DIVINE INSPIRATION OF THE SCRIPTURES

A Summary of the Overwhelming

Mathematical Evidence of the

Divine Inspiration of the Scriptures

A converted Russian nihilist, Ivan Panin, graduated from Harvard in 1882 as a mathematician. He then spent 50 years (wow!) on deciphering the mind-blowing mathematical structure of the Bible from the first word to the last. Since every letter in every word of the Hebrew and Greek manuscripts also has a numerical equivalent, every letter, word, phrase, sentence, paragraph, and even every subject has a definite arithmetical sum.

What follows is a severely abbreviated example of the kinds of phenomena Dr. Panin discovered when working with those numerical equivalents...regardless of whether they pertained to a given subject such as the genealogy of Christ, or a book of the Bible, or the Bible in its entirety. Marvel at each of these as you read:

The number of words in the vocabulary will divide by the number seven.

The number of words beginning with a vowel is divisible by seven.

The number of words beginning with a consonant is divisible by seven.

The number of letters in the vocabulary of a subject (like the genealogy of Christ) is divisible by seven.

Of these letters, those which are consonants and those which are vowels both divide by seven.

The number of words occurring more than once is divisible by seven. Those occurring only once likewise divide by seven.

The number of nouns is divisible by seven. The number that are not nouns divides by seven.

The number of proper names divides by seven. The male names divide by seven. The female names divide by seven.

The number of words beginning with each of the letters of the alphabet is divisible by seven.

Having explained the function of numeric and place values in the Hebrew and Greek languages in Scripture, it is noted by way of example that the value of the word "Jesus" in Greek is 975, of which the numeric value is 888, and the place value is 87. These features produced these astonishing results in addition to the previous examples:

The numeric value of the vocabulary is divisible by seven.

The numerical value of the various alphabetical groups of words is divisible by seven.

The numerical value of the various forms in which the words occur produce the same phenomenon.

Dr. Panin challenged any person to write one paragraph of 300 words intelligently and produce some numeric phenomena of like designs, and complete it within six months. Anyone who could do it would prove himself/herself a wonder. No takers.

Since many of the writers of the Scriptures were men from ordinary walks of life with little or no schooling, it is beyond astonishing that the same harmonious numerical features were found in different wording of the same or similar accounts, as in the four Gospels. Even more amazing, the number of words found in Matthew that are not found in any other New Testament book display elaborate numeric design. How did Matthew know that he had used words that would not be used in any of the other 26 books? He would have to have before him all of these books, and would have to have written last.

It so happens, however, that each of the other books shows the same phenomena! Did each writer write last?! If not, then, was each writer a mind reader as well as a literary and mathematical artist, never equaled and hardly even conceivable?

But that is just the start of Panin’s findings! He proceeded to prove that every book of the Bible carries such features, that each one is necessary to cause the numerical scheme of the entire Bible to work out correctly, and that nothing can be added to or subtracted from the Bible, as we have it, without spoiling these features. From the first verse of Genesis to the last verse of Revelation, these divine evidences are found. The God of nature is, therefore, proved to be the God of Scripture. The quarrel of modern skeptics, therefore, is not with believers of the Bible, but with God Himself.

Panin’s discoveries revealed that several numbers other than seven produced equally astonishing results. For example--having gone through detailed lists of the known and unknown authors of the Bible’s 66 books and through their arrangement from the Hebrew Received Text and the Greek Text and the numeric values of the names of those which have known authors--it was found that the sum was 721 elevens. The sum of the factors involved was 121 or 11 x 11.

The presence of these factors of 11’s in connection with the number, order and names of writers is either accidental or designed. That the number of books in the Bible should be a multiple of 11 might be purely accidental. Since, however, only every 11th number is a multiple of 11, the chance for any number being a multiple of 11 is only 1 in 11.

That this number could be so divided between anonymous and non-anonymous books that each class could also be a multiple of 11.... Well, this may also be accidental, but the chance of it happening is only one in 11 x 11, or one in 121.

That this number could also be divided between anonymous and known authors by 11’s among the authors of only one book and those of more than one may be due to chance, but the chance of this being accidental is only one in 11 x 11 x11, or 1,331.

Going thus far through the 8 features of 11’s noted, every one might be accidental, but the chances for their being so is only one in the 8th power of 11, or 214,358,881.

The sum of the numeric values of the 26 authors (7,931) is also a multiple of 7. Of this number the 21 writers of the Old Testament (3 sevens) have 3,808, or 544 sevens, and the N.T. writers have 4,123 (589 sevens). Of the 3,808 belonging to the O.T., 2,933 (419 sevens) belong to the writers of the Law and the Prophets, from Moses to Malachi, and 1,190 (170 sevens) belong to the writers of the so-called Hagiographa, from David to Nehemiah. Seven of the 21 O.T. writers (3 sevens) are expressly named as such in the N.T.; Moses, David, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Daniel, Hosea, Joel. Their numeric value is 1,544 (222 sevens). The numeric value of Moses who heads the list and John who closes it, is 345 plus 1,069, totaling 1,414 or 202 7’s.

The Bible begins with the Hebrew word "beginning" and ends with the Greek word hagios, "saint". The Hebrew word occurs in the following books (lists them) and the Greek word occurs in the following books (lists them).... These books are 42 in number (6 sevens). Take the respective numbers of these books in the order of their place and there sum is 1,575, (225 sevens).

These eight features of 7’s in connection with the order and writers of the books may also be accidental, but the chance for these features of 7’s and 11’s happening together is one in billions.

The conclusion of these and many other similar features--the labor of a professional mathematician for half a century, remember--is what anyone open to the Truth will readily concede, namely, no mere human authorship of these phenomena is possible. Only a superior mathematical mind, the very mind of God could have planned these numeric results (unbeknownst to the writers themselves). Verbal inspiration of the Scriptures in this discovery of mathematical configurations which are immediately recognizable and instantly understood to be far beyond the capabilities of the mind of man must henceforward be attributed to a loving God Who has left no reason to change or doubt anything in His Guide Book to eternal life. "Study to show thyself approved" (II Timothy 2:15) is a fair request for God to make of all of us it seems.

[The foregoing is a sanforized and freely paraphrased version of Dr. Keith L. Brooks’ editing of Dr. Ivan Panin’s

work, the full text of which may still be available from: Book Fellowship - Box 164 - N. Syracuse, N.Y. - 13212. About

50 free copies are also available through FEF - Box 866 - Cornelia, GA 30531. I personally think this is a

dynamite testimony to the miraculous inerrancy of the Bible and hence to its credibility and trustworthiness

from the first word the last. Stark evidence of such un-dreamed of precision of detail leaves no doubt that

this same ineffably wonderful God would not use "doublespeak" when He used "Sun, stand thou still" et al.

The Writings Of Ivan Panin, 1918, 586 pp is the full reference; Se also Panin’s The Last Twelve Verses Of Mark,

56 pp.; Number In Scripture, E.W. Bullinger, D.D., 7 printings from 1894-1978, is another good source...