300, 400, 500, 600, 700, 800. Every Greek word is thus a sum in
arithmetic obtained by adding the numbers for which its letters stand, or their
numeric values. Now the vocabulary to the entire genealogy has 72 words. If we
write its numeric value over each of these 72 words, and add them, we get for
their sum 42,364, or 6,052 sevens, distributed into the following alphabetical
groups only: A-B, have 9,821, or 1,403 sevens: G-D, 1,904, or 272 sevens; 3,703,
or 529 sevens; TH-R, 19,264, or 2,752 sevens; A-X 7,672, or 1,096 sevens. But
the numeric value of the 10 letters used for making these groups is 931, or 7 x
7 x 19, a multiple not only of seven but of seven sevens.
Let Mr. W.R.L. try to write some 300 words intelligently
like this genealogy, and reproduce some numeric phenomena of like designs. If he
does it in 6 months, he will indeed do a wonder. Let us assume that Matthew
accomplished this feat in one month.
2. The second part of this chapter, verses 18-25, relates the birth
of Christ. It consists of 161 words, or 23 sevens; occurring in 105 forms, or 15
sevens, with a vocabulary of 77 words or 11 sevens. Joseph is spoken to here by
the angel. Accordingly, of the 77 words the angel uses 28, or 4 sevens; of the
105 forms he uses 35, or 5 sevens; the numeric value of the vocabulary is
52,605, or 7,515 sevens; of the forms, 65,429, or 9,347 sevens.
This enumeration only begins as it were to barely scratch the surface of the
numerics of this passage. But what is specially noteworthy here is the fact that
the angel's speech has also a scheme of sevens making it a kind of ring within a
ring, a wheel within a wheel. If Mr. L. can write a similar passage of 161 words
with the same scheme of sevens alone (though there are several others here) in
some three years, he would accomplish a still greater wonder. Let us assume
Matthew accomplished this feat in only 6 months.
3. The second chapter of Matthew tells of the childhood
of the Christ. Its vocabulary has 161 words, or 23 sevens, with 896 letters, or
128 sevens, and 238 forms, or 34 sevens; the numeric value of the vocabulary is
123,529, or 17,647 sevens; of the forms, 166,985, or 23,855 sevens; and so on
through pages of enumeration. This chapter has at least four logical divisions,
and each division shows alone the same phenomena found in the chapter as a
whole. Thus the first six verses have a vocabulary of 56 words, or 8 sevens,
etc. There are some speeches here: Herod speaks, the Magi speak, the angel
speaks. But so pronounced are the numeric phenomena here, that though there are
as it were numerous rings within rings, and wheels within wheels, each is
perfect in itself, though forming all the while only part of the rest.
If Mr. L. can write a chapter like this as naturally as Matthew writes, but
containing in some 500 words so many intertwined yet harmonious numeric
features, in say the rest of his days - whatever his age now, or the one to
which he is to attain: if he thus accomplish it at all, it will indeed be marvel
of marvels. Let us assume that Matthew accomplished this feat in only 3 years.
4. There is not, however, a single paragraph of the scores in Matthew that is
not constructed in exactly the same manner. Only with each additional paragraph
the difficulty of constructing it increases not in arithmetical but in geometrical
progression. For he contrives to write numeric relations to what goes before and
after. Thus in his last chapter he contrives to use just 7 words not used by him
before. It would thus be easy to show that Mr. L. would require some centuries
to write a book like Matthew's. How long it took Matthew the writer does not
know. But how he contrived to do it between the Crucifixion, A.D.30 (and his
Gospel could not have been written earlier), and the destruction of Jerusalem,
A.D.70 (and the Gospel could not have been written later), let Mr. L. and his
like-minded explain.
Anyhow Matthew did it, and we thus have a miracle - an unheard-of literary,
mathematical artist, unequaled, hardly even conceivable. This is the first fact
for Mr. L. to contemplate.
A second fact is yet more important: In his very first section, the genealogy
discussed above, the words found nowhere else in the New Testament, occur 42
times, 7 x 6; and have 126 letters, 7 x 6 x 3, each number a multiple not only
of seven, but of 6 sevens, to name only two of the many numeric features of
these words. But how did Matthew know, when designing this
scheme for these words (whose sole characteristic is that they are found nowhere
else in the New Testament) that they would not be found in the other 26 books?
that they would not be used by the other 7 New Testament writers? Unless we
assume the impossible hypothesis that he had an agreement with them to that
effect, he must have had the rest of the New Testament before him when he wrote
his book. The Gospel of Matthew, then, was written last.
5. It so happens, however, that the Gospel of Mark shows the very same
phenomena. Thus the very passage called so triumphantly in today's Sun a
"forgery," the Last Twelve Verses of Mark, presents among some sixty
features of sevens the following phenomena: It has 175 words, or 95 sevens; a
vocabulary of 98 words, or 2 sevens of sevens with 553 letters, or 79 sevens;
133 forms, or 19 sevens, and so on to the minutest detail.
