Bible Exposed - 6

In the previous posting, I suggested that although the Jewish and Christian sects might have different numerological systems, they also might share a common foundation which they would both acknowledge as true and central to their core religions, just like they both accept the writings of Moses and the Prophets etc in both their canons.

So let's try and deduce where that common ground can be found. There are two important cycles which purport to enumerate the time which led up the the birth of Christ:-

1. Ussher - 4004 years = 4004 x 365 days

2. The Jewish version of the birth of Christ is approx. 3760 years

Is there some common theme which runs between the two cycles? The Jews tell us that to calculate the number of years that have passed since the Creation, you just have to add the above number to the present day. i.e. 2006AD + 3760 = 5768. It would appear they are treating each unit as a tropical year and we shall assume they are telling the truth. However, the early Jews (as evidenced by the Books of Enoch and the Dead Sea Scrolls) used a "Holy Year" of 364 days. This cycle made sure that the holy festivals were repeated on the same day of the week every year, it was never intended to follow the movements of the moon or the sun. Also, it is clear from ancient writings that this Holy Year was meant to be counted in much larger cycles of Jubilees, i.e.:-

1 Jubilee = 7 x 7 = 49 years or 49 x 364 days

= 17836 days

Now let's see if there is any evidence of this rather large timespan hiding in the Jewish date of Creation of 3760 years.

Therefore 3760 x 365.2425 = 1373311.8 days

and this number divided by 17836 = 76.997 Jubilees

We can now almost certainly assume that the approximate date of 3760 years can now be revealed as:-

77 Jubilees = 49 x 364 x 77 days

= 1373372 days

or = 3760.165 tropical years

It doesn't take long to realise that both cycles are related to each other in this fashion:-

4004 years = 4004 x 365 days

also 77 Jubilees = 4004 x 343 days

with 343 = 7 x 7 x 7 (what a wonderful number!)

So we are now forced to assume that this factor of 4004 days was highly significant to both cults. But why? Well, it is easy to show that the planetary conjunction period of Venus will happily fit into this number. The conjunction cycle can be defined as the number of days between two successive instances when Venus is at its maximum elongation from the rising (or setting) sun. Most astronomical books quote this period as 584 days, but this is only a rough approximation and the people of yore would most certainly want to compute the most accurate value possible because God's will must be reckoned correctly. It is no good having secrets if, at a later date, they turn out to be wrong - it just opens you to ridicule about your claim to have a direct line on the nature of God.

Let's assume the Venus/Earth conjunction period is equal to 583.91666 days (accurate to 90 seconds) or 14014 hours. The total hours of two such periods are thus 28028 or 7 x 4004.

Now we see the appearance of the number 4004 and the above explanation could be accepted as a very good reason why this number appears in both cycles.

Of course, some people could argue that the number 4004 might not be so important but a factor of 4004 might qualify. Well, the prime factors of 4004 are 2, 2, 7, 11, 13, and I feel that indeed if one number in particular is central to both Christianity and Judaism, then that number is 28.

I present the following to justify my choice:-

1. The first two chapters of the Bible total 56 verses and the last verse seems to draw a line under all of God's work which culminated in the creation of the man and his wife.

2. The Torah has 5852 verses = 209 x 28.

3. Kabbalistic theory points out that each hand of a human (who was created in the image of God) contains 14 bones. God used his hands to mould the Creation.

4. Obviously both dates of Creation contain the factor of 28.

5. The Jewish Holy Year of 364 days is equal to 13 x 28.

6. The number 28 is described, in mathematical terms, as Perfect, which means it is the sum of its divisors :- 1 + 2 + 4 + 7 + 14 = 28. Of course, any cycle associated with God and his Creation just had to be "Perfect".

7. And, finally, the most convincing reason is the fact that I had previously seen a Jewish diagram which showed a circle which had its circumferance divided into 28 sectors. Each sector was named and the diagram was titled as "The 28 Camps of the Divine Presence".

Next time I hope to show that I am not mistaken in my assertion that the number 28 was very important to the Kabbalists.