Numerical Secrets of the Bible: Introduction to Biblical Arithmology

Were you intrigued, but disappointed by The Bible Code? Numerical Secrets of the Bible, written by one of Europe's leading biblical scholars, gives you the actual facts about one of the most important recent discoveries in the field of biblical study, namely that the books of the Bible are numerical compositions. The biblical writings were not written in an off-hand manner, but were meticulously composed according to compositional techniques in which the counting of words played a crucial role. This discovery has far-reaching consequences for our views on the formation and the structure of the text of the Hebrew Bible and of the Greek text of the New Testament. Labuschagne introduces you to the fascinating world of number symbolism in biblical times. He demonstrates how well-known symbolic numbers, such as 7 and 12, and especially the lesser known holy numbers 17 and 26, which represent the numerical value of the name YHWH, were used to give structure to the text and to deepen its contents. Among other fascinating findings, this study confirms the medieval Jewish tradition that the name of God is interwoven in the fabric of the text of Holy Scripture.

Casper Labuschagne was born in Heilbron, South Africa in 1929. He studied Semitic languages and theology at the University of Pretoria and at the State University in Groningen, The Netherlands, from 1947 to 1956. He holds an MA in Semitic languages and a Doctor of Divinity from the University of Pretoria. He was a minister of the Dutch Reformed Church in South Africa in 1957 and 1958. He was a senior lecturer in Semitic languages at the University of Pretoria and from 1967 to his retirement in 1991, was lecturer and later professor of Old Testament at the State University in Groningen. He has published a major, four-volume commentary on Deuteronomy in Dutch.