REVELATION'S ANOMALOUS TRIBE -- SOWER'S SEVENS CONTINUED

REVELATION’S ANOMALOUS TRIBE

I thought that the list of 12 tribes of Israel (Revelation 7:5-8) might contain a puzzle when I realized that one of the names was incorrect: Manasseh should be Dan.

Since Greek numerals were written with letters (scroll down to Greek numerals chart in here), it seemed to me that the odd name “Manasseh” might indicate that the list of tribes had been altered in order to gain a certain numerical value. Unlike some other solutions in my previous post where only the numerical values of the Greek first-letters are used, here I sum the numerical values of all letters in each tribal name to gain 12 values for the 12 tribes. These values are shown next in brackets after each tribe, arranged in three sets of four values in the order in which they appear in the text, and each set summed.

Set 1

Ἰούδα [485], Ῥουβὴν [630], Γὰδ [8], Ἀσὴρ [309],

Sum 1 = 1,432

Set 2

Νεφθαλὶμ [645], Μανασσῆ [500], Συμεὼν [1495], Λευὶ [445],

Sum 2 = 3,085

Set 3

Ἰσσαχὰρ [1112], Ζαβουλὼν [1360], Ἰωσὴφ [1518], Βενιαμὶν [168],

Sum 3 = 4,158

From the SBL Greek New Testament-SBL-

Only the third sum is evenly divisible by 7.

Using “30, 60, 100” in the Sower’s Parables (Mark 4:8 and 4:20):

30 x sum 1 = 30 x 1,432 = 42,960

60 x sum 2 = 60 x 3,085 = 185,100

100 x sum 3 = 100 x 4,158 = 415,800

Sum of products = 643,860; factor of 70 x 7

This sum of products is evenly divisible by “seventy times seven.” (Matthew 18:22 (footnote NRSV). -18:22- See also, Genesis 4:24.)

Now with this eighth instance of my discovering a “seventy times seven” in the Bible with Sower’s Parables numbers (see my previous post), I have to ask, what are the odds against gaining eight instances of “seventy times seven”? We can readily see that the odds of a factor of 7 x 7 are 1 in 49. The probability against eight instances of this is 1 in 49 to the eighth power, or 1 in 33,232,930,569,601. That is approximately 1 in 33 trillion. Likewise, the probability against gaining eight of “seventy times seven” is 490 to the eighth power, or 3,323,293,056,960,100,000,000 (or 3.32e+21). Astronomical!

There does appear to be a non-random repeating numerical pattern in the Bible, but of course, it could just be a coincidence.

Caveat: If the occurrence of sevens is not just a coincidence, then I’ll guess there is some mathematical method involved, but not necessarily the method I have explained in this post.

________
NRSV used in this post.

Posted on March 24, 2014