Mark, then, is another miracle, another unparalleled literary genius. And in
the same way in which it was shown that Matthew wrote last it is also shown that
Mark, too, wrote last. Thus to take an example from this very passage: It has
just one word found nowhere else in the New Testament, 'deadly'. This fact is
signaled by no less than seven features of sevens thus: Its numeric value is
581, or 83 sevens, with the sum of its figures 14, or 2 sevens, of which the
letters 3, 5, 7, from both the BEGINNING and END of the word have 490, or 7 x 7
x 5 x 2: a multiple of seven sevens, with the sum of its factors 21, or 3
sevens. In the vocabulary it is preceded by 42 words, 7 x 6; in the passage
itself by 126 words, or 7 x 6 x 3, both numbers multiples not only of seven, but
of 6 sevens. We have thus established before us this third fact for Mr. L. to
contemplate: Matthew surely wrote after Mark, and Mark just
as surely wrote after Matthew.
6. It happens, however, to be a fourth fact, that Luke presents the same phenomena
as Matthew and Mark; and so does John, and James, and Peter, and Jude, and Paul.
And we have thus no longer two great unheard-of mathematical literati, but eight
of them and each wrote after the other.
7. And not only this: As Luke and Peter wrote each 2 books, John 5, and Paul
14, it can in the same way be shown that each of the 27 New Testament books was
written last. In fact, not a page of the over 500 in Westcott
and Hort's Greek edition (which the writer has used throughout) but it can be
demonstrated thus to have been written last.
The phenomena are there and there is no human way of explaining them. Eight
men cannot each write last, 97 books, some 500 pages cannot each be written
first. But once assume that one Mind directed the whole, and the problem is
solved simply enough; but this is Verbal Inspiration - of every jot and tittle
of the New Testament.
There remains only to be added that by precisely the same kind of evidence
the Hebrew Old Testament is proved to be equally inspired. Thus the very first
verse of Genesis has seven words, 28 letters, or 4 sevens: to name only two out
of the dozens of numeric features of this one verse of only seven words. - N.Y.
Sun, Nov. 21, 1899 - Corrected.
To this letter several replies appeared in the Sun, but not a single answer.
For in only three ways can it be refuted.
(a) By showing that the facts are not as here given.
(b) By showing that it is possible for 8 men to write each after the other
7; for 27 books, for some 500 pages to be each in its turn written last.
(c) By showing that even if the facts be true, the arithmetic faultless,
and the collocation of the numerics honest, it does not follow that mere men
could not have written this without Inspiration from above.
Accordingly, as many as nine noted rationalists (of whom Drs. Lyman Abbot and
Charles W. Eliot are still living) [at that time] were respectfully but publicly invited to refute the writer. One was not "interested"
in the writer's "arithmetical" doings; two "regretted"
that they "had no time" to give heed thereto. Another "did
not mean to be unkind," but ... The rest were silent. For the special
benefit of these the writer printed the original data with numerous details,
enabling them in the easiest manner to verify every statement made by him, if
they wished. And to the best of his ability he has for years seen to it that no
scholar whom surely these things specially concern remain in ignorance of the
facts here recounted and of like cogency.
A notable exception to the above is a lawyer of standing [now also dead],
whose books on Law are deemed as of authority. He had intelligence enough and
candor withal to confess that the case for the Bible as made out by the writer
is impregnable, that the Bible is thus proved to be an "absolutely
unique book." This much the case itself exhorts from the but too well
equipped writer on - EVIDENCE; and accordingly he henceforth reads the writer's
Numerics with intense appreciation. And then, fresh from this confession, he
betakes himself once more to the circulation of his anti-Christian books in the
writing of which he joys to spend his leisure hours.
In the second letter to the N. Y. Sun the author, in discussing some
irrelevant "answers" to his first letter, recited the three
ways of refuting him and then continued:
No sane man will try to refute me by the second method. To refute me by the
first method I herewith respectfully invite any or all of the following to prove
that my facts are not facts: namely Messrs: Lyman Abbott, Washington Gladden,
Heber Newton, Minot J. Savage, Presidents Eliot of Harvard, White of Cornell,
Professors J. Henry Thayer of Harvard, and Dr. Briggs, and any other prominent
higher critic so called. They may associate with themselves, if they choose, all
the contributors of the ninth edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica who wrote
its articles on Biblical subjects together with a dozen mathematicians of the
calibre of Professor Simon Newcomb. The heavier the calibre of either scholar or
mathematician, the more satisfactory to me.
They will find that my facts are facts. And since they are facts, I am ready
to take them to any three prominent lawyers, or, better still, to any judge of a
superior or supreme court, and abide by his decision as to whether the
conclusion is not necessary that Inspiration alone can account for the facts, if
they are facts.
All I should ask would be that the judge treat the case as he would any other
case that comes before him: declining to admit matters for discussion as
irrelevant when they are irrelevant; and listening patiently to both sides, as
he does in any trial.
[Again, it's very interesting that Dr. Ivan Panin's translation of the Bible,
based on patterns of sevens he discovered during his research, contains no
mention of "hell." If you're interested to know whether the Bible really
teaches that human beings are in danger of an "eternal hell" please read this
article No Hell in the Bible.]
You may also be
interested in these Mysterious Ways pages:
Is the Bible infallible?
A
Direct Experience with Universal Love
Two Tales of
the Night Sky
Genie-Angels
Darkness
Michael,
Wonderful and Glorious
The Poisonous Tomato
Mysterious Ways Index
The HyperTexts
Sources:
Is God a Mathematician, by Keith Newman