One of the most remarkable occurrences is how God used one individual to produce evidence that would completely undermine all biblical criticism and bring atheism toppling to the ground. More startling is the fact that this individual was a converted Russian nihilist, a Harvard scholar, and a mathematician. At the same time that Russia was sowing the seeds of atheism throughout the world, God was preparing a Russian, Dr. Ivan Panin, to uncover scientific evidence of the divine inspiration of the Holy Scriptures while working in the original languages.
God and Mathematics
Panin, who passed away in October 1942, after 50 years of work with the Bible Numerica, was not the first to discover that there was a remarkable mathematical structure running through the Bible. Browne (a chronological scholar) in his Ordo Saeculoreum, Grant (a numeric scholar) in his Numerical Bible, and Bullinger (a numeric scholar) in his Numbers on the Scriptures, all brought forth many striking examples of numeric features in the Bible. What Panin uncovered would make the toughest skeptic a believer!
Panin demonstrated that every letter of the Hebrew and Greek manuscripts is numbered and occupies its own special place in the order of the total letters in the Bible. And because each letter carries a specific numerical value, every word, phrase, sentence, and paragraph has a definite mathematical sum.
Panin’s extensive work of the series of complex systems using sequences, combinations, and ratios that follow a uniform design—from Genesis to Revelation—is undoubtedly God’s response to atheism and higher criticisms. This arithmetical wonder exhibits the inspiration of Scripture.
The doctrine of the Divine authority of the Scriptures is fully sustained by proofs from fulfilled prophecy—from its matchless power over the lives of people to its indestructibility regarding the testimony of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. However, some critics have been trying to waive these lines of evidence aside as unscientific.
Panin submitted conclusive scientific proof that the Bible could not have been produced by the unaided human mind. This proof is found in the amazing numeric phenomena in the structure of the Greek and Hebrew manuscripts. Panin demonstrated that either every writer of Scripture was an unparalleled literary and mathematical genius or that they wrote while moved by the Holy Spirit. Professor John C. Banks, a worthy successor of Panin, offered numeric evidence of the same proof.
Panin presented his discoveries to readers far and wide with the challenge to disprove, if possible, this numerical phenomenon. Since that time many other skeptics have been confronted with the same evidence and not one has been able to discredit the work. Some challenged Panin to find the same mathematical structure in Hebrew and Greek classics outside of the Bible. So, he researched further. No other writings contained these phenomena in them. (No such features were found in the seven books added by the Roman Catholic Church to their Old Testament, either.)
Math and Christianity Probability
Certain numbers, and where they are placed, have special value and meaning in the Bible. The number seven, for example, is significant and is found throughout the universe. Seven is the number of the Creator and the number of fullness, rest, and completeness. Not only is this law of seven found running throughout creation, but it is found many times in Scripture. Students of the Bible have often been amazed to find this number appearing in unexpected ways.
Panin’s work never dealt with translations but examined Hebrew and Greek. Translation difficulties have been tremendous. The constant change in language usage has rendered many words in our English translation practically obsolete (and that’s why you see many modern Bible translations today). But how could Panin get back to the originals? The answer is that the comparison of hundreds of manuscripts preserved for us shows a uniformity that proves one common source.
Samples of Panin’s Numerical Phenomena:
*The number of words in the vocabulary is divisible 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 is divisible by seven.
*Of those letters, the vowels and consonants are both divisible by seven.
*The number of words in the vocabulary occurring more than once is divisible
by seven. Those occurring only once likewise are divisible by seven.
*The number of words occurring in more than one form is divisible by seven.
The number occurring in only one form is also divisible by seven.
*The number of proper names is divisible by seven. The male names are
divisible by seven. The female names are divisible by seven.
The Bible was written in two languages: the Old Testament in Hebrew (a few chapters in Chaldean for numeric purposes) and the New Testament in Greek. Both of these languages have this peculiarity: they have no separate symbols for numbers corresponding to modern Arabic figures 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 0. In their place, they use the letters in their alphabet so that each Hebrew and Greek letter also stands for a certain number. This is called the numeric value of the letter. As each word consists of letters, the numeric value of a word is the sum of the numeric values of its letters. The numeric value of a sentence, paragraph, chapter, or book is the sum of the numeric values of these words.
Math and Christianity
Using these numeric values, they performed all of their numeric operations. But in Scripture, an additional system is used for numeric construction of the text—place values. The place value of a letter, whether Hebrew or Greek, is the number of the place the letter occupies in the alphabet. Accordingly, in Hebrew, place values and numeric values of the first 10 letters are the same. And the same is the case with the first five letters in Greek.
Math proves God Exists
The 11th Hebrew letter, for example, does not stand for 11, but 20. Accordingly, its numeric value is 20, but its place value is 11. The last letter of the Hebrew alphabet, the 22nd, stands for 400. Accordingly, its numeric value is 400, as its place value is 22. The same applies to the Greek alphabet. Its sixth letter stands for seven; this is its numeric value, but its place value is six.
The full value of a Hebrew or Greek letter or word is the sum of its numeric and place values. The value of the word “Jesus” in Greek is 975, of which the numeric value is 888, and the place value is 87. Now note further features:
*The numerical 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.
Oxford Mathematician Destroys Atheism
POINT TO PONDER: The above enumeration barely touches the surface of the numerics Panin brought to light. He challenged anyone to write one paragraph of 300 words intelligently and produce some numeric phenomena of similar designs, and complete it in six months. Any person who could do it would prove to be a wonder. No one offered!
But many of the Scripture writers were men chosen from very ordinary walks of life, having little or no schooling. If Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John, for example, had attempted to write by unaided human wisdom and produced the harmonious numeric features found throughout their books, how long would it have taken them? With each additional sentence, the difficulty of constructing literary works using this plan increases in mathematical and geometrical progression. They contrived to write each paragraph to develop constantly fixed numeric relations to what goes before and comes after.
But even more amazing: the number of words found in Matthew, not found in any other New Testament book, displays elaborate numeric design. How did Matthew know that he had used unique words that would not be used in any of the other 26 books? He would’ve needed to be the last writer, after studying and comparing all of the other books.
It so happens, however, that each of the other books of the Bible shows the same phenomena. Did each writer write last? If not, then, was each of the writers a mind reader as well as an unequaled literary and mathematical genius? This is hardly even conceivable!
Panin proceeded to prove by numerics that every book of the Bible carries such features, each one being necessary to cause the numerical scheme of the entire Bible to work out correctly. Furthermore, nothing can be added to or subtracted from the Bible, as we have it, without spoiling these features.
From the first verse in Genesis to the last verse of Revelation, these divine evidences are loud and clear. The God of nature is, therefore, proved to be the God of Scripture. If you’re still skeptical, it’s not toward believers of the Bible but toward God Himself.
Note: Panin’s exhaustive works were voluminous and his discoveries seemingly without end. He authored a volume, “Structure on the Bible,” and New Testament revisions based upon his numeric discoveries. Since his death, the Nobel Research Foundation reviewed over 43,000 sheets of his penned work and assigned Greek and Hebrew scholars to further pursue these studies. Subsequently a book was published on the subject.
Go to campusreset.org for the rest of Dr. Panin’s mathematical research presenting evidence that the Bible is true.
Math can be traced back to the Book of Genesis, where God numbered the days of creation. Man did not invent or create math. People have developed symbols, numbers, and equations to implement and use God’s creation of math. Only a perfect, all-knowing God could create something as complex, logical, and consistent. It requires order, and God created order. As one mathematician put it, “He allows us to explain His order with equations that always have the same answer.”