Just as wordsmiths used keywords to weave the biblical text together, the Bible bursts with repeating number patterns. Not to be ignored, the numeric language is intended to reveal deeper insights. A single word or number can communicate an entire idea or story. Hebrew word plays can be easily seen by repetition of letter sequence, their reversal, or mixtures. Since all Hebrew letters (the 22-letter alphabet) have a numeric value, numbers also play a role through repetition and variations in sequence. It is why “Fun Factors” are a part of my blogs.

In Blog 2, we learned that God created time measurement on days 1, 4, and 7 (1-4-7), and Blog 4 showed that time is marked by units of sevens–days, weeks, months, years, and millennia. To the ancients, this sequence of numbers 1-4-7, for example, may be added to reach 12, multiplied to get 28, divided into 14 and 7, which add to 21, the reverse of 12. Factoring 147 yields 3 x 7 x 7, and when 3, 7, and 7 are added, the total is 17. Squaring a number, as in 7², increases its power to perfection. If 147 is added to its reverse, 741, the sum is 888, the Greek value of Jesus Christ. This blog will analyze Genesis’s first literary unit (Gen.1-2:1-3) to understand the ancient people’s basic sense of numbers.

The first sentence contains 7 Hebrew words (Gen. 1:1).
The second sentence contains 14 words (Gen. 1:2).
These 21 words are followed by seven paragraphs describing the seven days of creation (Gen. 1:3-2:3).
The seventh day has three concluding sentences, each of 7 words (3 x 7 = 21). Three emphasizes certainty; cubing a number conveys the perfect reality of what that number represents.
Twenty-one represents the value of Exodus 3:14’s “I AM,” the certainty of His work (3), and its connection to the Sabbath (7).

Keywords like light, heavens/firmament, earth, and good are used 7 times or in multiples of sevens¹.
On the second and third days, “water” appears 7 times².
On the fifth and sixth days, “living” thing (Strong’s 2416), chiah, appears 7 times³.
In verses 29-30, “every” appears 7 times; “every/all” 17 times in Genesis 1-2:1-3.
Elohim occurs 35 times (5 x 7) in Genesis 1-2:1-3.
The seventh day contains 35 words (Gen. 2:1-3).
“And Elohim saw” appears 7 times (numerical value of 217, 7 x 31; El = 31).
The total word count in Genesis 1 is 434, (7 x 62), with a letter sum of 100099, 31(50² + 27²).
The total of Genesis 1:1-2:3’s 469 words (7 x 67, with 67 being the 19th prime, and 4 + 6 + 9 = 19) is 110,601, which is 3² x 12289; 12289 is the 1–4–70^th prime number.

In addition to introducing the idea of seven as building toward wholeness, a journey through time that liberates to completeness and rest, other numeric meanings are seeded in Genesis’s first week.

“And Elohim said,” sum 343, 7³, appears 10 times (7 direct and 3 indirect, “Let us…”), seeding 10 generations, 10 plagues, and 10 commandments, as a complete measured unit.
“Elohim created” (3 x) totals 289, or 17²; 17, the 7^th prime, signifies good, victory, combining 7 and 10.
“Appointed times,” (1 x) mow-a-dim, the only term used for YHWH’s sacred feasts, equals 170, 17 x 10.
“Good,” tov (7 x) has a value of 17.
“And the Spirit of Elohim” (1 x) totals 306, or 2 x 153, (153 = 3² x 17, 144 + 9, or 12² + 3²).
“Garden,” gan, has a number value of 53, appearing 14 times in Genesis as God’s dwelling place.
“And there was evening and there was morning” (6 x) sums to 636, 12 x 53.
“And Elohim called” (3 x) total is 403, 31 x 13.
Genesis 1:14-19 shows two words for light appearing 8 times.  “Light,” owr (3 x) is 207; “light(s)” m^aowr (5 x) adds to 246, (6 x 41).
“Living,” chiah (7 x) adds to 23, “life” chi (1 x) = 18.
“Seed” (6 x) has a numerical value of 277, (14² + 9²), the 59^th prime and 27^th Pythagorean prime⁴.
“And behold, it was very good,” (1 x) totals to 128, 2⁷, or 8² + 8².
“Gathering” of waters into seas (1 x, Gen. 1:10), mikveh, מִקְוֵא, 147, 3 x 7², out of which rose the dry land.
“YHWH” sums to 26; the earliest written form of YHWH on the Mount Ebal tablet is YHW⁵,  equaling 21.
Genesis 2:1’s “And God finished” = 152, 8 x 19, referencing the eighth days and 19-year Metonic cycle.
Genesis 2:1-3, the total letter sum of the seventh day’s 35 words is 10502, representing a completeness and fullness of “And God finished.”

Takeaway:

The way the Ancient Near East culture experienced and used numbers to convey meaning is very different from today’s modern mathematical concepts. The Mesopotamian and Sumerian cultures used 12/60-based counting system for astronomy, geometry, trigonometry, architecture, and music. Numbers conveyed a language of ideas, concepts, and even emotions. Biblical numerology, particularly the number seven, in the Bible’s first literary unit, cannot be accidental but rather intends to develop a conceptual language through numeric figures that can be traced to the end of Revelation.