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K**R
Wheat with some Tares
I'm posting this review with mixed, though generally positive, feelings. I should declare at the start that I am a fellow Biblical researcher and although this gives me a measure of expertise, I am as prone to error and bias as anyone else.In his book Elias has attempted a comprehensive review of the emerging discipline of Biblical mathematics (in which he has played a part) and his effort almost lives up to the title's audacious claim. However, it ultimately falls short of its target, which is why I gave it four stars instead of the five I initially wanted to award it. Elias builds up some impressive evidence for the mathematical basis of scripture, such that anyone with even a basic grasp of numbers will be able to glimpse the hand of God at work and thereby understand that the Bible has been built on the rock of mathematical truth, rather than the sands of man's wishes, hopes and delusions, as atheists and even some modern revisionists would have us believe. The importance and potential impact of Elias' book are therefore impossible to overstate, because if his claims are true then they overturn at a stroke the entire basis of atheism and the philosophy of scientific naturalism. In short, the metaphysical and theological implications are enormous.Most of the evidence in Eias' book has been unearthed over the last 40 years or so, by a small, loosely-associated but dedicated team of Christian researchers, following in the footsteps of Russian Ivan Panin and, more recently, Welsh mathematics lecturer Vernon Jenkins, who laid the foundations for the work of Elias' generation. What kind of treasure are they finding? Elias' book is filled with examples and is a cornucopia of delights for the numerate Christian and indeed anyone who would like to see solid evidence of what Jenkins called "a second channel of communication" within the Bible. For example, the number of chapters in the Protestant Canon is 1189, which is 41 x 29. Elias realised that the fraction 41/29 is a member of a progression converging on the square root of 2, related to the well-known Pell numbers and yielding the very rare sequence of square-triangular numbers. The square of 1189 is one of them. Another example is the encoding of the transcendental numbers pi and e (Euler's number) in the first verse of the standard Hebrew text and in the opening verse of John's Gospel in the Greek 'Textus Receptus', both to impressive accuracy and before the existence of e was even suspected by man.Much of Elias' book is concerned with numbers embedded in the text through historically-attested alphabetic substitution schemes. In Ancient Greek and Hebrew letters doubled as numbers and so the texts could be read both as words and as numbers. An early discovery in Biblical maths (ca. 1979) was that Genesis 1.1 in the Hebrew Bible summed to 2701, which is 37 x 73 and a triangular number. John 1.1, introducing the logos, sums to 3627, which is 39 x 93. Summing the two verses gives 6328, which is the 112th triangular number, 112 being the numerical value of 'YHVH Elohim' (The Lord God). If these examples pique your interest, then Elias' book is for you.Elias is an informative guide to this esoteric subject and writes in an easy, chatty, style, which helps to leaven what can be a heavy load of numbers and diagrams. He also adds interest along the way with well-chosen anecdotes and pertinent facts, all of which add to the book's interest. However, I have some reservations, which, given the potential impact of this material, I feel I must address.Firstly, the book contains a few errors (for example, pi is defined wrongly) is inconsistent in presentation and in this reviewer's opinion is a little too wordy and could do with some trimming. Given that this is a new field and that the book was written under difficult circumstances (explained by Elias in the introduction) much of it is understandable, and the impact negligible, but perhaps he would consider editing the book if there is a second printing.However, Elias makes two rather more serious errors, which I feel really do detract from the book's appeal. Firstly - and this is a mistake I have made myself, so I am very aware of it - he tries to fit the facts to conform to his preconceptions, rather than letting the facts lead the way. For example, the numerical value of 'YHVH' in Hebrew is 26 and, feeling that it should have a connection to the first verse of Genesis, he squares 26 then multiplies by 4 to give 2704, which is close to 2701, the value of the Genesis 1.1. That to me is called 'cranking it in' and it reeks of retrofitting, rather than divine purpose. Another example is the geometric constructions derived from textual numbers, with which he liberally sprinkles the text. Many of these are astounding figures, which the numbers were obviously designed to suggest, beautifully rendered by Elias: the book is worth buying for these alone. But, as with the numerical connections, he dilutes their impact by including some dubious constructions that are at best of marginal value. They simply aren't needed.I have to declare another interest here, in that I have spent the last 22 years enumerating English words and phrases from the Bible. Based on my own experience I take serious issue with his opinion that there is little value in the practice of enumerating English words and phrases. This is in part, he says, because Biblical English lacks a 'control text', such as the 'Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensis' for the Hebrew Bible. There are competing versions of the Hebrew Bible, so I'm not sure what he means by 'control text', other than the fact that the most popular version appears to be encoded. But there is no reason why other versions, such as the Septuagint, or the Samaritan Bible, could not also contain codes. Some Christians, along with Jews, believe that Hebrew is a 'special' language, given by God along with the Torah (including its numerical Codes). Why then is Greek encoded too? Occam's razor might suggest that Hebrew, Greek and the manuscripts which eventually became the Hebrew Bible and Greek New Testament were encoded in the same manner: by a teleological (goal-directed) process over long stretches of time. Extrapolating from that, we can see that any language and any Bible version could also contain codes.In fact some of Elias' evidence, as already noted, is found the KJV and in the English name and title 'Jesus Christ', so he is simply contradicting himself, and perhaps making an uneasy compromise with fundamentalists. Many conservative Christians are also suspicious of Biblical mathematics because of its superficial similarities with Kabbalah and other types of occultism. Nothing could be further from the truth, but here we need to be bold, uncompromising and follow the evidence wherever it takes us. I find the author's' views here incomprehensible, given that he does accept certain words and phrases. The mathematics arising from English enumeration is just as fruitful as its Hebrew and Greek equivalents and in fact all three languages appear to have been designed to form interlocking numerical and geometric connections, of which there are many compelling examples.That aside, I heartily commend Elias for what is a fine introduction to a new and growing field, shockingly ignored by the Christian establishment and the mathematical and scientific communities alike. The work that will finally shatter the wall of resistance has yet to be written, but until then I recommend you buy 'Proof of God' to see a fair selection of the wonders God has built into his Word.Bill Downie
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